Thread: The 80's Are Better Than Today

Originally Posted by Bleedin Thumb

Modern music is sooooo much better than 3 bar rock & roll...you just have to find the groove thats right for you, be adventurous and broaden your musical pallet.

.

nickelback, sum 41, blink 182, panic at the disco...that type of modern music is good - punk rock, light metal, etc

its all the rap, r & b, techno and othe crap that drives me nuts

Originally Posted by Gingermick

Techno is not musical, rap is not musical

i agree

Originally Posted by Andy Mac

You sound like your own parents when you turned up AC/DC or Led Zep back in '75!! Move on, open your ears!!
Some of the stuff I listened to in the 70's and 80's which I thought of then as THE BEST (some of it mentioned here already) has a definite use-by date, plain embarrasing even.

! Triple J is a better window IMO... yes they do go through phases of shyte, but some great new stuff keeps popping up. The Herd, the Waifs, Black Keys, JSBX off the top of my head.


EDIT: To stirlo's other point about band's earlier work being their best (regardless of if they started in the 70's or 80's I assume)

Cheers

fair points there...i dont want to be like my parents altho i couldnt imagine them rocking out to tallica

yep ( to the bold text last para. )

Originally Posted by Outbackrr

Stirlo has a real point, I can think of a lot of bands I liked in their early days but deteriorated after a few years. There would be various reasons I guess: Some change direction, lose members, change management or producers, recreational pursuits catch up, and so on.

loss of members isnt one i thought of before. good thinking ACDC is a good example as some one mentioned earlier

Originally Posted by Sir Stinkalot

[/list]Garage Inc is actually a re-release of the Garage Days ep which was one of the earliest releases ..... and then re-released back in 1987. The main tracks of interest are on disk 2 .... Helpless, The small hours, The wait and Crash Course In Brain Surgery. Mostly covers of bands that they grew up with and were a strong influence.

If you go to ..... http://www.livemetallica.com/ and visit the Vault they offer a number of older live shows for download ..... Free Sound quality isn't always the best but some of the shows are very raw and fresh.

cheers for that...i'll check out the site later

Originally Posted by nev25

Yeah when they come up with the name for RAP music they forgot the C at the start

so true

Stirlo,

The nature of what can be presented has changed as well. The music industry world wide is struggling and the real value (money) of these companies appears to be the catalogue that a company owns. Brian Eno would probably not get a contract nowadays. I doubt that Arctic Monkeys would have if they hadnt been an internet phenomona. Bands and artists get signed to produce mega hits not art. Return on investment.

A good listen is the Folkways Collection from Smithsonian records, not just the music but because the founder devoted his life to it. The podcast series is really good and the music is timeless. Similar devotion led to Mowtown records or Blue Note records. But they just wouldnt fit into a modern listed comanies business plan, too risky.

IMHO its all happening here in the Blues and Roots scene. The 80's stuff will keep on getting recycled, remixed, etc (it even happened to Hendrix a few years ago) but dont count on the media to bring new and interesting music too you. They have shareholders to look after, they need formula and predictable revenue. Go and check out some live music festivals.

edit: A lot of artists seem to be moving to Starbucks label at the moment, McCartney, Joni Mitchell etc. Its a lot of guaranteed publicity as their record gets flogged while you have a coffee. That said they seem to be able to afford the artists and give them creative freedom. /edit

BTW, I burned off Abbey Road for the car yesterday, Id forgotten how ordinary side 2 was....... there has always been a mixture excellence and mediocrity, even in the greatest bands...... ahhhhhh nostalgia aint what it used to be....

Sebastiaan

I am sorry to disappoint you Stirlo (and please don't take this personally) but the 1980s was a music waistland, populated by shallow, catchy tunes that meant nothing.

The late 70s had the emergence of bands like the Clash, The Cure, Sex Pistols (not my fave), Talking Heads, but then as if someone flicked a switch on New Years Eve 1979 we got Duran Duran, George Michael and Wham, etc.

The 70's saw bands like Cream, Iron Butterfly, EL&P, yes Deep Purple too, Jethro Tull, Blind Faith, Gurvitz Brothers, Pink Floyd, JJ Cale, Velvet Underground, Weathereport, Focus, King Crimson (Brian Eno, Robert Fripp) etc refining their craft. Sure some of these bands were started in the 1960's but it took until the 70s for the earthy gut-renching soul to emerge. We had Australian Bands like Chain, Tully (early on), Taman Shud, Spectrum (Murtceps), Ayres Rock, Chisel, Aztecs, Blackfeather, Renee Geyer band, La DE Das (ok tell me their from NZ), Doug Parkinson (In Focus).

Then 1980's,.....mush.

Originally Posted by prozac

I am sorry to disappoint you Stirlo (and please don't take this personally) but the 1980s was a music waistland, populated by shallow, catchy tunes that meant nothing.

....

Then 1980's,.....mush.

righto, your opinion and the best thing about your opinion was you backed it up

funny thing is i've havent heard of half the bands you mentioned

Originally Posted by Sebastiaan56

Stirlo,
The 80's stuff will keep on getting recycled, remixed, etc

Sebastiaan

cover versions happen so often...half the time i dont even know a song is a cover but geez, there are some shockers out there arent there.

example - whoever did the cover of 'another brick in the wall' ruined that song.

but having said that - bands can do good cover versions.
example: metallica - 'turn the page' ( it is what i'm listening to right now )

cheers

Yep there was a lot of crap in the 80's but there was plenty of good stuff too... alas you can say the same about any decade of music!
There's plenty of crap nowdays but there's also plenty of very good music from modern bands eg, Thirsty Merc or JBT... even Linkin Park(they've matured well).
Seeing the competition is huge compared to say the 60's, artist's/bands now dont last if they are no good(or manufactured crap... thats what I hate).
Music now must be well written not just a jingle(60's!)or a guitar/voice solo (70's) ... manufactured (80's). Although to appeal to the younger gen now it must be an easy to remember lyric and tune as they have very little attention spans... to worried about their mobile phones!

Originally Posted by ss_11000

righto, your opinion and the best thing about your opinion was you backed it up

funny thing is i've havent heard of half the bands you mentioned

cheers

The 60s and 70s were very formative years for modern music. Worth doing a search on isohunt or torentbox etc to download. May not be to your taste but worth being exposed to. It's a pity it is so hard to find torrents of the older Aussie bands b/c there was a huge music scene back then with many musicians of international standard. You might get a laugh too from some of the old faces that are now seen in production and marketing roles within the industry.

In the last decade or so there has been an incredible choice of styles with influences from different genres and countries. I think these things go in cycles and that we are in an interesting period right now.

prozac

Most of the bands and singers I liked in the 80's, had their roots in the 70's or earlier... The Police, Dire Straits, Queen, Genesis, the list goes on.

Side note: sitting in the back of Dad's station wagon when I was a kid, I had no say in the music selection... so we had Neil Diamond or Air Supply (if we were lucky) or The Platters (if we weren't). Now my kids sit in the back and when I can get the latest So Fresh CD out of the stereo, I hit them with Foo Fighters, Mika and Green Day, to name a few.

It's a never ending cycle.

Originally Posted by prozac

I am sorry to disappoint you Stirlo (and please don't take this personally) but the 1980s was a music waistland, populated by shallow, catchy tunes that meant nothing.

The late 70s had the emergence of bands like the Clash, The Cure, Sex Pistols (not my fave), Talking Heads, but then as if someone flicked a switch on New Years Eve 1979 we got Duran Duran, George Michael and Wham, etc.

The 70's saw bands like Cream, Iron Butterfly, EL&P, yes Deep Purple too, Jethro Tull, Blind Faith, Gurvitz Brothers, Pink Floyd, JJ Cale, Velvet Underground, Weathereport, Focus, King Crimson (Brian Eno, Robert Fripp) etc refining their craft. Sure some of these bands were started in the 1960's but it took until the 70s for the earthy gut-renching soul to emerge. We had Australian Bands like Chain, Tully (early on), Taman Shud, Spectrum (Murtceps), Ayres Rock, Chisel, Aztecs, Blackfeather, Renee Geyer band, La DE Das (ok tell me their from NZ), Doug Parkinson (In Focus).

Then 1980's,.....mush.

I dont have the energy to argue but that is just plain crap!
I dont deny that garbage music in the 80 came thick and fast but there was also a lot of magic if you know where to look. Sure some of the 80's stuff started in the 70s but much of the 70's stuff started in the 60's and so on.

Ross

Music is such a personal taste argument. It is great to see everyone defending their favourite genre or group etc. The great thing about music (or any other art form) is that it keeps evolving - it could be new or reinventing earlier works...but the best bit is that it is not the same...imagine if all we had to listen to for the rest of human existence was WHAM...gees, I reckon we would probably all run like lemmings to the nearest precipice (and yes I know lemmings really don't do that - it's a metaphor people).

Sure music companies want to make money (so does 99.99% of the population) but that does not prevent new music sounds coming out. I am no cultural snob when it comes to music but I do know what I like, However, often I am surprised when I like music from a category which I usually despise. e.g. ABBA is the quintessential pop band from the '70's and are often dismissed as such. But, when you really listen to some ABBA songs the arrangement of the music and the execution are quite impressive...not convinced? Just listen to people trying to cover their music! That said I will probably go to my grave despising every Country & Western song ever written (e.g. Achey Breaky Heart - I rest my case your honour).

Originally Posted by ss_11000

example - whoever did the cover of 'another brick in the wall' ruined that song.

pure sacrilage that was too. it was Limp Biscuit (regardless of who it was, "they should get him up against the wall" ) or similar that did the cover to Another Brick in the Wall.

Some songs are sacred and shouldn't be touched, heard another one the other day, some dope has gone out and done a cover on American Pie or a similar song.

Nope, you are all wrong

Musicians evolve and leave behind fans when they do. You are just pining for the phase you happened to engage with.

I got into Iron Maiden in probably the mid 80's. Huge fan, torn jeans and everything. Started listening to some of their earlier stuff, and hated most of it. Too raw, too punk, too dated. Not enough power chords, reverb and giant stage props. Then along came 1988 and the embarrassingly bad 'seventh son of a seventh son' and it was all over. Guys older than me were into their early stuff, younger folks their later (of course, I'm the only one who's right...)

I got into Pink Floyd quite late, probably early 90's. Love everything after about DSotM, but the weirder stuff before that I could take or leave.

Also consider whether you were a hormonally-charged teenager at the time these 'great' bands made their 'great' music. If so you were probably much easier to impress than now (wow, that screeching guitar solo really, like, understands my angst man).

It's about what flicks your switch. There's probably great music from every decade you'd love if only you could find it, but you need to hunt it out as the commercial media will only pander to certain demographics (and if you're no longer in that demographic then you know what that means...)

quote: Some songs are sacred and shouldn't be touched, heard another one the other day, some dope has gone out and done a cover on American Pie or a similar song.

I agree Waldo. Look at what some pommie (say hes an aussie now) did to 'Stairway to Heaven'. Should have stuck to 'Tying Kangaroos'.

Steve

There is tons of very good music around today...you are just looking in the wrong spot. If you want to hear good music, stop listening to "Classic hits" and "Music of today" type commercial radio.

Pop music is crap...but no more crap than it was 30 years ago...it's just that those of us who experienced 70's and 80's pop appreciate it more.