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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.

davidjohan
mitchagain
414 posts
 

edcyn - One of my favorite quotes is from Ralph Waldo Emerson: "All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients."

A big reason why I liked the music of the late 70's thru the 80's was that I thought those bands were taking their influences and creating a new and interesting take on what had influenced them.

Bands influenced by the Beatles included: The Bongos, Grapes of Wrath, The Smiths and XTC. Bands influenced by the Rolling Stones included: The Del Fuegos and The Replacements. And, there were a ton of bands that were influenced by the garage/psychedelic bands of the 60's such as: Echo and the Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes, Hoodoo Gurus, XTC (+ alter ego The Dukes of Stratosphere), along with the Paisley Underground scene in LA (Bangles, Green on Red, Plimsouls, etc).

But, to me, I think Be Bop Deluxe had the craziest and probably most inspired idea to attempt fusing prog rock (Yes) with glam (Bowie & T-Rex).When it worked it was brilliant and when it didn't, it was a train wreck!

mitchagain
414 posts
 

Am glad to see somebody finally mentioned Roxy Music (Bryan Ferry as a solo act got mentioned early in the thread). A few others that have slipped under the radar include:

Art of Noise, The Beautiful South, Bow Wow Wow, Jim Carroll, House of Freaks, It's Immaterial, Pixies, The Stranglers, Talk Talk, Teardrop Explodes, Throwing Muses and the Violent Femmes.

theaudiomaniac
87 posts
 

I am not sure the posts definition of AOR is correct:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Album-oriented_rock

daledeee1's avatar
daledeee1
519 posts
 

I have been around since the 60s.   Every decade or time period has plenty of music.  Still finding new stuff, and old stuff thanks to streaming.  Look around a bit and be open minded.  

moonwatcher
352 posts
 

MTV did change what younger people wanted in "music" on August 1st, 1981, creating an outlet for bands that LOOKED (and sounded) good on TV. But as others note, rock music started becoming pompous and self-important in the 1973-1977 years. And a lot of the founding bands of rock from the 1960s were getting long in the tooth. A lot of 15 to 22 year olds don’t particularly care about listening to what 40 year old guys want to say or sing about.

Then in the mid-70s here comes disco to throw a monkey wrench into everything. Suddenly you have to (as too many said on American Bandstand back in the day) "have a good beat and you can dance to it."

And as far as the 1980s are concerned you can’t minimize the impact of the Yamaha DX-7 synthesizer and early drum machines. Suddenly anyone with a little bit of talent could get amazing sounds and write songs. With synths leading the way, backed up by a little guitar in supporting roles, that’s what became popular (notwithstanding cool bands like Dire Straits).

And don’t forget the impact of TV shows like Miami Vice which was a "concept show" someone thought of and was even called "MTV Cops" by some.

Rock music faded away. It wasn’t relevant anymore for the most part. And we also weren’t in Vietnam anymore with a "counter culture" pushing boundaries and wanting theme songs to voice their anger, viewpoints, and outrage.

I have to say I enjoyed the first 5 years of MTV. Some (maybe most) of those videos couldn't even be made today featuring girls in bikinis or underwear as backdrops and scenery for music videos.  LOL. 

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