1984 Appreciation Thread

[osiris]

The movie list was too long. In defense of The Terminator - they chucked it out with little to no fanfare and it ended a very long drought riddled with bad to awful sci-fi. How could I leave out Stop Making Sense? One of the best concert films ever made.

[harryupbabble]

damn, i think i got every single one of these
made in 1984 songs in my music collection
well, i recognize them all, at least

In your whole list there are only two songs I have owned and that's because I bought the albums they were on. Talk Talk and Tears For Fears, if you're wondering. In both cases, I found those albums disappointing with respect to their earlier work.

i used to buy/trade cds
i would borrow them first at the public library
and before i buy them i would make sure i liked all the tracks
the ones that i mostly liked were
"greatest hits", "best of", all sorts of compilations

i rarely bought cds that were meant to be "albums"
i did get abbey road by the beatles
i still have that cd today
i traded dark side of the moon by pink floyd a while back
i don't miss the cd
i rarely use the cd player
i mostly listen to mp3 now
and i can always listen to everything, at youtube

so yeah, that's why i have all those hit singles from 1984

[Bombadil]

The bands I didn't hate in the 80's:
The Eurythmics;
Tears For Fears;
U2;
The Police.
The latter 2, imo, put out the best pop/rock music of the 80's. Even though Synchronicity was 1983.

[zerocrossing]

The bands I didn't hate in the 80's:
The Eurythmics;
Tears For Fears;
U2;
The Police.
The latter 2, imo, put out the best pop/rock music of the 80's. Even though Synchronicity was 1983.

I’d agree with that list, but I’d add Thomas Dolby, Squeeze, Laurie Anderson, Prince and Til Tuesday. Maybe Madness. Maybe Madness looms large in my mind because it was one of my first dates with a serious girlfriend. I’ll throw NIN in there too, even though they just made it with Pretty Hate Machine coming out in 89.

There were other bands and artists that will still doing great music in the 80s but started much earlier. My favorite King Crimson incarnation happened in the 80s. Peter Gabriel and David Bowie did great stuff too.

[Bombadil]

Gabriel and Bowie would be on my list, too, but they weren't bands.
Genesis had turned into the Phil Collins Pop Band by then. Meh. Double Meh.

[Dunbar]

Echo and the Bunnymen released The Killing Moon in '84.


...and the Rain Parade kept the '60s alive with Dave Roback on the Explosions in the Glass Palace EP.

[BONES]

But it was also one of their most boring releases, second only to the Reptile House E.P.

Clearly you and I have very different ideas as to what makes a good Sisters of Mercy song/record. The Reptile House is utterly unique and totally awesome. It's let down by production but if you can look beyond that, it's amazing. Wayne Hussey ruined Sisters, all the best songs on their debut album were written without him. (I don't rate Marian.)

The movie list was too long. In defense of The Terminator - they chucked it out with little to no fanfare and it ended a very long drought riddled with bad to awful sci-fi. How could I leave out Stop Making Sense? One of the best concert films ever made.

I can't believe The Terminator is that old. If you'd asked me, I'd have said early 90s.

i rarely bought cds that were meant to be "albums"

I am completely the opposite. If you can't make a good album, I'm not going to be interested in what you do. I don't think I've ever bought a "best of" album.

i rarely use the cd player. i mostly listen to mp3 now

Yeah, I'm mostly the same. When mp3 music became popular, I owned around 1000 CDs so it took me a while to get around to starting to digitise them. Since I got my new car last year, I haven't even had the ability to play a CD.

What I am noticing, though, is that with the rise of streaming, it is getting harder and harder to actually buy music. I have had to go back to buying CDs to get latest releases because no streaming service has all the music I might want to listen to. That's mostly long out of print local artists from the 80s. As a sort of working musician, I also have deep grievances with the way streaming services distribute royalties. We need to have a song streamed more than 8,000 times to earn one, single euro and how the f**k do you get the kinds of numbers you'd need to make any kind of money at all from your hard work? Streaming only works for big name artists, for the rest of us it's a waste of time. Anyway, that's a rant for a different thread.

The bands I didn't hate in the 80's:
The Eurythmics;
Tears For Fears;
U2;
The Police.

For each of those, I really liked their first albums but thought they all got steadily worse after that. U2's Boy remains one of my favourite albums - I listened to it just a couple of days ago - whereas I couldn't tell you the last time I listened to any of those other artists.

[Dunbar]

Jesus and Mary Chain dropped their first single in '84 - Upside Down.



Needs more feedback, in my humbles...

[harryupbabble]

gadam, big big big fan of the jesus and mary chain but...
is that what people with tinnitus hears all the time?

[h66]

1984 was the biggest and most important year in music and film. Whenever it comes to major music or a film, the answer is most likely 1984!

[vurt]

1984 was the biggest and most important year in music and film. Whenever it comes to major music or a film, the answer is most likely 1984!

Screenshot_2023-10-15-17-32-40-485.jpg

[ghettosynth]

[noiseboyuk]

1984 was the biggest and most important year in music and film. Whenever it comes to major music or a film, the answer is most likely 1984!

There's a book I read to say that the best post-wwii year in film is, in fact 1999. It's a stronger contender than 1984.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Movie-Yea ... e%20Matrix.

Fight Club
The Matrix
Office Space
Election
The Blair Witch Project
The Sixth Sense
Being John Malkovich
American Beauty
The Virgin Suicides
Boys Don't Cry
The Best Man
Three Kings
Magnolia

and, er,

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

1977 pretty seminal tho:

Star Wars
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
Annie Hall
Saturday Night Fever
Slap Shot
Sorcerer
Eraserhead

There again I'm quite partial to 1991:

Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Silence Of The Lambs
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Thelma & Louise
Boyz n the Hood
Barton Fink
LA Story
City Slickers
What About Bob?
The Fisher King
The Commitments
Delicatessen
Hot Shots!

Dammit now I'm keen on 1997

Titanic
Men In Black
As Good As It Gets
Contact
Good Will Hunting
The Full Monty
Con Air
Grosse Pointe Blank
Boogie Nights
Life Is Beautiful
Gattaca
Dante's Peak

[noddyoer]

Polyphonic instruments
Akai AX80
Crumar Bit One
E-mu Emulator II
Ensoniq Mirage
Kawai SX-240
Kurzweil K250
Linn Electronics Linn 9000
Oberheim Xpander
Rhodes Chroma Polaris
Roland GR-700
Roland Juno-106
Roland MKS-10
Roland MKS-80
Roland TR-909s
Sequential Circuits DrumTraks
Sequential Circuits Max
Sequential Circuits Six-Trak
Siel DK600
Teisco SX-240
Yamaha TX816

Monophonic instruments
BOSS HC-2 Hand Clapper
BOSS PC-2 Percussion Synthesizer
E-mu E-Drum
Oberheim Prommer
PPG KX5

Source: https://www.vintagesynth.com/synthfinde ... ax%5D=1984

Still surprising that the Juno came out the same year as the Mirage and Emulator.

[Dunbar]

In '84 Sonic Youth released a live album of floor fillers and family favourites:



Recorded live on a wax cylinder (or sounds like it) in another city some time after the event.