Hi, I guess this could also go in IMHO but it is about music so I started here.
Sometimes weekends in our house becomes music (YouTube) and board games. This weekend my partner and I were listening to a lot of 80s music, (my son is 12, we are in our late 40s.) My son was listening to songs he has heard before and asked us about the cold war themes in so much late 70’s to mid 80’s songs. I know this theme plays out a fair bit but I never thought particularly about it being a pervasive them in say pre 1985 music. Every country has their own spin on “Holy shit we are all going to die!” From RUSH’s Distant Early Warning to 99 Luftballons to Kate Bush’s “Breathing”
My son likes protest songs, he can sing “Eve of Distruction” by heart (“Oh! Coagulation means blood clotting”… he says after watching me prepare for a lesson on strokes for my class." I kept meaning to ask, but I forgot!")
So A) Was this ever considered a sub genre? Some songs are rock, some punk, so it crosses those types of categories.
B) Lets made an end of the world play list!
I think it was not really a genre, but was a well-used theme.
Add to the playlist:
“It’s the End of the World as We Know It”, REM
“Americans-Soviets”, CCCP
"Silent Running (Over Dangerous Ground), Mike + The Mechanics
“Games Without Frontiers”, Peter Gabriel
Best “bad timing for a song to come on” ever was having the radio on when I was driving several kids, including my son to a field trip. “Another Brick in the Wall” came on the radio. I turned it up for them. Only my son thought it was funny. (Later he complained that " I have to explain everything to kids in my class.")
Hi “same-name as me”, welcome to the thread. I had thought of that earlier (I’m that age that I remember Spandau Ballet well… and I remember when I found out about Spandau prison too) I found a fair number of the Englis/Irish ones are about Northern Ireland, because that was hitting the news then too.
I know you are quoting the song, but I went and bought a bunch of Vera Lynn, Andrews sisters, Glenn Miller, and some other 30s and 40s music cds (All in a bargin bin in Zellers; also gone) and we played them at my parent’s house when we had people over after my Grandmother’s celebration of life/funeral.
I meant to keep them since I work with seniors, but my parents somehow have them now and dad won’t part with them.
Slightly off topic, but I’m reminded of the commercial for Radio Free Europe where the DJ does an intro in super-cool Hungarian for “American group ‘Drifters’ … ‘On Broadway’!” [Segue into “They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway, (on Broadway)…!”]
