I was just watching Janet's Miss You Much video tonight and I noticed something...

Have you noticed that the whole pop vibe of the late 1980's, and the first two years of the '90s was very INDUSTRIAL.

Think about it...

- Janet's Rhythm Nation 1814 was shot in stark, black and white. Plus the entire album sounded very industrial and like a machine.
- Prince's Batdance and 200 Balloons were very dark and gothic
- Madonna's Express Yourself was shot in factory. Vogue was in black and white, too.
- The Batman movie with Jack Nicholson was huge at the time.
- The "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" movie was huge and was set in the '40s.
- Dick Tracy was a huge movie and was also set in the '40s.

I noticed from 1988-1991 it was this collective stark and industrial period in popular culture.

What was influencing this whole era of dark, man-machine type visuals?

Can you add some examples?

Robocop. Robocop was the influence, seriously, a lot of folks were calling it one of the best movies ever made.

Novabreaker said:

Yep. That's *definitely* another one to add.

And we can't forget about the action movies at this time, HIGHLY influential on pop music, too. Movies like...

TERMINATOR 1 & 2: JUDGEMENT DAY
THE RUNNING MAN (was a hugely popular hip hop dance at this time, too)

Yeah. This was a really popular motif that alot of artists went for at the time. That whole industrial age, post-apocaliptic vibe was in full effect.

I think the loud snares that thesexofit dubs as New Jack sometimes falls into this industrial catagory.

Pretty Hate Machine came out then too, and it sounded like a Prince record to me.

JANFAN4L said:

totally sexofit's turf but..

remember the video for "Here We Go" by C+C Music Factory?

CinisterCee said:

Yup. I remember it. It was set in a hot steamy factory with dudes in hardhats and stuff, a typical video from this era. Wasnt that 1991?
[Edited 4/1/06 8:31am]

dreamfactory313 said:

Yup.

CinisterCee said:

Yet another example of industrialism in pop at the time! The whole Acid House scene with acts like Technotronic, Black Box, Snap's "I'VE GOT THE POWER" (remember the beat to that song, it was just hard and grinding). Today it sounds dated, but back then that song was the sh*t!

CinisterCee said:

I got that video LOL. Very homoerotic.

Chukki booker had that "indutrial" sound down too, u may know i love chukki booker. "turned away" is one of my fav songs ever.

Cinistercee, u raise an interesting point about what was considered pop and what was newjack or vice-versa.

Glenn medeiros "she ain't worth it", i call that newjack pop LOL. I know, its made up. Janets "1814" is not newjack, BUT "alright" is (particually if u own the video version with heavy)

Calloways "i wanna be rich" is not really newjack, but its hard where to draw the line sometimes (the snares on that are treble bustin' good). Particually for me, as i did not know what songs made the newjack clubs and what didn't, on the fact that i wasn't there


Full force got some newjack with "dont waste my time" (which sounds like the track they did with jasmine guy called "try me", which i also consider newjack).

Die Warzau's Welcome To America and EMF's Unbelievable come to mind.