Squonk wrote: Let's change the topic slightly

As opposed to the 50's, 60's, 70's what influence did the 80's have on music as a whole?

The greatest influence I can think of is that its end strengthened the anti-mainstream movement. Call the 90's "a new hope ?"
As you can see, I don't like the 80's. Wasn't around tho, so I can't judge without some bias against it (... just look at KISS's faces. I'm really sorry for them ?)

Gave birth to the power metal ballad?...

Dunno...maybe ???

Modern rock as we know it.... ???

I think each decade did have a profound effect on the next ,a carry over effect if you wish...

The 70's had it's share of dogs and is often referred to as the decade that good taste forgot.
Abba
Cliff Richards
Ike and Tina Turner
Olivia Newton John
The Bee Gee's

Am I making my point yet?

Rene

The 70's were a bit dodgy in the POP stream, but boy did it have some good ROCK acts

I tend to be fairly rude about and allergic to the 80s, but I think it's the case that all eras of music had the good and the bad. Thinking back to the 60s I think there were valid reasons for regarding it as a special time, but there was a lot of crap music too. Most of that crap music has not lived on - except on Radio 702's Solid Gold Sunday - so because we don't remember it or are not reminded of it we tend to think that what has lived on was the totality. Which it wasn't.

The 80s.... I think that a lot of good 60s and 70s bands made bad records in the 80s. But I'm not convinced that's because it was the 80s. Some of them just ran out of steam.

To my mind there are some factors that resulted in some bad music...
1) Growing use of cocaine. I don't want to get into a debate about the pros and cons of narcotics and their use, but I don't think you can make the same defense that you can for some other illegal substances IE that it aids creativity.

2) A financial squeeze in the industry. You had to produce hits and fairly quickly. I think this is why there was this syndrome of making a record sound like a recent big hit. That's why producers had the biiiiiiiig drum sounds, the fiddly percussion on the extremes of the stereo spectrum, the flanged/slap/fretless/all of the above bass guitars, the Mark Knopfler guitar sound (not his fault that everbody thought they could have a hit by making their guitars sound that way)...

3) Less new artistic ground to plough.

4) Because of MTV and the like, how you looked became at least as important as how you sounded and how well you could play.

5) Increasing rationalisation of the US radio stations and thus rationalising of their playlists and a need to fit a record into a pigeon hole labelled "C&W", "Disco", "AOR" etc.

Despite all of that I thought some people who had been around previously made some good records. David Bowie for example. When did U2 make it big? I think of them as an 80s band.

I think too that it was a decade in which popular music and the people making it started looking beyond their navels again and addressed the world situation. Not just things like "We Are The World", but there was an increase in expression of social and political concerns.

I thought there was some great South African music. James Phillips, the whole Voelvry thing, Bright Blue, Tribe After Tribe, Ella Mental, The Genuines, Jennifer Ferguson, Tananas...

Renesongs wrote: The 70's had it's share of dogs and is often referred to as the decade that good taste forgot.
Abba
Cliff Richards
Ike and Tina Turner
Olivia Newton John
The Bee Gee's

Well most of those were not SEVENTIES acts. Cliff, Ike and Tina, The Bee Gees all made their debuts and their best records in the 60s.

And what was so bad about Abba really? OK... the clothes. But they made great pop music - incredible sounding records and better playing than they are given credit for.

Gee Bob

Cant argue with any of that. Are you a journalist? Every one of your answers are so carefully researched and worded like a good music critic.
I really enjoy reading your posts

OKAY

I give in, there was some good in the 80's, I think the major difference for me is that I had to endure the 80's.
I was 17 in 1980 and appreciating the leftovers of the late 70's punk movement, maybe I was still too angry to appreciate the 80's music.
To go from "the Clash" to "Climie Fisher" was a big culture shock for me.

Anyway each to his own...

Excellent analysis Bob the only thing I think you overlooked is the growing trend to use cheap electronic synthesisers.

Well most of those were not SEVENTIES acts

They certainly got pumped at us ad neusiam during the 70's remember Saturday night fever . Mind you SA radio was always a bit behind the times. Abba and the Bee Gee best work? Matter of taste - My wife likes the Bee Gees I generally hold my ears and  run for cover thank Clapton she doesn't like Abba

No real grudge on any decade, not much into the 80's Glam Rock tough.......but that's just my taste.

Megadeth.

Mustaine is the best, i'm a die hard megadeth fan!!!!

Squonk wrote: Gee Bob

Cant argue with any of that. Are you a journalist? Every one of your answers are so carefully researched and worded like a good music critic.

No. I just have opinions. People should have opinions - though hopefully considered opinions.

Squonk wrote: I really enjoy reading your posts

Thanks ?

Renesongs wrote: Excellent analysis Bob the only thing I think you overlooked is the growing trend to use cheap electronic synthesisers.

Synthesizers became cheaper, more reliable and also more powerful. And easier to use. Old Moogs and ARPs and even right up to things like the Prophet had loads of things to twiddle. And on some of the early models the oscillator circuits could be unstable.

The problem for me is that the way that synthesizers were used changed. Instead of being used to create new sounds they started being used to recreate existing sounds. And they came pre-programmed so instead of having to twiddle things until you got something that had possibilities and was interesting, you could push a button and get that cheesy string section sound or that cheesy rhodes sound or that cheesy marimba sound.

Anybody out there got the live Little Feat album "Waiting For Columbus"? Bill Payne plays some great solos on the synth, but not using it to sound more or less like lots of other things and thus save space on the stage, but he has created a unique sound works well for him. Because it's not trying to sound like a clavinet/rhodes/hammond/string section it's interesting.

Renesongs wrote: They certainly got pumped at us ad neusiam during the 70's remember Saturday night fever . Mind you SA radio was always a bit behind the times. Abba and the Bee Gee best work? Matter of taste - My wife likes the Bee Gees I generally hold my ears and run for cover thank Clapton she doesn't like Abba

I would be more inclined to mount a vigorous defence for Abba than for Night Fever-era Bee Gees. I thought the Beegees had some interesting songs early on. Night Fever effectively relaunched them, but in a very different guise and, I thought, less interesting songs. They moved the emphasis from the harmony singing to Barry Gibb's falsetto. I'm sure their bank manager was happy.

Abba... there was real intelligence at work there (despite the cheesy costumes) and the productions were amazing. You don't necessarily have to like Dancing Queen, Super Trooper or Does Your Mother Know, but you should respect them for the craft that went into them. Dancing Queen has a pretty naff lyric, but Frida and Agnetha do a great job of the vocals. Agnetha was one of the great pop vocalists of the era.

That said they did some real crud as well - Fernando anybody? How about I Have A Dream? But their best numbers were really good. I wouldn't buy an album - too much filler. But the greatest hits compilations are a lot of fun.

OTOH I can hardly listen to what Clapton puts out these days. I think it's been pretty much downhill all the way since Money And Cigarettes. The stuff he did with Simon Climie producing was terminally yawn inducing. But he did do great things in the past - played with fire and inventiveness. These days he sounds like he needs a largish firecracker up his backside. I think he can still deliver, but needs something to push him. I saw him duet with BB King on the Grammies a couple of years ago - marvellous stuff. Largely, I suspect, because he wasn't surrounded by hired hands with orders to not show the boss up.

Dream Theater came out of the 80's in fact they started in 1986 and have had a huge influence on alot of today's modern metal music and they're still going. Personally I wish I were alive and in my teens for the 80's so that I too could have heard the uprise of shred. I mean come on Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, Nuno Bettencourt, Steve Vai etc... these are all names associated with the 80's and being inspirational and amazing guitarists. I would also like to point out Shrapnel records and the massive effect they had on the instrumental side of guitaring, we didn't have to wait until our lead break moment to have uor voice heard or our message perceived anymore because it was now okay for the entire song to be lead by us for once.

The 90's however were a joke...guitaring standards dropped so low and anyone who could play a pentatonic and scream was now MTV material, besides the rise of awful pop music such as britney spears and the backstreet boys the world of rock was also looking pretty damn bleak. Before anyone says it, yes I know it's not about how many notes you can play etc... it's about the music but still I find it shocking that people who could barely play an A minor pentatonic were now the new guitar heroes of the day.

DEPECHE MODE!!!... Not really rock or anything, but these guys influenced a bunch of bands all doing different genre's.... Didn;t the Travelling Wilbury's also start in the late 80's? To me they're the best Super group ever

Hey Chad

I already conceded defeat in this topic ???

The strange thing is that most of the people who were against the 80's, you included were too young or not even born yet to make a fair comment.
As I previously stated I was 17 in 1980 and it was an awful decade, also remember there was no internet so knowledge and access to music was very limited, acts like Dream Theatre might have started in 80's but not many people had access to them.

Music in the 80's was becoming very processed and huge big productions, Trevor Rabin from Yes was devastated that Nirvana could go into the studio for a couple of days and produce an album, whereas Mr Rabin would take months to produce a Yes album.

I am not saying the musicians were lacking in the 80's, and I agree with you Mike Varney's Shrapnel did wonders for guitarists, Vai, Satriani, Gilbert etc were brilliant but Rock in general had become very processed and predictable.
That's why when the grunge thing started, there was a bit of excitement because it was back to basics again. People wrongly IMO made these guitarists Heroes. But they had kids getting interested in Rock again.

There is a lot more to Rock as whole than just the guitarists. It's song writing, production , heart , emotions etc.

Music is one hell of a controversial topic.

I don't staunchly hate the 80's so much

my brother would obviously have several heart attacks hearing that someone's dissing the 80's (loves Brian Ferry and the Eurhythmics more than any married man should), however, if ever rock music had a jittery, slipshot (if not outright crap) decade, it'd be the 90's in my humble opinion.

I'm sorry, but I can't believe that my teen years were spent growing up in the decade that brought us Rave, disco-biscuits, Ecstasy, and real-live energizer bunnies who suck lollipops so hard they could cause cabin decompression in a 737.

Which is exactly why I listen to OLD music and NEW music (in a desperate effort to avoid THE OTHER DAY, aka the 90's)

other than that, I'm easy...

wow, this is a touchy subject for me, and yes, you may point to the fact I was born in 79, and was a kid when the 80's was around, but I would be absolutely nowhere inspirationally if it weren't for the 80's.

What I've never understood is why people can't just admit that some pop music is absolute genius. Do you have ANY idea how hard some of these pop artists have worked their whole lives to get where they are. It's very unfair to discard them because it's 'uncool' to tell people you like some of their songs. Steering away from the 80's, bands like The Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears. You can say whatever you like, these people have influenced millions of people. The songwriters behind their songs are pure legends in the songwriting world. I grew up listening to ABBA, Roxette, Queen, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard etc...

I don't think there are many better songwriters than Jon Bongiovi around today. His lyrics are always incredible. Listen to the harmonies of Def Leppard singing. It's not ALL about guitar playing guys. There is more to music ?

I'm an 80s die-hard fan. (Yep I realise you concede defeat but this is an interesting topic ?)

I love Roxette, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica, etc. And a lot of my FAVOURITE stuff from these guys came out of the 80s.

The 90s are another story altogether but I think the fact of the matter is that it comes down to taste. There will never be an era that is totally crap, simply because if somebody's creating it, somebody out there likes it.

But all philosophical crap aside, I LOVE 80s music!