damosuzuki said:

Devo, Talking Heads, Sparks, Sonic Youth, The B-52's, R.E.M., The Cure, Siouxsie And The Banshees, Bad Brains...

add edit
[Edited 1/22/07 18:20pm]

damosuzuki said:

Prince, The Cure, New Order, Eurythmics, Talking Heads/Tom Tom Club, Human League, Siouxsie Sioux, etc.

sextonseven said:

Yeah, I can't disagree with anything there except REM who I really don't think were ever musically innovative. They started out sounding a lot like the byrds and gradually added a bit of VU-style edge as they went along. I like them fine, but I really have always seen them as musical retreads.


and a few of those bands (sparks, devo) fit almost as easily into the seventies maybe, kinda, in a way....

I've always though of the eighties mostly as a decade of musical reruns (the roots-rock/alt-rock movement, which mostly took its direction from the sixties) and of consolidation of the previous decade's new wave/glam movement. If you’d asked me earlier, I’d have only named a couple of tracks that I thought were really innovative - When Doves Cry would certainly qualify, some of the elecronic records of the early part of the decade, maybe...

but you're definitely right in raising SY, Bad Brains, American hardcore in general, though again the case could be made that they took their cues from the seventies (new wave/punk) and sixties (stooges/MC5).

polvo. oh god. so completely underrated.

jane's addiction. i lived for this stuff.

lungfish. what the hell?

dinosaur jr.

sebadoh.

hoover.

nation of ulysses.

i could go on forever.

the 90's, man.

Seemed crappy at the time

Holds up much better in retrospect

I like the visuals

Not a bad decade for music at all:

The Clash - Sandinista & Combat Rock (and London Calling in the US)
PIL - Metal Box, Album
The Smiths
Bruce Springsteen - The River, Nebraska, Tunnel of Love
Public Enemy
NWA
Ice T (he was good then)
LL Cool J (ditto)
Beastie Boys
Run DMC
George Michael/Wham
De La Soul - Three Feet High
Lou Reed - The Blue Mask, New Sensations, New York
John Cale - Honi Soit, Music For A New Society
Bob Dylan - Oh Mercy
David Bowie - Scary Monsters
Joy Division - Closer
The Jungle Brothers
Lloyd Cole - Rattlesnakes
Husker Du - Zen Arcade, Candy Apple Grey
Talking Heads - Remain In Light, Stop Making Sense, Speaking In Tongues
Brian Eno/David Byrne - My Life In The Bush of Ghosts
Nick Cave
Einstuerzende Neubauten
Prince
[Edited 1/23/07 1:02am]

no one meantioned Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush and Pet Shop Boys!

ein neu.

thats a damn good one.


but overall. music and fashion and everything else i still have to say it's not as great as i have pretended to remember.

most of the bands mentioned either started BEFORE the 80's or have endured AFTER the 80's though. thats not really an "80's" band then is it? i dont consider the cure (my favorite band) an 80's band.

the bands i like that stayed stuck in the 80s really probably didn't deserve much longevity anyhow.
strawberry switchblade (does anyone remember them?) were a pretty 80's band that i liked but, you know...they didn't develop much creatively.

and bauhaus, too. whom i ADORE were more a product of the 70's than the 80's. (and as a former deathrocker, i take issue with bauhaus being called "goth" when they were clearly more of an art-punk/glam band. but that's for another thread, clearly...)

i'm rambling now.
[Edited 1/23/07 5:16am]
[Edited 1/23/07 5:20am]

Shapeshifter said:

Why isn't Michael and Janet Jackson on the list?

DigUBetterDead said:

But most of their work comes from the 80s. They do transcend decades, but you can't argue with albums like Seventeen Seconds, Faith, Pornography, The Top, The Head on the Door, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me and Disintegration.

Moonbeam said:

I agree. If The Cure aren't an 80s band, then in which decade would you place them?

sextonseven said:

well i just wouldn't. i don't.

DigUBetterDead said:

Fair enough that they don't have to be restricted to a single decade, but during which decade do you think The Cure were at their peak? It would be hard to argue for anything but the 80s.

#1 Decade. 1970's!!

1) 1970's
2) 1980's
3) 1990's
4) 1960's
5) 1950's

Paisley4u said:

I could not have said that better myself. The only thing i'd like to add is that the 90's sucked in every way. The fashion and music were the worst.

I was born 1986... and didnt listen to music except for ONLY micheal jackson... until like 1997... and I Have to say after hearing songs from the 70's, 80's, 90
s and 2000's... when I compare each decade I have to say the 80's had the best music then the 70's, 90's and 2000's is last on the list because people like fergie, Gween stefani, and beyonce now makes music suck.. I forgot about Kanye west...

Music today is so boring and stupid... it can't compare to the great songs made during the 80's and 70's.... and even 90's. ... I think that even rap from the 80's and 90's sounds better then rap today....
No one wants to create timeless music anymore... they just want to make music for TODAY... and thats what it will be... music that will be number 1 on the charts but 10 years later no one will remember it...

Moonbeam said:

but 'wish' is one of my favorites!
honestly the cure are timeless to me. or, at least, have some forward momentum. i guess any obsessed fan would say the same thing about whomever their object of affection was, though. the 80's lasted forever and they were very prolific during that time, but their output is not just "80's" music to me. the easy cure 70's glam-trash stuff i love. the 80's synthy pop songs i love. the glove sideproject that was all psychedelic i loved. moody/post punk. they really span some time for me.

DigUBetterDead said:

Me too. They are also my favorite band. I think BloodFlowers ranks among their best work! But most of their great music does come from the 80s.

ElectricBlue said:

I agree with your first two choices,but the 60s would be Number 3 for me

The 70s RULE!!

TotalAlisa said:

well said!

SoulAlive said:

Agreed.

1. '70s
2. '80s
3. '60s
4. '90s

Moonbeam said:

For me the Cure are ultimate 80s. That's when they broke out.

Dead Kennedys

Krytonite said:

Because they don't rhyme with Einstürzende Neubauten.

Mazerati said:

Personally, I don't know why a lot of kids under 25 are so hellbent on Viacom networks and ClearChannel for new and interesting music. MTV and BET are NOT THE BUSINESS. I still don't know why people my age are just so stuck on fuckin' Beyonce and whatever, whatever, like, it's the only thing going.

You ain't gonna find the revolution thru Viacom/ClearChannel.

Most heads I know in my personal life have BEEN moved past MTV. Shit, I MOVED past MTV when I was damn 18 years old. That's some, like, high school, middle school shit, sitting around buying ringtones and relying on MTV. I'm sorry, but I don't know any heads doin' that. Music sales are down b/c we ain't around. The game has changed.

If you think Fergie, Gwen, 50, Fall Out Boy and Corrine Starbucks Ray are only thing worthwhile these days then I just chalk that up to individual laziness. There's a huge music world outside of Viacom and ClearChannel. And the 00's is DOPE, IMHO.

...
[Edited 1/24/07 19:47pm]

Mara said:

Like I said... Those people suck... even 50 cent... but I think fall out boy is okay...

Y'know what's overrated? The term "overrated".

I never understand who the fuck is rating decades of music.

Here's a newsflash; music is as cyclical as history. Trends come and go and if you look at music as in the signs of the times, you can take this all the way back to the 1920's. Music reflects the people and events of the times. That's what makes it beautiful, so rather than judge art from one decade to another, look at what else was going on in American culture and put it in context with the rest of music history before it. MTV changed music because it added a visual element to songs where as before people made up the visual element in their heads while listening. MTV has never been about the music and always about the corporate payoff.

Slave2daGroove said:

To add to that, to regard music in terms of taste and preferences is really secondary to me. I really look at music as a whole and how it works in the culture against everything else. I also like to approach it from a standpoint of humility, because then I am much more able to perceive what it actually is communicating outside of my own prejudice.

It especially bothers me when people compare works of a single artist, i.e. "That album was shit, that one was genius". To me, that is completely dismissing the artistic process. If an artist isn't experiencing failures or dips, then they're not taking risks. That's one thing that makes Prince such a true, real artist. If I love an artist, I am fascinated by everything they do, because it tells me something about their process and I can learn from it.

The '80s were awesome. A couple of tracks that sum it up for me.


Strawberry switchblade
http://www.youtube.com/wa...7QPBzAJ_io

Dream Academy
http://www.youtube.com/wa...f4q1XpJe6c

Psychedelic furs
http://www.youtube.com/wa...zMd-SYRVGQ

It seemed much more diverse then, although that's probably rose-tinted glasses.