The 1980s

The use of synthesizers and computers to alter sound like never before...on keys, guitars, drum pads, and vocals.

Two words, baby: HAIR METAL

Nothing said Partying, Sex, Drugs, Rock n Roll, excess, Aqua Net, sunshine, keg parties, more sex, warm weather, beaches, pop culture, Hollywood’s Sunset Strip and heavy guitar influenced melodic riffs and power ballads like Hair Metal.

It defined a generation (Generation X), fooled us into thinking the party would never end and launched a dream phenomenon that so many tried to grab onto to hitch their wagon to the rising star of glam rock.

So many of the bands that hit it big in the 80’s are still touring today and riding that wave of nostalgia that so many people know and love. Not many are releasing new music because it’s not in demand or economically viable and they can make a great living touring the country and the world playing the hits that made them famous and that the fans still demand and love to hear.

Hair Metal was born in Hollywood, CA and has become a global phenomenon.

quote:

---

What do you feel is the most significant and lasting impact that grew out of the music of the 1980s?

---

Assuming we're talking pop/rock/country - FM radio music:

It is probably the combination of drum machines/loop, synthesizers and various production techniques (overproduction) for a cleaner, glossier sound for mainly pop at first, but expanded to rock fairly early.

As a relatively straightforward example using the same band:

Listen to Heart's Little Queen (1978), and if Heart just isn't your thing, bounce around the hits - Barracuda, Kick it Out and Little Queen.

Flash forward to their eponymous comeback album from 1985 - now some of the personnel had changed but that was still the Wilsons and Leese with a different rhythm section. They outsourced some of the songwriting and it was a deliberate change up, but the 1985 album is almost the stereotypical 80s rock album, synth, polish, "glossy" sounding. And this was from a legitimate, crunchy mid/late 70s rock band that just happened to be led by girls.

You can trace some of the changes to a single man: Mutt Lange. Listen to Def Leppard's High n' Dry (1981), Pyromania (1983) and Hysteria (1987). That's the same band, writing their own songs with the same producer. The differences are stark. It wasn't always a bad thing as those are 3 of my favorite albums (including my very favorite, Pyromania). And the boys from Sheffield were never much into synthesizers so you can here the production techniques more isolated in these cases. There was a heavy use of drum loops and samples, though, as Mutt Lange is a tyrant when it comes to drums.

But in hindsight, the changes were dramatic. Probably some good things and techniques in there, but like CGI, got overused and ruined, IMHO.

quote:

---

What do you feel is the most significant and lasting impact that grew out of the music of the 1980s?

---

While it may be an offshoot of the actual music, it's hard to deny the impact that music videos had on music in the 80's. For better or worse it changed the music scene--exposing us to some artists who without video we may have never heard (Devo, perhaps?), throwing crap out there because the bands made good video (too many to mention), and making some stars into mega-superstars through their videos (Michael Jackson).

If you haven't seen it, here's a great CNN documentary about the impact of video and music in the 80's.

Video Killed the Radio Star

quote:

---

The underground college scene that saved us all from shitty music.

---

I was about to come back and post almost this exact thing. Early R.E.M. opened my eyes and ears to real music.

I was pretty stoked hearing "West L.A. Fadeaway" on the mainstream radio. "Touch of Grey" pretty campy but had a badass guitar solo. "Throwing Stones" a total jam.

Grateful Dead- In the Dark, rejected the 80's "sound" and recorded as if playing live. Equipment used was up with the times but did't adapt the synthesizer stuff and still relied on good instrumental playing capabilities, classic lyrical folk quality and brought them a new popularity that led to "jam band" music of the 90's that's still kicking today. If you look at it, even Rush went from ballzy hard rock anthem albums to more pussified synthesizer stuff.

Since I was into classic rock, blues I really didn't like glossy 80's production and MTV just bored me to tears.

Damn the downvotes, full speed ahead.

The commercialization and expansion of the alternative/indie/underground scene.

i will defend 80s music till i die. it was a bridge to what we have today and the 90s

quote:

---

That music went to shite 

---

Yeah Alice In Chains, Sound Garden, Pantera, Metallica, GNR, and Tool all started in the 80's. Went to shite?

quote:

---

Surfa Rosa was a way better album. They got too poppy on doolittle

---

They are both two of my all-time favorite albums, but if I had to pick one, give me Doolittle. Sure it is poppier, but that isn't always a bad thing. And it still has it edges. I certainly wouldn't fault someone for preferring Surfer Rosa though.