Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler The Horrifying 80's

Lampy's recollection of Teri Hatcher in Bob's favourite show, "The Love Boat" got me thinking about some of the other wonderfull memories from the 80's.

Mullets of course, would be at or near the top of the list, but I was thinking about something less obvious, like the Chrysler K-car, the Goth look, any show with Bob Saget in it, Rambo ect....

I think the only thing I liked from the 80's was the emergence of SRV. What ever happened to Vernon Reid?

Never mind....I just Googled him.

Distorted guitar solos in EVERYTHING.

How about all that left over disco ?

Pink Floyd: The wall part whatever

Rolling Stones: Emotional Rescue

Grateful Dead: Shakedown Street

oops. Floyd and the Dead were released at the end of the 70's

The 80s were horrifying but like New Year's Eve fireworks it came in with a promising bang.
AC/DC's Back in Black album - 1980

However in the same year, Air Supply released, I'm All Out of Love. Soon the rightious wails of Bruce Dickinson were being weakened by the noxious hair spray of Debbie Gibson.

I'm pretty sure the ongoing war between once classic metal and over commercialized pop became the inspiration for George Lucas's Dark Side/Light side storyline.

In the end, glam rock killed both sides and there was no winner. In it's wake of gender confused makeup mayhem and purposely destroyed jeans, it sucked what little life was left in the creative music industry that was not already destroyed by over-commercialized pop.

I'll admit I was sucked in by a lot of the above. Somewhere, where none of you will ever find it!!!! is a photo (on paper that shall never be digitized) of me and my buddies at the age of 16 or so participating in a lip sych contest performing "Nothin but a Good Time" by "Poison".

Prince made an interesting comment at his recent concert my wife and I attended. He made the point of saying to the audience that his music was played by real artists and real musicians. I can't agree more.

Rock_Head will appreciate this:

The first album (*) released in the 1980s was Permanent Waves, released 1/1/80.

Then Rush got into a synth phase, and while I do like Signals and Power Windows, I'm glad that Alex's guitar is more crunchy and less blingy now. Pardon my use of high-level music terminology.

(*) Yeah, it's not the only album released that day. Also released that day: Iron Maiden's self-titled album, and Heart's Greatest Hits, among others, I'm sure.

Moving Pictures came after Permanent Waves. That didn't suck.

I enjoyed the 80's, because I was 17-27 years old during that time. Seems like I was mostly listening to 70's music, though.

But I don't think it is genuine to dismiss the entire decade musically, since a number of artists offered us some gems. For instance, in addition to SRV and Rush, Dire Straits, Genesis, Yes, The Who, Pete Townsend, Richard Thompson, Peter Gabriel, Joe Jackson, John Hiatt, Lyle Lovett, U2 and Paul Simon all did some of their best work in the 80's.

I *like* distorted guitar solos.

The thing that makes the 80's horrifying to me, is that you were all in high school, or junior high. For a few of you, it was grade school.

No decade is ever a win or a loss when it comes to creative pursuits. There will always be some of the worst of the worst getting most of the big attention, but some of the highest quality endeavors are brought to light in each month, in every year, in every decade. Established artists may still at their peak and new ones that will come along who will enjoy warranted staying power. All of your own fave lists include them.

And you're omiting the absolute greatest influence ever on pop/rock music and it's consumption that DEFINED the 80's---globally---the music video.

What am I saying? I'm talking to the Barney crowd, and I don't mean Barney's NY. They didn't sell childrens' sizes in the 80's.