Why the 80's were fun!

[IndyKlipschFan]

Real musicians, whether playing live, on the records, (before CD's) or on video, sounded the same and they were just having fun!

Hope you enjoy this clip. The Producers.

http://theproducers.org/video/SheSheila.mov

[Erukian]

Althought i'm not a fan of 80's music, you gotta give em credit for not lipsyncing every concert back then.

Probably why I dont like mainstream rock too, just indie rock for me =/

Classical isnt something you can lipsync either

[psg]

Yeah, I recorded Britney Spears' Miami concert on my PVR a while ago, just to see what the fuss is about. Most songs are obviously lip-synced, except a few (which sound different!) when she's quietly sitting at a piano. But then, they show an angle such that you think she's playing, but she's not! What's the point!

Then I put in my Diana Krall DVD "Live in Paris"; now there's talent!

[amonteiro]

What!, People go to britney spears concerts for the music?

[nicholtl]

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On 11/9/2004 6:54:38 PM psg wrote:

Then I put in my Diana Krall DVD "Live in Paris"; now there's talent!

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This is undoubtedly your favorite disc, since this is like the 10th time you've mentioned it.

[BLUESMAN]

Fun? Music was a joke. Synth drums and all that BS. Want feeling? Listen to some good blues. Real musicians, real music. No blowdriers or spandex

[garymd]

The 80s had to be the worst decade musically, at least in my lifetime with my taste. That's probably why I went to about 100 Grateful Dead concerts in that period.

[psg]

On 11/9/2004 7:11:46 PM nicholtl wrote:

On 11/9/2004 6:54:38 PM psg wrote:

Then I put in my Diana Krall DVD "Live in Paris"; now there's talent!

This is undoubtedly your favorite disc, since this is like the 10th time you've mentioned it.

Sorry about that. I got it a couple of weeks ago and I'm still thrilled every time I put it on. But I promise I won't mention anymore. Can't say I'll stop bothering everyone about possible centers for my La Scala's though!

[fastlane]

The 80's were fun because I was a teenager. I had no responsibilities (ie: mortgage, rugrats, etc...) I had crap for stereo equipment and I was happy to have it. I worked for $4.25 an hour and was proud to earn that. But the music I listeded to was, for the most part recorded much earlier. Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, ACDC, etc... Or was it the fact that some of the stuff I was smoking at the time (no longer, I've grown up...some) made the music of the time sound better. Winger, Def Leppard, Guns & Roses. Never, ever could I have partaken in enough of that to make Duran Duran, A Flock of Seagulls, Wang Chung sound like anything other than something the girls liked, so we put up with it.

Being "all growed up" with better equipment, disposable income, and resopnsibilities can be even more fun if you don't take yourself too seriously!

[seti]

The 80's had a massive amount of great music but like now it also had a massive amount of CRAP.

When I think of the 80's I usually think of the Talking Heads, The Clash, Siouxsie & the Banshees, midnight oil, The Cure except their last 4 dreadful albums, Men at Work, devo, the specials, Art of Noise, the replacements, the slits, wire, camper van beethoven, the pixies, the cars, inxs, kate bush, oingo boingo, Violent Femmes, stump, the selector, the dammed, dead can dance, ministry, fugazi & tom waits just off the top of my head.

[maxg]

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On 11/10/2004 9:46:32 AM seti wrote:

The 80's had a massive amount of great music but like now it also had a massive amount of CRAP.

When I think of the 80's I usually think of the Talking Heads, The Clash, Siouxsie & the Banshees, midnight oil, The Cure except their last 4 dreadful albums, Men at Work, devo, the specials, Art of Noise, the replacements, the slits, wire, camper van beethoven, the pixies, the cars, inxs, kate bush, oingo boingo, Violent Femmes, stump, the selector, the dammed, dead can dance, ministry, fugazi & tom waits just off the top of my head.

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Seti,

Funny - I think of a number of those as the 70's rather than the 80's:

Talking Heads, The Clash, Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Cure, the specials etc. etc.

I am fairly sure we were listening to them in the mid to late 70's at school.

[dgb]

Well, I was in my full swing adolecense during the 80s, graduated HS in 1986 and college in 1990. One thing I will give the 80s is that, for good or ill, we had our own defining pop-culture and music. We didn't simply rehash somthing from previous generations like the GenY-ers are doing. There was a lot of garbage music, (I loathe Hair Metal) but there was a huge diversity of fairly new musical styles. New Wave, Hardcore Punk, Hair Metal, Death Metal, Rap, "Alternative" (when it actually was), poweful female artists and bands (Madonna, Pretenders, Go-Gos) and of course the emergence of Grunge at the very end.

There was a ton of great music from U2 to Joe Jackson to Black Flag to Duran Duran, NWA to Living Color. If you listen to Duran Duran's first three alblums (DD, Rio, seven and the Ragged Tiger) you couldn't dismiss them as some band that got on simply because of their wardrobe or image. Some excellent writers and composers, and pretty good musicians (particularly the bassist). They simply were overshadowed by their own image.

I love classic rock, and enjoy a fair amount of new music, but I'd argue that from the death of Disco to the death of Kurt Cobain was they hey-day of popular music, in breadth and depth. Music was what defined you as a person and pretty much defined what crowd you hung with. Agent Orange? With the skaters. Flock of Seagulls, go with the "Euros". Storm Troopers of Death, with the Punks. Or you could just take the whole mess in!

Oh, and don't forget Enya and the emergence of all that New Age Music in the 80s either. Windahm Hill, Paul Winter, Zamfir, Master of the Pan Flute.

[seti]

Seti,

Funny - I think of a number of those as the 70's rather than the 80's:

Talking Heads, The Clash, Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Cure, the specials etc. etc.

I am fairly sure we were listening to them in the mid to late 70's at school.

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Oh yeah forgot U2 they're bloody brilliant.

Most good punk/new wave did have roots in the in the late 70's but continued well into the 80's and beyond that if you want to get technical about it how many 70's bands started in the late 60's lol.

The 80's wasn't some kind of graveyard for music. However, I think the record companies had gotten too big for their briches in the 80's and thought they could release just about anything.

At least I didn't try to put Marc Bolan in the 80's LOL.

[IndyKlipschFan]

DGB thanks for stating the obvious AND the truth too.

I graduated from HS in 1980. In the fall of 1980 I started College and fraternities were in full swing thanks to a few years before the release of Animal House. I also agree it was by far the most diverse and fun time in music in the last 50 years from some of the artists you stated. We actually could have different types of sounds LP's later CD's, and not feel ridiculed or un hip because back when Michael was Michael Jackson, Madonna, The Cars, U2, Grand Master Flash, Sugar Hill Gang, Bob Marley, Men at Work, Bow wow wow, Wham!, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Dead Or Alive, Thomas Dolby, even some rockers re found themselves John Mellencamp, Arrowsmith, ACDC, Stones etc., etc., could all be played in the same night and people loved it. With black, white, carribbean, English, Aussie influences and we all danced together again. I know, I was a DJ/ sang in a band during this time.

OK, so Flock Of Seagulls was a one hit wonder..with "I ran" But what do you expect from some guys who were hair dressers? (reportedly how they got started was at a hair show providing runway music as people walked down the isles..LOL) Where else, but in America!! We danced to it too.

[Olorin]

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On 11/10/2004 9:46:32 AM seti wrote:

The 80's had a massive amount of great music but like now it also had a massive amount of CRAP.

When I think of the 80's I usually think of the Talking Heads, The Clash, Siouxsie & the Banshees, midnight oil, The Cure except their last 4 dreadful albums, Men at Work, devo, the specials, Art of Noise, the replacements, the slits, wire, camper van beethoven, the pixies, the cars, inxs, kate bush, oingo boingo, Violent Femmes, stump, the selector, the dammed, dead can dance, ministry, fugazi & tom waits just off the top of my head.

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Bauhaus, The Police, REM, Negativland, Killing Joke, Green River/Mudhoney, Primus, Kraftwerk, Einsturzen de Neubauten, Possessed, Bad Brains, Slayer, and Cocteau Twins also come to mind.

[picky]

Okay...now the old GEEZER speakth:

I am sitting here watching as some of us are casting stones at the music of the 80's just as we (me included) have been blatantly casting stones for the past few months at our current musical dilemma in so many recent posts. While true or not, I cannot simply dismiss the 80's as an era of bad music. One of the most remarkable groups to come from the late 70/early 80's era in my opinion was The Police. They were trendsetters for me. They helped mark the new wave. I continue to enjoy Sting's work to this day.

Regardless, looking back at the 80's, for me anyway, brings with it so many things that are much more important than mere music quality. I began the 80's in my late twenties earing $5.00 an hour at a new job, while supporting my wife and two young children, and paying a mortgage with a 7-3/4% Interest Rate. We still live in that house. In mid 1980, a violent storm destroyed part of our small home, which we'd owned for only 1-1/2 years. The storm spared all of our lives and I than God for that. We all huddled together in the darkened basement watching as the wooden joists above our heads shook violently from side-to-side. We could only sit and hug one another and cry as we heard the storm tear part of our roof off, allowing the rain water to seep through the house and run down the basement walls and into the floor drains. It seemd like it lasted for an hour, but it was all over in 6 minutes. One-by-one we ascended the basement stairs (my baby daughter in my arms) only to discover that our exit out of the side door was now blocked by a fallen tree that now lay across the top of our family car. We emerged from our house using the front door, only to discover that although many other homes were damaged, our house had been hit the worst, with the exception of the railroad train at the end of our street that had most of its cars toppled over onto their sides.

I also began my second decade of marriage to my beautiful bride in the 1980's. I listened as my daughter learned to talk, I watched as my son learned to hit a baseball, there were promotions at work, Cub Scout meetings, my little daughter's sleep-overs (no men allowed...that means YOU Dad!!), PTA Meetings, learning to ride a two-wheeler, softball games, trips to the cottage at the lake, seeing the joy on my children's faces as they reeled in their first fish.........Yeah, I guess the 80's were a lot of fun after all!

[seti]

Bauhaus, The Police, REM, Negativland, Killing Joke, Green River/Mudhoney, Primus, Kraftwerk, Einsturzen de Neubauten, Possessed, Bad Brains, Slayer, and Cocteau Twins also come to mind.

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I forgot about negativeland i have some of their vinyl.

Then there is This mortal coil with david byrn, and members from dead can dance, Cocteau Twins, siouxsie and the banshees, xymox and others.

[Olorin]

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On 11/10/2004 12:32:00 PM seti wrote:

I forgot about negativeland i have some of their vinyl.

Then there is This mortal coil with david byrn, and members from dead can dance, Cocteau Twins, siouxsie and the banshees, xymox and others.

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How'd I miss Xymox, or for that matter Sonic Youth, Nice Strong Arm, Husker Du, and The Victim's Family?

[dodger]

Greetings:

As I sit listening to Clapton, I for the most part agree with Bluesman.

The 80s started with a divorce - she got the boyfriend, I got the house. Nothing like seeing your wife kissing another man.

So we divorced amiably, actually. But I have missed her Father - became a Surrogate after my Father passed.

I remember Billy Joel, Jackson Browne was still touring, Elton John released some good things - "Your Song," Orleans was around, The Little River Band.

A remarriage in '82, in-laws do not care for me and the feeling is very mutual. I've only been good for Electronics, Audio, Police connections. After about '85 or '86 to me music went downhill, except for the Blues.

The '90s were worse and the new century only brings memories of what was. Forced Medical Retirement.

At a good point, I found the Forum, some really nice people here - GaryMD, Daddy Dee, EdwinR, Formica, Fini, Nicholtl (I can never see all the letters clear enough, but a thanks for Parasound introduction) and more than I could write out. But on a neat note, I have my Cornwall IIs, my LaScalas went to good homes. Sorry if this has been not the most uplifting reading, I'm in a lousy mood with a migraine, so I'll get off.

Hope all have a good night.

dodger

[dgb]

The 80s were also a great time to be a music buyer, at least in my neck of the woods. Lots of independent record stores and hi-fi shops, nearly all of which have vanished, replaced by Wal-Mart and Best Buy. Dozens of mid-price manufacturers of hi-fi goodies, the Nakamichis, Luxmans, Denons, Onkyos, etc who built quality first, then gave you a variety of bells and whisltles depending on your wallet, not the other way around as it is now.

Trading records with friends as opposed to downloading off the net.

Big blaring, full range speakers at parties vs computer speakers and glorified boomboxes.

Laboring over mix tapes and recording minutae as opposed to ripping and burning in a flash with crappy mp3s.

Long trips to distant meccas of record enthusiasts with best buds vs downloading (again) or getting the latest pre-filtered selection at your local big-box.

Seeing actual music videos on MTV vs utter crap. (Not that much of MTV wasn't crap, but at least it was music)

Music has become so cheap between Napster type services and the lousy reproduction equipment kids use these days, that they seem not to value it much.