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Why does 80's music get such a bad rap?

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lxskllr said:
The 80s didn't start as an era with 1980. There's always lag with the transition of the defining culture of a decade. The "80s" didn't start until 82 or 83.
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Which is why I said "Depending on how you look at it".

As far as music is concerned, I would consider it more of an overlap as opposed to a lag. You can hear 80's sounding music beginning to surface in music in the late 70's. Just as you can hear the 90's alternative sound beginning to surface in the late 80s with bands like REM.

R.E.M. - Orange Crush
 
lxskllr said:
Because the 80s were terrible. There were certainly gems in there, but on the whole the music sucked. Feeble and thin, with the overuse of electronics.
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LOL, like there's less electronics in use today.

Today's music is impossible to reproduce live. Overlays, overdubs, samples, auto-tune.....bands/singers can't go out and just play their records live. They have to bring all sorts of pre-recorded tracks to play along with them, or they'll sound like crap.

At least the 80's artists, when you heard them it was THEM.
 
88keys said:
Which is why I said "Depending on how you look at it".

As far as music is concerned, I would consider it more of an overlap as opposed to a lag. You can hear 80's sounding music beginning to surface in music in the late 70's. Just as you can hear the 90's alternative sound beginning to surface in the late 80s with bands like REM.

R.E.M. - Orange Crush
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as a big fan of alternative, i don't think of it in discrete eras as much as parallel branches. i'd consider the roots to be 50's american folk as much as 60-70's rock, 70's punk, late 70-80's new wave and 80's pop.

maybe that's the most defining feature of the "alternative section" - all the diverse, wonderful stuff that wasn't cranked out by the machine for the masses. open ears, open mind.
 
Pacfanweb said:
LOL, like there's less electronics in use today.

Today's music is impossible to reproduce live. Overlays, overdubs, samples, auto-tune.....bands/singers can't go out and just play their records live. They have to bring all sorts of pre-recorded tracks to play along with them, or they'll sound like crap.

At least the 80's artists, when you heard them it was THEM.
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today's music is impossible to reproduce live because it was never live to begin with. as for electronics in music, i'm ok with it as a medium for the spontaneous creation by an artist, not as a batch file to be executed.

pete townshend used electronics to great effect in the late 60's and 70's - this was done by manually playing a synthesizer you assembled and programmed. van halen was very aggressive in their use of electronics, and people barely noticed, never mind complained. both of these examples are miles away from what we've had for 10 years:

the-hitmaker.jpeg


the edge, ironically, takes me to the limit of what i can consider playing an instrument:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ7jdR-uG9c

"it might get loud" should be watched by anyone considering themselves a music fan.
 
It all has to do with MTV. MTV came along and established bands didn't want to make these music videos. So MTV took what they could get and played it non stop. When the first videos aired it was non stop stuff you had never heard before 24/7/365 and it became popular because it was new and different.

All of sudden some of the established groups realized we better jump on the video train are we're going to be left behind. Their popularity soared and rest followed.
 
Pacfanweb said:
LOL, like there's less electronics in use today.

Today's music is impossible to reproduce live. Overlays, overdubs, samples, auto-tune.....bands/singers can't go out and just play their records live. They have to bring all sorts of pre-recorded tracks to play along with them, or they'll sound like crap.

At least the 80's artists, when you heard them it was THEM.
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I never claimed music today was better. We were talking about 80s music, the decade top40 died. The shit that's on the radio now has its roots in the 80s.
 
Unpopular opinion alert: Synthesizers make better music than real people and instruments ever could, moar synth! :whiste:
 
88keys said:
Maybe it's just me, but I think alot of bands and artist wrote some their best stuff in that decade.

For example.
Van Halen, Metallica, Rush, Iron Maiden, Dio, Ozzy Osbourne, Guns n Roses, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Traveling Wilburys, AC/DC, David Lee Roth, Pink Floyd, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Megadeth, Slayer, Aerosmith along with others that I just can't think of.
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none of which were being played in the 80s.

not that they didn't *exist*, they were being boycotted by MTV and the whole FCC bunch.

So instead we got Boy George, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, that guy singing Caravan of Love, Europe, George Michael and Wham!, and basically more gayness you can shake a Freddy Mercury at.
 
DigDog said:
none of which were being played in the 80s.

not that they didn't *exist*, they were being boycotted by MTV and the whole FCC bunch.

So instead we got Boy George, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, that guy singing Caravan of Love, Europe, George Michael and Wham!, and basically more gayness you can shake a Freddy Mercury at.
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While I agree that MTV focused on the bands above, they also had Headbanger's Ball, and several of the bands you say weren't being played still got quit a bit of air time (Ozzy, Tom Petty, AC/DC and especially Aerosmith).
 
I tend to take slices from each decade. I like stuff from the 80's, 90's, 00's, but not an overwhelming bunch from any of them. In each instance, you have some good songs/artists, and a ton of others trying to cash in on the same sound.

I honestly do think the Top 40 crap coming out today will die almost permanently at some point in the near future. The T40 has always been plagued by a generic quality, but there's something particularly bad/forgettable about it right now.

If you flip to your soft rock station, you're likely to hear hits from the 80's, 90's, and 00's. But I'll be pretty surprised if, 5 - 10 years from now, we're hearing much of anything that's in today's Top 40 or has been in the last couple of years. I can think of a couple, maybe, but that's it.
 
CPA said:
While I agree that MTV focused on the bands above, they also had Headbanger's Ball, and several of the bands you say weren't being played still got quit a bit of air time (Ozzy, Tom Petty, AC/DC and especially Aerosmith).
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MTV started in 81. Aerosmith was pretty much non-existence from the early 80s until 87 when they did their first video Walk this Way with Run DMC. Stephen Tyler was one of the most outspoken about it wasn't his job to make music and a mini movie explaining what the song meant to him or the listeners interpretation. He quickly change his mind after the Walk this Way video saved/revived his career. Headbangers ball started in 87 also. The first five or six years of MTV was utter bullshit with a few exceptions.
 
weadjust said:
MTV started in 81. Aerosmith was pretty much non-existence from the early 80s until 87 when they did their first video Walk this Way with Run DMC. Stephen Tyler was one of the most outspoken about it wasn't his job to make music and a mini movie explaining what the song meant to him or the listeners interpretation. He quickly change his mind after the Walk this Way video saved/revived his career. Headbangers ball started in 87 also. The first five or six years of MTV was utter bullshit with a few exceptions.
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Such a long time ago. Lol

While it happened in the late 80's, it still happened in the 80's.
 
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