Was the 80s the worst decade for music ever?

Was the 80s the worst decade for music ever?

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No. The music underground in the 80s was extremely important, and there were some amazing bands.

This

>what is the 10's

this
bands like Pixies, The Smiths, Sonic Youth, The Cure are GOAT and shaped the rock music.
Just because there was some shitty hair metal and lame synthpop doesn't mean the decade sucks.

robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg80/in_decade.php

Christgau's "The 80s in review" column.

no, even the 90s were worse, 00s even more so.

>The '80s were when stars replaced artists as bearers of significance. The '70s had yielded their honorable quota of Van Morrisons and Randy Newmans and Patti Smiths and John Prines, all of whom were still around, as were new variants like Blood Ulmer and Laurie Anderson and the Mekons and Kid Creole. Those are only my nominees, however; yours are different. Nobody blinked when break-even commercial nonentities like Morrison and and Newman were ranked with the Stones and Stevie Wonder among the crucial rockers of the '70s. But in the '80s the only list that computed was pure megaplatinum--Prince and Bruce and U2 and Michael Jackson and Madonna, with maybe a few million-selling status symbols like Sting, Talking Heads, R.E.M., or Public Enemy (sorry, not Elvis Costello) tacked on for appearance's sake. When art is intellectual property, image and aura subsume aesthetic substance, whatever exactly that is. When art is capital, sales interface with aesthetic quality--Thriller's numbers are part of its experience.

He made a big error with this paragraph by arguing that only MTV superstars were relevant because were the foundation on which rock in the following decade was built.

The 80's were better than the 00s and 10s put together

You do know that was the preface for his "Consumer Guide to the '80s" book and he wrote that in 1990 before Nirvana broke. He couldn't have known at that time that alternative was about to burst out of the underground.

Well then it's his fault for being a faggot and not waiting until well after the fact to write his book

>The '80s were when '70s fragmentation became a way of life. The "adult contemporary" market flashed its charge cards as the teen audience became more distinct than at any time since the Beatles.

Yeah they had to exploit the large mass of baby boomers that had outgrown rawk.

Only a fag thinks this

I say nu metal was worse because the hairspray dudes could actually play and in some cases were really good musicians. Nu metal is just hammering power chords tuned all the way down to G to sound brvtally heavy.

>there are people browsing this site RIGHT NOW who hate cheesy synthpop

Is Tears for Fears cheesy?

Bull. Shit. Most of those guys just played the same identical chord progressions and poorly copied Eddie Van Halen without understanding all but a few of his more obvious tricks.

The Hurting and Seeds of Love had some mild cheese, but that's about it.

Depends what type of music we're talking about.
The 1980s was a good decade for punk rock.

it's when music started, idiot

copying eddie van halen minus tapping and whammy

...

That was just due to the limitations of the commercial pop rock format, actually a lot of hair metal guitarists were extremely skilled, for example the dude from Nitro could play insanely fast riffs. Reb Beach is also a guitar wizard. Unfortunately they signed with record labels who expected them to do a certain thing.

I mean, that's like how John Frusciante is far better of a musician than the limited RHCP pop rock songs give the impression of.

Music has been absolute SHIT since the renaissance desu

How anyone takes him seriously is beyond me. He gave A's to both Nicki Minaj and Soulja Boy for example.
robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Nicki Minaj
robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Soulja Boy

Keep in mind as he's gotten older, he's gotten softer as well and gives out fewer dud ratings than he did in the 70s.

I hate the term 'hair metal'. It doesn't even mean anything. Pop metal is a better term.

And there were some good ones, like Dokken, WASP, Hanoi Rocks, Motley Crue and Skid Row (if they count). It's just the genre got oversaturated and people now for some reason only dwell on the shit stuff like 'Cherry Pie' etc.

Back in the 80s, it was always known as "glam rock" or "glam metal". Nobody called it hair metal until the 90s when it became used as a perjorative term on VH1 for those bands.

so far its this decade

What 80s? There's been at least twenty "80s" since we started counting.

It's more descriptive of the type of band than the way they sound, but when people say "hair metal" you know what they mean. Similar to Visual Kei, though Visual Key is much more diverse than hair metal.

Hysteria [Mercury, 1987]

You know about the music and if you don't think you'll like it, you won't--impeccable pop metal of no discernible substance--in short, completely irrelevant to everyone except AOR programmers and the several million addicts of the genre. From a technical and marketing standpoint however, it's more interesting. Stuck with over an hour of material after four years (how long can 12 songs be?) and being astute technocrats who've conceived for hour-long music formats, namely audio cassettes, which outsell vinyl discs now, and CDs, which outdollar them, they've elected to put it all on one album. I find the cassette sound a little dim, as commercial cassette sound tends to be, and while I do enjoy the depth of the vinyl once I've cranked my stereo up to 6-7, the CD's clarity comes through decisively as the needle approaches the outgroove. I mean, I have trouble perceiving these guys as human beings under ordinary circumstances. Not docked a notch because at least they didn't pad it into a double. C+

there was obviously a lot of shit in that time period as of any other, but the genre is known for crazy stuff like modal interchanges and super precise fast sweep-picking, to a point where its hard to argue against the idea that they "could actually play"

Hair metal is one of those genres most people pretend to hate but secretly love. You can't deny you don't perk up whenever songs like 'I Wanna Rock' or 'Livin on a Prayer' come on, whether you're listening to the radio or you're in a bar.

Whitesnake [Geffen, 1987]

The attraction of this veteran pop metal act has got to be total predictability--the glistening solos, the surging crescendos, the macho love rhymes, the tune you can hum before the chorus is over, each one new, yet somehow heard before. Who cares if they're an obscure nine year old vehicle for the guy who fronted Deep Purple five years before that? Rock-and-roll's ninth or tenth "generation" of frightened high school boys can claim them as their own. May they pass from the ether before the current crop of 11 year olds sprouting pubes claim their MTV. D+

Slip of the Tongue [Geffen, 1989]

They've gotten lucky and they don't intend to let go. With hired hand Steve Vai operating all guitars and god knows what other assorted geegaws, they've consolidated the essence of all arena--pomp, flash, tough guy sentimentality. This is now the worst band in the world. So you just move over, Journey. (hey? where _is_ Journey anyway?). D

if you can't demonstrate that you understand the context of the 80s then you can't have a worthwhile opinion on music coming out of that context...

In The Heart of the Young [Atlantic, 1990]

The appalling pall that pop metal casts over 1990's abysmal Hot 100 is a triumph of mass narrowcasting. By carefully eliminating any accident of gender, socioeconomic bracket, or subgeneration, it is in theory possible for any passive Caucasian under 25 to consume (in descending order of marginal differentiation) Heart or Jon Bon or Cheap Trick or Warrant or David fucking Cassidy. Winger are Whitesnake with the sexism muted and the facelifts down the road, their feigned vulnerability and youthcult rote masking their will to power. They may stick around for a while, they may not. They're so bad that they're not completely terrible. C-

I don't think it's possible to name a worst decade for music. The thing is, most people would say the 80s were the worst since shit like glam rock is so obnoxious and in-your-face. If the 80s were bad then what about acts like Pixies, Black Flag, Talking Heads, Beastie Boys?

With that logic you could say the 2000s are the worst decade for music because of the mass-production of pop punk by acts like Avril Lavigne, Blink-182, Green Day etc.

It's impossible to name the worst decade for music without being overly subjective.

Slippery When Wet [Mercury, 1986]

Sure, seven million teenagers could be wrong, but their success carries with it a certain documentary certainty. It does however prove that youth rebellion is toothless enough to simulate and market. But then whoever though youth was dangerous in the current climate anyway? Would you prefer the band market patriotism instead? And are you really immune to "Living on a Prayer"? B-

New Jersey [Mercury, 1988]

I must say, I admire Jon-Jon's transparently pseudo-Springsteenian desire to improve both his artistic reputation and his platinum count at the same time. You could identify with the masses, sit back, and enjoy its giant hooks all the while. You could learn to love "Living on a Prayer" as I did on nonstop rotation at a community pool. Or you could lose your lunch. Now pass the barf bag this way. C+

The 80s were no worse than any other decade strictly speaking, it's just that the bad music was much more obnoxious and in-your-face than most decades.

dosen't know shit about whitesnake