# The "80s Sound"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-80s-sound/743931>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 23, 2016, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-80s-sound/743931 "2016-01-23T02:10:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-80s-sound/743931/21 "2016-01-26T20:56:15Z")

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Click tracks (or similar) are also helpful in a live setting to synchronize the drummer with looping/sequenced/delay kind of parts to keep them in time. Like, for example, if you have a guitar with a delay set so it “echoes” on every eighth note at exactly 120bpm, it helps to have a drummer with a click playing in his ear so the parts exactly match. (Like, I assume the U2 drummersmust play with a click during the concert, as the Edge’s guitar parts are so heavily dependent on the delay.) Or if you have a synth with an arpeggiator set to a specific tempo. Or triggered rhythmic loops. Etc.

Clicks _can_ make music sound a little stiff, but I don’t think as a rule they do, as there’s still plenty of room within the beats to push and pull. As long as you synch with the one, you’re usually fine.

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**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2016, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-80s-sound/743931/22 "2016-01-27T03:38:57Z")

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> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> To all the excellent replies above, I will also add the [Roland TR-808](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeZZk2czG1c) drum sounds as being very ubiquitous in the 80s, although they can still be heard many decades after.

The Roland TR-88 sound has become a distinctive classic, like the Hammond organ. I like the sound and used it for some of my recordings in the new millennium.  
To me, the defining sound of the New Wave 80s (aside from what others have mentioned) is the absolutely gutless bass guitar.

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**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2016, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-80s-sound/743931/23 "2016-01-27T03:51:49Z")

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[quote=“Go\_Arachnid\_Laser, post:8, topic:743931”]

the name you are looking for is New Wave. It derived from, believe it or not, post-punk mixed with electronica, and it defined the eighties-

There’s a bit of a resurgence of it in modern pop, too.

[/QUOTE]

[Midnight City by M83 even has saxophones!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX3k_QDnzHE)

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