For one thing, independent radio had been successfully strangled by then, so there were only a few stations (KROQ in LA, for example) that played quality music that hadn’t been pre-selected by marketing surveys. And even in the 70s, a lot of the good stuff (Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd pre=Wall, the Stooges, Television, the Cramps, the Sex Pistols, the Buzzcocks, Nina Hagen, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Joy Division) didn’t make it onto the airwaves in most markets, primarily IMO because their music didn’t fit into a tidy 3-minute time limit and/or was offensive. As I recall it, music on radio during my high school years (1975-1979) was an unbroken medley of Air Supply, Jethro Tull, Boz Scaggs, Kansas, Styx, Kiss, and Boston, with maybe one Led Zep song allowed here and there.
What’s up with that is it’s true. The good music in the 80’s (“alternative music,” back when that phrase had meaning) was being played on college radio stations, and if you knew what was what in the 80s, that’s what you were listening to.
In the early 90s, R.E.M. and Nirvana broke the dam, and a lot of good bands that had been bubbling around in this underground hit the mainstream.
But it’s really always been true that the pop charts don’t reflect the best music of an era. In the 50’s, Chuck Berry and Little Richard were overshadowed by the pop success of acts like Pat Boone doing covers of their songs. Yet today, we remember the Chuck Berry and Little Richard original songs and not the covers.
A lot of the music of the 60s that we now think of as classic was not successful on the charts. Look at pop charts from the 60s and early 70s and you’ll see a lot of utter garbage. Meanwhile “Purple Haze,” to cite but one example, never made it into the Top 40.
Similarly, I expect the future “classic” songs of the 80s will mostly consist of songs that couldn’t get played on commercial radio when they came out.
Wrong! The proper procedure is to cite the Proceedings of the British Colonial Shipping Board, with appropriate volume and page number. Since there was no such thing as the British Colonial Shipping Board, this always makes a valuable cite. 
Though Transactions of the Latverian Academy for National Philosophy is also useful…
Couldn’t agree more. I never listen to radio if I have an alternative.
Note to admins: We need a high-five smilie.
gobear, spoke-, good posts, you guys. I was being facetious and didn’t expect that there were actual answers to be had. Thanks for the insight.
What’s radio?
The one in my truck broke down, and strangely enough - for some weird reason - I do not at all miss shuffling from the 70s station to the 70s/80s/90s station to 90s/00s station to the 90s/00s station that has the one jock that does his best to be funny and offensive (you know by talking about things like lesbians and battery operated sexual devices) all while not violating FCC rules. And this is to say nothing all the completely assanine radio adverts that they like to run for 45 minutes at a time, sandwiched nicely between 3 minutes of ‘music’ on either side.
I’ve become content to simply think evil thoughts about all the idiots who can’t drive and CONSISTENTLY PISS ME OFF on a daily basis during the drive in/home.
This quality time alone, with no radio has made me a much better person, I can tell you.
Oh yes, that reminds me: Howard Stern was comning up in radio in the 80s: Howard Stern SUCKS.
Need more proof?
1982: Debbie Boone: You light up my life.
I mostly listend to classic radio in the 80s’ and wished I made enough to buy all the good albums.
You might just want to try followng your own advice:
"There was [category], from [subcategory](example 1) to [subcategory2](example 2,3)
There was punk, from hardcore (Husker Du) to pop (Blondie, Duran Duran)
As in Husker Du were hardcore punk, and Blondie and Duran Duran were pop punk. Do try to keep up, eh.
I mostly listend to classic radio in the 80s’ and wished I made enough to buy all the good albums.
Ah, thanks for reminding me!
The 80s was also the decade that I replaced my vinyl with cassettes, only to replace those with CDs in the 90s.
That whole experience completely SUCKED, and to be honest, I still think vinyl sounds far better than any CD ever could hope to. I won’t mention where I get my music from now, as I have read some more of the forum rules stickies.
And, what was that whole thing with DOLBY on cassettes in the 80s? Launched as some sort of high tech gizmo to eliminate tape noise, it seemed to me to only make the music sound as if someone had placed velvet over the speakers.
The DOLBY button on cassette players: sucks.
This is precisely what I meant to say, and I am willing to admit that Duran Duran might not even be punk enough to be considered pop punk. But I think beneath their polished pop façade lurked just enough punk influences to make them an outlier in the poppiest pop punk category.
It was difficult to get away from all punk influence, especially if you broaden your scopes beyond The Ramones and The Clash to include Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth-like influences.
Pop pop pop punk punk punk. There: I’m not going to type either of those words for the rest of this thread.
“You Light Up My Life” was from 1977. Although it’s such a massive stinkbomb of a single I suppose the stench could still be lingering in some corners of the world five years later.
Uh…try 1977.
And what about Mark E smith and the Fall?
Orange Juice (hang in there, Edwyn!)?
The Chills, from New Zealand?
The Feelies?
The Go-Betweens?
X-15 (from Seattle?)
Ah, I was too tired to get a good snark in on this one last night:
That’s fun! Let me try:
Remember, after all, that Bob Marley, Oscar Peterson, and Gordon Lightfoot all played the same dive in Vancouver (Queen Elizabeth Theatre). The difference between them is one of degree, not genre. (Because ‘genre’ and ‘venue’ are both French imports, and therefore equivalent terms.) 
And how could I forget the Young Fresh Fellows, NoMeansNo, Dayglo Abortions, John Trubee, Billy Bragg, the Descendents/All, Altered Images, The Jam, the Pixies, Squeeze, the Undertones…
Well, it’s an arguable one. I’d admit they did namecheck the sex pistols as an influence, but I find it hard to swallow.
I cannot argue with your point though that punk was a very, very pervasive influence on the whole decade though.
Excellent example. Casey Kasem’s decade wrap-up featured this song as the #1 song of the 80s. Meanwhile, Rolling Stone, who were considering quality and impact, not radio play, selected London Calling as the best record of the decade.
Ok, so not such a good example. YLUML was Kasem’s #1 song of the 70s. Really showing my age when I can’t recall that an event – I remember clearly our reaction when he played this record at the end of his show – happened in 1979-80 rather than 1989-90. :smack:
But actually, maybe not so far off, since London Calling was 1980.
Yeah, inasmuch as one of the Taylors said, “Lads, no way in hell are we going to look or sound anything like that!”
I recall an interview w/ a couple of Durans after Rio came out, and one reflected on how they’d decided they wanted to be famous and rich, but were kind of bummed out that they had to learn to play instruments to do it.
My theory is that those of us who look back fondly on the 80s and its music grew up during that decade and are nostalgic as a result of listening to that music throughout adolescence. Doesn’t hold true in all cases, but I’ve found a significant number of 80s bashers are either middle aged or the 80s were completely before their time. Just a thought…
Completely agree.
And when the people who loved the 80’s are in their middle years, they can bash the 00s.
For now though, ITS MY TIME TO BASH!