This thread is talking squarely about 80s music, and the music station quoted by monstro was a 70s-80s-90s station that wholesale said “no rap,” even though there was plenty of rap in that time period (and now, too) that qualified as “music for nice people.”
FYI, Ludovic I got the joke. (And am frankly surprised you’re the only one who riffed on BigT’s post.) Well done. 
Is “Walk This Way” a rap?
Which version?
On the OP, Grandmaster Flash was one of the first cassettes I bought with my own money, crazy how different it was back then.
While I won’t vote or comment on the genera question because I think that they are more the product of marketing departments I do want to point something out.
The Pet Shop Boys used an EMU Emulator. It must have been new because listen to the drums on the song then go listen to Billy Jean, which are played by the great session drummer N’Dugu who just passed last year.
It is quite clear that is where some of the drums are from, yet most of the “who sampled who” databases haven’t captured it.
https://www.whosampled.com/Pet-Shop-Boys/West-End-Girls/
I am betting of you know the original Emulator disk sounds, and dig around you can probably find other samples to claim credit for. Neil Tennant has admitted every sound on that song was from the Emulator, so there are other sources to be found that aren’t as distinctive as Billy Jean to be found.
I thought I had linked to an article that mentioned this, but I guess it was just in the general research I was doing. Here it is:
But I think that may be only in the Bobby Orlando version.
The Aerosmith version has a melody to it. I mean, it’s kind of close, but there’s pitched notes there throughout, not just spoken. You can see the transcription here. With spoken or rapped words, the tones would just be notated as "x"es throughout.
Note by “playing” they mean playing the keyboard on the Emulator it seems.
Note, I am not making a value judgement, but it is interesting being one of the first pure sample based albums.
Nice. Never had the Emulator, but my first (and only dedicated hardware) sampler was the Emu ESI-32. Lots of fun with that unit.
Here is an example of the strings used in the song, this is why I was saying you would have to know these sounds to figure out what they sampled.
The Emulator II Marcato strings are very distinctive, you probably had the sample even on the ESI-32My ESI-32 came with no sounds whatsoever. I just used it as a pure sampler–everything sampled and tweaked by me. But a few years later, I did come across some sample libraries while recording at a studio that the engineer gave to me. And I do believe the marcato strings were on there. They sound really familiar.
I like “Me, Myself and I,” but for some reason De La Soul doesn’t seem to get the same level of respect from mainstream hip-hop fans that their contemporaries do.
“…looking like Larry Holmes, flabby and sick (Look at De La Soul!)…”
-2pac
My local 70s/80s/early 90s radio station played mainstream stuff. Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna, Pet Shop Boys, David Bowie, Phil Collins, Eurythmics, Duran Duran etc.
Everyone I know, young and old, knows most of those songs like “West End Girls,” “Billy Jean,” “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”
That station doesn’t play the slightly lesser known 80s stuff though.
I’m guessing the same goes for hip-hop music. Most mainstream listeners seem to be familiar with “Nuthin’ but a G Thang,” and “California Love,” but not so much for “Raising Hell” by Run DMC. Strangely enough, while “Billy Jean” always gets love, I don’t think I’ve heard anyone seriously play “Can’t Touch This” or “Ice, Ice Baby,” after 1991.
If a station plays “Gin and Juice,” I’ll keep it on. If “Raising Hell” comes on I’m changing the station. And I grew up on hip-hop.
My point is, that the hip-hop songs that are as fondly remembered as “When Doves Cry,” or “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” seem mostly to be stuff like “Shook Ones Pt II,” “Juicy,” and “It Was a Good Day.”
In fact, even on hip-hop/R&B stations, since the mid-90s, it was extremely rare to hear 80s hip-hop songs. Once in a blue moon they might play Slick Rick’s “Children’s Story,” and Whodini’s “Friends.”
I never heard 80s LL Cool J, Run DMC, Big Daddy Kane, Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer on local Hip-Hop stations.
With that said, I think it’s stupid to generalize an entire genre of music as not being for “nice people.”
Just want to say thanks - this was a helluva documentary. Got any more?