Correct, Disco took over most of the airwaves in the mid-late 70's and the songs were hit singles, not normally hit albums. And many times just one song on one side of an album for DJ's. DJ's and dancing ruled and they would match the beat of the first song to the beat of the second and so on - which meant switching between albums not songs on an album. I remember when WNEW in NYC played a Disco song for the first time and they got hell for it from the rockers. By the time rock music took back over in the 80's, the 60-70's type rock was "old" music for the new guitar players and new bands and it was time for Punk, New Wave, eventually Grunge, new types of Heavy Metal (Death), etc. to replace it.
How did 70s rock music transition into 80s music?
80s music appeared to be a re-visitation of the beginning of Rock — when "singles" ruled the AM radio. In those early days, in the event that a craftsman had a hit, he/she could get to record an "collection" (when those modern LP records appeared). A LP could have two hits and 10 tunes of forgettable filler melodies. Most craftsmen were characterized by their hit singles.
The 60s and 70s saw an ascent in FM radio and AOR (Album Oriented Rock) which gave numerous specialists the opportunity to make bigger works, or gatherings of melodies which frequently remained all in all work, and empowered a more extended tuning in/focus time. Beside funk and disco dance hits, the 70s inclined towards Album Oriented Rock.
The 80s saw a swing away from longer works and AOR, and back towards snappy singles. I'd say MTV had a great deal to do with the progress to 80s music. ("Video killed the radio star"):
MTV presented many gatherings who had fantastic singles, yet probably won't have accomplished acknowledgment without MTV video openness: Squeeze, The Vapors, Duran, Adam and the Ants, the B-52s, The Cars — to give some examples. (Note, I said "may" — yet that is my hypothesis.)
MTV constrained many long settled stars — David Bowie, Rod Stewart, even The Rolling Stones — to make video-commendable tunes. (That is — SINGLES.)
Peter Gabriel is a story regardless of anyone else's opinion. He was genuinely known from his Genesis Days — yet those astonishing recordings of "For sure" and "Demolition hammer" certainly kicked him into the super frightening.
MTV — after a ton of asking, cajoling, and dangers — at last changed their bigoted whites-just strategy, and began broadcasting recordings by people like Michael Jackson and Prince — presenting various dark craftsman to a lot bigger crowd.
In outline, I think MTV during the 80s — and later the Internet and YouTube — abbreviated individuals' capacity to focus, made a market weighty on short snappy singles, and made it progressively hard for craftsman to make "collections" which would allow them an opportunity to introduce their bigger vision.
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@bdp24 Were you sneaking a look at my LP shelf? |
@bdp24 Reading Keith’s autobiography, seeing/hearing his ignorant, self-important, dismissive statements in interviews going back some 50 years has not caused me to really care about his point of view. I could list 20-odd Stones songs I really like, and then another 15-odd Stones songs I absolutely LOVE, but, as a character, I prefer to think of him as Dana Carvey’s impression, or even Mick’s SNL Weekend Update impression (w/ Myers sitting next to him as Mick). |
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