I was watching a Bill Hicks special on Netflix instant cue the other day and there was one bit that he did that discussed the music icons of the 80’s and was focused on the George Michael’s and Debbie Gibson’s of the era, and comparing them to the rock icons of the 60’s and 70’s. While I was watching it just made me start thinking of all the 80’s bands during that time that did were actually awesome, and had members who did embody that rock image. There has always been manufactured, softer music icons for every generation. You have the Pat Boones, the Peter Framptons, The George Michaels, the Ricky Martins, and now the Justin Beibers, but we can’t let that overshadow what else was happening during those times. Sure a lot of it didn’t hit the top of the charts, and rock n roll has never had its prominence as it did in the 60’s and 70’s. Disco, New Wave, Electronica, Rap, and modernized pop have helped to challenge rock over the years, and there will always be bands that aren’t coveted by marketers that still are doing some creative, fun, and rock n roll.
(What was wrong with Rock N Roll)
Since rock was so prominent in the 60’s and 70’s is easy to forget a lot of what else was happening. You had the likes of the Beatles, The Rolling Stones and a slew of 60’s garage rock that was followed by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and once again slews of heavy-oriented 70’s rock bands. It is the 80’s that seems to be badly represented, and the rock n roll that people do unfortunately remember was created by the likes of Poison, Motley Crue and other terrible 80’s hair metal. That’s not to say that rock fell out completely with the world in the 80’s, it just was not the # 1 money-maker of the era.
The 80’s though was a great time for a lot of creativity being put into rock n roll, and it’s growing number of sub-genres. The 60’s focused on a lot of idea’s and messages, and the 70’s became littered more so with people just wanting to be rock stars, and at the beginning of the 80’s you saw a lot of individuals creating new outlets for the messages, and meaningful aspects of their music. They weren’t interested in becoming rock starts and being worshipped, they used music as an outlet and found ways to continue doing it in a way that wasn’t watered down. I am not saying that all non-commerrical rock is filled with great messages, and always meaningful, but it is free from a lot of the influence of the promoters. I am also not saying that all rock that was popular in the 80’s was crap, and there were still some strongholds.
(Queen)
The 80’s continued to have Queen at the top of the charts and continuing to rock. Janes Addiction and the Red Hot Chili Peppers were in their best form in the 80’s, and Stevie Ray Vaughn continued on the traditions of Jimi and the Texas Blues Legends before his untimely death. And still these are not necessarily what people think of when they remember the 80’s. George Michael, Paula Abdul, Cyndi Lauper, Culture Club, Hall and Oates, Whitesnake or Bryan Adams might come to mind quicker for most when looking back on this decade. Each of those were popular, and my only qualm is that a lot of music is discredited by people who lump all 1980’s music in with this group.
(The way Pop Culture viewed the Skating Scene in the 80's)
Ive focused on punk rock in a lot of my recent articles, so I will let it take a backseat on this mix and this article. It is the obvious “fuck you” to the music scene at time, and being disenfranchised with the state of things. So with that being said, we are going to look at other avenues of rock who continued to maintain, and artists (rock or not) that deserve some credit for continuing the tradition of being awesome even if it may not have been what was hot.
( The Talking Heads )
I do want to look at a generalized view of the new wave scene. This scene emerged from the 70’s punk scene, and for what it turned into and is remembered for , it was a water-downed, safe version of punk that was able to take over the airwaves, and tv and spawn a fashion style synonymous with the 80’s. People forget though that there was some quality musicians in some of the forerunners. The Talking Heads were definitely one of the biggest bands during their time, and sure David Byrne might be a dick, but they created some interesting arty rock n roll that was also riddled with satire and commentary. Echo and the Bunnymen are also lumped into that general scene a lot, but the creativity and hints of psychedelia separates them from the Flock of Seagull’s and Wham!’s of the time. Most of all you had Devo who scored big with a hit, but were proud of being nerds, were the opposite of what was “framed” as cool, and didn’t compromise on their style or sound to please the fans there to just see them play “Whip It”. People saw a marketable sound, and proceeded to litter listeners with new artists who had half the musicianship and definitely not the integrity of a lot of the early bands.
The 80’s is also when the Northwest started their own little brand of rock called grunge, and in the 80’s it was definitely grungy. With a list that includes Mudhoney, The Melvins, Soundgarden, and Nirvana, the Northwest was playing their own style of rock. The east coast had bands doing similar things, Dinosaur Jr., The Feelies, Sonic Youth and Swans were laying some of the foundations for art-noise rock and what would soon be a burgeoning indie rock scene. Even Europe had something interesting things happening with Gang of Four, Joy Division, My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus and Mary Chain breaking away from the traditional blues-styled rock n roll and paving the way for post-punk, shoegaze and Britpop bands to become the next big thing in the Isles.
( Slayer )
While we have been focusing overall on more accessible forms of rock n roll, you cant overlook what was happening in the real metal scene in the 80’s. While Hair Metal was the hot thing for most of America, an awesome metal scene was forming throughout the country. Sometimes Hair Metal acted as a stepping stone, but overall they were two separate scenes. Real metal fans wouldn’t be caught sporting a Poison or Winger shirt over a Motorhead or Slayer one. The 80’s saw the introduction of thrash metal, and the emergence of the big four: Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax. These bands had pretty huge following and wrote some incredible albums that have been mimicked (or at least bands have tried to) and influenced generations of younger metal heads. The 80’s saw the continuation of Ozzy’s reign on top of the metal world, saw valiant efforts from Ronny James, and other fathers such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest kept rolling strong. Near the end things got more extreme, and Florida being a shithole helped to create some classic death metal albums and helped push metal to some new extremes for the time.
So when I look back at the 1980’s, sure what was popular at the time may have been shit, but that’s kinda the way it is today too. There will always be great bands, and if whats not popular isn’t your style, you gotta be resourceful and dig deep. I say this these days while having a computer, and easy access to any history that has been documented, so I give kudos to those back in the days who had to search out music through fanzines, tape trading, and flyers for random shows. I try not to focus on what I dislike from the 80’s, but the high volume of awesomeness that it provided and still sounds as amazing in this current day and age.
