Why does 80's music get such a bad rap?

[Vdubchaos]

We love 80s and it gets played at our house A LOT. Mostly due to memories as children I guess, we just love it.

Bad rap is completely irrelevant to my taste/preference. I don't give a shit what other people think/their opinions.

Music is like color, just because you like pink doesn't mean purple sucks. Everyone has their preference.

 

[Meghan54]

80s music is the best music ever created. Everything since is just crap.

Sure, as long as you don't count anything produced from the mid-1960's through the 1970's. Think you'll find that period much more prolific and varied than the 1980's....Pink Floyd's heyday, Stones, Who, Zappa, Hendrix, Beatles, Captain Beefheart, ELP, Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Santana, Steely Dan, Dylan, Chicago, Bowie, Styx, Doors, Eagles, Queen, Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull, CCR, AC/DC, Jim Croce, BOC, Lou Reed, 10cc, and on and on and on.

What I can come up with quickly.....many, many more than listed......

'80's has good music, I just think the previous decade and a half is just better and more influential.

 

[TwiceOver]

There was some good music from the 80s. But there was also lots and lots of terrible music from the 80s. I mean LOTS. So much. "Got Hair? Here's a mic, lets make an album." Tons and tons of bad music.

 

[Bird222]

Because all those people have bad taste. 80's music is the best :awe:

This x1000

 

[JulesMaximus]

Learning to Fly
On the Turning Away
Actually, the whole album "Momentary Lapse of Reason" is quite good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mKDvp7MavQ

Come to think of it, depending on how you look at it, Pink Floyd's the Wall which was released December 1st 1979 IIRC. I know songs from that album get played on 80's stations on Pandora along with Van Halen songs that were released in the late 70's

That is probably my least favorite Pink Floyd album. The Wall was released in 1979, therefore it is part of their 70s music. The Wall is probably my one of my favorite albums of all time. Wish You Were Hear was great, Animals was great and Dark Side of the Moon was great. The 70s was the highlight of their career, nothing they've done since is even close.

I own all these albums on vinyl including Momentary Lapse of Reason. Couple decent songs on that album but nothing spectacular that I would go back and listen to again and again and again.

 

[Old Hippie]

Sure, as long as you don't count anything produced from the mid-1960's through the 1970's. Think you'll find that period much more prolific and varied than the 1980's....Pink Floyd's heyday, Stones, Who, Zappa, Hendrix, Beatles, Captain Beefheart, ELP, Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Santana, Steely Dan, Dylan, Chicago, Bowie, Styx, Doors, Eagles, Queen, Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull, CCR, AC/DC, Jim Croce, BOC, Lou Reed, 10cc, and on and on and on.

What I can come up with quickly.....many, many more than listed......

'80's has good music, I just think the previous decade and a half is just better and more influential.

QFT.

 

[Newbian]

Easily the best 80's song ever.

 

[madoka]

none of which were being played in the 80s.

not that they didn't *exist*, they were being boycotted by MTV and the whole FCC bunch.

So instead we got Boy George, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, that guy singing Caravan of Love, Europe, George Michael and Wham!, and basically more gayness you can shake a Freddy Mercury at.

Your memory is defective. I don't know what you Europeans got, but we got plenty of GnR, Aerosmith, David Lee Roth, Tom Petty, etc. They all had huge hits in the 80s that got frequent air play.

 

[Sonikku]

80's had Ghostbuster music. What more did you need?

 

[Remobz]

Eaten By The Monster of Love by Sparks

Kix - Don't Close Your Eyes

Damn Yankees - High Enough

Win In The End - Teen Wolf


Many others to think about now. I MOSTLY listen to 80's metal bands no matter what genre of metal. Pretty much cannot stand the crap they have on the radio today for the most part. I mostly dislike hip hop as well.

 

[stag3]

Because all those people have bad taste. 80's music is the best :awe:

this, it's all i listen to @ work

 

[HumblePie]

Because the 80s were terrible. There were certainly gems in there, but on the whole the music sucked. Feeble and thin, with the overuse of electronics.

First response is right. Overall the vast majority of music was junk and I couldn't stand it when I was growing up. Overuse of weird shit like strange electronic sounds, slide whistles, and other bullcrap noise making. The styles were horrible. The lyrics were stupid. Just bad composition and harmony on too many songs. Then many of them were over formulaic and was to chorus focused. Which is why I dislike club or pop songs that focus on chorus only. Chorus should be 3 to 5 times (last two times on fade out only). Not 8-12 times like so many junk songs.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I also think U2 did some of their best work in the 80s. War and Joshua Tree were their best albums by far.

 

[PrinceofWands]

I don't see 80s music get a bad rap. In my experience it's almost universally heralded as the peak of popular music production, not to mention the peak of metal, rise of grunge, etc.

What I see almost unanimously dissed is 90s (and with good reason). A close second would be 70s, but really only because of disco and a few other niches. People who know realize it was the growth of most of our harder music that had roots in the late 60s.

 

[PrinceofWands]

Under the Milky Way is probably the greatest 80's teen angst song ever written.

The Church in general was phenomenal. Was the first album I ever bought (along with the Randy Rhodes Tribute album and Long Distance Voyager).

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

My take on 80's music was

Elvis Costello
The Police
Stevie Ray Vaughan (he recorded 99% of his stuff in the 80s)
Pretenders
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Fishbone
Talking Heads
Prince
The Cars
Eurythmics
The Clash
Stray Cats
Violent Femmes
Madness
The Specials
English Beat
U2

I can't stand shit like Poison, Motley Crue, Pantera, etc. That crap bores me to tears, but as a guitarist/musician (in it's loosest definition) I appreciate some of the talent in those bands, they can play guitar a shitton better than I can.

The 80's weren't all bad, but the 70's were the absolute best for RnR.
Without a doubt from 1970 - 1979, Rock grew, changed and morphed more than ever before finalizing with The Wall, Joe's Garage, London Calling, In Through The Out Door, Fear of Music and many other amazing albums that the 70's set the template for

 

[JulesMaximus]

My take on 80's music was

Elvis Costello
The Police
Stevie Ray Vaughan (he recorded 99% of his stuff in the 80s)
Pretenders
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Fishbone
Talking Heads
Prince
The Cars
Eurythmics
The Clash
Stray Cats
Violent Femmes
Madness
The Specials
English Beat


I can't stand shit like Poison, Motley Crue, Pantera, etc. That crap bores me to tears, but as a guitarist/musician (in it's loosest definition) I appreciate some of the talent in those bands, they can play guitar a shitton better than I can.

The 80's weren't all bad, but the 70's were the absolute best for RnR.
Without a doubt from 1970 - 1979, Rock grew, changed and morphed more than ever before finalizing with The Wall, Joe's Garage, London Calling, In Through The Out Door, Fear of Music and many other amazing albums that the 70's set the template for

No love for U2?

 

[Leyawiin]

Being I was in my teens/twenties in the 80s I definitely have a soft spot for the decade. I'm a pretty big fan of The Smiths, the Divinyls, Prince, The Replacements, New Order, Erasure and many others (pretty eclectic mix). Still, I like the 60s and 70s better. My span of interest in music is pretty much about 1965-1995 or so. After the late 90s quality really dropped IMO.

I use this saying on my nieces and nephews to describe their current music:

"Its not that I'm old, your music really does suck".

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

No love for U2?

Will append, and appease. :whiste:

 

[BurnItDwn]

The foundations of death and black metal were poured in the early 80s/late 70s. By the early/mid 80s they had found some of their greatest members: Death, Carcass, Bathory, Celtic Frost, Burzum, Darkthrone, Immortal, Emperor, Napalm Death, Venom, Possessed, Obituary...

Anyhow, SCREAM BLOODY GORE!

 

[JulesMaximus]

Will append, and appease. :whiste:

:thumbsup::biggrin:

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Being I was in my teens/twenties in the 80s I definitely have a soft spot for the decade. I'm a pretty big fan of The Smiths, the Divinyls, Prince, The Replacements, New Order, Erasure and many others (pretty eclectic mix). Still, I like the 60s and 70s better. My span of interest in music is pretty much about 1965-1995 or so. After the late 90s quality really dropped IMO.

I use this saying on my nieces and nephews to describe their current music:

"Its not that I'm old, your music really does suck".

SHIT! I forgot The 'Mats. Thank you for reminding me. I need to listen to some now.

 

[KeithTalent]

Tonnes of great stuff from the 80's. The Misfits, Talking Heads, Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Beastie Boys, Bad Religion, The Police, Circle Jerks, Hüsker Dü, They Might Be Giants, BDP, De La Soul, Mission of Burma, Eric B. & Rakim, Sonic Youth, NWA, Minutemen.

All put out great, even iconic in some cases, albums in the 80's. I'm sure there are many more that I am forgetting.

KT

 

[RearAdmiral]

Actually the baddest song IMO for the 80s that just set the stage was actually released in 1979. But didn't hit North America till 1980. Still my favorite

Cars by Gary Numan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldyx3KHOFXw

Wow I've never seen the music video, that's so horrible. Nice tambourine effect...lol

 

[Anubis]

Your memory is defective. I don't know what you Europeans got, but we got plenty of GnR, Aerosmith, David Lee Roth, Tom Petty, etc. They all had huge hits in the 80s that got frequent air play.

was gonna post this, Metallica G&R Megadeth and such were all staples on MTV. same with Crue, poision,.. all those big hair bands of questionable quality. headbangers ball often played Slayer and Anthrax

also i would not classify Pantera as a 80s band. Cowboys from hell came out in 1990 and thats when they strated to get popular