80's music, what happened to it?

[Gildan Bladeborn]

The simple answer of course is that, 20 years ago, it stopped being the 1980s. A lot of music from the 80s stands as a testament that, while there isn't anything wrong with synthesizers per say, a collective cultural obsession with using them in everything, all the time, and for the flimsiest of reasons will perhaps produce something less than ideal.

The good bits though are certainly worth emulating to this day. European metal bands in particular have never really stopped drawing inspiration from the 1980s, and I'm not just talking about the ones that were around and active back then carrying on with business as usual: I'm talking about brand new bands playing original material that could have easily been released in the 80s as far as a casual listener is concerned.

Take this song (and anything else this band does) for example: That's from an album that was released in 2008 - if you ask someone who doesn't know better they'll tell you it's music from the 80s (I know, because I have).

 

[Red Right Hand]

Snip

To be honest, while I agree totally, I still far prefer Public Enemy to pretty much anything that came out in the 80's. Minus the Pixies of course.

 

[Edorf]

Imo, the 80s was filled with downright shit. 90% of the albums made in the 80s are so poorly put together it makes me cringe.
And dont get me started on the Glam Rock!!!

(It should perhaps be mentioned that I'm a fan of grunge)
But yes, as mentioned earlier pop has really gone downhill with all the new techonlogy (auto-tune...) and I DO prefer 80s music to the music we have now...

PS: I did not live in the 80s, and I am very glad I didnt.

 

[the Dept of Science]

I'll be honest, must as I don't remember the 80s for Wham!, Bon Jovi, Starship or Bonnie Tyler, I probably won't remember the 00s for a large amount of the pop music there is.

When I think of the 80s, I think REM, the Pixies, Sonic Youth, New Order, Public Enemy, De La Soul, Tom Waits and the Smiths (and tonnes of others).

In 10 years time, when I look back at the 00s, I'm going to remember it for LCD Soundsystem, Arcade Fire, Radiohead, OutKast, Spoon, the National, Animal Collective and the White Stripes.

I've never understood people that write off entire genres or time periods.
Do you think that some large catastrophy happened in 1989 which destroyed all talent and creativity? Obviously not, people are as talented and creative as they have ever been. The styles may have changed, perhaps you just really dig synth-pop or hair metal, genres which have largely fallen off the radar*. However, that doesn't mean that music hasn't gotten worse. Not by a long stretch.

*hair metal for good reason imo

EDIT: Amost forgot... pop music is bad at the moment?

 

[Talshere]

I don't understand it, I first heard 80's music in my early childhood on the radio, I immediately fell in love with it to this day.

Bands like Starship, Culture Club, WHAM!, or star singers like Cyndi Lauper, and Pat Benatar

Music got good? I say thats a misnomer, more like some music got good. Rock and metal ftw.

 

[Jazzyjazz2323]

I don't understand it, I first heard 80's music in my early childhood on the radio, I immediately fell in love with it to this day.

Bands like Starship, Culture Club, WHAM!, or star singers like Bon Jovi, Micheal Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, and Pat Benatar all introduced to the world amazing songs, they had a fun, bright tone that can boost your mood, songs that you can find yourself repeating in your head in the good way, and voices that I, personally, must've implied that singers like Phil Collins have the vocal cords of gods.

But what happened to that kind of music? the 90's had a fair share of good tracks, but not as much as the 80's did, and mostly it seemed that the music industry is going down hill every passing year.


What happened to the sort of music the 1980's introduced us? did the mainstream change? did it have something to do with the whole 'Rickroll" thing? what was it?

star singers like bon jovi.....they where a band just like van halen oh and Pearl Jam happened.

 

[Jazzyjazz2323]

Also does anyone else find it funny how all of the 80s glam metal guys are trying to reinvent themselves as total hard asses when they made their claim to fame dressing up like women.Case and point Bret Michaels.

 

[Thedutchjelle]

Meh. I don't know any specific 1980 bands. I'm not that into Western music. That said, I absolutely hate the garbage that plays on the radio these days. Barely any real instruments anymore, and almost all lyrics are variations of 'He/She broke up/is in love with me'. Blegh.


Also wondering, when speaking of music of a certain period, why is it always about Western music? I mean, I bet China or India or any other non-Western country had way different music in the '80 than we did. Yet they never seem to get included in a top-whatever of anything. Bit unfair, imo.

 

[Blackality]

Because it's so edgy to complain about our own decade...

Anyway, as a metal fan, 80's were great but the 90's, 00's are great too! And the 10's are starting with great metal albums as well!

The POP will always be bad. However the new shit is just shit and the old shit is nostalgic .

 

[polymath]

The problem isn't that music got any better or worse, the problem is that there would've been tonnes of crap songs for every great song you hear from the decade. As you get closer to music you were aware of as you grew up, you don't get the filtered catalogue of hits, you have to take the bad with the good.

 

[Dags90]

It's so funny to me (a 30 year old 80s kid) that the 80s is now considered retro fashionable... a few years ago it was considered the 'decade that taste forgot'

I guess that was before people experienced 'naughties' culture.

The 90's weren't much better. We'll all be better off if 90's denim and sweatpants never make a comeback.

There was a lot of really awful music in the 80's, I assume the artists were lynch mobbed by angry user board goers.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

Also does anyone else find it funny how all of the 80s glam metal guys are trying to reinvent themselves as total hard asses when they made their claim to fame dressing up like women.Case and point Bret Michaels.

Didn't Pantera reinvent themselves from hair metal beginnings - successfully?

Yup, though they'd prefer it if everyone just forgot about that stage of their career.

 

[mParadox]

The 80's morphed in to the 90's and thus hip-hop was the new thing. Oh and auto-tune. Hate that technique.

 

[Toaster Hunter]

Music changes over time and a new generation wants something different. Grunge replaced hair metal about this same time, so its only natural that one genre flows into another.

I don't mean to sound Zen or anything but that is the way of things, grasshopper.

 

[Jack_Uzi]

I love 80's music because it still had much musical influences from the decades before that. Also there were lots of muscicians who tried to get a message trough during these times. Punk 'died' alas and MTV prepared us for the bands to come that also needed to dance and look good and what not. More complex and portable electronics were made during these times that also were a very potent gateway for some very awful music made during the 90's and beyond.
But as with all music it was made in with great infulences of time, place, politics and the way people saw things during that decade.

 

[BonsaiK]

Snip

To be honest, while I agree totally, I still far prefer Public Enemy to pretty much anything that came out in the 80's. Minus the Pixies of course.

Well, me too actually. Certain albums anyway. I tried not to bring my personal music taste into it though, and just relay the facts about the evolution of music at that time period.

 

[Something Amyss]

Was anyone here actually alive during the 80's? The music then was just as bad as the music now.

I'm not sure what you're talking about, the Beatles had broken up long before the 80's began. Hell, one of them was dead before the decade really kicked off. I can only assume the quoted poster meant that pop music has been going downhill since The Beatles left the main stage, which is arguably true.

Luckily theres always the few gems out there to keep us going.

I'm not sure why you're quoting me, I merely responded to a guy who said that things went downhill post-"beetles." And for the record, I was talking about the 50s, the decade prior to the Beatles. Guys like Elvis and Chuck Berry, God love 'em both, were not known for complicated music.

Doesn't make them bad, by any stretch, just makes the claim that things went downhill with the Beatles really ridiculous.

And yeah, I was alive in the 80s. Most of my favourite bands come from the 60s or 70s.

The problem with calling bands like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Dio "cliche" is that it's like complaining about Shakespeare being nothing but cliches. They're cliche now because they helped invent the mold that has been so reused.

That would be nice if they weren't cliché at inception. Something that's relatively new doesn't necessarily free it from being cliché. For example, Linkin Park was a relatively new idea at inception, and managed to meld some of the most cliché elements (and worst) from several genres.

Shakespeare himself actually did use clichés, for the record. Ideas that significantly predated him. Sometimes he toyed with them. Others he played completely straight. I know that's not part of the point you were trying to make, but he wasn't free of clichés. Which aslo should lead to the point that cliché and bad don't mean the same things. Clichés are clichés for a reason.