Who else finds 80's music, with its synth, guitar, guitar solos, and general awesomeness superior to all this rap/hop-hip, emo, instrumental (lacking synth), and indie stuff we see today?
HAIR BANDS YEAHHHH
No.
80s music: pwn
synth: pwn
guitar: pwn
guitar solos: pwn
general awesomeness: pwn
yeah, pretty much.
>>3
excessive hair spray: pwn
aquanet ftw
Hair metal, check.
New wave, check.
Michael Jackson, check.
But also, lots of very, very crappy pop, check.
Just so you know, we had good stuff in the '90s and now in the '00s too -- you just have to keep in mind that most of the mainstream crap will probably not be what will be remembered. And there was stuff that sucked horribly back in the 80s to the point that just watching some videoclips can make you drown in your own tears.
Music from the 80's was fuck awesome.
If you've only begun to observe Hip Hop and Indie "today" then you've been living under a rock, those genres were present in the 80s too.
I do think XTC and the Talking Heads are awesome, though.
There's no way in hell that 80s music is superior to the music of the 70s, 90s, or today, but I have been enjoying it more these days. A lot of it has a very eerie quality to it: the synths and drum machines used were still rudimentary, and the overwhelming "fakness" in the music sounds rather spooky at times. It's hard to explain exactly, but listen to the early Talk Talk albums and you'll sort of catch my drift. It sounds ghostly. I find this noisy/creepy element charming, and the pop music of today cannot recreate the sound, no matter how hard some bands try.
The 80s was also where noise and industrial music really took off. There was Throbbing Gristle in the 70s, but we saw Nurse with Wound, Current 93, Hanatarash, Coil, Merzbow, Whitehouse, etc during the following decade. Though a lot of their best albums were released during the 90s...
So yeah, the 80s was pretty awesome. I need to explore it further.
Synth drums are awesome incarnate, and even emo music was good in the 80s.
>>7
If the hip-hop rap was like it usually was back then, it would be great. I'm tired of black guys in Escalades yelling about drugs, guns, bitches, hoes, pimps, and how they live like high society even though they're at about the lowest level of society possible. And all the rich white kids who think these people are great role models.
>>8
For the purpose of debate, what makes 70s, 90s, and 00s music better than 80s?
>For the purpose of debate, what makes 70s, 90s, and 00s music better than 80s?
The 70s were an unrivaled explosion of creativity. Progressive rock, krautrock, punk, post-punk, and various experimental landmarks were all birthed in that decade. As far as I'm concerned it's where music started. I like some jazz from the 60s, but the 70s was when SHIT GOT REAL.
The 90s is remembered for grunge and boy bands for some reason, but it also gave us a ton of great music. I don't think as many awesome bands started during this time, but a lot of already existing bands gave us their best material in the 90s, especially as far as noise and other assorted experimental genres go. This was also a golden era for hip hop, with all those classic albums like Liquid Swords and Illmatic being recorded.
The 00s are a brave new frontier for music. Genre labels are fragmenting, hits are few and far between, and there will most likely never be another "classic". Music has been placed into the hands of the common man, and people are both listening to and making sounds that are much more in line with their personal tastes. Basically, there is something for everybody in this decade, as long as you know where to look.
Don't get me wrong, the 80s was a cool time and all, but I just think it's the weak link in the chain. The popular music of the time is certainly much better than what is played on the radio today, but music as a whole is much better now.
The 80's weren't only about synths, there was a heck of a lot of saxophones too in popular songs at the time, along with other brass.
ITALO-DISCO
YEAH
Venom.
My rating of average music quality by decade:
60s
70s
50s(because of some amazing jazz and early rock)
and then trailing WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY behind
80s
90s
00s