How did 70s rock music transition into 80s music?

@bdp24 Regarding why only the most popular stuff is used to generalize an entire era; people are lazy.  It’s easier to point to the very surface and say, “well, that’s that THAT was all about.”

It’s easier to regurgitate media-bred mythology and calcified narratives than engage in actual research and actual learning.  

So you hear the same oversimplified, clichéd media mythologies over and over: “rock became too wanky so punk came along and…blah, blah, blah…” “rock became too corporate and misogynistic so grunge came along…blah, blah, blah.”

Apart from a few arty ‘60s New Yorkers, the Velvet Underground were HATED.  Now they are considered one of the very best bands of the era.  For my money, their music is so much better, and holds up so much better than the likes of…well, I could go on and on and on and on with late-‘60s artists who enjoyed far, far more success (any way one could define success) than the Velvet Underground.

I sometimes worry I may be missing out on the Velvet Underground of this era.

 

@tylermunns: One somewhat-artsy New York band I love is Television; their debut album is stunning. On the other hand, I have known a lot of musicians (and civilians) who love XTC, whom, try as I might, I just couldn’t cozy up to. Music is SO subjective and personal. Which is fine, nothing wrong with that.

I had Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica album for a while (it’s no longer in my music library), and even went to see him at The Roxy Theater in ’78. It’s hard to believe he and Ry Cooder were in a band together ;-) .

It was when I heard J.S. Bach’s Concerto For 4 Harpsichords And Orchestra that I learned the music I deeply hungered for was not the Stravinsky and Penderecki I thought it was---you know, "weird" music---but rather that composed by a deeply religious/spiritual man. And though his music sounds more "formal’" that that of S & P, it is actually more radical. Subversive on a deeper level. Authoritarians hate intelligence ;-) .

In much the same way, it was Eric Clapton hearing Music From Big Pink that made him realize he and his peers had been heading down the wrong path. As he has said, hearing that album was for him an epiphany; it’s not about you man, it’s about the song. It put the lie to Jagger & Richards "The Singer Not The Song". Just as Bach is more radical and revolutionary (on the deepest level, not the surface) than any of the 20th Century composers, The Band were more so than any of the late-60’s psychedelic bands, no matter how "out there" the latter sounded. Even The Grateful Dead temporarily wised up (if you don't think Workingman's Dead is a reaction to the first two Band albums, you aren't listening close enough). At least that’s how "good" musicians see it ;-) .

@bdp24 - I also really liked Television, and got to see both them and XTC (before Andy Partridge quit touring because of stage fright). Captain Beefheart, too.... 

But I'm wondering what you meant by Clapton 'realizing he and his peers had been heading down the wrong path'? What path had they been on, and who's to say it was wrong? If it was wrong for Clapton, that wouldn't necessarily apply to his peers. 

The Dead did indeed put out 'Workingman's Dead' and 'American Beauty', but there was a lot of country-rock going on at the time, so not surprising. I always found those albums pointless, but I regard all Grateful Dead studio albums to be pointless! 😁 But I know a lot of people like them. They're all about playing live gigs and those songs are still great! 

@larsman: "Who’s to say it was wrong"? It was Clapton! Of course many of his then peers didn’t agree with Eric, and continued down the path Clapton decided to veer off of. Jimmie Page certainly didn’t agree, and his new band after The Yardbirds ended (a band whose original guitarist was of course Clapton, followed by Jeff Beck!) pretty much set the course and created the template for the future of Rock bands. Ironically, Robert Plant is now making music much more like that of The Band than that of Led Zeppelin. He finally "grew up" ;-) .

You’re right, there was a lot of Country-Rock going on in 1968. Dylan with his John Wesley Harding album, The Byrds with their Sweetheart Of The Rodeo, and then The Flying Burritos after Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons left the former. After the breakup of Buffalo Springfield, Richie Furay started Poco. But all those bands were far more Country than Rock.

On the other hand, The Band was not at all a Country group. They were equal parts R & B, Blues, Gospel, Brill Building Pop, 1950’s Rock ’n’ Roll, Hillbilly, Jazz, and just about every other strain of American music. That’s why they are credited with creating the genre now referred to as Americana.

By the way, Elton John and Bernie Taupin have stated that in their Tumbleweed Connection album they were trying to sound like The Band's brown album. Neil Young said the same about his Harvest album, and he was obviously thrilled to death to be on stage with The Band in the Last Waltz concert.

I saw The Dead live only once, on a flatbed truck in the panhandle in Golden Gate Park in the Summer Of Love (1967). Also performing that day were Jefferson Airplane (hot!) and Country Joe And The Fish (cold). At that time The Dead still sounded like their drug of choice was speed, kind of a biker band. Pig Pen was singing,and playing a Farfisa organ, so they had that Garage Band sound heard on their debut album.

 

I was also very much into Television. That is the band that made me want to pick up a guitar and start playing. I really like both guitarists but appreciate Richard Lloyd's playing the best. I also like XTC although I initially didn't go beyond Drums and Wires much. I've picked up several of there albums since then and really enjoyed them. Todd Rundgren was sort of right about them making their records too complicated for normal listeners because they weren't having to play the songs live when he produced Skylarking but I still like all of their stuff including the stuff with a lot of details. There are way too many great 80s underground bands and I keep thinking of more like The Only Ones, Wire (both started in the 70s along with Gang of Four), someone else caught The the, Bahaus, The Cramps, Psychedelic Furs, PiL, Visage, Prefab Sprout, OMD, Bill Nelson, The Sugarcubes, The Jack Rubies, Yello, Wreckless Eric, Stiff Little Fingers, Jane's Addiction, Let's Active, The Primitives, Madness, and The Residents.