Why slag the 80's?

[Justinvs]

Okay, I'll admit, I like 80's music. Oh, not all of it for sure. I mean there were some real clunkers, but that can be said of any decade. And for every Van Halen or Motely Crue wannabe, there were at least as many good bands out there. Dire Straights, SRV, Metallica, U2, Van Halen themselves. Clapton, Beck and Page, oh my! Metal made a comback, as did the blues, and even if they weren't quite the classic blue tones we all love (think ZZ Top with synths) it was still a resurgance of guitar music. Guitars were everywhere.

And, I can say it. I like the sound of a cranked up JCM 800! And chorus!

(Stands up and looks down at the floor) Hello, my name is Justin, and I listen to 80's music.

[jonnyfez]

Lest we forget: X, The Blasters, Los Lobos, Pixies, Stray Cats, etc.
All 80s!

[ac15]

I think the 80's was the lamest decade at least for "popular" music, bands and records. Of course there are exceptions in any era, but for me what I dislike about the 80's is the overall "plastic" vibe of it all - the plastic record production - huge gated drums that sounded like someone was drumming in the grand canyon, phony synthesizer sounds, guitars with too much chorus, and an overall phony, reverb laden sheen on everything. This extended to fashion - bright day-glo clothing styles, too much hair mousse, teased hair, makeup. It was sort of all style and no substance - but even the style sucked.

By the way, I was guilty of some of this stuff too back then - but it still sucks in retrospect.

[mal paso]

Love the 80s.


Good pop, good hip hop, good underground music.



What's not to like?



Ok, the clothes were ridiculous, I'll give you that.

[dented]

The age of new music electronics. Synth bands. More adjective less subject. I liked plenty of it for what it was worth. Some of the bands I personally saw in the 80's.......

Depeche Mode
Psychedelic Furs
Echo and The Bunnymen
Violent Femmes
Siouxie and The Banshees
GoGo's
Bangles
Oingo Boingo (9 times)
Plimsouls
Elvis Costello
Joe Walsh
George Thorogood
Spandau Ballet
Beach Boys
The Untouchables

....and many more. The 80's were good for fun music. I didn't like the fact there were less instruments and more computers and gadgets making music. But music it was and I was having fun.

[AM866]

I think it's a two-fold question.

You had your run of the mill schlock, which as you pointed out every decade does. But then you also had a a near universal drift of established artists losing their way.

You had Willie Nelson's coked up vibrato singing anything come his way.
Van Morrison retreating to formless spirituals.
An eyelined and leathered Dylan switching between gospel and rock then giving up on both of them.
Cash doing... well, who knows what Cash was doing.
Waylon singing at the Great American Bash.
The first generation of the blues artists gone.
50 years from swing, 75 from dixieland, floating in a sea of synths and gates.

There seemed to be a general approach toward making records -- leave no tone unturned.

And it resulted in a big formless blob.

Of course you had a new generation coming up who still managed to find the flame through it all, just like every generation does.

So I guess it depends on where you were seated.

Generally speaking though, I think of the 80's as the Now of the 20th century.

[fretbuzzard]

People seem to forget how much music produced in the 50s and 60s - those golden days of rock, pop, soul, and country - was absolutely terrible. I mean embarrassingly bad. But the 50s and 60s were long enough ago that our cultural memory has culled out the tripe and left us with the good stuff. The same thing will happen ( is already happening) with the 80s. Revisionist music history FTW!

[mal paso]

The 90s were way worse

[dented]

Originally Posted by mal paso

The 90s were way worse

I agree.

[JayFreddy]

Originally Posted by mal paso

The 90s were way worse

I think so too.

But I also agree with ac15's "all style and no substance" critique of the 80's, at least for most pop music.

Still, it was a great time to be a guitar player.

If you think about it, all the most common guitar effects we have today were first available together in the 80's. Sure, the tremolo, fuzz, reverb, and wah were available in the 60's, but phase shifting, chorus, and delay weren't commonly available until the 70's. Digital delay and guitar synths came of age in the 80's, and while everything has gotten smaller and cheaper, we haven't really come up with any new effects since then...

[StratBluesRock]

I definitely love SRV and like the Stray Cats.

[Skully]

But I also agree with ac15's "all style and no substance" critique of the 80's, at least for most pop music.

Then you weren't listening... not in the '50s, '60s or '70s, either. More accurately, you're focus was too narrow and misdirected (in the '80s) and your memory too rosy (of the other decades).

There was some great pop music in the '80s. There was great rock music in the '80s. If Willie Nelson, Van Morrison and some other oldsters lost their way during this time, what does it matter?

[Brad Pittiful]

there is great music in every decade...you just have to look for it

[AndyLowry]

Originally Posted by fretbuzzard

People seem to forget how much music produced in the 50s and 60s - those golden days of rock, pop, soul, and country - was absolutely terrible. I mean embarrassingly bad. But the 50s and 60s were long enough ago that our cultural memory has culled out the tripe and left us with the good stuff. The same thing will happen ( is already happening) with the 80s. Revisionist music history FTW!

Good point!

There was some interesting stuff going on in the 80s, fer shur. The King Crimson "Discipline" lineup (Fripp, Belew, Levin, Bruford) did some fine work. And Blondie, let's not forget Blondie.

[Frontier9]

Originally Posted by mal paso

...What's not to like?



Ok, the clothes were ridiculous, I'll give you that...

For me, aside from the clothes, it was the ubiquitous use of the chorus pedal. If I never hear one again, I'll be plenty ok with that.

[Crawfish]

Just a few great 80s bands I love, off the top of my head:

Pylon
REM
The Smiths
Guadalcanal Diary
not a band, but the 80s also brought us Billy Bragg.

-Kevin

[AndyLowry]

Oh, and XTC. And Talking Heads.

[Brian blaut]

There was lots of cheese in the 80's, but there where some great bands. And there's the nostalgic thing (as a kid, my ear was glued to MTV and top 40 radio in the 80's). The Cars, Tears for Fears, Stray Cats, Guns and Roses, Dire Straights, REM, Hall and Oats, John Cougar Mellencamp, Peter Gabriel, The Police, Tom Petty, U2, Run Dmc, Sting, Red Hot Chili Peppers - alt bands like The Cure, Violent Femmes, XTC..... and a whole slew of good 1 hit wonders....

For me the 2000's are lamest decade for 'popular' music, hands down. Makes the 80's seem like a golden area. I can't even turn on a pop channel these days. I guess I'm just getting old. Don't get me wrong, there's good new music out there, I just don't find it on the radio so much.

[rangercaster]

there is always good music produced in every era ... it may not sell a lot of cds, mp3s, 45s, 78s, 8-tracks, LPs, or cassettes ... but it's still good ... music aimed at the popular market (where buyers are mainly teenage girls) is an industry concerned with sales numbers, not quality product ...

[caferacer]

THE 80's ROCKED!!
and the 50's ROCKED!!!
the 60's also ROCKED!!!
the 70's and 90's....not so much