Maybe this is a function of the MTV effect? That what it sounds like to me. I was also a teenager at this time, but by now I had listened to both the "History of Rock and Roll" and "Evolution of Rock" radio shows, and by now had a pretty good working knowledge of about 30 years of pop music, and also had delved pretty deeply into 1965-1972 music. So for me this was just a change to a different color hue, from something that was already in color.
Actually more of a reaction to the change in Top 40 radio in 81/82 compared to the diversity of the charts in 83. Top 40 listening was much more prevalent among my age group at that time than the later teens & early 20’s. It would have been hard in 1981 to picture, in America, Adam Ant or Dexy’s Midnight Runners having Top 10 hits. But in 1983 , all bets were off. The discovery of the vast variety of the 60’s and 70’s came later, with record buying instead of Top 40 radio listening.
I listened to oldies all the time - by this point my album collection was mostly older stuff, like Tapestry or Toulouse Street or pretty much the entire Beatles catalog - and the Munchkinland analogy is exactly what 1983 was like for me. Contemporary music went from being mostly bland as wallpaper paste to this explosion of creativity that was largely nothing like what had immediately proceeded it. And it happened almost literally overnight.
I don't know. Everyone who is saying this has also said at one time or another that they were heavily into MTV. Which is OK. But your experiences weren't the only ones. As far as "being unlike anything that happened before" --- it wasn't like that hadn't happened at various times before 1983. Music just evolved. It went through a bleak patch in the early '80s, but I also think it went through a bleak patch in 1974, for example. I guess I'm having issues seeing how 1983 is so fundamentally different than other pop explosions. The only difference I see here is MTV. MTV - which I didn't have. I wasn't the only one. This definitely has given me a different (and I feel --- equally as valid) perspective.
There is no doubt "Beat It" is a classic and a taste of genre-blending that would eventually become a norm in popular music, but while Michael gets all the credit for teaming up with someone as surprising as Eddie Van Halen to make a hit record, he wasn't even the first member of his family in 1982 to have a hit record collaboration with an act with a radically different image and fanbase. Just a few months prior to the release of Thriller, Jermaine went all the way to #18 pop with a new wavey collaboration with Devo
He also scored Top 10 hits, he's like the 3rd most successful Jackson sibling. Before we get to Janet's Control era in 1986 though, every non MJ Jackson is basically kind of irrelevant.
I do feel a little bad for Jermaine because many times I've seen people write him off as "another unsuccessful Jackson" ala La Toya when the reality is that he had a reasonably successful and respectable career except it pales compared to the monolithic superstardom of Michael as well as how massive Janet would also become in the mid 80s well into the early 2000s.
While we best remember Falco and After The Fire, at the same time ("Solitaire" off this album was currently climbing the charts), Laura Branigan had also essentially remade her own version of the song but with different lyrics
This just reminds me of that Wayne's brothers episode where they're at a sports event and the announcer states that Janet Jackson will do the national anthem, then after the crowd calms down corrects himself that Rebee will instead. That's when Marlon yells, 'Yeah girl, Centipede' lmao
La Toya has some trash camp classics too. She had no lick of musical talent but something like "Sexual Feeling", where she tries to evoke 1975-1976 era Donna Summer works for all the wrong reasons
There's a difference between enjoying the return to glory and plotting the song's release as a commercial comeback. Any hitmaker getting back into the charts after being absent for a decade would likely enjoy it, even with a silly novelty hit.
What other "pop explosions" are we comparing it to? The only comparable "explosions" I can recall are the start of the rock era / Elvis and then The Beatles. The rise of Sweetheart of the Rodeo-inspired country/rock and the singer songwriter movement of the early to mid '70s might be another comparable movement, although that happened much more slowly. Even disco came on more slowly. This was like someone hit a switch. Hence the comparison to the British Invasion.
I'd heard she did this, but never actually heard the song. Wow. That's amazingly lame compared to both the Falco original and After The Fire's cover. Doesn't really take any advantage of her great voice, either.
What an odd coincidence. I was just listening to my vinyl copy of that album to hear Solitaire and I let it play through and that song you mentioned really jumped out at me as being quite good! I actually own all her albums and enjoy most of her music. Was so sad when she passed away at such a young age, while working on a new album.
Well, it works well within the context of the album. Maybe it helps that I haven’t heard the other versions, but I agree she more talks a lot of it instead of using her huge voice.
I love good ones. Heck, I love Berry's earlier, studio version of what he then called "My Tambourine". That's neither here nor there with respect to whether he thought that performance would send him to #1 when he hadn't even had a moderately big hit in eight years. I can't imagine he thought that while he was recording it.
Shrug. Not my scene, but if you like 'em, don't let me rain on your parade! I felt at the time that they were one of these groups where they really pushed their super creamy/poster-boys-for-teenage-girls'-bedrooms aspect way too much.
Another song MTV played a lot at the time was Red Skies by the Fixx. Considering its ubiquity on the video channel, I was surprised to find out the song didn't even make the top 100 on the US charts. Fortunately for the Fixx, they wouldn't have much longer to wait for a hit. Their next song, Saved by Zero, reached 20 on the charts; it was released in late May of 1983, so right around the time we are at in the countdown! (I had completely forgotten this band until suddenly getting this song stuck in my head today, probably as a result of our current discussion about MTV of this era).
Another MTV staple in 1983, and another of my fave jams from that year, was The Walls Came Down by the Call. It only reached 74 on the charts, but it was one of the songs that really bonded me with my MTV loving pals. My rock drummer friend (the guy who unfortunately was into Asia) loved quoting, with a somewhat crazed look in his eye, the lyric "They stood there laughing. They're not laughing anymore!" Fun fact: the keyboard player is Garth Hudson, formerly of the Band.
One more for now. Yet another song that was played repeatedly on MTV when I first started watching was The One Thing by INXS. (yes, we stupid kids insisted on calling them 'Ing-ses', since that's how it was spelled! For those unfamiliar, it was supposed to spell out 'in excess'). The song was released elsewhere in 1982, but came out here around February of 1983 and peaked on the charts at 30 in May - June. Ridiculous fruit-based sexual metaphors notwithstanding, I always liked this song and video, although I think their later hits were better!
Mr. Roboto, She Blinded Me With Science and Little Red Corvette were all in the Top 10 the week Billie Jean went #1. Considering Come On Eileen and another soon to be #1 hit were there as well, that was a week full of quintessential 80s hits.
