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The 80s, a great Decade for music

mrt2

mrt2

Super Member
Contrary to some, the 80s was not just Madonna, Michael Jackson, and a lot of hair bands on MTV. It was an incredibly eclectic, but also creative era.

Just a few examples

John Hiatt - Bring the Family
XTC - English Settlement, Oranges and Lemons, Skylarking
Squeeze- East Side Story
Elvis Costello - Imperial Bedroom, Trust, Get Happy
The Police - Synchronicity
Love and Rockets - Express
The Replacements - Let it Be, Tim, Please to meet me
REM - Murmur, Fables of the Reconstruction, Life's Rich Pageant
U2 - The Unforgettable Fire, War
Los Lobos - How will the wolf survive?
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
The Pixies - Doolittle
The Stone Roses - S/T
The Pretenders - S/T, Learning to Crawl
Aztec Camera - High Land Hard Rain
Dire Straits - Making Movies
Roxy Music - Avalon
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Texas Flood
The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
Pete Townshend - Empty Glass
Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
David Bowie - Scary Monsters

Just a few examples of great 80s music, and it wasn't all on MTV.
 
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Great list :thmbsp: but you left out Psycho Candy by Jesus And Mary Chain, Frenzy by Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper, Meat Puppets II, New Day Rising and Zen Arcade by Husker Du and Rattlesnakes by Lloyd Cole and The Commotions.
 
spideyjack said:
Great list :thmbsp: but you left out Psycho Candy by Jesus And Mary Chain, Frenzy by Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper, Meat Puppets II, New Day Rising and Zen Arcade by Husker Du and Rattlesnakes by Lloyd Cole and The Commotions.
Click to expand...

That is why I started the thread. I can't think of everything, and besides, the 80s meant different things to different people, as there was not 1 band that defined the entire decade.
 
mrt2 said:
That is why I started the thread. I can't think of everything, and besides, the 80s meant different things to different people, as there was not 1 band that defined the entire decade.
Click to expand...

oh yeah! you are so right, I left out a few also :yes:
 
Great list! I would also include The Honeydrippers Volume One, Roy Orbison Mystery Girl, The Traveling Wilburys Vol 3. and George Harrison's Cloud Nine. I like the 80's. It reminds me of the 60's when music was so diverse and going all over the place.
 
A few more to add to an already good list:

Big Audio Dynamite S/T
The Cure's first 4 or 5 albums, imo.
Thomas Dolby - The Flat Earth
XTC - Black Sea
Pixies - Surfer Rosa
OMD - S/T, Organisation
Psychedelic Furs - S/T, Talk Talk Talk
The Smiths - Hatful of Hollow, Meat is Murder
The English Beat - I just Can't Stop it
 
Perhaps to some but to me the 70s will always be the best decade for music.Being born in 1961 I was 20 years old in 1981 so it's not like it was I was out of touch agewise.
 
thanks for the reminder.
The rise of "alternative" music in that decade spawned not just groups but genres. One of my favorite was the neo-psychedelic groups. Echo and the Bunnymen and The Chameleons UK remain favorites. And punk grew from supersonic angry noise to some more melodic tunes, ex being Husker Du and The Replacements (two of my fave Minneapolis bands)
Maybe it was because the 70's were so bad :scratch2:
 
I Luv the 80's

Some of these bands may of had their roots in the 70's but found success in the 1980's,such as Donald Fagen's "The Nightfly" - and proves the Decade wasn't a total musical wasteland... Some of the more memorable groups:

The Clash
Talking Heads
The Pretenders
UB-40
Squeeze
The Motels
The Bangles
Bananarama
Quarterflash
'Till Tuesday
Pat Benatar
Cyndi Lauper
10,000 Maniacs
Tears for Fears
Rossington-Collins Band
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians
 
Gang of Four - Entertainment!
- Songs of the Free

The Fixx - Shuttered Room
- Reach the Beach
- Phantoms
- Walkabout

Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair

Steely Dan - Gaucho

Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking
- Ritual de lo Habitual

Midnight Oil - (eh, all the early albums, I lov'em all)
- Scream in Blue -- it was released in '92, but most of it was recorded in the '80s, and it is _intense_.

Stevie Ray Vaughan - (anything he did)

Pretenders - Pretenders
- Pretenders II
- Learning to Crawl (have these three as recent remix releases, and they're all excellent -- first two include extra CDs with live/demo recordings

Butthole Surfers - Rembrandt Pussyhorse (and a number of others I don't have)

Paul Simon - Graceland

Chris Rea - The Road to Hell

Big Black - Songs about F**king

Eh, if I were to dig more I'd come up with more. These are the ones I see in the collection at a glance that haven't been mentioned yet.

John
 
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Couple more 80's favorites of mine:

Steve Earle
The Beat Farmers
Lyle Lovett
Tradically Hip
Travelling Wilburys
 
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