Is 80's music coming back?

[Gonga]

I always think the 60's was when musicians (particularly ethnic musicians,) who were doing new things, especially using amplification, started to be heard. This really started a revolution in sound and style. In the 70's the lid of the box was blown clean off and the box was destroyed. The 70's was when all manner of styles where being blended together (it's highest musical form being fusion), and new styles and genres created. The levels of creativity and musicianship were as high as ever achieved in pop and radio-play commercial music. Even extended instrumental pieces (Classical Gas, etc.) were making the top ten. After the recording industry realized how they could maximize their profits by homogenizing radio and investing in "sure bets" only, the industry began to suffer a new kind of commercial mediocrity that increased right up until somewhere in the late 90's, when people started setting up websites that could compete with records and CDs as audio media. Jan Hammer's hits in the late 80's were the last extended instrumentals to ever play on the top 40 in the U.S. Nowadays it's all vocals. So more than ever, it's critical to ignore that stuff and make a point of listening to obscure music and visiting sites, buying the tunes, going to local concerts, and spreading the word.

My take on trhis is that musicianship will return. It will start with live performance, since that's an important help for many (though certainly not all) musicians to get started, and this will make for better instrumentalists and vocalists who won't need Melodyne - who sound better without that crap). Ultimately, music will only really improve at the point when musicians start returning to school. Here in the States, that will not happen until the government starts investing in higher education again as they once did, to bring down the cost. But don't kid yourself, timeless, historic music has usually been created with at least the assistance of a musical master - someone who not just understands but has mastered composition and arrangement.

[The_Hidden_Goose]

I think there was was some great underground music in the 80s. I think there is more great underground music now.

I think that most of the pop music in the 80s was awful. I think that most of the pop music today is awful.

I could probably say the same of each decade. When I watch tv programs with older stuff like TOTP2, Old Grey Whistle Test and The Tube - there's very little that I like on any of it (even prog-rock era of OGWT, and I'm into early 70's style prog).

The only difference now is that there's an internet, so I don't have to wade my way through a tonne of crap to get to the gram of gold I'm after.

[vurt]

it aint nuthin but music...

[robogone]

it aint nuthin but music...

In my head I hear a 70s funk track playing in the background while that line is spoken in a deep American accent...

[vurt]

it aint nuthin but music...

In my head I hear a 70s funk track playing in the background while that line is spoken in a deep American accent...

its dre, iirc on an eminem track. although it wouldnt surprise me had it been sung/rapped/spoken elsewhere before.

[robogone]

it aint nuthin but music...

In my head I hear a 70s funk track playing in the background while that line is spoken in a deep American accent...

its dre, iirc on an eminem track. although it wouldnt surprise me had it been sung/rapped/spoken elsewhere before.

It's definitely familiar, but I really thought 70s...

[robotmonkey]

The levels of creativity and musicianship were as high as ever achieved in pop and radio-play commercial music. Even extended instrumental pieces (Classical Gas, etc.) were making the top ten. After the recording industry realized how they could maximize their profits by homogenizing radio and investing in "sure bets" only, the industry began to suffer a new kind of commercial mediocrity that increased right up until somewhere in the late 90's, when people started setting up websites that could compete with records and CDs as audio media.

This is an important point I think. What distinguishes 70's from other decades was that there were no established conventions what could become the next pop hit. The general population had a way better and refined taste in music and so everything could become popular. This also meant that everyone could get a chance by label. As Bill Fay has said, basically labels at time threw a bunch of mud into a wall and saw what stuck. So indeed things like prog rock epics or instrumental pieces like Classical Gas (I would highly recommend anyone to check out the work by Larry Fast/Synergy - some pretty amazing musicianship and use of synths) could become top ten hits. 80's unfortunately bought about the "produced" homogenized pop music that we are so used to now. Basically everything that sold even a bit started to be exploited until it makes you throw up. So if some production technique grabbed the attention of general public everyone would use it until the next big thing came along. From the recent times the Cher vocoder effect comes to mind as this must be a prime example of a production technique so over-exploited that you immediately want to puke out you intestines if you hear it. And this is also what ties 80's to today - that same attitude that everything that sold once needs to be repeated over and over again. Everyone wants to make a dubsteb wobbles and Scrillex vocal edits without thinking how annoying it actually is.

[Roman Empire]

Actually, 80's music has been "coming back" for some 15 years or so. Maybe not so much in Pop music, but certainly in Rock.

But if this is a "serious" comeback, I surely welcome it. Even the plastic/synth pop of the 80's had so much more quality and melody in it than what people call "music" nowadays. I don't think anybody's gonna remember a Lady Gaga song in 20 years from now, or something like this Will-I-Am feat. Britney Spears crap.

It's basically a question of quality and melody. Aspects that we haven't had in a long time. The artists in the 80's often had great composers writing real melodic songs for them that have become (and will remain) classics.

These days, the throw-away-mentality is reflected in the quality of modern "music".

Styles like Rap, Hip Hop, Techno, and EDM have taken us to a point where people that can't play any instrument are considered as "musicians", where people that can't hold a single note are considered as "singers", and where songs without any real melody are considered as "music".

To make it short: Let quality rule over the stuff we get to hear these days.

When I ran over this thread, I thought "is this an old thread I have been contributing to a year ago or so?" Your Words are so spot on the way I´m thinking about this stuff!
I´ve recently made a song which I thought it´d be nice to hear your opinion about.. does it go against the low-quality melody trend of the present, and does it make your 80s bells ring?

Roman Empire - Desert in my heart

I have not tried to sound particularly 80s on my choice of sounds.. that I think is less important than the melody itself.

Best Regards

Roman Empire

[Numanoid]

Prince *WAS* great, especially in the 80ies.

-1 Sorry can't go with that

By the mid-80's every synth-popper who used to be pretty decent at the start of the decade, suddenly had got this notion that they all had to sound like Prince

Prince compared to for example Parliament is like comparing a firecracker to the bomb

[robogone]

Prince *WAS* great, especially in the 80ies.

-1 Sorry can't go with that

By the mid-80's every synth-popper who used to be pretty decent at the start of the decade, suddenly had got this notion that they all had to sound like Prince

Prince compared to for example Parliament is like comparing a firecracker to the bomb

Parliament produced most of their good stuff in the 70s and some pretty shitty albums in the late 70s and early 80s though. Everyone has their time of producing their good stuff and for Prince it was the 80s, no matter who tried to copy him.

[ariston]

Prince compared to for example Parliament is like comparing a firecracker to the bomb

One is pretty to look at and the other is meant for killing people?

[vurt]

Prince *WAS* great, especially in the 80ies.

-1 Sorry can't go with that

i cant agree with it either, it should be "prince "IS" great"

[Tricky-Loops]

Prince *WAS* great, especially in the 80ies.

-1 Sorry can't go with that

i cant agree with it either, it should be "prince "IS" great"

I was deeply disappointed from his album "Musicology" (2004) - that wasn't the old funky prince who made me dance, it was an aged man who played some boring average funky pop songs...

[Aiynzahev]

Would you guys say this is 80's?

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

[vurt]

@ tricky... see prince live then tell me it wasnt an awesome gig