Clubbing and dance music (12" singles) were HUGE in the 80s. Not just radio 'singles' but music stores had entire sections devoted to 12" vinyl. Billboard magazine had club and dance charts---then came remix albums and hard to get import 12" singles. Most of my vinyl collection consists of 12" vinyl---many are hard to find imports. Remixes and 12" vinyl are a rarity these days. Vinyl albums are back but try to find a classic like the original 12" mix of 'Blue Monday' by New Order.
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.
- ...
- 92 posts total
@tylermunns + 1 - And I've seen most of those bands! 👍 |
@whart I also find trendy ‘80s artifacts like gated drums, chorus-pedal-on-electric-guitar, and an often-garish use of synthesizers undesirable. I think could all point to trendy sounds from every other decade that we also find disagreeable. I understand why someone would not like particular, popular, overused sounds. To besmirch an entire decade of popular music for these trendy superficialities is a bit dubious. |
@larsman Lucky fella. |
How anyone can dismiss a decade during which Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Paul Simon, Steve Winwood, Stevie Ray Vaughan, David Bowie, Rodney Crowell, Lyle Lovett, The Clash, and plenty of others (nice list @tylermunns! I could name a coupla dozen more if I put my mind to it.) were making music is bewildering. In the mid-80’s I saw/heard The Blasters back Big Joe Turner, live at Club Lingerie on Sunset Blvd. If you don’t like both of them, your opinion means nothing to me. I also saw Los Lobos open for The Plimsouls in a tiny punk club on Venture Blvd. Both were great, making real fine music in the 1980’s. Everybody knows that. Well, apparently not everyone. I saw Lucinda Williams and her little band a few times in tiny little L.A. joints (once in a pizza parlor) while she was recording her self-titled album that was released on Rough Trade Records in 1988 (her 3rd album, by the way.). Yeah, a real musical wasteland there in the 80’s. Baloney. Taste has nothing to do with it. There’s lots of music from the 60’s and 70’s (and 80’s and 90’s) I don’t particularly care (or outright dislike), but that’s immaterial. Just as is whether or not Mike "likes" the music that was being made in the 80’s. It’s not his opinion (or anyone else’s, including mine or anyone else) which determines whether or not an entire decade was a musical wasteland. How narcissistic! |
- 92 posts total