80s Music was so good

Those videos like you've posted above are very interesting to watch, OP. My brother and I went through the whole lot recently - one thing I was reminded was that a lot of what gets to the top of the charts is shit in any decade. When I remember loving 90s music, it was in fact more alternative stuff, rather than a lot of what made number 1. It's quite interesting.

It was also interesting to note how bad music was in the early 60s and how you could see, even from the future, how the arrival of The Beatles changed everything up so much.

I watched this the other day and it was quite good. It’s BBC and was posted 4months ago, but I didn’t know when it originally aired. It’s Brit centric of course.

Ooh, I'll watch that for sure R2. When it comes to 80s music, I tend to prefer the British stuff.

Just following up here, I did watch that documentary posted above and really enjoyed it! I liked the focus on the British music of the time (I prefer it) and all the underground/alternative stuff, which is the stuff I like more than the overplayed 80s music. It also reminded me of the time when hip hop was actually good!

I liked the comment about how after Live Aid a lot of bands got too commercial and boring until the late 80s, which is something I have always just felt myself, without really knowing why... just that I enjoy early 80s and late 80s music but in the middle much less of it is enjoyable to me.

It was funny, at the end when they spoke of the 80s sounds still on radio today, I just thought how it's such a case of diminishing returns though. Very little is anywhere near as good as what it has been inspired by, sadly. Also, I think modern day production just doesn't sound as good as 80s production.

That woman who sang with Jimmy Sommerville in the Communards seemed so sweet.

I would've loved the documentary to be a multi-parter!

It was pop musics finale

Something that has sorta taken the gloss off of my club years is realising how many of the songs we danced our arses off to back in the day were basically just ripping off old songs. No intelligent/interesting sampling like back in the 80s, but just wholesale taking a tune and putting a new vocal over it. I'm talking the mid-late 00s here. I never realised songs I would be dancing to were actually just "Smalltown Boy" or "Why". I just discovered when watching the documentary the song "To Cut A Long Story Short" which we used to dance to with a different vocal in the mid-00s.

Actually "taken the gloss off" is a bit of a stretch, but you can't really be as impressed with the riffs you loved to dance to when you realise they were just nicked from much better, original songs without doing anything inventive with it at all.

This was the ending period for truly great pop music for me.

As the decades move forward, I'm only interested in listening to music from the late 60s, 70s, and 80s. Sure, great tunes have come after those decades, but as a rule, they seem fewer and further between. Where I once kept up with what is current/coming out in the music world, I have (sadly) given up. Too many disappointments. Too much garbage.

You might like this other BBC docu-series, "Top of the Pops: The Story of..." They go through each year of the 80s and 90s. Some of the years are missing from YouTube though.

Thanks, R8, watched some and will check out more later. Interesting to be able to see a Brit view when I'm more likely to just experience the US POV.

R8 - will definitely check those out too, I reckon they'll be interesting. I remember someone reviewing the Top of the Pops performances of certain bands who hilariously didn't even both pretending to lip sync (I think Siouxsie and the Banshees was one of them).

R7, I agree to a point, but I also think there was a lot of great stuff in the 90s and even the early 00s, up to 2004 or so. Then again, those were my teen/young years so I may be a bit biased there. But certainly the innovation in music seemed to die away around that time. The documentary above made a really good point about how so many different genres of music sat side by side. I felt that as a kid in the 90s too.

A lot more Bon Jovi than I would have thought in that video.

I still listen to 80s alternative... the best music ever.

While I did get the slight whiff of insufferably pretension from the guy from Spandau Ballet in the documentary above, I have been listening to some of their stuff the past couple of days and I really like it!

Just dropping in to thank the poster who recommended the Story of Top of the Pops documentaries. I watched my first one then, and chose 1981 as that's my birth year. A very interesting documentary. I never realised how attractive a lot of those boys were under their makeup (Dave Gahan at the time of the documentary could get it, just my type). Kim Wilde was such a sweetheart (I remember thinking so when I saw her with Charlie Hides a few years back too), and I got a kick out of The Human League and how completely unfazed by any of their own success they were.

Also, just some really good music then. It's interesting how when they spoke about creating songs for the public, that didn't necessarily mean dumbing them down or broadening them too much, like it may mean now.

I'll definitely keep watching these over time.

OP saying "95 percent" of 80s hits were "damned good" is a bit much. There are a lot of great 80s hits but plenty of shitty ones too. Every decade has good and bad hits. It's just the 80s had more balance compared to now. Most of the hits today are horrible but make no mistake there were some real head scratchers in the 80s too

Why did they put me in the video I’m 27!

Most of those songs were terrible. The 80s had great music but those songs didn't make the #1 list I guess.

I was just thinking how good 80s music was when I was listening to the car radio and ‘Africa’ by Toto followed ‘I Don’t want to Lose Your Love’ by the Outfield came on. I stayed in the car until they were over. Popular music has really declined. There is good music out there, but you have to search.

[quote] While I did get the slight whiff of insufferably pretension from the guy from Spandau Ballet in the documentary above, I have been listening to some of their stuff the past couple of days and I really like it!

Gary Kemp is a little arrogant about his comparatively modest songwriting talent. He wrote some hit records, some good non-hits and a lot of album filler. I like most of Spandau Ballet's music -- and love some of it -- but Kemp and Tony Hadley, the voice, both seem like assholes. Still, "Soul Boys of the Western World" is a great document of Spandau's beginnings and that era in music. I saw them on their 2015 U.S. jaunt and they were still excellent showmen.

I think 80s music is a full embrace of audio technology at a time when musicianship and creativity still mattered. 70s music is probably my favorite.

Could have been so beautiful…. Could have been so right….

1980 sure was a better year than 1989. Definitely a slide down in quality and diversity of genres by the end of the decade. I remember when Bat Dance was number one in the summer of 89 and thinking how crap it was. Kind of encapsulated where music gotten to by that point, being that it was a cash in by a usually brilliant artist for a high budget comic book movie.

Also a good reminder that I never liked by song by Lionel Richie.

A musician once told me that the 80s songs sound happy because the radio wouldn’t play songs that were “too pentatonic” at that time

R15 You're welcome. I thought that was very post-worthy. I listened to every year and it was a great way to spend time.

It's telling that 3 out of the 4 artists pictured in the original post are now dead via drug overdoses.

And the fourth has morphed herself into something that escaped from a sideshow.

So a crack head, a hairy dwarf, a pervert and a fairground stripper.

The whole decade seemed to happen at night

[quote] Also a good reminder that I never liked by song by Lionel Richie.

Lionel Richie is a brilliant songwriter and musician. I am not a huge fan of his music but I definitely recognize his gift for songcraft. He's being inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist this year, which is slightly controversial since most believe The Commodores represent his most substantive music before the pop sellout.

[quote]You're welcome. I thought that was very post-worthy. I listened to every year and it was a great way to spend time.

I love the Britishness of it. They get the musicians on there and they all seem like real people, not just saying what they think might be palatable, and it makes it much more interesting. I also watched 1984 and 1986 (1982 seems to have disappeared, so now I'm just plucking at random, rather than chronological). What is interesting are the explanations of what is going on politically at the time too. It's so funny with all this 80s nostalgia to be reminded of what difficult times they were to live through. I loved them being completely snarky about how horrible most music was in 1986.

I've seen Richard Coles around so often on panel shows like QI etc, but never realised he was a musician, member of the Communards, before. Now that explains why he is invited on so many panels - I thought he was just considered a "cool" vicar. I thought it was refreshingly honest, him talking about how jealous he was of the attention Jimmy got.

Most of the musicians looked pretty good in the 2010s too, which was pretty cool (perhaps not so much Jerry Dammers - where did his teeth go?). I did laugh at the stories of how angry the BBC got with musicians who acted up, threatening them "We'll never let you play here again!" Please. Watching Jimmy Somerville and Sarah Jane Morris switch lip syncs was funny and of course they would want to muck around after 5 performances.

Looking forward to watching more of them!

So agree. The Britishness was what hooked me into viewing more. The British groups and performers dominated the 80s.

The Fixx is a very under-rated 80s band that is still making great music (all through the 90s, 2000s, and still)

The Fixx still tours. Many of these great bands do.

1980s biggest hit!

Spooky aspect of that pic, 3 of the 4 are dead. Madonna seems to be spiraling, hope she doesn’t make it 4!

I honestly think Madonna will be gone in the next couple of years.

I think today's music lacks subversiveness and edge. The late 70s and 80s are fondly remembered because of new music genres (punk, post-punk, new wave, new romantics, for example) being born and the corporate record companies not being able to fully understand and control the artistic side of it all (other than exploiting the artists by making them sign bad contracts).

New always means subversive and edgy, pushing the envelope.

What was the last "new" music genre? Grundge in the 90s?

Sorry, the music genre is Grunge.

Even the teeny bopper pop acts had good songs and Jonathan Knight was always a gorgeous top.

This is everything, underrated as fuck.

This song is so good. It's so smooth.

Another good one is Sade's Is it a Crime? The music video is good.

[quote]and the corporate record companies not being able to fully understand and control the artistic side of it all

And you can clearly see from the documentaries I'm watching how quickly things changed once the music companies finally got their claws into a new style. They would bland it out and people would immediately get bored and the new hot thing would appear. That sense of always something new being on the horizon has gone now (speaking of Madonna above, she was able to tap into that to keep herself relevant, for example).

Once in a lifetime

Breakout

Under Pressure

Saved By Zero

I've run out of 80s Top of the Pops specials to watch now: 1982, 1988 and 1989 have been removed from YouTube, dammit.

I'm curious now as to what was going on in the makeup chairs between the Pet Shop Boys and T'Pau in 1987. That woman from T'Pau seemed kinda bitter about it.

TOTP: The Story of 1982 on DailyMotion

I'm surprised how many of the #1 hits were adult contemporary, the ones that the frau-est of fraus would enjoy. Do they not buy music anymore?

Ah, the 80s! When WOXY FM in Oxford Ohio was “the future of rock n roll” blasting out The Cure, 10,000 Maniacs, Depeche Mode, Modern English, Erasure and Doctor Demento on Sunday nights.

My my my how far we have fallen. Sad.

Ahh, thank you R48! I'll check that one out soon!

Love the Jeffrey Daniel section at the end. He caused quite a reaction.

Bon Jovi was pretty fucken good

R28

FWIW a year later, I just saw Lionel Richie (the BRILLIANT as always Earth, Wind, & Fire opened and did a full mind-blowing set) and I wasn’t much looking forward to his set. It was pretty Vegas-y at times: it opened with a really self-congratulatory video showing all his awards and such but I ended up loving it, even though I dislike almost all his solo work.

He was really funny, first of all: he came up onto the stage via a trap door and sang “Hello” as his first song. A great visual joke and he was definitely in on it. He made jokes about being a grandfather and still singing songs like Brick House. His voice was absolutely terrific and my main complaint was that he shortened a couple of songs: Endless Love was only about 2/3 as long, and one of the Commodores’ songs was shortened, too: I think it was Easy.

He sang Still and Sail On, which is my favorite slow Commodores song: I call it their country song and I love how thick his Alabama accent is on the original version and how resonant his voice is - it’s just gorgeous. He was a great entertainer but I still don’t like his solo stuff. Anyway, people will always bitch about the HoF and inductees and I’m OK with him getting in solo, just on the basis of his juggernaut career, but I’m sure he pushed out someone more deserving.

The 80's were great for pop music but the 70's were better for music in general.

Peter Cetera, Phil Collins, Huey Lewis…ugh.

Lot of crap went to #1 in the 80s apparently…but lots of good ones that still hold up..

Like a Virgin

Never Gonna Give You Up

How Will I Know

Take on Me

Don’t You Want Me

Sweet Dreams

Heaven is a Place on Earth

Sweet Child O’ Mine

Total Eclipse of the Heart

Alone

When I think of You

Venus

to name a few

I remember first logging on in 1984 and starting a thread '40s music was so good!' only to be met with replies along the lines of "go to bed old man!"

80s music was both fantastic and terrible. There's some real shit in the 80s, but there was so much gold that "80s music" is its own category and is amazing. Especially the 80s Alternative & New Wave music. Damn. Some of the best stuff ever.

Yeah, the 80’s and early 90’s was the heyday of New Wave/Alternative music.

I never thought that I had much interest in pop music, but I remember every single one of those times except for three (Miami Vice, that Phil Collins duet, and the first Billy Ocean song). Interesting to see how much videos improved from the beginning to the end of the decade. I also loved a lot of those videos that have big dance numbers by Janet Jackson’s When I Think of You. Some thoughts — the guy from Mr. Mister was cute, Tiffany was awkward looking, Bette Midler’s appearance was a surprise, and it’s really weird that ONJ’s Physical had the longest run at #1 for ten weeks.

Some great music, but a few dogs in there too.

*those tunes^^

The eighties was the beginning of the end for pop music. So many bands of the 80’s became way too self absorbed and forgot about the audience. No artist will prosper for long in this state. I couldn’t stand bands like kiss and Aerosmith and Van Halen. That was just musical violence.

Arguably, the better list is the songs that peaked at #2. This video also includes the songs that kept them out of #1.

I still can’t believe Gloria, We Got the Beat, Manic Monday, Material Girl, U Got the Look weren’t #1s.

I was tempted to start a thread about this video, but decided to be polite and tack it onto this thread.

I just discovered this song today. What a trainwreck! How did I miss this back in 1984????

The 1980’s were also the pinnacle of French pop music for me.

I'm not a starry-eyed or eared music fan, the 80s had a lot of shit too.

But it was a decade of interesting music for sure. There's always terrible stuff (like Air Supply) that was for the masses but there were several movements within the 80s that impacted music and made for some great material.

The remnants of both punk and disco really had an impact on pop - punk blazed the path for new wave music (especially the British new wave/post punk sound of the early 80s) and after disco became a laughing stock, many of those acts regrouped and broke through into R&B, spilling over into pop.

There was also a nostalgia movement in the 80s to look back to 60s pop, R&B and easy listening music, which also really reinvigorated the charts - moving away from the banality of some of the late 70s pop hits to a more melodic sound. The mid 80s jazz/pop movement (with Sade the most successful of that group) also was part of an appreciation of older music, and that all got blended into the mix.

80's mainstream music suffered a bit by the end of the decade with pop either overloaded with production, or leaning towards a rebellious hair metal phase. But there were some excellent songs in there, for sure.

The 80s was also one of the last decades where people actually wrote feel good, be happy, just got paid, off to get laid kind of songs.

I don't think many artists do that any more.

Other than that "Happy" song from a decade ago, you mean. That song was EVERYWHERE.

R69 yes, there's a few rare types of songs like that and "Get Lucky" but those are exceptions.

And then again, TONS of 80s music was ... less than positive. LOTS of it was riddled through with nuclear war fears, like "Dancing with tears in my eyes", and "Two Tribes" and "99 Red Balloons", etc.

So many of the 80s #1 hits were garbage that I would love not to hear ever again. Quite a few of us in our late teens and early 20s back then listened to the darker alternative stuff: The Cure, Joy Division, Siouxsie, The Pixies, The Cramps, Romeo Void, Bauhaus, Wire, The Beat, Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, etc.

The 70s music was so much better.

Dead or Alive, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Thompson Twins, Heaven 17, Human League, Spandau Ballet, The Cure, INXS, Adam and the Ants, Talk Talk, The Police, Sting, Ultravox, David Bowie, Japan, Eurythmics, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Howard Jones, Ice House, Level 42, Madonna, New Order, Pat Benatar, Prince, Tears For Fears, Queen, Simply Red, Split Enz, B-52s, The Fixx, The The, Violent Femmes, XTC, ...

The list goes on.

I like R72 and R74's lists.

Not all of those (R72's list in particular) were successful on the chart in their initial runs but the songs were great enough to survive and be played years later.

I often listen to American Top 40 - our local station plays it every Sunday morning and if I'm grocery shopping or doing errands I listen - and it's amazing what did chart high sometimes....and how many songs that are "classics" today didn't go very high on the charts at all.

I loved re-listening to the 80s music. So many good memories of better times.

Sirius XM "First Wave" is my jam.