# Was the 1980's the decade where music underwent massive change?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-1980s-the-decade-where-music-underwent-massive-change/778813>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [February 2, 2017, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-1980s-the-decade-where-music-underwent-massive-change/778813 "2017-02-02T10:14:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-1980s-the-decade-where-music-underwent-massive-change/778813/21 "2017-02-05T12:54:43Z")

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> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#):
>
> Did it have the auto- reverse (or whatever it was called) or did you have to take the cassette out and flip it over? My first player was a Sanyo, and it was built like a camera- all metal and pretty expensive for the time. It had a control for adjusting the playback speed as the batteries went dead.

Back in high school (so, early 90’s) I had a Walkman with an auto-reverse feature. And then I dropped it on the sidewalk, and it broke, but in a very interesting way. It would still auto-reverse, but it wouldn’t change the side of the cassette, which meant that it would play one side of the cassette backwards.

This came as quite a surprise, but it was actually kind of cool, because around this time bands had started intentionally putting in backwards messages in songs as a means of making fun of the whole “OMG SATAN!” morale panic. One album (I can’t remember who now) had a recipe for cornbread hidden backwards across several songs.

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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:** [February 5, 2017, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-1980s-the-decade-where-music-underwent-massive-change/778813/22 "2017-02-05T17:13:42Z")

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> [@Dr\_Paprika](#):
>
> Musically, the 1950s were more revolutionary. I’d make the case hip hop and EDM started in the 80s (The Message by Grandmaster Flash; Kraftwerk started 1975 or so but picked up speed later). With Walkman, videos, synthesizer music and its antidotes – Jesus and Mary Chain, etc. you could make a strong case for the 1980s though not all genres were mainstream.

For me, the big popular music revolutions in the 21st century are, broadly, jazz, rock, and hip hop.

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**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-1980s-the-decade-where-music-underwent-massive-change/778813/23 "2017-02-05T17:30:25Z")

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The '80s were the decade where music underwent massive change. And so were all the others.

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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:** [February 5, 2017, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-1980s-the-decade-where-music-underwent-massive-change/778813/24 "2017-02-05T18:40:19Z")

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> [@Robot\_Arm](#):
>
> The '80s were the decade where music underwent massive change. And so were all the others.

Well, I really do believe some decades were bigger than others in terms of the amount of change and how much they influenced the music to follow.

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