What was going on in music in the '80s?

Screw prog rock elites, they were great bands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not at all in fact.

 

That's not what Minimalism is and that is not what The Berlin School did. Two wrongs don't make a right.

Pretty much sums up what I was about to post. 

The electronic artists, at least the early ones, did have a fair few minimalistic qualities to their output, but especially the German and French branchings explored new grounds through repetition, that perhaps mimic what most people would refer to as minimalism, yet the focus is another one altogether imho. 

Whereas the 'real' minimalism came from classical musicians such as Eric Satie and later got adopted by folks inside the classical sphere, most of the electronic wave of musicians came from untrained explorers of sound. Froese came from the guitar, whereas Schulze approached his music from a drummer's stool. I think this facet shines through in the music, and electronic, as in fully electronic music, became as a consequence of this, obscure and abstract in a way that the minimalistic pioneers could never do - and vice versa. To me personally, it boils down to the difference in background and what then came out at the other end. Just because both of these seemingly similar musical pathways shared a lot of likenesses, there still is a clear distinction in expression, submersible quality and 'feel'.

Bear in mind, that I have absolutely no musical training whatsoever, so I'm basically talking out my ass here

Good (genius) minimalism is Music for 18 Musicians. That piece is, paradoxically, amazingly complex. It's lush and beautiful. Bad is minimal electronic that just bludgeons away mind-numbingly. Anything labeled "electronic" as a genre is basically minimalism, I've found.

Anyone who thinks the 80's was a disappointment should perhaps go see a shrink