Your thoughts on 80s music?

Question

What are your thoughts on 80s music? Me I would say it's my overall favorite decade of music, they've had alot of great music that was also considered fun, I'm a big fan of the hair metal bands and some of the heavier metal bands (thrash, NWOBHM), I also liked the commercial rock music of the 1980s (Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, Journey, Heart)

Answer 1

Well, I was born in 1982, and while the majority of my music comes from the 60's and 70's, I do love the 1980's!

These are some of my favourites :~

Stevie Nicks {an original Rock Goddess}
Robert Palmer *
Eurythmics
Fleetwood Mac *
Dire Straits *
Mike Oldfield *
Jethro Tull *
Heart *
The Cult
Belinda Carlisle
Queen *
Guns N' Roses
The Police
Clannad *
Meat Loaf *
Phil Collins
Billy Idol
Pandora's Box
Fire Inc. {only released 2 songs!} ;

* = these started pre 1980's, but had good / great output in that decade.

Others that I enjoy a few songs by are :~

Lisa Lougheed ; Prince ; Duran Duran ; Spandau Ballet ;
Bon Jovi ; The Power Station ; Bruce Springsteen * ;
Marilyn Martin ; Genesis ; Bonnie Tyler ; Aerosmith * {I prefer their 70's songs} ; Simple Minds ; Don Henley ; Bryan Adams ; Pat Benatar ; Men At Work ; Blondie ; Cyndi Lauper ; Alice Cooper * ; Adam & The Ants ; Terrence Trent D'Arby ; The Specials ; Madness ; UB40 ; Big Country ; ZZ Top * ; Cameo.

Soundtracks :~

The Breakfast Club
Top Gun
Flashdance
Buster

Answer 2

Like nearly every other decade the real mainstream music was far from the best, in the 80's I guess mainstream was overproduced sterile lifeless synth-pop. That kind of annoys me. But there of course were good mainstream bands, just not too many great ones in my opinion.

Bands I like from the 80's:
Agent Orange
Forgotten Rebels
Descendents
Bad Religion
Teenage Head
Angry Samoans
Black Flag
Circle Jerks
Dead Kennedys (first LP mainly)
Minor Threat
A little Misfits
Operation Ivy
Ozzy Osbourne had some good stuff in the 80's.

I guess that's all I can think of right now. Not much in the way of rock 'n' roll, but there were a few good hardcore punk bands and I've been getting into some 80's post punk (Echo & The Bunnymen, The Fall etc.). Really though the problem with the 80's was that real rock 'n' roll had faded away. It had been taken over by the big record companies and the teenagers playing around in their garage having fun couldn't get their music out like in the 60's and to a much lesser extent the 70's. The 60's saw bursts of garage bands that made great music for the fun of it (and the girls of course) and was rock's golden age for it, money was hardly a factor. But then progressive rock came, and with it Led Zeppelin and the other ego maniacs that wanted the attention and the money and the excess and having fun and having any actual connection with the audience was gone. And by the 80's everyone was more interested in how many crazy sound effects you could throw in and how long you could extend a redundant guitar solo for instead of dancing and having fun. The youthful exuberance was gone and you were left with "rock without the roll".

I realize this was entirely too long and if one person takes the time to read the whole thing I'd be surprised. And of course this is just my opinion so no one get offended, just what I think.

Answer 3

I thought it was kind of funny when MTV accused Nirvana of making the 80's hair bands go out of style--as true as it is.
I personally loved the 80's. I was heavily into New Order, INXS, U2, Tears For Fears, Run DMC, Beastie Boys, OMD. There was a moment in the early and mid-80's when the synthesizer sound turned up everywhere--whether it was electric strings or drums. It was everywhere.
Alot of the attire was sort of strange--the Miami Vice look was popular (pink suit coat over a grey shirt with white khakis and tennis shoes), or the Olivie Newton John video look of head and wrist colored sweatbands.
And last but not least, the grand prize of it all--Mullets!!
It seems like back then there was a struggle between hard rock hair bands and new wave. They both got alot of airplay, but each of them had their own fanbase. I've never met anyone who said they liked The Cure and Foreigner in the same sentence.
You can see alot of bands now trying to revive the 80's. I guess all you need is a synthesizer.

Answer 4

Me I didn't really like the soft rock and the sythnpop bands/artists of the early 1980s, they've had alot of horrible songs from that era, I didn't think that 1980-81 were very good years for the pop music.

The music however did get better in the mid 1980s with the freestyle music, the thrash metal bands and the hair metal bands, those were the greatest things that has happened in the 1980s.

I sure wish that today's music would be as fun and carefree like it was in the 1980s

Answer 5

I grew up in the 80's & I loved & still love the hair metal bands...Motley Crue, Whitesnake, White Lion, Great White, Slaughter, Bon Jovi, Cinderella, etc. I could go on. The 80's was just a great time for music. The commercial rock bands you listed I like, as well. Besides Heart being a good chick rock band, Lita Ford had the chops, too! \m/

Answer 6

I graduated high school in 1986 and the 80s was a very fun decade. While I was never into heavy metal that much, there is lots of 80s music that I like now that I didn't like back then. Foreigner and Journey were among my favorites and I sat in the second row of a Heart concert on their Bad Animals tour. I've even taught my 10-year-old daughter to appreciate 80s music. She loves Genesis and wants me to try and get her Phil Collins' autograph when we see them in concert next week.

Answer 7

I was working in bars during the 80's and heart was good and Journey was a great band. I still have it on a record and in great shape. I still listen to it sometimes. I also have Foreigners on a record. I also love to listen to the Kinks, and even though Stevie Nicks was in the 70's she was out in the 80's and still going strong. As so was Fleetword mac. and have everything they did. I have Stevie's records also with the album covers.. nope none or for sale. A lot of people say the 80's was a bad time for music, but if you listen to some of it, you can feel the passion of the music and untie with it and become one and it's lover. This is how I do with all my music I listen to. For music is an art, and only the one listening to it will really be the one to unite with it and feel it different than the person next to them.. For not all feel and love music as I do, and as you seem to do... So next time you listen to Bell A Donna Listen to the words of Leather and Lace.. Then email me at [e-mail] and tell me if you could not feel the passion in the song, and that you could not unite in the music of it. See each note as you closed your eyes... For Stevie Nicks has a way with her voice and words that no other does.

Answer 8

I love 80's music to death! It's my favorite. Almost all of the music I like is from the 80's. There were so many genres of music from the 80's and the music is unique. I love the hair bands, new wave, freestyle, anything form then. I'm 15 but I think the 80's has the best music. I think 80's music is WAY better then today's.

Answer 9

The decade was totally fabulous and awesome for the music. It didn't matter what was supposed to be a hit or wasnt supposed to make it. Folks choose for themselves and grooved on many different genereas. The sounds were big and so were the lyrics...hence why VH1 calls it the Big 80s. There was color and passion to the music as well...and when will it ever feel as good again?

Answer 10

my favorite decade as well, all though i like bands from other eras that had the collective best

i loved hair metal bands like def leppard and poison, but there was some genuine good music like guns n roses and aerosmith

and yeah, of course rock power ballds are an 80s classic trademark

great music, great fashion, great lifestyle, i would kill to have been born 20 years earlier :)