Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[DaveRam]

This decade was not music's finest hour ?
Only about half a dozen albums do i still rate from this decade

Dire Straits Brothers In Arms
Kate Bush Hounds Of Love
The Smiths
Prince Sign Of The Times
Human League Dare
Paul McCartney Tug of War

So whats your veiw of 80's Music Hell

This thread was Inspired by Mr Kite  :)Who like me had to live through this decade of horror , i personally don't think music as fully recoverd from it's overblown badly produced 90% TRASH ?

[Bobber]

I love the 80's. Everything in its right place.

[Kevin]

There was a decent underground thing going on. I was very happy with New Order, Jesus and Mary Chain, Pixies, The Cure (in fact the whole Goth thing.)
One mans meat and all - I would include Dire Starits and Human League in my trash pile.

[Bobber]

There was a decent underground thing going on. I was very happy with New Order, Jesus and Mary Chain, Pixies, The Cure (in fact the whole Goth thing.)
One mans meat and all - I would include Dire Starits and Human League in my trash pile.

Oh, Dire Straits certainly. I hate the Mark Knopfler thing. If I want to forget something about the 80's, it's Dire Straits.

[DaveRam]

I love the 80's. Everything in its right place.

I like bits of it , but i think a lot of it is really bad Wham ,Culture Club ,Duran Duran make me want to vomit now  

[Bobber]

I like bits of it , but i think a lot of it is really bad Wham ,Culture Club ,Duran Duran make me want to vomit now  

There were bands like that in the 70's (Rubettes, Racey) and the 90's (don't get started on rap) as well. That is the pop thing. Like Kevin said, there were a lot of other things going on as well. A band like U2 is based in the 80's.

[DaveRam]

I really like Dare and Brothers In Arms , infact the Human League's Dare still makes it into my top 10 albums , think it's a brilliant piece of synth pop Martin Rushent's production is incredible on that album in my opinion .

[DaveRam]

There were bands like that in the 70's (Rubettes, Racey) and the 90's (don't get started on rap) as well. That is the pop thing. Like Kevin said, there were a lot of other things going on as well. A band like U2 is based in the 80's.

Agree all decades have there rubbish , but the three i mentioned were mega in the 80's and althoough individual songs i quite like from each of them , the albums they made just sound really bad to my ears now " Cheap and Nasty , i listend to Duran Duran's Rio not long back it's just so empty .
The Smiths i liked and some Cure .

[Kevin]

I like bits of it , but i think a lot of it is really bad Wham ,Culture Club ,Duran Duran make me want to vomit now  

Ha. I'm completely the reverse. Bands that I dismissed then (like Duran Duran) sound OK now. Rio, Hungry Like The Wolf, Girls on Film....great stuff.
Mainstream 80's music does have that horrible synth stamp to it - it seems a case where advancing technology did music no favours at all. It took Grunge and Hip Hop to turn it back to its roots.

[DaveRam]

Agree with you kevin Girls On Film is a great record and Duran Duran's first album is quite good it's got a very Chic sound to it ?
And although i really rate The League's Dare a lot of the synth music that followed it just sounds like plinky plonky music now it's really dated by the technology of the time .
Boy George had a good voice and i really like Church Of The Poisend Mind , but most 80's pop just sounds cheesy now ?

[Kevin]

Everything about the eighties  - clothes, music, tv, cinema - seems remarkably cheesey now. I'm just a bit guarded because I remember saying that about the 70's in the 90's, and now it seems to be remembered as quite a cool time.

[BlueMeanie]

We've had this conversation before. I always say I'm a 70's person, and hate the 80's. Without really thinking. For someone of my age there is more to like about 70's 'popular music, than 80's. We went from The Beatles, and Prog Rock, to Punk, and Disco, via Glam Rock. That's a lot to take in when reviewing the decade. There is though, just as much to dislike. Pop music is generally aimed at the teenage/early 20's market, so the older you get the less likely you are to accept it as good music. I used to work with people who were (in the main) 10-15 years younger than me. They all thought 80's music was the pinnacle of pop, and would wet themselves when someone like Visage came on the radio. It's all relative.

For me there were some good points. As stated, Duran were pretty good, and bands like Talk Talk, New Order, and Cabaret Voltaire pushed some boundaries. I try not to think about the clothes though!

[fendertele]

i quite like a lot of the 80s, the smiths, the cure, Blondie, Big country, and theres some great one hit wonders or novelty records that in there place are enjoyable especially partys.

we all need dance music at partys and id much rather listen to songs like, spin me right round, spandua ballet, duran duran, a-ha, abc, phil collins than the likes of bonkers and happy hardcore of todays partys.

i think the most annoying thing about 80's music especially stock, aitken and waterman stuff is the electronic drum beat that was in everysong.

but id still rather listen to the 80's cheese over the 90's cheese of westlife and boyzone..... cause at least the 80's music wasnt boring and could be funny and wasnt taken so seriously.

[Dark Phoenyx]

I like the 80's and I like Duran Duran.  But I recognize the 80's wasn't the most creative period of popular music, there were a lot of crap out there back then.     But to be honest I rather hear any 80's band over Justin Timberlake, Kelly Clarkson or Beyonce.

[tkitna]

I like the 80's somewhat. I like Duran Duran, Blondie, and even some Madonna stuff. Here's some of my favorite albums form that time period-

YES - '90215, Big Generator'
Tears For Fears - 'Songs From The Big Chair'
Genesis - 'Genesis'
RUSH - 'Permenant Waves, Moving Pictures'
Deep Purple - 'Perfect Strangers'
Triumph - 'Thunder Seven, Allied Forces, Never Surrender'
Kinks - 'State Of Confusion'
Tom Petty - 'Full Moon Fever'
Pretenders - 'Learning to Crawl'

etc,,,,

There was good stuff out there, but I do agree that all the synth/pop stuff was hard to handle.

[DaveRam]

Ive had a bit of an 80's afternoon Scary Monsters by Bowie is very good ,Sulk by the Associates is a brillant album boy could that Billy Mackenzie sing how he reaches them high screaming notes is unbelievable and such weird song titles Bap De La Bap and Nude Spoons anyone remember Club Country it's a belter of a song ?

[DaveRam]

Another one i dug out and dusted off was Soft Cell's 1983 album  " The Art Of Falling Apart " Marc Almond's voice is so good ? Numbers is a great track very seedy and such a brave single to put out ?
And his blissed out  " Hendrix Medley " is so trippy 10 mins of brilliance .
This is a fantastic album . Think i might change my mind about the 80's i like this hell

[Mairi]

Well, I was born in 1990 and I hate the '80s. They're so en vogue right now but it's really only for nostalgia reasons. I admit to liking some of the pop like Madonna and the Go-Gos, and the underground stuff too, but the great stuff was really few and far between.
I just think so much of the music from the '80s was so commercial. It was all about the video, so you had to look good, and as Kevin pointed out they all had those cheesy synthesizers. Plus, the clothes were absolutely hideous.

[Dark Phoenyx]

I just think so much of the music from the '80s was so commercial. It was all about the video, so you had to look good, and as Kevin pointed out they all had those cheesy synthesizers. Plus, the clothes were absolutely hideous.

That happened because Mtv was born and many bands focused more in video production.  Yes, clothes were awful.

[DaveRam]

I would agree Mairi a lot did have those cheesy Synthesizers and a group like Soft Cell who ive been listening to today who had the massive world wide  # 1  " Tainted Love " kinda knock that idea on the head yes they had that massive  hit with that record, but there first two albums were anything but a commercial sound  , both deal with the seedy  subculture which Marc Almond inhabbited  you won't hear songs like  " Numbers " or  " Sex Dwarf " in todays music scene , these songs were just pre AIDS and paint a very different picture , all that changed soon after and the 80's became a very paranoid place and i think much of the cheesyness was a reaction to that scary world .
Soft Cell were from the same city i live in Leeds , i used to see them both at the Warehouse club i used to go to , things were  different in the early 80's clubs were very mixed young gay and straight people mixed a lot more , well they did in Leeds, it was a very good time to be young  and all though much of the music was electro in the clubs it was usally obscure stuff laced with a good helping of Punk /New wave .
Ive fond memories of the early 80's , long black trench coats Spikey hair  ,  Oh happy days when you did'nt give a S-h-i-t what you looked like   Leeds had some great clubs all are pulled down now with appartment blocks in there place .
But the music scene was really great for a while thanks to homegrown bands like Soft Cell .