How did 70s rock music transition into 80s music?

@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).

@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.

@larsman Lucky fella.

@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.

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.

@bdp24 Regarding why only the most popular stuff is used to generalize an entire era; people are lazy.  It’s easier to point to the very surface and say, “well, that’s that THAT was all about.”

It’s easier to regurgitate media-bred mythology and calcified narratives than engage in actual research and actual learning.  

So you hear the same oversimplified, clichéd media mythologies over and over: “rock became too wanky so punk came along and…blah, blah, blah…” “rock became too corporate and misogynistic so grunge came along…blah, blah, blah.”

Apart from a few arty ‘60s New Yorkers, the Velvet Underground were HATED.  Now they are considered one of the very best bands of the era.  For my money, their music is so much better, and holds up so much better than the likes of…well, I could go on and on and on and on with late-‘60s artists who enjoyed far, far more success (any way one could define success) than the Velvet Underground.

I sometimes worry I may be missing out on the Velvet Underground of this era.

@bdp24 ”Authoritarians hate intelligence.”  Ain’t it the truth.

Authoritarianism, in practice, has obviously yielded bad results throughout history.  But an individual adopting authoritarian thinking, while perhaps not actually making laws or issuing tangible punishment to dissenters, is also destructive.  This type of thinking is immune to political ideology.

An artist like the Velvet Underground who says, “we don’t cotton to this trendy hippy nonsense.  We are going to do our own thing,” is reviled because of their distinct break with the prevailing trend.  The authoritarian thinking here is, “we don’t wear all-black, leather and shades.  We don’t do that around here. We wear paisley, tie dye, bell-bottoms, and denim.  We don’t sing honest depictions of S&M, heroin and amphetamine use, sodomy, transgenderism, and violence.  We sing songs about being anti-war, pro-peace/love, and pro-hallucinogen and pot use.  We do make exceptions for Northerners and Californians appropriating rural southern/Appalachian sounds à la The Band and Sweetheart of the Rodeo.  We also make exceptions for Brits appropriating southern rural American blues sounds à la The Yardbirds, Cream, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and John Mayall and the Blues Breakers.”

Wouldn’t ya know it…50 years later, those VU albums are considered pop music milestones and no one today gives a hoot ‘n heck about Country Joe and the Fish and the Flying Burrito Brothers.

Dylan, of all people, had to deal with virulent opposition to his artistic choices.  For the egregious crime of having electric guitars, organ/piano, bass and drums in lieu of a solitary acoustic guitar and braying harmonica, and choosing to sing lyrics that were not explicit, pointed critiques of injustice and social ills, he was charged with being a sell-out, a heretic, and a traitor.

Wouldn’t ya know it…the majority of people today will listen to Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde 20 times before giving a solitary spin to The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan or The Times They Are a-Changin’.

The group-think that typifies an all-too-consequential contingent of today’s population is very similar to these things from the ‘60s.

Any artist who deviates from the established dogma and orthodoxy of speech and ideation is branded as a conservative, a bigot, and a social problem. Any question posed to these precepts, regardless of its validity, is deemed an act tantamount to  tacit endorsement of bigotry, hatred, and modern conservative ideology.

@edcyn Art pursuant of intellectual and emotional honesty and truth, rendered with intelligence, artistic bravery, and sensitivity is “fun as heck.”  Art that induces pleasure without insulting my intelligence is “fun as heck.”

Are these ideas the defining criteria of “good” for most studio heads?  Is their definition of “good” not at least a little influenced by a product’s viability as a commodity?

After watching what studios provide funding for, I have a sneaking suspicion that studio heads and I have very different definitions of “good.”