The 1980s contained two different eras of music--anyone else agree?

Cafe Society
1

Of course, we all know that trends don’t start when the year changes to “0,” so I would divide it up per below. And, of course, I am talking about Top 40 radio. There were other trends going on too, such as the rise of alternative. I am not making the argument that all music sucked after a certain date. I am making the argument that the quality of Top 40 radio took a precipitous drop in quality and taste.

1978-1981: New wave/post punk era. High creativity. Top 40 is good basically good music.

(The transition from this part to the next was pretty gentle, so it’s fair to lump 1980-1985 in one part as well.)

1981-1985: The good 80s. The “real” 80s. Most of what people love about the 80s is in this part of the decade.

1985-1991: The bad 80s. Horrendous corporate rock. “We built this city on rock and roll” and other atrocities. Most of what people make fun of about the 80s is in this part. Awful synth and brainless hair metal. OMFG, Phil Collins at his worst. The only saving grace is the rise of New Jack Swing and some pretty good rap. Only the rise of grunge saved us from one of the worst eras in pop music ever.

The conventional wisdom is that you love the music you hear in high school, and it sticks with you forever. But that wasn’t the case for me and my best friend with whom I shared my musical tastes then (and still do for the most part). I was 12 in 1983 when I really started buying my own records, but I had enjoyed Top 40 through osmosis since the mid-70s onward.

There was no external influence telling me that music changed starting in 1985. I was enjoying music, buying records, not rebelling against the status quo. But music really did change. It got really, really shitty. It felt more plastic, more shoved down our throats by the corporations. Music videos had been fun; now they were obnoxious.

I ended up hating the Top 40 so much that I ended up missing a handful of good songs, and I did not trust the marketplace ever to right itself, so I missed 90s music as well (I was also in Japan for a large chunk of the 90s and loved the J-pop of the time).

In anticipation of an argument: “Dude, you just soured on music cuz of teenage 'tude; it was you, not the tunes!” If that were the case, why would I have gone back and found myself enjoying a lot of the 90s music I had missed but almost nothing from 1985-1991? If it were a matter of prejudice, I would have dismissed it all and gone with the clean formulation of “all music has sucked since 1985.”

No, I think 1985-1991 was a uniquely bad time for music. I recently heard a countdown on Sirius XM of the Top 40 from 1990, and–holy fuck–it was absolutely fucking abysmal.

Anyone else agree?

2

You’re missing the rise of college rock and also industrial and techno around 90-91

Also, Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush released their best albums post 1985. Talk Talk released good albums as did Tears For Fears. Stan Ridgway released some great albums. XTC released their best album.

3

I said I was talking about Top 40! Peter Gabriel could count (although I hated “Sledgehammer” and his hits of the time, sorry), but the rest does not.

4

Oh, and as far as industrial is concerned, that was early 80s onward. I was a Depeche Mode fan.

5

As for 1990:

Jane’s Addiction
Depeche Mode
Concrete Blonde
Iggy Pop
They Might Be Giants
NiN
Sinead o Connor

Edit: Oh…top 40.

Yeah for the most part you’re right though the above bands got decent airplay.

6

Well, there’s The Smiths, which almost makes me forgive the '80s for everything else. Also, the Pixies got the '90s off to an early start ca. Come on Pilgrim, 1987.

7

I was and am a fan of the Smiths, but they never had a Top 40 hit. I don’t know about the Pixies.

8

For 1978 you forgot disco, it peaked that year and and dominated Top40 and new wave only started about picking up steam in about 1981.

9

Definitely wrong about New Wave:

I wasn’t trying to define all the music that existed in 1978-1981 but meant that the music we think of as being “80s” began in the late 70s. Disco barely made it into the 80s and is a trend associated with the 70s. But yes, you’re still right.

10

Year of first album release
Mylène Farmer: 1986
Suzanne Vega: 1987
Indigo Girls: 1987
Tracy Chapman:1988
k. d. lang: 1988
Melissa Etheridge: 1988
Tori Amos: 1988

Nuff said.

11

I don’t mean to get shitty, but reading comprehension of the OP has been pretty terrible. I’m talking about the Top 40, and I acknowledged that great music was made throughout the 80s. Do you think there was a shift in Top 40 quality or not? THANK YOU!

12

Of course there was. Overall. New Wave basically collapsed under its own weight. Other groups or solo performers like Genesis and Phil Collins collapsed under their pop pretensions.

13

The mid-80s seems to be about when it became feasible to distribute music to a wide audience without getting radio play. I don’t know what effect that had on the top 40 specifically, but it definitely made a huge difference in the growth of underground genres.

14

Sticking to the Top 40 but from a European perspective (sorry), I tend to divide the 80s into three parts:

80-83

Defining genre: New Wave. Music was exploring relatively new phenomenons (experimental synth sounds, inventive videos).

In the background: the rise of Rap.

Personal assessment: Very Good.

84-86

Defining genre: Sappy Pop. Boring and formulaic.

In the background: Corporate Rock.

Personal assessment: Let’s forget about it, athough there are a few gems to be found (notably Hounds of Love).

87-89

Defining genre: House Music. The top 40 is going experimental again but with mixed results.

In the background: Hair Metal.

Personal assessment: Trying, but hit or miss

15

I don’t recall the early-80s top 40 being much better than the later stuff. I mean, wasn’t it all Foreigner and Air Supply and Christopher Cross or shit like that? Boney M and Abba, depending where you lived? I was just a kid, but I don’t recall New Wave and Post Punk being big Top 40 genres at the time - did Joy Division, Bauhaus, The Cure or Siouxie & The Banshees get a lot of play on mainstream radio?

16

Very true. The Chicago-based radio show “Sound Opinions” had a good episode recently on 1980s music. The guest was a woman who had written an interesting book on the subject. Her expertise was the early 80s – first flowering of MTV (“weirdness,” before record company execs took over the scene), New Wave, second British invasion.

She dated the end of all this to the Live Aid concerts, in the summer of 1985.

17

Here’s the book – Mad World.

18

I agree with the OP. The late 80’s was when I really came into music, and times were bad. Compared to the early-80’s stuff on radio etc. it’s as if (almost) all the inventiveness, edge and oxygen had been compressed out of popular music. I only have to go through my compilation cassette collection from the era to remember how bad the late 80’s was. And I’m a huge fan of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush, Appetite for Destruction kicks ass etc. etc.

19

Cool, glad some other people see what I see on this!

20

Top 40 was marginally better in the first half of the 80’s, but not too good either.