Popular Music from Different Decades

A_Sober_Paddy

So I'm here listening to some of the best music the 1980's had to offer...

I'm a huge fan of the music of the 1980's as too would a lot of my mates, the popular music of the decade seems to be streets ahead of the vast majority of things released in the 00's & today.

Even the music of the 90's is a good bit ahead of that of the 00's and today...

In the 80's, you had Duran Duran, Queen, Guns N Roses, Michael Jackson, Bryan Adams, The Smiths, Scorpion Stone Roses...

In the 90's, you had the fantastic brit rock/pop Oasis, Blur, Boo Radleys, pulp, supergrass. You also had REM...

I'm I'm trying to stick with bands that were mainstream, thus staying away from Ozzy, Metallica, Judas Priest...

Now look at the music of the 00s and today...

Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Usher, 50 cent, Eminem Black Eyed Peas, Lil Wayne, Taylor Swift(She is actually good), Nicki Minji, Beyoncé(Has a couple of good songs, but the vast majority is complete trash)...all those people were among the highest grossing artists of the last 13 years...

I've not even mentioned Madonna or the Boss yet...What is with the decline of popular music...

I'm only 25 so I pretty much missed most of the 80's, but i don't know if I look back at it with rose tinted glasses...

But I just listened to 5 songs from the 1980's
-Tears for Fears
-Show Me Heaven
-Don't You Forget About Me
-Always Sunny On TV
-Lets Dance

Could I just listen to 5 songs from mainstream music of the 00's and today with the same quaility? Or is music, like a fine wine and gets better with age and sounds better out of time, or is that just fitting for the music of the 80's...

Now I do know that there are some fantastic acts in modern music, but they are buried under an amount of mediocre crap that is called music...

I don't think I'm in the minority here...Am I?

endacl

And those 80's classics you mention were buried under Kajagoogoo, Rick Astley, Bananarama, Wang Chung, Mel & Kim, Brother Beyond......

Need I go on?

Chill out. There's plenty of good music out there. You'll recognise it in 2033 as 'the classics'.

Clandestine

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

I'm I'm trying to stick with bands that were mainstream, thus staying away from Ozzy, Metallica, Judas Priest...

They are very mainstream, especially Metallica

Also, those singers you mentioned from the 80's weren't close to being "some of the best music the 1980's had to offer." in my opinion.
Pop music has not changed much, the only difference is that in the 80's there was more focus on melody and less harsh lyrics.

Dream pop... now thats pop music that needed more attention in the 80's....

SilverScreen

Look at any Now That's What I Call Music compilation from the 80's and I guarantee you it will be mostly filled with crap. Even the 70s had some awful, awful music such as The Bay City Rollers, The Osmonds, REO Speedwagon, Queen etc.

Seans_Username

This is like one of those cringey youtube comments where some 12 year old listens to a song from the 70s/80s and laments about a time of music they never even experienced.

If you listened to popular music post-2000 then you'd be likely to hear Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Kings of Leon, Two Door Cinema Club, Outkast, Justin Timberlake, Jay Z, Amy Winehouse, Red Hot Chilli Peppers.. etc. All good music, some of it not to my taste, but I'll appreciate that it is very good for mainstream music.

And as was said before, you seemed to gloss over the fact that the 80s had some very cheesy crap too. It wasn't all great. No decade of music is.

It's a bit extreme to say that pop music is crap nowadays, when pop music has always been a mix of good and bad. You're just focusing on the bad side of it.

armchair fusilier

From what I remember, there was a lot of really crap music around in the 80's too. I'm a bit surprised that the 80's now seems to be viewed as this golden age for music, it certainly didn't feel like it was at the time.

losthorizon

I think if you want to get a "golden period" then its probably 1967 -1972(3). Some incredible bands and albums released during those years. The 80s were a great decade in the main but the op has probably managed to pick out some of the worst examples from the period imo. The 70s had some of the worst stuff going until punk and then new wave managed to what I would call rescue music from sheer crapness. Just watch TOTP on BBC.

How silverscreen can lump in Queen with the Bay City Rollers is mad. They produced some excellent albums especially Queen, Queen 2 A Night at the Opera and Sheer Heart attack which must be one of the greatest albums of all time.

Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Kings of Leon, Two Door Cinema Club, Outkast, Justin Timberlake, Jay Z, Amy Winehouse, Red Hot Chilli Peppers were mentioned as some of the best acts post 2000. It doesn't say much for post 2000 does it?

Ruudi_Mentari

armchair fusilier wrote: »

From what I remember, there was a lot of really crap music around in the 80's too. I'm a bit surprised that the 80's now seems to be viewed as this golden age for music, it certainly didn't feel like it was at the time.

But it was the most interesting, and unsurpassable for subbaculture and laid the foundations for anything kids are into today. But then it was the template for modern life as a whole and always will because it explored and innovated with just about every expression and style that remained it seems. even electronic music albeit with trickier more basic yet innovative analog methods splicing tapes using samples; it was the ultimate creative youth explosion off the back of the late seventies.

and the seventies themselves, all that funk/soul/hippy/psychedelic/rock/roots reggae is still the sound of a hazy summers evening in particular for me. kind of like the true golden era

The nineties, music was still relevant and forging new ground but is too wrapped up with my own youth and so I am not too keen on revisiting that....

but My take on 2000; or thereabouts and beyond is since computers gave bored kids something else to do in their bedrooms and even becoming the one tool fits all medium they can also make 'music' on it's just not as important now. Not nearly; as well as being kind of played out it doesn't have such relevance or impact on life and there will be no lennon messiah figure, lol nor bono the politician and most kids just can't fathom how older people are so infatuated and maybe childlike in their eyes with something that is now all too often disposable in having become a mere backdrop to their activities



.. but its not that I even really listen to music anymore; Is just a good social tool and I tend to watch it more now than I used to just listen to more for performance sake. Kind of like sport, appreciating technique in physicality and so DJs or that aren't shìt to me unless I am only out to get laid. And that's what's all the rage now; DJs so fcuk it. May as well capitalize

nyarlothothep

There is no such thing as a flat, equal surface of quality, some periods in history are better than others for cultural output, fact. Kings of Leon, The Strokes Arcade Fire etc are terrible bands especially when compared with bands of the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. This is the cultural progression for music in the popular consciousness/zeitgeist

40s (bad)
50s (bad-->ok)
1960-1965 (not bad, getting much better)
1966-1970 (very good to awesome)
1970-1975 (excellent/outstanding/exemplary)
1976-1980 (very good, took a bit a nosedive with punk, although some punk bands produced good songs)
1980-1984 (quite good, some very interesting experimentation going on there)
1984-1988 (sh1t, synth pop/yuppie music dominates)
1988-1990 (getting better under the wings, the gestation of grunge etc)
1990-1993 (return to form, very good golden era influenced bands, the 60s/70s had a huge influence on 90s music which is why it's so good)
1994-1997 (very good, some classics produced in this period)
1998-2000 (Awful, the fall of Rome, the dominance of dance music and cheese pop
2000-2010 (the dark ages of music, crap derivative 80s inspired post punk, note not influenced by post punk but just aping it, even Gang of Four said they were being ripped off in the August 2004 edition of the Ticket)
2010-present (the primeval era, instead of working our way up to the Renaissance we've actually just gone backwards even further, there is no good music being produced right now).

There was a renaissance in the early 90s, then we got to the modern era, then there was world war 3 at the end of the 90s, there was an effort to bring back civilisation but it failed and now we're throwing stones at each other as predicted by Albert Einstein.

armchair fusilier

nyarlothothep wrote: »

1980-1984 (quite good, some very interesting experimentation going on there)
1984-1988 (sh1t, synth pop/yuppie music dominates)
1988-1990 (getting better under the wings, the gestation of grunge etc)

Let's not forget Stock, Aitken and Waterman, 100 top 40 hits. It was horrible stuff.

SilverScreen

My take on the 00's is what it lacked in the quality of mainstream music it more than made up for in the quality of underground music. I thought the 00's was a very creative decade for music overall, just as much as other decades, with some amazing stuff coming out of genres and scenes such as metal, IDM, indie-rock, post-rock, modern classical, folk, psychedelic music and others.

A_Sober_Paddy

Seans_Username wrote: »

This is like one of those cringey youtube comments where some 12 year old listens to a song from the 70s/80s and laments about a time of music they never even experienced.

If you listened to popular music post-2000 then you'd be likely to hear Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Kings of Leon, Two Door Cinema Club, Outkast, Justin Timberlake, Jay Z, Amy Winehouse, Red Hot Chilli Peppers.. etc. All good music, some of it not to my taste, but I'll appreciate that it is very good for mainstream music.

And as was said before, you seemed to gloss over the fact that the 80s had some very cheesy crap too. It wasn't all great. No decade of music is.

It's a bit extreme to say that pop music is crap nowadays, when pop music has always been a mix of good and bad. You're just focusing on the bad side of it.

Good music...LOL

Irish Guitarist

If you weren't around in the eighties then you won't remember what the charts were like. My memories of the eighties music charts are Tiffany, Bros, Milli Vanilli, Glenn Medeiros, Jive Bunny and all the rubbish that Stock, Aitken and Waterman were responsible for including Sonia, Big Fun, Jason Donovan and The Reynolds Girls.

People who weren't around in the eighties seem to lump all the music that was released in the years 1980 - 1989 together under the banner of 'eighties music'. It's easy to pick a handful of songs you like from a decade of music. It wouldn't be so easy to pick a decent number of good songs from one particular week. The five songs you mentioned were released over a period of a few years. It's not like they were all in the charts in the same week or even the same year.

While I like some music that was made in the eighties I put that down to the musicians being talented rather than them recording music in some glorious period in musical history.

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

Good music...LOL

To be fair 'good music' is subjective. While The Red Hot Chili Peppers aren't my favourite band they're comprised of reasonably talented musicians. Amy Winehouse wrote her own songs. If you don't like either of these that's down to your own personal preferences and not how 'good' or 'bad' these musicians are. I'd hardly say Duran Duran were stellar musicians compared to The Red Hot Chili Peppers or that someone like Madonna was more talented than Amy Winehouse.

Seans_Username

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

Good music...LOL

Better than some of the shíte in the 80's that you seem to be conveniently glossing over.
But it's good to see your thoughts on what I said laid out in a well articulated manner

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

To be fair 'good music' is subjective. While The Red Hot Chili Peppers aren't my favourite band they're comprised of reasonably talented musicians. Amy Winehouse wrote her own songs. If you don't like either of these that's down to your own personal preferences and not how 'good' or 'bad' these musicians are. I'd hardly say Duran Duran were stellar musicians compared to The Red Hot Chili Peppers or that someone like Madonna was more talented than Amy Winehouse.

Sums it up pretty nicely.

Hannibal

If you want to listen to music from different decades then look no further than The Rolling Stones, they're pretty much there since the beginning of time.
The 2000's seen the decline of music sales and the rise of "talent" shows and people like Cowell and Walsh just chasing after number 1's and hit singles with the same generic rubbish. There's no creative and artistic development going on.
Go back to the 90's and early 2000's and music shops were out the door and now there's f-all even opened which shows an industry in terminal decline. Illegal downloading is also killing it and also things like iTunes were people are cherry picking songs, gone are the days when people bought an albim.
The 2000's had decent music but just not the volume of other decades, bands like Arctic Monkeys, the first three Kings of Leon albums, The Libertines and maybe Kasabian have all showed promise.
The 90's are dominated by Oasis and a lot of bands followed their lead and they led a resurgence of guitar based music which influenced the 2000's. Personally the music from the mid 60's to the mid 70's is where the most creative music was being produced, the likes of The Beatles, The Stones, The Kinks, Led Zepp, Pink Floyd, The Who, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, David Bowie were all on top form and this is the era and music people are still trying to emulate and are using for inspiration even today.

SilverScreen

There's threads like this every couple of months and they're usually a waste of time. And it's usually people coming in whose music collection begins with AC/DC and ends with Led Zeppelin moaning about how there's no big rock bands anymore because they're tuned into the radio and not actively looking for music themselves.

In 30 years time some people are going to look back on the 00's and moan about there not being music like Boards of Canada, Opeth or M83 anymore and on and on it goes.

Ruudi_Mentari

Used to like bores of canada, but got bored of listening to electronic / soundscapes and so tried to just embrace "rock and roll" in its rawest and most encompassing form have recovered from that narrow mindedness to a degree but I don't think I've got time for much new music anymore.

SilverScreen

You can never get bored of Boards of Canada Although sometimes I'll get sick of listening to one particular style of music and then start exploring another, it happens with a lot of people.

Even though I grew up listening to mainly rock and metal I tried to avoid falling into the trap where that's all you end up listening to and all you look for in new music. I think having a varied taste in music makes you more open to listening to new music. There's always a new album release every few months that knocks your socks off whether it's electronic, metal, folk, indie or whatever. If all you listen to is classic rock for example and you're moaning about music not being what it used to be then you only have yourself to blame.

IsThisIt???

It's far too easy to go on about how much better music was in the past. It's simple to look back and only see the good bands who have stood the test of time. Anyone who says todays music is bad is clearly not looking hard enough which is a real shame because all types of music are easier to access now than ever before. If you don't like the music in the charts that's fine, but if you can't be bothered looking for some of the other great bands/artists on Youtube or something because you don't hear them on the radio everyday then you don't deserve to have an opinion on todays music.

Seans_Username

Dotsey wrote: »

gone are the days when people bought an album.

I just bought 2 Queens of the Stone Age albums online about a week ago. Physical copies too. Not digital.

SilverScreen

There's not much difference in album sales now and 10 years ago than people think. While CD sales have obviously slumped this has been made up for by the rise of digital album downloads and vinyl sales to a degree. Also streaming services are taking over now in a big way so the statistics are becoming distorted. As for illegal downloads, well there's always been piracy.

Hannibal

Seans_Username wrote: »

I just bought 2 Queens of the Stone Age albums online about a week ago. Physical copies too. Not digital.

I still buy them myself, it doesn;t feel like you own it unless you have it in hand. But I was referring to the music buying public as a whole since mainly Apple have taken over the world

losthorizon

SilverScreen wrote: »

There's not much difference in album sales now and 10 years ago than people think. While CD sales have obviously slumped this has been made up for by the rise of digital album downloads and vinyl sales to a degree. Also streaming services are taking over now in a big way so the statistics are becoming distorted. As for illegal downloads, well there's always been piracy.

Actually digital sales have started to fall. I read that in the ticket a few weeks ago.

leakyboots

EDIT: Just realised I misread the 'popular' part, you mean chart. You can probably discount a lot of the below!

There's plenty amazing music out there, it's just finding it. I don't buy into the "00's music is crap", you're just not looking hard enough.

Just as an example, say you like soul music [you could choose any genre really, this was the first that came to mind] - James Brown, Otis Redding etc. that was popular in the 60s/70s. You think there's nothing like that out there nowadays.

You've the likes of Lee Fields, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Charles Bradley and slews of others churning out 'nu-soul' albums the last 10 years. There's actually a load of these sort of acts going for the retro-soul sound.

The key is you won't hear it on commercial radio, certainly not in Ireland where our choice is pathetic and you're only dipping your toe into what's out there. But it's out there and very easy to find.

Listen to podcasts, go on Mixcloud, Soundcloud, use apps to listen to radio shows from overseas, scour Spotify/Grooveshark. Like every facebook page you come across to get news on new singles/tours.

We have a few promotors doing great work that goes largely unnoticed. The likes of Choice Cuts bring in great acts - Lee Fields just finished a three-date tour here in July... he was here twice last year too. Charles Bradley was here in June and is back in October. Bodytonic have great DJs on the whole time etc., Twisted Pepper have great acts.

Anyway, here's a couple of tunes from the above

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0izlYypNyu0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fojrEzlygOc