So how bad were the 80s really?

Bob-Dubery · 2012-10-31T13:56:16+00:00

Squonk and I were discussing this recently. You know, how bad the 80s were for recorded music. Oddly we both agreed that it was a very strong era for local m...

So how bad were the 80s really?

lindsmuse

The only mainstream band for me in the eighties was U2. For some obscure reason I kind of liked the B52's. Oh and Grace Jones. The rest was all the more substantial music I brought with from the seventies. Wasn't Rickie Lee Jones eighties? She was amazing! SRV was a massive find - but not really mainstream I guess.

There just didn't seem to be any magic happening in the eighties - seemed like fashion and how you looked was more important than how you sounded. I saw a terrible video of Mick Jagger and David Bowie singing together recently - and this makes me want to bury the eighties FOREVER - just perceptions I know ?

Argggghhhhhhh I agree - Asia - really grated with me!

Jack-Flash-Jr

Haha! AWESOME!

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flatfourfan

No mention of Robert Smith? Shame on you guys.

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Faith no more - EPIC? (released end of 1989)

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I dunno, the 80's music wise all depended on what you were into. I already was into alternative and harder rock thanks to my mum, so I had no complaints.

Jack-Flash-Jr

I think when people say 80s it's the same as when people say 60s in other words 60s = '66-'69. Maybe 80s = '80 to '87.
I never think of Soundgarden, FNM etc. as 80s bands :-\

flatfourfan

Also people seem to think that the 80's was all springbok treffers and top of the pops.

Slayer released Reign in Blood in 1986 and that is considered by many a metalhead to be probably the BEST metal album ever.......That was above anything that was released by anyone else at the time.

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Keira-WitherKay

Absolutely correct .... In 80's radio pop especially in apartheid south africa was horrendous and heavily censored ....

But hey for guitarists it was the birth of "hair bands" with long hair , tight pants and pointy guitars delivering "more notes for your money" ... Think van halen ..... Stadium rock was born ..

Mainstream sucked locally but lots was on offer to alternative and rock fans

IceCreamMan

apart from one or 2 legends like jim and jimi , the 80's were the most happenning of all decades .....everything else pales into insignificance except possiblt the early 60's....i reckon the decade from 1977 to 1987 ...i.e VH1 to Appetite for destruction as the greatest 10 years of rock n roll history.... but thats me hey

flatfourfan

Bingo Keira

I remember in grade 2 (1981) my parents were called in because for music appreciation day I brought in under the boardwalk from the drifters and queen- I want to break free.

The latter caused a stink because I brought in the uncensored version from the UK that had the word God in it.

I was pretty much branded a Satanist until I left that school.........lol.

AlanRatcliffe

flatfourfan wrote: I was pretty much branded a Satanist until I left that school.........lol.

One school I was at, I was branded similarly just because I listened to AC/DC. ?

Caused a bit of a furore in the mid '80s by playing Another Brick in the Wall (Pt 2) at assembly, which was also banned then. ?

NeilDP

I'm sure some of the other posters already mentioned it, but the 80's (not that I was exposed to any of it at said time) was the time when guitar mastery really went mainstream. We've always had guys who were monsters on guitar in the jazz genre, but that obviously never really went as mainstream as hair metal / hard rock did. Talking to some of the people I've met here in Hollywood who were living here then, it really was quite something seeing the whole Sunset Strip explode around that time.

Coolcat

Petit Cheval were another good band. Had things been different back then, and the band had more opportunities, I reckon they could have easily held their own against other 'New Romantic' bands such as Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran.

domhatch

so i dunno if anyone else has brought it up yet, and i would imagine someone has, but anyway, the 80s were made for me by depeche mode. everything else simply paled into insignificance. here's the story:

i was not a fan of these synth-pop idiots. i was into violent femmes, pixies, rodriguez, stuff like that (i know, pretty eclectic). then i read this poem some guy at school had carved into a desk. something about god having a sick sense of humour. of course, back then, there was no google, so i asked around, and someone passed me a tape and said 'listen'. so i did - to the lyrics. the song construction. the melodies. and i found that, in between all that synth-pop, was a coupla fellas with some serious shit to say, in the same way that many of my favourite bands and artists had stuff to say.

been a die-hard fan ever since.

and martin gore can play.
dh