80s music - still a thing?

[Cletus Van Damme]

Just got a turntable for my daughter, she's 16 and prefers 80's popular music to the stuff that is around now. Have to agree the vast majority of modern pop music is pretty sh1te. Plenty of that in the 80's, but also decent stuff., loads of different genres going on. Daughter mainly likes the Goth stuff, like The Sisters Of Mercy, The Cure, The Cult, The Cramps, but also likes the new wave stuff and Billy Idol (whom was a mix of multiple genres), also really likes The Smiths, New Order and Joy Division. So I went to a local used record place that a retired man and wife run out of a storage container and got several used ones for a bargain really. Had all of these, except Blondie (I'm not a fan really, and is possibly 70's). Waiting for a couple of used ones off ebay to arrive, Billy Idol - Vital Idol and The Sisters Of Mercy - Floodland.

It's been great fun and as an 80's teenager it brings it all back. Might even get a turntable, it's a lot of hassle, but there's something good about the artwork, looking after the media, listening to a full LP, instead of selecting tracks like I tend to do with digital formats.

Have to admit I quite liked the 80's, a lot of young people do also, which says something really.

 

[FrankCrank]

Funny thing music. I was born in '61, but have very little recollection of sixties music. My awakening came with glam rock, and then into punk era, but the eighties is what I think of as my music decade as regards nostalgia. As already mentioned, shed load of dross, but also loads of good stuff, and so many great memories.
Phil Collins mentioned some time back he feels partly responsible for many people thinking the eighties was a naff decade musically, but I think he's forgiven now, what with the passage of time.
Watched a Xmas TOTP from 1973 the other day - that really was cringeworthy, mostly down to Tony Blackburn and his, er, 'jokes'

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

@Cletus Van Damme

I saw The Sisters Of Mercy a couple of times back in the 80s, & The Cult too
(or Southern Death Clut, as they might have been back then?)

Still have my Cramps vinyl (never saw them though)

Saw The Meteors/King Kurt a couple of times, preferred Restless (far more accomplished musicians)

 

[stephec]

The early part of the eighties had some good British heavy metal -
Saxon
Iron Maiden
Judas Priest
Motorhead

Then came The Smiths, but towards the middle things got overshadowed by all the Stock, Aitken, and Waterman cack.

But luckily in the last year things perked up again with The Stone Roses.

 

[Drago]

It's been all downhill since Mozart if you ask me.

Your first name is Wolfgang AICMFP!

 

[Webbo2]

I've been listening to a few 80s tracks/LPs recently

Lloyd Cole & The Commotions; Rattlesnakes (the title track is wonderful)
Big Country; Steel Town
Restless; Why Don't You Just Rock
Ricky Skaggs; Live In London

Also be to see Lloyd Cole in recent times. Apparently he’s in to cycling, there’s an interview with him on Road cc.

 

[T4tomo]

I know I have blinkers here, as it's the music I grew up with, but ...

It does seem to be the decade that gets the most nostalgia (rightly or wrongly!).

And if so, is there a period that younger generations obsess over in a similar way?

Absolute radio seem.to think so.

 

[Chris S]

One of the bars that I go to puts on acts from the local music college. They're in their teens or twenties and they usually play 1970's style music. It was the last decade before computers took over.

 

[Drago]

Status Quo released the Album XX in 1982. The musical decade (and Status Quo) went downhill very quickly after that.

 

[Punkawallah]

Billy Idol still tours afaik. Still ripped too, the bastard.

 

[MichaelW2]

Funny thing music. I was born in '61, but have very little recollection of sixties music. My awakening came with glam rock, and then into punk era, but the eighties is what I think of as my music decade as regards nostalgia. As already mentioned, shed load of dross, but also loads of good stuff, and so many great memories.
Phil Collins mentioned some time back he feels partly responsible for many people thinking the eighties was a naff decade musically, but I think he's forgiven now, what with the passage of time.
Watched a Xmas TOTP from 1973 the other day - that really was cringeworthy, mostly down to Tony Blackburn and his, er, 'jokes'

When it comes to music eras, a key cutoff is punk rock. The guys in the year above me were into prog rock concept double albums. Punk killed that dead.

 

[wafter]

While appreciation for a certain era of music is bound to be influenced by nostalgia, I also think that the standard of mainstream music has degraded ever since the commercial marketing machine really got going in the '60s.

Objectively I think the '80s produced some great music and genres - as have already been mentioned there's the whole new wave / post punk / goth movement and some fantastic metal.. plus the arrival of synths in a big way.

While a lot of dire stuff has likely rightfully been forgotten I like a lot of chart-adjacent stuff from that era too and I think a lot is reflective of the prevailing (if somewhat naive and flawed) optimism and excess of the time; a mindset that's obviously lacking as we march ever-faster towards the dystopian wasteland of tomorrow.

 

[Dag Hammar]

I’m an OAP but for Christmas I was given a pair of Bluetooth headphones as a gift and I am thoroughly enjoying music through them from Spotify and YouTube.
Amongst my favourites from that era are….
Waterfront by Simple Minds, 1983.
Real Gone Kid and Dignity by Deacon Blue, 1988.
Hey Little Girl by Icehouse, 1982.
Of course there are many more great hits from the Eighties but looking back to those times it wasn’t just about music.
In the Eighties there was a sense of ambition, that we were living in good times and things would remain so and perhaps get even better. Contrast that with the time we are living in now with all the gloom and despondency.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

The 1880s was a good year (from Wikipedia)

• "The Beauty of Limerick" – David Braham
• "Blow the Man Down" trad
• "Funiculì Funiculà" w. G. Turco m. Luigi Denza
• "Keep the Horseshoe Over the Door" w. m. Joseph P. Skelly
• "Haste to the Wedding" published by Jean White
• "In The Evening By The Moonlight" w. m. James A. Bland
• "O Canada!" w. Adolphe-Basile Routhier m. Calixa Lavallée
• "Roses from the South" m. Johann Strauss II
• "Sailing, Sailing" w.m. Godfrey Marks
• "Softly and Tenderly" w.m. Will L. Thompson
• From The Pirates of Penzance, w. W. S. Gilbert m. Arthur Sullivan
  • "Away, Away! My Heart's On Fire"
  • "Now for The Pirates' Lair"
  • "Oh, Better Far To Live And Die"
  • "A Rollicking Band Of Pirates, We"
  • "To Gain A Brief Advantage"
  • "When A Felon's Not Engaged"
  • "When The Foeman Bares His Steel"
  • "When You Had Left Our Pirate Fold"
  • "Yes! I Am Brave! Oh, Family Descent"
• "Come and meet me, Rosa darling," w. by Samuel N. Mitchell, m. by William A. Huntley[4]

 

[FrankCrank]

So, eighties eh. In that decade, three different songs with the same title, by three different artists. Can you name the song, and the artists?