You say a lot of things that make sense, but to me the rock music of the early and mid Seventies simply didn't have the drive and energy that is so crucial to the genre. The music became obsessively self-absorbed. It was more interested in virtuosity, grandiosity...or to put it less kindly, noodling, than in getting us to shake various parts of our body...including our fists. It was an absolute revelation for me to hear the bands that came out of New York in that period, such as The Ramones, The Talking Heads and Television. I was in seventh heaven the first time I heard the Sex Pistols. I danced like a crazed loon around my tiny single apartment. I started haunting the Whiskey on the Sunset Strip to hear the bands that came out. After years of being strictly an acoustic guy, I bought a twangy Tele. Not a bloop-dee-doodle-do, ain't I cool Les Paul.
|
@edcyn: Have you followed the bread crumbs back from the Rock of the 70’s (I agree with you about a lot of the "Rock" music of that decade, excluding the likes of NRBQ, Dave Edmunds, The Flamin’ Groovies, The Dwight Twilley Band, a few others) to its origins in the Rock ’n’ Roll of the 50’s? There you will find lots of twangy Tele’s, including that of James Burton (Ricky Nelson, Elvis Presley).
In the early-70’s Burton was the guitarist in one of the best bands of the decade, Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band. When James left her employ he was replaced by fellow-Telecaster player Albert Lee, who had been in one of the U.K.’s best bands, Heads Hands & Feet. Edmunds had Albert guest on his fantastic recording of "Sweet Little Lisa", found on his Repeat When Necessary album. If you haven’t yet, give a listen to Albert’s playing on his signature song, "Country Boy". Hearing his playing will result in you either practicing and gigging more, or hanging it up ;-) .
Have you heard Danny Gatton? If not, he is a master of just about all genres, including 1950’s Rock ’n’ Roll and Rockabilly, Blues, Jazz, Hillbilly, Bluegrass, and any other you can name. Vince Gill nicknamed him "The Humbler" ;-) . Guitar pickup maker Joe Barden designed his replacement pickup for the stock one Fender put in the Tele specifically for Danny. His playing is the somewhat rarely-heard combination of virtuosity and musicality, especially rare in Rock (less so in Jazz and Country/Hillbilly), where excess, lack of taste and an understanding of subtlety, and over-playing are commonplace.
Of course, for bad playing of the Tele you always have Keith Richards ;-) .
|
+1 @bdp24 : Danny Gatton was truly a great guitarist - whose life ended so tragically! I recently bought one of his CDs!
|
IMO the best band of the Eighties was the Smiths. Morrissey + Johnny Marr on guitar/arranging. Check out their four recordings before the breakup!
|
One 80’s group I for some reason like is The Cure. They were the antithesis of my normal taste in music, and I really don’t understand why I find them so alluring.
|
Music evolves, people's tastes evolve, change marches on!!
|
"Of course, for bad playing of the Tele you always have Keith Richards ;-) ."
bpd24-"Stray Cat Blues" Only Keef gets away with that elementary school bashing.
The death of R&R in the 70's was forgotten by late 70's early 80's with the British scene.
TheBeat(English Beat)Smiths, TheThe, Stone Roses,Cure...long list.
Anyone in their teens/early 20's in SoCal mid 70's-80's had the fortune of hearing Rodney Bingenheimer (106.7 KROQ)spin the hippest music coming out of England.
Very instrumental in bringing cool music from across the pond.
|
One 80’s group I for some reason like is The Cure.
I walked into a record store that had converted to all CDs. I found the guy with the wildest hair and a vest full of buttons (flair). He handed me "Seventeen Seconds" and I've been a fan ever since. Maybe I should go up to the city and hit up one of the CD shops and see what's new?
|
For me the transition from blues based rock to AOR was when my transition to other genres began. From that point on felt like outlier to the masses, disco vs rock never a concern of mine, I attended both disco clubs and went to hard core concerts, loved the modern rock. Mainstream rock just sort of went away for me, even my fav bands from back in the day, The Who, Led Zep, Stones faded off into rather boring rehashed vestiges of their former selves.
|
Okay @tablejockey, but "Stray Cat Blues" was recorded in the late-60’s, over 50 years ago for gawds sake! Anyone who thinks Keith Richards is a naturally gifted musician needs to watch the scene in Hail! Hail! Rock ’n’ Roll (the 1987 documentary Richards made on Chuck Berry) where the band that Richards assembled for the concert that ends the film is rehearsing. They are going over one song---I think it’s "Oh Carol"---and Chuck has to over-and-over again show Richards how he is playing it wrong. Chuck demonstrates that the offbeat accents played on guitar are done so with upstrokes (there’s no other way to do it), and try as he might, Richards just can’t play it right. Lame.
By the way, the bassist Richards chose for that band was Joey Spampinato, of the great American Rock ’n’ Roll band NRBQ. Richards offered Joey the job of replacing Bill Wyman when Bill quit The Stones, and Joey turned him down! Apparently Joey elected to stay in the world’s greatest Rock ’n’ Roll band rather than join The World’s Greatest Rock ’n’ Roll Band (self-proclaimed, of course). NRBQ themselves had a great Telecaster player as a member for a long time, the fantastic Big Al Anderson. Good songwriter, too.
I last saw The Stones in the early-2000’s, and it was a pitiful sight to behold. But not as pififull as Richards had acted at the tribute show for Keith’s pal Gram Parsons, held in 1999 at The Universal Amphitheater. He and Norah Jones closed the show, performing the Everly Brothers song lots of people attribute to Gram: "Love Hurts". Yeah, Gram recorded it with Emmylou Harris, but it’s not "his" song. Besides, their recording is not nearly as good as the Brothers’ version.
Anyway, during Richards and Jones performance of the song Keith is being such a leering, lascivious creep towards Norah (he also couldn’t keep his hands off her) that she is actually embarrassed, looking VERY uncomfortable. But that doesn’t stop him, no. He does that whole "Aren’t I so charming and amusing" shtick, constantly chortling at his own charming banter. It was truly disgraceful. What a disgusting pig.
But seeing James Burton on stage (he played on Gram’s albums, and was invited to participate in the concert. Unbelievably, Emmylou wasn't there.) made it all worthwhile. James Burton, now THERE’S a guitar player!
|
I think the OP forgot to mention Disco... a lot of people got tired of the pomposity in a lot of 70s Rock and just wanted to dance...
|
@bdp24 you don't know why you find them so alluring? here's a brief list to jog your memory:
Like cockatoos
One more time
100 years
Plainsong
A strange day
Push (the "Orange" version)
This twilight garden
The same deep water as you
Underneath the stars
and on and on...
|
@shtinkydog: To understand and appreciate my confusion at finding The Cure alluring, one needs to read not just the second half of the related sentence, but the first half as well. Context is everything ;-) .
|
basically......
the Eagles broke up....
Fleetwood Mac broke up....
Steely Dan broke up....
Disco flamed out....
there was a black hole and some ’stuff’ crawled out.....no recovery until Nirvana released Nevermind in 1990.
the 80’s were a musical wasteland.
unless you were in High School in the 80’s it’s musically a throw away. 100 years from now it will be a hole in pop music history. they will still be playing 60’s and 70’s rock/pop all the time.
|
Yeah, the only thing happening in the 80’s were Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson, Emmylou Harris, NRBQ, Los Lobos, John Hiatt, Ry Cooder, Bonnie Raitt, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, The Blasters, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Randy Newman, Loudon Wainwright III, Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, Marshall Crenshaw, Squeeze, The Ramones, The Talking Heads (not my cup of tea, but still...), The Long Ryders, Lucinda Williams’ first couple albums, Lone Justice, The Plimsouls, and a few dozen more. And that’s just in the Pop/Rock genre (apart from Emmylou). A real wasteland ;-) .
The 80’s decade was just like any and all others: there was "good", and there was "bad". I mean, unless you were listening only to Top 40 radio.
|
@bdp24 oh i'm with you man! i'm with you!
|
@mahler123
Correct, Disco took over most of the airwaves in the mid-late 70's and the songs were hit singles, not normally hit albums. And many times just one song on one side of an album for DJ's. DJ's and dancing ruled and they would match the beat of the first song to the beat of the second and so on - which meant switching between albums not songs on an album. I remember when WNEW in NYC played a Disco song for the first time and they got hell for it from the rockers. By the time rock music took back over in the 80's, the 60-70's type rock was "old" music for the new guitar players and new bands and it was time for Punk, New Wave, eventually Grunge, new types of Heavy Metal (Death), etc. to replace it.
|
@bdp24 Were you sneaking a look at my LP shelf?
|
@bdp24 Reading Keith’s autobiography, seeing/hearing his ignorant, self-important, dismissive statements in interviews going back some 50 years has not caused me to really care about his point of view.
I could list 20-odd Stones songs I really like, and then another 15-odd Stones songs I absolutely LOVE, but, as a character, I prefer to think of him as Dana Carvey’s impression, or even Mick’s SNL Weekend Update impression (w/ Myers sitting next to him as Mick).
|
@edcyn
I never understood the Sex Pistols. Clash yes. (HELL YES!)
|
I always hated the 80s - or so I thought. I was a teenager in the 80s and I listened to the 60s and I was convinced the 80s was worthless. But hey, a decade when so many great bands overlapped like The Queen and U2?
Cannot be that terrible....
|
@mikelavigne
I sometimes think like that, but still. There were a lot of good bands DURING the 80s just not necessarily famous or peaking in the 80s.
I personally think Nirvana is as overrated as today’s cloned rock stars
(I have no idea who, Billy Eilish and alike) I cannot listen to 2 minutes of Nirvana
|
There was whole corporate thing going on. Remember Sony-BMG? The massive selling records of the 70s attracted investment dollars into the industry resulting in consolidation. At first it worked out pretty good with Micheal Jackson's "Thriller", which is still the biggest selling record of all time, and other mega-hits by Madonna, Whitney Houston and Bruce Springsteen. When accountants start making artistic decisions, well do I have to spell it out?
Fortunately, R.E.M. broke alternative music open, the Gang Of Four played Marxism with a beat, Bryan Ferry crooned his best solo work, Janet Jackson showed what Madonna was trying to do and even Guns N' Roses became an arena filling band. By the end of the decade hip-hop/rap became the dominate music. There were tons of great music in the 80s. Ignore it at your own peril.
|
@mikelavigne “basically”…nonsense.
You named three uber-popular bands of the ‘70s (as if they constituted the totality of consequential popular music of that decade), besmirched an entire decade’s worth of great music (‘80s), and then capped it all off with the most grossly oversimplified and clichéd summation of popular music imaginable: “Nevermind came along and ‘saved popular music.’”
The ‘80s: Metallica, Joy Division, Young Marble Giants, Delta 5, The Modettes, Au Pairs, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Kleenex/Liliput, The Bush Tetras, Afrika Bambaataa, The Raincoats, Patrice Rushen, The Fall, The B-52s, Diamanda Galas, Public Enemy, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Devo, Michael Jackson, Sonic Youth, Boogie Down Productions, Magazine, The Clash, Flipper, Gang of Four, Run-D.M.C., Talking Heads, Arthur Russell, Motörhead, Grace Jones, The Feelies, Cure, Suicide, Fad Gadget, Bauhaus, Ministry, Big Black, Daniel Johnston, Too Short, Kate Bush, A Certain Ratio, Prince, Wipers, Butthole Surfers, Cocteau Twins, N.W.A., Echo and the Bunnymen, Depeche Mode, Beastie Boys, The Go-Gos, Jerry’s Kids, Human League, Eric B. & Rakim, Pixies, ESG, The Smiths, Tears For Fears, Laurie Anderson, The Birthday Party, Madonna, The Cramps, Meat Puppets, Talk Talk, Ultramagnetic MC’s, Pet Shop Boys, The Mekons, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Violent Femmes, Scritti Politti, Misfits, Tom Waits, XTC, Psychic TV, Duran Duran, Nurse With Wound, Geto Boys, Cyndi Lauper, Minutemen, and Slick Rick to name a few.
|
I did not care for a lot of 80s music when it happened but has grown on me since. Pop music really blossomed back then in so many ways. My teenage daughter is a big fan.
|
Mike may be speaking to his taste, and not as an absolute- obviously tastes vary. I’ve found that the point in time when someone engages in a genre or band -- their so-called "point of entry" is also instructive- for example, I was a fan of Tull very early on--the Stand Up era, a couple albums behind Aqualung, heard them live in that period and kind of lost the thread by the time of "Thick." But there is a huge fan base out there today that enjoys the later albums.
For material in the ’80s, I was probably less attached and same was true in the grunge/post grunge period. I have had to tap my younger friends to say-- which album of Pearl Jam’s is essential. Ditto-Metallica, I just didn’t follow them in their "era." (I always like heavy stuff, and to this day, seek out what I’d call "precursor" records- stuff that pre-dates Zep, and for the most part, remained obscure, except where the record has become a collector’s item). One of my favorite bands in the ’80s was Bad Brains- pretty odd stuff, but those guys were technically superb musicians playing Rasta-punk stuff that somehow appealed on a give the "middle finger" level to my juvenile brain.
Part of the fun to me is exploration. I got turned onto the Talking Heads when they were virtually unknown. A pretty astute woman I knew dragged me to a pizzeria for a Halloween party that featured the band, a couple slices and a soda for 10 bucks or whatever. It wasn’t exactly punk and they were good-- I understood them better after they became big, released a number of albums and got more perspective. I would not call myself a fan, but I get it.
I’ll go hear somebody live if I can, but in many cases, all we have is the records now. The bands are gone, the performers aged out or dead or retired. But, to come back to the point, there’s that point of engagement again, where you feel like its all a revelation, the music speaks to you and it becomes part of your genetic code.
The things that stick out for me in the increasingly corporatized music business from that era were the sounds of gated drums and the Yamaha DX7. That sound to me, is very emblematic of the ’80s and I don’t think a lot of that stuff has aged well. Of course, not everybody was doing slick, and overproduced stuff. But those were boom years for the labels-- handing out advances to bands you’d never hear about, just to seed the field. The more adventurous players created "alternative" during that era and did just as well if not better.
Obviously, it’s hard to summarize an entire decade. I think that’s almost too gross a categorization to be meaningful. At the same time, all the genre divisions got even more refined during this era and later ("Shoegaze" v. "Chillcore") and mean pretty little, if the band is cutting new ground rather than riding a trend. It’s all music and what appeals to one may or may not appeal to another. You can hope to be exposed to it and make up your own mind. My Teaching Assistant specializes in ethnic folk- he’ll do a deep dive on Bulgarian folks songs or something. Some of it interests me, some less so.
In closing (ahem, :)) I went to hear the TA's band a few years ago at a SXSW venue. We went to the wrong storefront, and heard Josefus, an early heavy band out of Texas. They were probably more my thing than Bulgarian folk, but no dis to the Bulgarians here.
Have fun.
|
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.
|
|
@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.
|
|
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!
|
@bdp24- I do think taste has a huge amount to do with this. My experience is that people are siloed-- how many people will even listen to outre jazz/free jazz?
I know you like real rock and roll and I do too. I get it. I’m not defending Mike so much as making the point that we are all subject to our own limitations- do you listen to English "prog"? Put another way, are there bodies of music that are not appealing to you? My best experiences have come from getting out of my comfort zone and enjoying a discovery that isn’t my norm. Mike is no exception either. I find that what we know and love is often a limitation. But there it is.
|
As I was an amateur musician in the late 70s and up through the mid-80s, I can give you my perspective. First off I want to commend a bunch of you for listing some great acts of the 80s. I listened to much of this stuff because I had friends who worked in record stores and told me about new stuff.
That leads me to the biggest issue of the 80s. Corporations took over the radio stations and, except for college radio stations, none of these bands were played on the radio in the US. MTV played some of it in the beginning because they didn't have enough videos to fill their rosters but ultimately, they just played the "popular stuff" that was pushed by the labels. They did have some underground shows such as 120 Minutes.
The other thing that happened was that music recording and production started to become accessible to anyone. You could have an 4 or 8 track recording studio in your home for not a bunch of money and a lot of bands and musicians became producers and engineers.
Music was underground for a long time but those who looked for it could find absolutely great stuff. I know Mike didn't have a complete list but let me add a few (by the way, huge points for knowing The Raincoats -- love that band): Ian Dury and the Blockheads, The Go-Betweens, Ministry, Oingo Boingo, Tom Verlaine, Throwing Muses, Catherine Wheel, Aimee Mann, The Bongos, Thin White Rope, Camper Van Beethoven, China Crisis, The Replacements, Young Fresh Fellows, They Might Be Giants, Howard Devoto (as a solo act), Comateens, Crowded House, Dead Kennedys, Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, Fugazi, Mission of Burma, Wednesday Week, The Last, The Rain Parade, Romeo Void, Simple Minds, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Gary Numan (Tubeway Army), Ultravox, The Glove (a mix of Robert Smith and Steve Severin), Grace Jones, The Housemartins, Japan, Jonathan Richman, Killing Joke, Nina Hagen, Lene Lovich, Martha and the Muffins, Midnight Oil, The Mutants, My Bloody Valentine, and Robyn Hitchcock to name a few more. |
@dz13: Crowded House, good one. How about The Records? And Lene Lovich! I just found an original UK Stiff Records copy of her debut album (of which I am quite fond), which will now sit next to my U.S.A. copy.
Also active in the UK was American singer Pearl Harbour, who had three albums on Stiff Records in the 80’s (Columbia Records in the U.S.A.). She was living in England for a few years, and toured around with Elvis Costello, Rockpile, and The Clash. She ended up married to Clash bassist Paul Simonon for awhile, and I decided it would be best if I kept my opinion of his playing to myself when I was a member of her band in the early-2000’s ;-) . Another swell English gal was/is Rachel Sweet, singer of delicious 3-minute Pop morsels.
@whart: My point about taste being immaterial was said in regard to the dismissal of an entire decade of music, not whether one likes or dislikes that music. Lots of people don’t particularly care for 1950’s Rock ’n’ Roll and Rockabilly, but to therefore characterize that decade as a musical wasteland would be ridiculous. So too is to do the same to the 1980’s.
Though this topic does not I’m sure include the world of Classical music, I gotta mention the albums being recorded and released in the 1980’s by the evolving group of Original Performance musicians, many of them based in the UK. Harmonia Mundi Records (both U.S.A. and French divisions) is a favorite label of mine. Fantastic performances and recorded sound quality, by period/historically-informed specialist musicians and singers. Lots of Baroque music, my favorite period.
|
Lots of good bands listed here, but one swallow doesn’t make a summer, and I believe that’s the point. My gut is that a combination of technology (synths), corporate investments, MTV elevating sounds based on what the bands looked like, and a generally inability for musicians to fit the new sound (punk) into a promotable box. Ironically, the free access to 4 track recording, mixed with a constant stream of disappointing popular music, kicked off the local music scene, which is where I believe the 80’s get saved. Labels like Discord in DC and Touch and Go in Chicago started releasing unique bands and developing their own sound. Kids were busy making music, not collecting music. They watched each other play and avoided the arenas. Lo-fi was the 80’s saving grace and informed later ideas - for better or worse maybe. Don’t even get me started on Grunge.
All of this digresses from the point of the post - what happened to album orientated rock. I dunno - cassingles? The Sex Pistols vs Pink Floyd saga? Casio keyboards? Mix tapes? Smooth action cue levers? Duran Duran’s haircuts? Take your pick maybe. In the ebb and flow of musical taste, every new thing is built on the rubble of its predecessor. The concept album had to go - it was just in the way.
|
Album sales actually grew dramatically during the 1980s and into the 1990s and very significantly outnumbered singles sales. This was largely due to increased increased interest in the long playing format on account of the advent of CD. There's no doubt that MTV increased the emphasis on having one or two radio friendly songs to promote an album, but it didn't necessarily change the shape of music overall in the sense that the number of bands producing long form work was always a pretty small niche in popular music.
Album sales peaked in 1999 and were decimated in the next decade due to the rise of downloads.
BTW, the Buggles Age of Plastic is a really excellent album as is English Garden by Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club and which also contains a version of Video Killed the Radio Star, as Woolley is a co-writer of it.
|
I graduated high school in 1982. Love 80s music. The energy of the hair bands was amazing. I also enjoy music from the 60s,70s,90s and 2000s. I don’t know how a person could only like one or two genres. Happy listening !
|
IMO all music was under the thumb of a few corporate media companies that picked the winners and losers. You hear it over and over in documentaries from artists. The record labels had way to much say in the direction of the music. How many bands never say the light of day because one producer did not like them or they formed an opinion that it would not be a radio hit. When you look today with streaming stations and internet radio we have access to music and artists we would have never know existed in the 70’s and 80’s. Today is a fantastic time to enjoy music and explore new band, artists, and styles. My personal taste is I can enjoy anything that is guitar based.
|
hey, i was having a bit of fun, and not entirely serious, about my put-down of the 80’s music. this question is one i have at work often (what decade has the best rock/pop music?) so my auto reaction was well rehearsed.
i have a bunch of fellow workers who love their 80’s rock bands (their H.S. years) which i could not for the life of me name one song i’ve heard. part of this is that while i was very music focused in the 60’s (graduated from H.S in 1969) and 70’s, listened myself alot, in the 80’s my kids were growing up and my time was with them. had no time to really stay aware of current music.
then in the early 90’s my children graduated from H.S., moved out, and in 1994 i became a serious audiophile/music lover.
so i missed the 80’s musically, whether i missed anything or not is a BIG QUESTION.
and please everyone enjoy YOUR music. for me it’s not the 80’s.😉
and in 20 more years just see what is played on the radio. my bet it’s not 80’s tunes, it’s mostly 60’s and 70’s tunes that stand the test of time.....and become recognized classics and endure.
|
In the days prior to web and computers I was lucky to live in area with two universities, plenty of FM stations playing more adventurous music. Certainly I heard the more popular songs, bands, but also the deeper cuts of those popular bands, and then just about every other genre of music you can think of.
This wide appreciation of music from various eras and genres has continued to this day, there is NO era, and very few genres of music I can't find music I derive pleasure from.
I also never stopped attending live concerts, saw any number of 80's bands listed above, some claim they couldn't play well, nonsense, at least for the bands I saw. Just off top of head, 80's bands I believe not yet listed, ABC and OMD. 80's modern rock still in regular rotation for me, and I'm a boomer.
|
@sns completely agree with the ABC and OMD adds. I continue to listen to OMD fairly regularly. And go to concerts - next up for me is Bring Me The Horizon. Can't wait.
|
There must be a dozen ways to look at this. Here’s my take having lived the dream. What’s now classic rock was then just (60’s) rock. Everybody got stoned to the best bands ever to get stoned to. The Beatles came along with electric guitars, talented singing, writing and playing in a time when we were transitioning from doo-wop to Elvis, Herman’s Hermits, Peter Paul and Mary, The Association, Mommas and Papas and the like. We got the Kinks, Zombies, Guess Who etc. We got R + B to die for. There were the Who’s Who of rock - Stones, Who, Moody Blues, Pink Floyd and more. Genius by the bucket load inspired by the new “rock n roll” sound, the new technology (e guitar, Moog) and love, peace and understanding. By the early seventies that sound had degenerated into a directionless, self serving stoner fest with little regard to things that, up to that point made music fun for non stoners. When disco arrived the fun was back. Stoners were too cool to admit it and suffered through with David Bowie, Blondie, Boston, Styx, BTO, ELO and others but the genius had run it’s course. Many, many bands relied on the lead guitar crying full of emotion. Blech. Disco died and fun bands filled in. Devo, Oingo Boing, Cars, Ramona’s, Babys, Jackson, Madonna etc. Great era. Now, how that transitioned to grunge is beyond me. Drugs again?
|
Not just disco, though was plenty of fine disco. There was also something called punk rock that happened towards the mid- to late- 70's, and that had quite a bit of influence and caused more than a few changes in the culture. And hip-hop came along and really turned things around and became the dominant genre. And I'm not quite sure that the 60's was all about 'love, peace, and understanding'....
|
@dz13 - great selection!! You've listed a lot of my faves....
|
My take is that the 70s were merely a fallout from the 60s until the Sex Pistols appeared to give rock a back to basics skiffle type shakeup.
The introduction of multi-track recording (plus the increasing use of synths) had done a lot to drain the music of a sense of urgency which punk/new wave restored.
Like the Velvet Underground before them, countless bands said they had been inspired by watching the Pistols live.
You could argue that bands like the Velvets, MC5 and the New York Dolls were all years ahead of their contemporaries, but it didn’t do them much good if they were seeking chart success, their music didn’t translate to what was happening elsewhere.
[The 1973 OPEC oil crisis would soon fix all of that].
This ’new wave’ culminated with the music of the Smiths during the 1980s. Of all the 80s bands, none pushed the musical and lyrical envelope in the same way Morrissey, Marr, Rourke and Joyce did.
After that, it’s difficult to say whether anything new, outside rap, which arguably took getting back to basics even further than punk did, happened.
https://openculture.com/2015/06/the-sex-pistols-1976-manchester-gig-that-changed-the-world.html
|
The new bands of the late 70's and early 80's had much to rebel against, whether it was disco, bombastic prog rock (ELP, etc) or what was being labeled as corporate rock (Boston, REO, etc). Many will argue that rebellion of some kind is essential for good rock music.
Here's some more late 70's and early 80's bands that I don't think have been mentioned yet:
Be-bop Deluxe, Billy Bragg, The Blue Nile, The Bongos, The Church, Concrete Blonde, The Connels, The DB's, The Divinyls, Don Dixon, Thomas Dolby, Echo and the Bunnymen, Everything But The Girl, Fetchin' Bones, Grapes of Wrath, Hoodoo Gurus, House of Love, Hunters & Collectors, Icehouse, Joe Jackson, Robin Lane & the Chartbusters, Midnight Oil, The Pretenders, The Railway Children, The Replacements, The Shoes, The Silencers, The Smithereens, The Spoons (Canadian band), The The (my vote for the greatest band name), Translator, The Waterboys and Was Not Was.
|
I'd agree with some of the posters mentioning stoner burnout. For boomers early 70's beginning of drug usage years, still lots of energy in youth culture, early 70's rock reflected this. By mid to late 70's, years of drug use was beginning to show it's toll, less energy and vitality in youth culture, again reflected in the music.
This state of affairs led to many rebelling against the same old, same old, we turned to new genres like disco, punk to provide energy, vitality. This morphed into more genres like modern rock, hard core in the 80's.
Think about correlation between drugs and music, more depressant oriented drugs in 70's, stimulant oriented in 80's, very much reflected in music.
|
Seems like a lot of fancy talk here when it seems pretty simple to me.
The ‘80s we’re just kind of weird, trend-wise. Garish, ostentatious, tacky, with arguably the most pungent visual and aural signifiers of any era.
Like any era, it’s not necessarily defined by its worst stuff.
Popular-wise, the late-90s early ‘00s were dreadful. But there was some great stuff from that time also that holds up extremely well.
|
The hair got bigger..........
|
Say, am I alone in noticing the contradiction in Mike’s argument? First he cites the decline of album-orientated artists/bands in the 1980’s as the reason for that decade being a musical wasteland, then predicts that the decade will be forgotten because of it’s lack of classic singles that will be played on the radio. Schizophrenia, anyone? ;-)
So his yardstick for determining the quality of any music made is by whether or not it gets played on the radio?! There was a lot of great music made in the 1970’s which never received any airplay (the 60’s too), music now considered classic. The same with the 1980’s (just look at all the names posted above). Geez, what a weak, weak argument. Unless of course one’s only source of music is the radio. But that would make one pathetic, right? No one here like that, right?
A lot of the "best" music made in the 70’s and 80’s (as well as other decades) was known and appreciated only by cult-sized audiences. Pet Sounds was a flop when it was released in 1966 (I didn’t buy it), and is now considered one of the greatest albums of all time (Paul McCartney cites it as his favorite). The same is true of the audiences for Jazz and Classical. Why is the popularity of only Rock bands being used to examine any question about a given decades musical quality?
|
