MotownSubdivision said:

I do recall there being complaints of how music was becoming/ became superficial because of the music video in 1985. Many of the complaints we have about mainstream music today were addressed at the time. Critics complained about how it was more style over substance and how it seemed anybody with a synthesizer was able to have a hit. Despite how much I enjoy the year, I still can't really disagree with the legitimacy of those complaints. Fans and critics also seemed to have switched places somewhat today with more criticism coming from music listeners and more blind adoration from critics.

It was a valid point, most of the music of 1985 was very mechanised with electric guitars, electric drums, synthesisers, synth drums, rolands, moogs and clavinovas. Also it was the peak year of leectro pop which relied on heavily rhythmic synthesised melodies. Today we compain about sampling and autotune, well in 85 this was their equivalent of autotune.

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Until about 1975 the only electric instruments used in most pop music were guitars and bass, the fake sounds flew in the face of the early/mid 1970s long haired hippy act playing a wooden guitar and some more hippies blowing pipes and playing guitars made out of appalcahian forest wood, and girls playing Mandolins and Jethro Tull with their flutes and medieval hippy imagery

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Some of the sex soul of the mid 70s became very electronic and the first wave of disco in 1975/76 was very synthesised, as disco caught on, so did electronic music, synths, keys, drums and processed vocals. With its death in 1980, synth pop grew out of its ashes. Anything one could dance too (Blue light discos anyone?)

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There was almost no acoustic guitars or drums in mid 1980s music - a lot of 1990s and even late 1980s music(Travelling Wilburys) saw a return to more organic instruments and of course acts like Garth Brookswho bought back acoustic music. Nirvana and Eric Clapton did unplugged albums as part of a 1990s fad towards more organic sounding music.

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Meanwhile artificial sounds ruled pop and funk/soul music from this period onwards. Urban grooves and techno would take off in 1987/88 and drew inspiration from the JVC and Roland organ based groups of the 1984/85 era. It was the year too, that keyboard wizards Pet Shop Boys got their start with Westend girls hitting at the end of 1985.

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Also not all of 1985's synth pop was great or successful, there are many dreadful songs and acts like Baltimora, that gay sounding dude who sang Imagination and even Dead or Alive was overrated keyboard crap. If anything, many of lesser talented Keyboard/synthesiser groups fell off after 1985/86. Groups like THompson Twins, Culture Club, Wham, Kajagoogoo/Limahl and others lost their edge as the 80s wore on. Some synthesiser based acts, only ever had the one hit and faded into obscurity (Can anyone name a second hit song by Kajagoogoo, Dead or Alive, Mathew Wilder, Belouis sans, Baltimora, Freur).

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Synthesised pop evolved into house and pop rap, songs like 1989's Technotronic's Pump up the Jam and Ride on Time by Black box were the next stage of Synthesised Pop, and then in the 1990s rubbish like Ace of Base andVengaboys came along. It should be noted too that most heavily synthed out music was European in nature as it was German and Italian men who started the first wave of Eurodisco with acts like Donna Summer and Boney M, and then we had post disco with acts like Kano, late 80s house with Black box and then the Nordic groups like Ace of Base, Aha, Aqua and Vengaboys after 1985 to 2000.

1983 is when the 80s really became the 80s,if you know what I mean

SoulAlive said:

1983 is when the 80s really became the 80s,if you know what I mean

Yes totally, 1980 and 1981 still have a seventies feel. Especially when many acts still had flares, permed hair, hippy hair and wide lapelled shirts well into the 80s.

Adorecream said:

Some synthesiser based acts, only ever had the one hit and faded into obscurity (Can anyone name a second hit song by Kajagoogoo, Dead or Alive, Mathew Wilder, Belouis sans, Baltimora, Freur).

Sure, Dead or Alive got to #15 in the US with "Brand New Lover" two years after "You Spin Me Round." I loved both of those songs but did not like any other acts produced by Stock-Aitken-Waterman that I recall. (Dead or Alive also had a handful of big club hits that didn't make it so high on the pop chart.)

SoulAlive said:

1983 is when the 80s really became the 80s,if you know what I mean

Fair point, the 70's sound on all the charts bled over into the early 80's. Many of the chart-toppers in '82 were holdover acts from the 70s. But 1982 saw 1999 andThriller, drop, along with a bunch of 80's classics, like "I Ran," "Tainted Love," "Don't You Want Me," "Only The Lonely," "Sexual Healing."

That's the reason I;'d argue for '82-'84 being the best stretch of the decade. Overall, IMHO 1982 is a stronger year than 1985.

The entire 1980s on the pop/rock side were pretty good. However, on the R&B side, the early 1980s up until 1984 were the absolute best. Damn near everything was good during those early years. 1985 was the beginning of the downfall though. A certain little Miss Goodie Two Shoes made it big doing dull adult contemporary mess, which influenced countless others (some of them even more boring than her) and less and less funk was being made and slow jams stopped having a sexy after midnight "bring a stranger home at 3 a.m." feel and started having a family friendly adult contemporary type feel.

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[Edited 9/15/16 12:43pm]

namepeace said:

Adorecream said:

1980-1985 was an awesome stretch of time for music in my opinion. You could synths and drum machines sneak in further and further over the years and I have to say I LOVE IT!! I was mainly into disco, funk and boogie music but loved the whole new wave thing as well.

1985 is my personal favorite year. The computerized gloss (drummachines, synthesizers, sequencers, vocoders, reverb/delay) was turned up to the max, but the funk was still there.

Things turned sour soon after though. As soon as in 1986 I was getting worried about where music was heading. Digital synths and samplers started creeping in and the sound of the production became less warm to my ears. And much worse even, funk levels were dropping quickly and made way for very safe and bland MOR music.

I spent most of the rest of the 80's delving into 60's and 70's music (classic rock and funk/R&B) as I couldn't really get into the new music that was played on the radio anymore.

[Edited 9/16/16 14:26pm]

funkaholic1972 said:

1980-1985 was an awesome stretch of time for music in my opinion. You could synths and drum machines sneak in further and further over the years and I have to say I LOVE IT!! I was mainly into disco, funk and boogie music but loved the whole new wave thing as well.

1985 is my personal favorite year. The computerized gloss (drummachines, synthesizers, sequencers, vocoders, reverb/delay) was turned up to the max, but the funk was still there.

Things turned sour soon after though. As soon as in 1986 I was getting worried about where music was heading. Digital synths and samplers started creeping in and the sound of the production became less warm to my ears. And much worse even, funk levels were dropping quickly and made way for very safe and bland MOR music.

I spent most of the rest of the 80's delving into 60's and 70's music (classic rock and funk/R&B) as I couldn't really get into the new music that was played on the radio anymore.

I feel the same way! In the late 80s,I noticed that alot of music was beginning to sound too "cold and mechanical".Synths and drum machines had taken over.On the R&B side,new jack swing was becoming popular and all of a sudden,funk bands were becoming obsolete.I really love the first half of the 80s but after 1986,I began re-discovering the 70s music that I grew up.

funkaholic1972 said:

To me that year was 1987 with the rise of house music, which in my opinion is rubbish. Songs like Pump up the Volume by MARRS and anything by S Express. Of course I lived in NZ, which is 1987 was stuck in 1952, so this music may have been 1986 for all I know in the modern world.

All this synthesised digital shit with KORGS and MOOGs that had sampled in lines. There was one precursor in 1985 with the song 19 by Paul Hardcastle, just a series of samples and keyboard sounds. The song was a monster hit in the British world and I can not understand why.

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1989/90 was worse with arrival of so called ecstacy typemusic acts like the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and other drugged out looking people with sloppy sweatshirts and long hippy hair. Then you had true crap like Guru Josh and Jesus Jones into 1991 - yuk. Even worse was that the era of plaid green shirts, ripped jeans and poor dental health was ushered in with grunge, the worst musical trend of all time with exception of shit hop and heavy/death metal.

MotownSubdivision said:

funkaholic1972 said:

1980-1985 was an awesome stretch of time for music in my opinion. You could synths and drum machines sneak in further and further over the years and I have to say I LOVE IT!! I was mainly into disco, funk and boogie music but loved the whole new wave thing as well.

1985 is my personal favorite year. The computerized gloss (drummachines, synthesizers, sequencers, vocoders, reverb/delay) was turned up to the max, but the funk was still there.

Things turned sour soon after though. As soon as in 1986 I was getting worried about where music was heading. Digital synths and samplers started creeping in and the sound of the production became less warm to my ears. And much worse even, funk levels were dropping quickly and made way for very safe and bland MOR music.

I spent most of the rest of the 80's delving into 60's and 70's music (classic rock and funk/R&B) as I couldn't really get into the new music that was played on the radio anymore.

[Edited 9/16/16 14:26pm]

If you want to extend the streak back to 1980 then I'm willing to compromise. 1986, almost like 1980-82 feels like a year of transition. In 1986, the need to cross over for non-pop and adult contemporary black artists had once again become redundant just as it did about 20 years prior in the late 60s up until the very late 70s/ early 80s. Here's an article on 1986 that makes some other fair points and addresses other things about the year: http://eightiesclub.tripo.../id217.htm [Edited 9/16/16 14:42pm]

And no mention of Parade or anything Prince did, except for Kiss being a #1 hit. Parade is near perfect album and we all know it.

Adorecream said:

MotownSubdivision said:

Furthermore, many artists at or over the age of 35 including many in their 40's tipped the charts in 1986. Here's an excerpt from the December 27 edition of Billboard (I don't know how to post screenshots so I'm just going to type): It was also a good year for older artists. Nearly half of the 30 singles to top the Hot 100 through mid-December were by artists over 35. And five of the year's No. 1 hits were by artists over 40. Starship's Grace Slick is 47, Dionne Warwick is 46, and Peter Cetera and Patti Labelle are both 42. Also pushing 40 are Boston's Tom Schotz, 39, and Robert Palmer and Steve Winwood, both 37. There was no single dramatic comeback in 1986 to compare with Tina Turner's 1984 resurgence, but rather good showings by a wide range of acts, from Starship and Heart to Paul Simon and Moody Blues. In the most surprising comeback, the Monkees placed seven albums on the chart simultaneously in November." So 1986 not only saw black artists not having to resort to pop or AC sounding music to reach a wider audience (thanks to Janet Jackson, Anita Baker and others) but "over the hill" 35+ year old artists like the aforementioned were scoring chart topping hits and enjoying great mainstream success en masse. Yeah, 1986 if anything is an underrated year. It obviously isn't perfect and has its cons (like any other year) but it was an important year for broadening the scope of who and what was allowed to be popular in a big way, a standard which held up for the next 20+ years. Also, the groundwork was laid late in the year for rock music (particularly metal) to be more successful in the years to come with Bon Jovi rising to the occasion the following year and busting down the doors for many a rock band to have bigger mainstream success. We could desperately use a 1986 these days. [Edited 9/17/16 10:00am]

The groundwork for rock bands was already set by Van Halen in 1984.

Boston was considered a huge comeback as nobody expected a 70s era song like Amanda to be as huge as it was in 1986. That Third Stage album from Boston sold 3 million units within a month. It took the industry by surprise.

And you had other 70s bands like Kansas trying to cash in on the craze with their album, Power along with the 1987 resurgence of Eric Carmen's Hungry Eyes which was his first hit in 11 years.

MotownSubdivision said:

Furthermore, many artists at or over the age of 35 including many in their 40's tipped the charts in 1986. Here's an excerpt from the December 27 edition of Billboard (I don't know how to post screenshots so I'm just going to type): It was also a good year for older artists. Nearly half of the 30 singles to top the Hot 100 through mid-December were by artists over 35. And five of the year's No. 1 hits were by artists over 40. Starship's Grace Slick is 47, Dionne Warwick is 46, and Peter Cetera and Patti Labelle are both 42. Also pushing 40 are Boston's Tom Schotz, 39, and Robert Palmer and Steve Winwood, both 37. There was no single dramatic comeback in 1986 to compare with Tina Turner's 1984 resurgence, but rather good showings by a wide range of acts, from Starship and Heart to Paul Simon and Moody Blues. In the most surprising comeback, the Monkees placed seven albums on the chart simultaneously in November." So 1986 not only saw black artists not having to resort to pop or AC sounding music to reach a wider audience (thanks to Janet Jackson, Anita Baker and others) but "over the hill" 35+ year old artists like the aforementioned were scoring chart topping hits and enjoying great mainstream success en masse. Yeah, 1986 if anything is an underrated year. It obviously isn't perfect and has its cons (like any other year) but it was an important year for broadening the scope of who and what was allowed to be popular in a big way, a standard which held up for the next 20+ years. Also, the groundwork was laid late in the year for rock music (particularly metal) to be more successful in the years to come with Bon Jovi rising to the occasion the following year and busting down the doors for many a rock band to have bigger mainstream success. We could desperately use a 1986 these days. [Edited 9/17/16 10:00am]

Yet Tina Turner released her second album of her comeback in late 1986 - Break every rule and I am sure Typical Male was a hit at the end of the year. Turner was 47. The oldest artist though may have been Bill Wyman who had reached 50 that year. Wyman was inthe Stones who hit with the Harlem Shuffle in mid 1986 (Not to be confused with the viral dance craze of a few years ago).

MichaelJackson5 said:

Adorecream said:

MotownSubdivision said:

MichaelJackson5 said:

MotownSubdivision said:

namepeace said:

Fair point, the 70's sound on all the charts bled over into the early 80's. Many of the chart-toppers in '82 were holdover acts from the 70s. But 1982 saw 1999 andThriller, drop, along with a bunch of 80's classics, like "I Ran," "Tainted Love," "Don't You Want Me," "Only The Lonely," "Sexual Healing."

That's the reason I;'d argue for '82-'84 being the best stretch of the decade. Overall, IMHO 1982 is a stronger year than 1985.

1981 planted the seeds for what was yet to come later in the decade. '82 is where the flowers continued growing before blooming in 1983 and doing so en masse and sprouting fruit in 1984. Like vainandy said, the early 80's were great years, particularly on the black side which was experimental and progressive. However, nothing was really lighting the world on fire those years, sure soft rock was big but nothing extraordinary. Record sales were down and labels were making major cuts to stay afloat. The early 80's were years of transition for music; from 1980-82, the industry didn't really know its identity or what it wanted to be other than financially healthy although the ground was being laid for the explosive years the 80's are remembered for. [Edited 9/16/16 6:51am] [Edited 9/16/16 8:55am]

I understand; I think we're having a chicken-egg dialogue: what makes a year better -- the year the music was released, or, the year(s) the music hit big? There are valid reasons for either side; I take the former.

You make good points about the early 80's,yet and still, you had the two titans of the decade, Prince and Michael Jackson, releasing 2 of the top 10 albums of the entire decade (if not rock music all-time) in the same year. I can't think of any albums released in 1985 that match 1999 or Thriller, and I think there is a critical mass of singles from '82 that belong in the 80's canon of pop classics. Taken as a whole, 1982 is my year in the trio, as opposed to 1985.

Fun dialogue!

^ 1984 did have just about all the big names who formed the 80's

(with at least 1 hit) and quite a few big names leftover from the 70s,

along with many memorable one hit wonders....

Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna, Huey Lewis, Phil Collins, Lionel Richie, John Cougar,

George Michael (Wham!), Bruce Springsteen, Whitney Houston, Hall & Oates, Stevie Wonder,

Elton John, Billy Joel, Sheena Easton, Pointer Sisters, Kool & The Gang, Chicago, Rod Stewart,

Cyndi Lauper, Olivia Newton-John, Diana Ross, Billy Ocean, Kenny Loggins, Donna Summer,

Rick Springfield, Culture Club.....

and there was no shortage of a Jackson: The Jacksons, Michael, Jermaine, Janet, Latoya & Rebbie all made an appearance on some kind of music chart in 1984!

Comser said:

MotownSubdivision said:

lest we forget MJ lending his voice to Rockwell's huge hit "Somebody's Watching Me"

and the #1 Dance song "Tell Me I'm not Dreaming" (featuring both Michael & Jermaine)

Whitney was also featured on Jermaine's 1984 album with "Take Good Care Of My Heart"

and a PS to my earlier post....how the hell did I forget Ms Tina Turner, who had one

of the best comebacks ever with Private Dancer!

and don't overlook the fact Lionel Richie got the Album Of The Year Grammy

for Can't Slow Down

[Edited 9/20/16 7:52am]