Comments on: Reader Request Week #6: 80s Pop Music

By: David Harmon

David Harmon — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 01:57:10 +0000

Very cool post — I checked out your video links, and wound up putting a name to one of the voices of my childhood (Howard Jones) and discovering another band to collect (Herman’s Hermits)! And my local library sale is still going on, so I might be able to pick some up there….

jp #4: Wow.

JS: I do agree with your generational hypothesis, but also concur with Jeff S @#27 that the Internet will change that a bit. Already in the 80s there were kids like me and several prior commenters, who were more influenced by their parent’s generation. (It’s probably relevant that records much older than that were fragile!)

Glaurung_quenaon #35: You’re probably right about the selection factor! That would fit in with generally known (and occasionally researched) patterns of human memory over time.

By: daniel

daniel — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:12:08 +0000

Sheila @ 47.

Thanks. For whatever reason, as common of a name as it is, “Fred Clark” doesn’t stick in my head as well as “slacktivist.” I realize that this form of Internet Synecdoche may be an error, however I believe it to be a venal sin COMPARED TO OTHERS. :-)

And yes, dismantling… almost to particle atoms :-)

I likewise pointed Mr. Clark (I can be taught!) toward our Mr. Scalzi’s trip to the Creationism Museum.

By: christy

christy — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 19:36:58 +0000

Sub-Odean @40: I’m glad to see that someone else remembers Yes’s 80s work as fondly as I do. “Holy Lamb” can still take my right back to my dorm room.

Something that impresses me about 80s music (in retrospect, of course, because back then it was just how it was) was how inclusive much of the radio play was. You could hear Duran Duran, Def Lepard, Ramones, Tina Turner, REM, U2, Run DMC, Blondie, Prince, Men Without Hats, etc etc etc all on one station – maybe two. Now I have to skip around between five of my six pre-program buttons (the sixth is Oldies, which now includes 80s music!) to hear anything like a good selection of music on the radio.

The other thing that has stayed with me is that, at the time, pop music appeared to believe that it could Make A Difference. Peter Gabriel’s music still has social relevence all of these decades later, ditto U2 et al. And Live Aid – what an undertaking! There have been many other benefit megashows since then, but none that seemed to have the aspirations and hope that that one did.

By: Karl

Karl — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:30:47 +0000

There are two factors: 80s “New Wave Pop” was
/different/ from what came before it, for technological
and social reason that are interesting but too large for
this margin I’m writing in.

Also, as #41 alludes to, time is a great filter; we only
bother to listen to the good stuff now. Thirty years from
now, there will be.. “oughties?” music that is good, it
will just take us that long to figure out what it is.

By: KJKat

KJKat — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 01:29:48 +0000

Sub-Odeon@45:
Rush did a song with Bob & Doug Mackenzie for their “Great White North” album called Take Off. It’s a parody of Canadians that most of us find hysterical…!

http://www.amazon.com/Great-White-North-Doug-McKenzie/dp/B000001EPF/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1238721963&sr=8-1

By: Sheila

Sheila — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:37:05 +0000

daniel– The gentleman who writes Slacktivist is named Fred Clark. (Referring to him as Slacktivist seems a bit like calling Mr. Scalzi “Whatever.”) I’m likewise a big fan of that blog–his thorough dismantling of Left Behind is brilliantly done.

By: GaryG

GaryG — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:29:38 +0000

Technology. As has been said, all the affordable synths and drum machines from that era enabled a whole generation of artists who would never even pick a guitar up to create something new. Lots of experiments and nievety made for music that was sonically like nothing that had gone before. Not neccessarily better than 50s/60s/70s stuff but certainly distinctive.

Rush: pah, ‘Moving Pictures’ was their zenith but the muse had left by the end of the 80s. Please don’t talk about Presto… :( Though she dropped in for the ‘Snakes and Arrows’ sessions apparently, well worth checking out.

By: Sub-Odeon

Sub-Odeon — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:34:19 +0000

Mycroft, what’s “Take Off?”

“Exit Stage Left” and “Moving Pictures” are two of the other non-Hits albums by Rush that I own.

I am debating whether or not I want to re-buy “Presto,” as that’s right on the verge.

“Roll the Bones” disappointed me so badly, and I just haven’t really enjoyed much Rush since.

By: daniel

daniel — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:55:45 +0000

John,

I only read two blogs of people I don’t know: Yours and one from a gentleman named Slacktivist. You’re known for Bacon Cat, still groovin to Journey all these years, and oh by the way, several great sci-fi books. Slack is known for deconstructing the book Left Behind and offering a glimpse into the fundamentalist world view (he escaped a few years back).

Today, my worlds collided. You wrote this and Slack wrote:
http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2009/04/dont-stop-believin.html

I’d sing “it’s a small world” but that would likely get me in even more trouble.

By: Mycroft W

Mycroft W — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:12:02 +0000

Heh, how can I not miss my countrymen, Sub-Odeon? Though for me the "must-have-all" are "Exit Stage Left" (which I guess, as a live album, is 'greatest hits') and "Moving Pictures" (although the triplet of Cygnus X-1, A Farewell to Kings, Xanadu back-to-back is required, and therefore, so is "A Farewell to Kings"). Geddy Lee tells the story, of course, that he's better known in the U.S. for Take Off than anything he does with Rush. Probably now, Take Off and being kidnapped by the Trailer Park Boys