Music evolves, people's tastes evolve, change marches on!!
How did 70s rock music transition into 80s music?
80s music appeared to be a re-visitation of the beginning of Rock — when "singles" ruled the AM radio. In those early days, in the event that a craftsman had a hit, he/she could get to record an "collection" (when those modern LP records appeared). A LP could have two hits and 10 tunes of forgettable filler melodies. Most craftsmen were characterized by their hit singles.
The 60s and 70s saw an ascent in FM radio and AOR (Album Oriented Rock) which gave numerous specialists the opportunity to make bigger works, or gatherings of melodies which frequently remained all in all work, and empowered a more extended tuning in/focus time. Beside funk and disco dance hits, the 70s inclined towards Album Oriented Rock.
The 80s saw a swing away from longer works and AOR, and back towards snappy singles. I'd say MTV had a great deal to do with the progress to 80s music. ("Video killed the radio star"):
MTV presented many gatherings who had fantastic singles, yet probably won't have accomplished acknowledgment without MTV video openness: Squeeze, The Vapors, Duran, Adam and the Ants, the B-52s, The Cars — to give some examples. (Note, I said "may" — yet that is my hypothesis.)
MTV constrained many long settled stars — David Bowie, Rod Stewart, even The Rolling Stones — to make video-commendable tunes. (That is — SINGLES.)
Peter Gabriel is a story regardless of anyone else's opinion. He was genuinely known from his Genesis Days — yet those astonishing recordings of "For sure" and "Demolition hammer" certainly kicked him into the super frightening.
MTV — after a ton of asking, cajoling, and dangers — at last changed their bigoted whites-just strategy, and began broadcasting recordings by people like Michael Jackson and Prince — presenting various dark craftsman to a lot bigger crowd.
In outline, I think MTV during the 80s — and later the Internet and YouTube — abbreviated individuals' capacity to focus, made a market weighty on short snappy singles, and made it progressively hard for craftsman to make "collections" which would allow them an opportunity to introduce their bigger vision.
Showing 8 responses by larsman
@tylermunns + 1 - And I've seen most of those bands! 👍 |
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.... |
@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! |
@bdp24 - Yep, speed would appear to be the GD's choice back in those days - just listen to the first GD studio album! Might also have been literal speed as they had to get it done fast! |
@itissteve + 1 |
@bdp24 - being a power-pop fan, I saw The Beat several times - great stuff! I liked The Beat from England, too! |