should ahve been a rock star- 80's songs that don't suck

Eighties songs that don’t suck

OK… I admit that a lot of the music of the eighties is equivalent to the French Rococo art style. Frivolous, pointless and gaudy. To get rid of that, French peasants ran amok, burned, looted and generally started a revolution. Ok, that is simplifying the French revolution a little, but…..a good listen to the typical 80’s play list would give you the idea.
Now, I know stereotyping is wrong and saying all 80’s music sucks is a n unfair generality. It didn’t. There were the consistent performers, many of who had started their careers in the 70’s and 60’s who still cranked out some impressive music during the 80’s. But, the advent of MTV definitely threw a curveball at the pop music genre. Pre-video channel, it didn’t take a pretty boy to crank out a fantastic guitar solo (see Jimi) or a beautiful woman to get a number one hit, ala Janis Joplin. The faces on video brought in a while new emphasis on the music.
OK. 80’s music is diverse in some ways. There were still remnants of the 70’s punk movement who even managed to get on MTV despite their less than charming looks. The Clash rocked the Kasbah and gave birth to a new movement of music, the New Wave that borrowed heavily from 70’s punk with a touch of early 60’s garage band influence mixed in. It produced a few better dressed, but still snarling musicians such as Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson and the Pretenders.
Late 60’s and 70’s heavy metal still survived, but took a fashion twist from the glam rock of the 70’s. David Bowie gave birth to spandex, long hair metal. Def Leppard, Poison, White Snake, and Guns n’ Roses ground out the decibels album after album for those more inclined to feel their ears bleed with a melodic metal sledge hammer.

The giants of music played on. Billy Joel and Elton John had video hits hat played often. Even ex-Beatles McCartney, Lennon and Harrison graced the music channels. U2 gained more and more momentum throughout the 80’s to become one of the biggest bands in the world.

Stiil, those bands are not who wee think of when we consider the music of the 80’s. It had a peculiar sound. There was synthesizer. There was an influx of dance music. The 80’s took Glam, romanticism, synthesizers and video to create something that while not always lasting, served at least as a temporary distraction for a fascinated TV crowd.
The true 80’s sound was like the old cliché’ about Chinese food. Listen to it and an hour later you’re hungry again. It was not truly filling or satisfying in most cases. It was Milli Vanilli. It was Soft Cell and “tainted Love.” It was Spandau Ballet and OMD. It was ABC and Bananarama. It was Boy George in drag with Culture Club and The Cure singing “Friday I’m in Love.”
Thomas Dolby Blinded Us With Science” and Duran Duran dressed the part of the new romantics and sang about “Rio.” The icing on the 80’s sound was Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Flock of Seagulls, and the Human League.
They all had hits. And for some reason, no matter how much I wanted to know what I had to do to “Wang Chung” tonight, I just could not see most of that music as permanent and lasting.

Some of the music definitely did not suck. The 80’s were gracious enough to give us some thoughtful gems and quirky experiments. The Talking heads twisted our brains with lyrics both hard to decipher and seemingly meaningless. The Police introduced a whole new population to Reggae music. Reggae fests soon began to appear everywhere.

PatBenetar could belt out a song, just as could Cindi Lauper. Elvis Costello turned out to be quite the wordsmith. Prince cut out a niche as a great musician and songwriter despite the fact he took the stage in a G-string in his early days. Madonna has definitely become a music icon in her own right, if not for her music then her ability to recreate herself over and over.
I could never list AHA’s “Take on Me” or Kajagoogoo’s “Too Shy” in my top 80’s sound list, and would probably not be seen dead at their concert despite the fact I let myself be talked into going to an 80s’s concert in which Flock of Seagulls performed. The shame!

Ok… so my list of 80’s sound music that does not suck follows….
1. Church of the Poison Mind- Culture Club
2. Burning Down the House – the Talking Heads
3. When Doves Cry by Prince
4. Melt with you- Modern English
5. Life in a Northern Town- Dream Academy
6. From a Whisper to a Scream- Icicle Works
7. Blister in the Sun- Violent Femmes
8. We’ve Got the Beat – the Go Gos
9. Eternal Flame – the Bangles
10. I Don’t Like Mondays- Boomtown Rats
11. Money Changes Everything- Cindi Lauper
12. Pink Houses – John Mellencamp
13. Steam – Peter Gabriel
14. Sister Christian – Night Ranger
15. Losing M Religion – REM
16. Tempted – The Squeeze
17. Shout – Tears For Fears
18. Jenny 867-5309 – Tommy Tutone
19. Whole Wide World – Wreckless Eric
20. Total Eclipse of the Heart – Bonnie Tyler
21. Turning Japanese- the Vapors
22. Voices carry – Til Tuesday
23. Beds are Burning – Midnight Oil
24. Fake Plastic Trees- Radiohead
25. White Wedding – Billy Idol

Now, there are some songs that are identified as the 80's but actually released in the 70's. I excluded those. Elvis Cosstello's great LP, "My Aim is True" contains the song Allison. Joe Jackson's "Look Sharp" with "Is She Really Going Out With Him," the Knack's "My Sharona" and the 80's and MTV classic "Video Killed the Radio Star " by the Buggles. "Video" was released just 3 months before 1980. It did go on to be the theme of a new video music generation.

Now, a lot of these people have multiple songs that don’t suck. And. , a lot of artists had great tunes, but most of the had sounds that were not 80’s sounds. They were the bands who started in another era and continued through this desert without many musical oasis.

Sure, there were bands that sucked in other eras. The 80’s has no monopoly on that. It just seems that the advent of the music video brought a lot of groups to the screen who fit the look, and seemed more manufactured than the bands of the 70’s or 80’s.
That Fact was illustrated by the Video by BLues Traveler, in which a visual band, headed by a thin singer and cool looking musicians lip synced on stage while the real band, fronted by the more than ample JohnPopper played behind a screen.

Ah... the 80's.