I can sum it up, 80's hate is younger brother's hating their older brothers rock, hence 90's grunge, totally anti-80'.s It seems every decade or so some young critter's hate the last generation's music, narrow minded, I think so, and as time passes it get worse. Me I dig all music, its probably due to my light hearted attitude and devil may care attitude. With age and maturity comes appreciation, plain and simple. I thank you.....
Also understanding where the perspective of opinions are coming from and replying back with that in mind(wisdom? ) I got over it with time (read post 441) and agree , music is music . Just took me long time, cause I was there.
I get that the use of synths in the 80's was a lot about their availability being new, and therefor an understandable attraction to sound different from what went on before while at the same time fitting in with what seemed to be what everyone else (concededly not EVERYONE else, but the point stands) was doing. Understandable, but not necessarily admirable. I think part of the problem is a lot of people taking that new approach did not know how to use it to good effect, hence the absence in relative numbers of musicians who did use it effectively. To be clear I have my favorites of bands from that era, too. But adding them up, there were noticeably less of them than for both the seventies and nineties. And then there is the issues that as of today the sound does sound dated.
Another factor, calling for a different post imo, is indirect to the sound issue. And that is that by the beginning of the 80's rap had pushed out most funk and other soul bands. Would this have happened separate from the rise of what we are calling 80's production values? Perhaps, but I think there was a dynamic occurring that encouraged the growth of both. Start with the fact that in rap the focus is not only away from guitar based music, but really away from competence on ANY instruments. And that includes the human voice, as in singing. But the need for some instrumentation remained, of course. The easiest fit was sort of programmed music played through synthesizers and drum machines alongside. In other words the growth of rap created a sort of acceptance and then from that an expectation that music in general could be, and therefor would be, less about competence on instruments. But sicne the need for instruments of some sort remained, the approach of taking the easy way out and using synthesizers followed. So rap was part of this, and imo a big part.
Thanks for the thumbs up, I love hanging out with the gang, and if I can get a smile or a laugh, then it makes my day.
I was reading something recently, perhaps on this site, maybe elsewhere - about how new technology radically changes music. Think the move to electric guitars. Think the move to Stereo productions. And yes, think the 70's/80's move to synthetic sounds. Along with any change so radical (sound and possibility wise) will come failed experiments, and a timestamp that will be/is inescapable. It just goes with the territory. By the 80's I'd aged out of popular music. There isn't much of it that I hold dear. Pop music, particularly, is very fallow. I'm often amused by the SDE Blog, where Paul is so clearly an 80's guy with a lot of the stuff he chooses to highlight - very much in opposition to my own feelings. I also recall a conversation I had with someone here where essentially the other person said good engineers/producers tried to get the recorded sound as close to what was played in the studio as possible. My contention was, this is often not the case. In general terms the 80's personalities this, imo. To my ears they forgot how to record percussion in the 80's. BOOM BOOM BOOM, reverb, yikes. But here's the thing. I'm of the late 60's/70's - and in many ways I am completely unable to be objective/subjective about this era. Much of it does not sound dated. But of course, it most likely is - my ears are just dead to it. I think we get tuned to things pretty early on, and that becomes hard-wired. Not to say we can't change and appreciate other things, of course. You know why people dislike the 80's? Because much of what happened in that time was bad. Like every other era. The cream tends to rise to the top, we bursh all the dross into a corner and leave it there. I recently bought the Special Edition of Richard Lloyds Field of Fire - it's a fascinating release because the original album is a full on 80's,=. The second CD has been remixed, and old drum tracks (and some guitar) has been re-recorded, to great effect. So - it wasn't the writing that ruined the original album, it was the production style. It goes without saying, if you're a little younger than myself, I'm talking ****.
What I find ironic is that each decade had its own production style. The 60's with the tinny guitar sound in the beginning, etc. Some people dislike music from the early 60's for precisely the same reason but, in that case, it was the limitations and way things were miked, the limits of four track (and before that two track). Honestly one can find something to complain about every decade of music if one wants to. I look at the songs and not the artifacts of its era and while the 80's had its share of one hit artists, style over substance, etc. each decade has had this problem and or issue depending on how you look at it. Personally, I prefer the organic sound of real drums and dislike a lot of early digital synthesizers but, again, looking at the quality of the material is far more important. The early 80's had an astounding group of musicians come out of it and/or albums that made an impact and the use of some of these production sounds would probably be more accepted if they weren't overused by those trying to create or fit in a trend. The 80's had U2, Big Country, Tears for Fears, Depeche Mode, The Smiths, The The, Eurthymics, Res Hot a chili Peppers, Translator, The English Beat, The Specials, Fine Young Cannibals, Metallica, R.E.M., Guns and Roses, The Pixies, The Go Go's, The Bangles, Sonic Youth, Radiohead, Blur, The Stone Roses, etc. Many artists produced some of their most enduring music during this time some lost their way. It happens in just about every decade. As someone (Myself) from the 60's and 70's, you find good or great music where you look for it. Does the production approach sometimes "date" a song? Sure but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
A very good summary of what happened. Can we blame Peter Gabriel, Steve Lillywhite, Hugh Padgham and Phil Collins for this? Unfortunately any leap forward in terms of technology and sound will be adopted and overused. In the case of Gabriel, it was appropriate for the creepy sound (and the lack of use of cymbals also played into that for that album) For example films abandoned story and storytelling logic completely in favor of impact and a different sort of style/sheen that dominated much of the 70's and making the films look like music videos but that doesn't mean there weren't great films from that era, too. The films that hold up like the music from any era is about the quality of the work and timelessness of the material regardless of execution. Gone was the gritty era in favor of the glossy.
It's the decade that sounded like Yuppie cocaine gone mainstream: antiseptic, over-produced, arrogant, shallow and self-important w/ an emphasis on image. There were some real gems too, though – that's also true. Thing is, the present generation of musicians have rediscovered it en masse and that's all they wish to replicate due to it's ease via digital tools/synth plug-ins, etc. I found that the elder statesmen who jumped on the bandwagon back then were the greatest indignities, whereas Prince always defined the age. Go figure!
In some way, the 90's are my '80's': Countless of bands jumping on the alternative/grunge bandwagon. Four Non Blondes, Alanis etc. etc. etc.. Nothing has dated any worse than that! Terrible stuff!
'80s production per se doesn't bother me, but in the second half of the '80s a lot of music just started to sound ****ty, and by ****ty, I mean the sound quality, which is the result of a combination of many things, from stylistic choices to the equipment used. More troubling was many great '70s rock bands feeling like they had to adopt '80s sounds and attitudes (and yes, drum machines and synthesizers) in order to stay relevant. Some adapted well (e.g. Yes' 90125, Van Halen's 1984) and others did not.
Very little of the 80’s sound I liked. Production was horrible. Drums, awful. Just not a little t of good music out of that decade for me anyway
I like them, but, let's liken a real instrument to a studio model, and an artificial instrument to CGI. Both are good tools, but since one of them is fake it needs to be combined with something tangible and real to be effective (or "preserve the illusion"). Otherwise it's perceived as fake. Why is the use of the Mellotrone so effective in The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever", or the early drum machine used in The Beach Boys' "'Til I Die"? It's because they were augmented by real instruments, allowing the fake ones to blend in. The 1980's are like the Star Wars Prequels in this regard of excess.
Listening some 80's Depeche Mode albums, Black Celebration and Music For The Masses both are very good albums, and i like the way it is, some bands like DM knows how produce them albums, both these two are very good.
