# Why is 80s music such a lost genre? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 3, 2003, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-80s-music-such-a-lost-genre/192749 "2003-08-03T18:57:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![nitroglycerine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c5a1d2/32.png) [@nitroglycerine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nitroglycerine)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-80s-music-such-a-lost-genre/192749/21 "2003-08-04T07:35:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Walloon \* > \*\*When Elvis Costello chose [The 500 Albums Essential to a Happy Life](http://www.elviscostello.info/articles/t-z/vanity_fair.001101a.html) in 2000, he wrote in the introduction, “There is nothing to speak of from the 80s, the decade that music forgot, except for Robert Wyatt.” > > And he wasn’t being an old fogey; he included numerous albums from the '90s, including Beck, Björk, Blur, Jeff Buckley, Destiny’s Child, the Fugees, etc. \*\* Ya know, thats a fucked up thing for Elvis to say because he’s ignoring a whole decade of political punk rock that he had a hand in inspiring. Really music hasn’t changed very much since the 80s exept for rap-metal which is due to die any day now. Jon ---
**Author:** ![Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ebca7d/32.png) [@Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Violet)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-80s-music-such-a-lost-genre/192749/22 "2003-08-04T07:46:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Trigonal Planar \* > \*\*… This music was incredibly inventitive, its (finally) being recognized for the huge influence its had, it WAS extremely popular at one time but now…its just…gone. Why? \*\* See [http://www.80smusiccentral.com/80radio.html](http://www.80smusiccentral.com/80radio.html) BUT, it is possible that they play the same stuff over & over, like you said. ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-80s-music-such-a-lost-genre/192749/23 "2003-08-04T12:26:00Z")
If you have cable, try to watch VH-1 Classic sometime, especially during the “we are the 80’s” time slot. I am lucky enough to catch it during the day. It’s fabulous! It’s like watching M-TV back in the day. ---
**Author:** ![acrossthesea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@acrossthesea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/acrossthesea)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-80s-music-such-a-lost-genre/192749/24 "2003-08-04T13:28:38Z")
I don’t know, maybe it’s all just perception, where you live, or what type of music you like. I’ve always heard a lot of “good” 80’s music on the radio…The Smiths, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Cyndi Lauper, The Eurythmics, The Ramones, Devo, etc etc etc. And then of course there’s the 80’s bands that are so successful they were also 90’s bands and 00’s bands, like U2 and Metallica. ---
**Author:** ![Gotterfunken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-80s-music-such-a-lost-genre/192749/25 "2003-08-04T14:18:58Z")
All the music that I listened to during the 80s was called “alternative” (before that label became associated mainly with grunge during the 90s). This included many of the bands that **acrossthesea** and others have mentioned (The Cure, The Smiths, Depeche Mode, Talking Heads, the Pixies, etc…; I’d also add Joy Division/New Order). The fact that these brilliant bands were obscured in favor of awful mainstream pop music is what makes the 80s the musical equivalent of a bottomless pit. I remember enduring crap from Rick Astley, the Bangles, Europe (“The Final Countdown” still gets stuck in my head once in a while, and this is the kind of thing you can never forgive) etc. There was a lot of bad music during the 80s, and it was so prolific that it obscured most of the really good stuff (occasionally, a single from an alternative band would surface, but normally you really had to hunt it down). That being said, I wouldn’t say that it’s difficult to find 80s music, good or bad, nowadays–more and more radio stations will do 80s revivals, and some are devoted entirely to it. History repeats itself, however: it’s usually the bad pop songs that they play, perhaps because they sound more obviously dated as “80s music” to our ears (and this is probably because these are the songs that people remember most vividly from the 80s…a vicious circle, I suppose). ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-80s-music-such-a-lost-genre/192749/26 "2003-08-04T14:37:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mojo \* > **Slight hijack- I’ve recently noticed a resurgence of 80s culture. Last weekend I saw several people with mohawks as well as.** Oddly enough, I’ve been seeing mohawks and odd dye jobs (pink, blue, green…) for quite a few years now, maybe since the late 90s. Didn’t think much about at all except ‘that’s back again? - try something original!’. I guess it takes quite a bit to shock us '80s survivors. ---
**Author:** ![gex\_gex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@gex\_gex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gex_gex)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-80s-music-such-a-lost-genre/192749/27 "2003-08-04T15:16:22Z")
The reason the eighties is “ignored” (and with the Wedding Singer and its associate soundtracks being huge hits, it’s a tough claim to make) is because the eighties is the first decade when popular couldn’t consistently be equated with good. Good music became overwhelmingly found in underground/alternative scenes, and people whose involvement in music was passive could no longer find anything that appealed to them. I’m not one of these people, but it seems as if they were saying at the time “when I was a kid, the greatest band in the world was the Beatles, and they were the biggest band in the world. Now the biggest artist in the world is Michael Jackson, who is terrible, so I assume that Michael Jackson is the best contemporary music has to offer. Hence, the eighties is terrible.” It’s a fallacy. As far as I’m concerned, anyone who dismisses the eighties (or the nineties or, for that matter, the '60s or '70s) as having little or no redeeming qualities is a person whose involvement in music is only skin deep, a person who will only enjoy music that’s served up to them by hitmakers rather than someone who actively looks for music they love. ---
**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-80s-music-such-a-lost-genre/192749/28 "2003-08-04T18:08:59Z")
> [@](#): > > I’m not one of these people, but it seems as if they were saying at the time “when I was a kid, the greatest band in the world was the Beatles, and they were the biggest band in the world. Now the biggest artist in the world is Michael Jackson, who is terrible, so I assume that Michael Jackson is the best contemporary music has to offer. Hence, the eighties is terrible.” > > It’s a fallacy. As far as I’m concerned, anyone who dismisses the eighties (or the nineties or, for that matter, the '60s or '70s) as having little or no redeeming qualities is a person whose involvement in music is only skin deep, a person who will only enjoy music that’s served up to them by hitmakers rather than someone who actively looks for music they love. **gex gex:** Exactly! Your post basically just stated what I was trying to get at with my OP. Whenever I tell people I like 80s music, I get the same reply every time: “eeww, you like that Michael Jackson stuff??”. Then I have to go on to explain how, believe it or not, there was an incredible underground/alternative scene and start naming off bands like DM, THe Cure, etc. It is infuriating to me that the 80s is so univerally associated with its crap bands while the _many_ exceptional bands are just that…minor exceptions. If I come along and say 90s music sucks I’ll get a bunch of responses like “uhh, no way dude”, “obviously you’ve never heard of this band…or this band…or this band…”, “you must not be much of a music fan then” But if I come along and say 80s music sucks, I’ll get a bunch of responses like “You’re telling me!”, “I’m so glad that decade’s over”, “what a waste of music”. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![nitroglycerine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c5a1d2/32.png) [@nitroglycerine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nitroglycerine)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-80s-music-such-a-lost-genre/192749/29 "2003-08-05T00:43:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gex gex \* > \*\*The reason the eighties is “ignored” (and with the Wedding Singer and its associate soundtracks being huge hits, it’s a tough claim to make) is because the eighties is the first decade when popular couldn’t consistently be equated with good. Good music became overwhelmingly found in underground/alternative scenes, and people whose involvement in music was passive could no longer find anything that appealed to them. > > I’m not one of these people, but it seems as if they were saying at the time “when I was a kid, the greatest band in the world was the Beatles, and they were the biggest band in the world. Now the biggest artist in the world is Michael Jackson, who is terrible, so I assume that Michael Jackson is the best contemporary music has to offer. Hence, the eighties is terrible.” > > It’s a fallacy. As far as I’m concerned, anyone who dismisses the eighties (or the nineties or, for that matter, the '60s or '70s) as having little or no redeeming qualities is a person whose involvement in music is only skin deep, a person who will only enjoy music that’s served up to them by hitmakers rather than someone who actively looks for music they love. \*\* Well said! Jon [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-80s-music-such-a-lost-genre/192749.md?page=1)