Cop-Rockin', Video Jockin', New Kids on the Block and More: The Music of the 1980's...
...and Why You Still Might Be Listening To It....

Disco was slowly becoming old news. The Carpenters, Carly Simon, and Diana Ross began taking the back seat to up-and-coming artists with bigger hair, Adidas sneakers, and Jordache jeans. It seemed almost as if a certain seriousness that came along with the sixties and seventies music was immediately washed away by three-chord-Casio-keyboard drones closely associated with the music of the Human League ("Don't You Want Me, Baby?", 1982) or Cory Hart ("Sunglasses at Night", 1984) for example. It was bad music done badly.

And people loved it.

MTV's grand opening of video-television in 1981 ushered a new form of music into unsuspecting homes with their visualization of the artists behind the music and eye candy that could keep almost anyone interested. Artists such as Madonna got their true start with MTV's help; it could be said that people may not have remembered Madonna as well as they did if it weren't for the ritzy, seductive, and borderline raunchy "Like A Virgin/Material Girl"-outfits she sported in those early 1980's videos. It was not that her music was very creative, very original, or very good. Her voice was that of a little childs, and the makeshift backup was nothing short of talentless. Yet, Madonna was a superstar in the making, and no one could pinpoint exactly why.

In 1982 and 1983, the focus of the music was heavily induced by people experimenting with new technology; keyboards were being used more so than ever in place of Elton John-style piano ballads; and e-drums brought to the forefront. (A prime example of this would be by revisiting Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight" [1982], an 80's drummer's dream and a current drummer's biggest nightmare.) Vocal lines were sifted through filters, and the media ate it all up. Movies began to be remembered more for their music than their plot; Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" won the top slot on Billboard for the year 1982. Thus began a trend of bands that sounded just like Survivor -- cheesy ballads with very high voices and electronic influence -- such as Foreigner ("Cold As Ice", 1985), and Journey ("Separate Ways", 1983). These types of bands also made their way into MTV's firm grasp, but attracted a different type of audience. At the same time, artists like John Cougar Mellencamp raided the charts with a vengence, allowing links to older, more classic rock styles to be re-visited. ("Jack and Diane" and "Hurts So Good" both reached the top 10 in 1982.) By the time the hit television show Miami Vice came out in 1985, we were surrounded with a new kind of pop sound (Madonna, Go-Go's, Bangles, to name a few), an odd alternative to pop (Europe, Starship), and movie-made-hits (Huey Lewis and the News, made famous by Robert Zemeckis' Back to the Future, and soundtracks such as from Flashdance, Ghostbusters, or even the 1980 hit Fame.)

The eighties also attracted a very individualistic phase associated with popular music. Prince and the Revolution knocked off hit after hit in the mid-eighties, with powerful party songs such as "1999" and oddities such as "When Doves Cry", both repeatedly top-ten hits. George Michael's hits with WHAM! were household names, and Michael Jackson repeatedly stumped the audience with something new -- whether it be one sparkly glove, a backwards dance called the "Moonwalk", or a hit with Paul McCartney ("Say, Say, Say", 1983).

As 1986 approached, eighties music began to change. Artists such as Whitney Houston ("Greatest Love of All", 1986) and Dionne Warwick ("That's What Friends are For", 1986) topped the charts with their self-help-book lyrics and talent show vocalizations. Videos on MTV started to diverge from being just a video television station, a trend that they have since ushered away almost completely; one that many wish had never happened to begin with. Radio ratings began to soar once again and the focus of the music being produced was that of which the above-mentioned artists were creating, plus the added hair-band phenomenon that was just starting to take place. Bon Jovi ("You Give Love a Bad Name", 1986) is certainly not the leader of that said trend, but was one of the influences of later hits from bands like Posion and Whitesnake. ("Every Rose Has Its Thorn" was a top ten hit of 1988, while "Here I Go Again [On My Own]" was in the top ten of 1987.) Guns-N-Roses added their high energy to the hit list, and suddenly, people were not thinking about Belinda Carlisle much anymore. Things were getting heavier and serious again, and while artists like Tiffany ("Could've Been", 1987) and Whitney Houston were still belting out hit after hit, the show belonged to all sorts of rockers of all ages, shapes, and hairstyles.

Perhaps what was so interesting about the later eighties hits was the general confusion surrounding it. It was the first time in awhile that music was so diverse from one another on the same chart with the same audiences being targeted. U2, considered now one of the greatest artists of all time, was neck-and-neck in the charts with INXS, Mr.Mister, and Debbie Gibson. With Paula Abdul's "Straight Up" and Bette Midler's "Wind Beneath My Wings" being top hits in 1989, it is really hard to pinpoint what could have possibly been the influence for a band such as Nirvana, who has been said to have changed the course of music compeltely with their hit album Nevermind in the early 1990's.

The answer to that is everything.

We may bump off eighties music as too poppy, weird, untalented, unmusical, and unworthy of relistening, but even some of the duds were direct influences on what we consider gems today. We quickly forget that bands like the Police ("Wrapped Around Your Finger", "Every Breath You Take", 1982) are an eighties band, and almost always forget that Michael Jackson's Thriller (1982) is one of the greatest of all time. But more so, we tend to forget that many of the old hits were merely technological stepping stones, and that today's mainstream music is almost cut-and-dry in that regard; either they're completely technologically advanced so much that the music is nothing like its original form (Madonna's new album is a good example of this), or they're so against technology that three or four chords with an old guitar will do just fine. (Give another listen to Nevermind.)

Perhaps that is why so many of us turn to the kind of music found in Phish, String Cheese Incident, moe., Galactic, or the Disco Biscuits, to name a few. It is not that they are all the most original bands producing the most original music possible. It is just taking old influences, mocking them, toying with them, pushing them to a different level, and then spurting them out in a form that's too good for a video game show and too creative and unheard of for radio airplay. These stations receive tracks such as "Captain America" (moe.) and "Highwire" (The Disco Biscuits) and have no idea what to do with them in their original form.

But for those who think that eighties music is a thing of the past and never to be revisited, they are in for a rude awakening. Just as the sixties' music was reworked in artists of later times, one can hear the influence of the eighties in all sorts of arists nowadays; all inclusive of the electronica craze, the pop stars, boy bands, and even the beloved jam bands.

Listen carefully.