Before Madonna Janet or Whitney became huge pop stars in the mid 80s. We seemed to forget about the female pop singers of the early 80s. Im curious to know your thoughts of was the most popular before MTV circa 1980 to 1983

My pick

Olivia Newton-John

Pat Benatar

Sheena Easton

Joan Jett

Irene Cara

Cyndi Lauper.

xperience319 said:

Cyndi Lauper.

I'd say Pat or Olivia had bigger media saturation than Cyndi during that timeperiod. Didn't Cyndi come out in 83 and peaked in 84? Sure she had a good three or four year ride if your asking about prior to 83, i'd say Pat or Olivia had bigger reigns.

With Greese, Zanadu and her country days leading up to the 80s, Olivia peeked in 80-83, starting with Magic (80), Physical (81) and ending with Heart Attack (82) so she gets my vote.

Is this true?

In 1981, Newton-John released her most successful studio album, the double platinum Physical. The title track, written by Steve Kipner and Terry Shaddick, spent ten weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100,^[28] matching the then record of most weeks spent at No. 1 in the rock era held by Debby Boone's You Light Up My Life. The single was certified platinum and it ultimately ranked as the biggest song of the decade. (In 2008, Billboard ranked the song No. 6 among all songs that charted in the 50-year history of the Hot 100.)^[29] "Physical" even earned Newton-John her only placement ever on the R&B Singles (No. 28) and Albums (No. 32) chart.

Wasn't it Diana Ross? Wasn't she like the biggest selling female artist prior to Madonna?

I thought Madonna and Cyndi were the biggest female pop stars in popularity, and would also give it to Pat.

In the earlier part of the early 80's, I think Diana Ross is still a good candidate(I agree she was considered the biggest female artist still), and Tina Turner had a massive comeback. It was probably during the late 90's and 00's Madonna was being called that over Diana.

[Edited 11/2/11 8:08am]

LOL @ the list of names.

Barbra Streisand. Commercially and critically.

Unholyalliance said:

Wasn't it Diana Ross? Wasn't she like the biggest selling female artist prior to Madonna?

Yes I forgot to put Diana Ross on the list she was still very popular. I remember the song 'Muscles' from 1981. Cyndi Lauper was not well known in 1980 and Tina Turner well I believe was on her way to a comeback.

Barbra Streisand (she is still the most successful and best-selling female singer in the history of the United States, and I think that it will remain forever, given the current sales of music production).

Cher, Tina Turner, Donna Summer, Diana Ross.

music divas of the old school.

Yeah I know Babs has the most #1 albums by a female or something like that. Love Cher and Diana too, got into them in the late 90's, and saw Cher when she was promoting Believe.

musicjunky318 said:

LOL @ the list of names.

Barbra Streisand. Commercially and critically.

Interesting...

Guilty is an album released by Barbra Streisand in 1980. After the success of the Bee Gees in 1977/1978 there was some time to perform songwriting for other artists and Barbra Streisand asked Barry Gibb to write an album for her.^[4] It became her best-selling album to date with sales (according to Streisand's official website) of over 20 million copies^[5] and was produced by the Bee Gees' Barry Gibb and the Bee Gees' regular production team of Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson.

Yet, this all happened in 1980. Babs then dissappeared till 84 with The Broadway Album. Soo---I'd say the verdict is still out. Let me see how much Physical sold. BRB.

Guitly owns Physical but Physical (the single) owned anything released from Guilty. Hmmm...

Physical is a 1981 MCA Records studio album by Olivia Newton-John. It is her most successful studio album, being certified double Platinum in the US.

sosgemini said:

Guitly owns Physical but Physical (the single) owned anything released from Guilty. Hmmm...

Physical is a 1981 MCA Records studio album by Olivia Newton-John. It is her most successful studio album, being certified double Platinum in the US.

She not only had Guilty but she also had Memories in 1981. Streisand's sales dwarf hers.

[Edited 11/2/11 8:55am]

musicjunky318 said:

sosgemini said:

Guitly owns Physical but Physical (the single) owned anything released from Guilty. Hmmm...

She not only had Guilty but she also had Memories in 1981. Streisand's sales dwarf hers.

[Edited 11/2/11 8:55am]

It's a greatest hits collection. Does that really count? Here's the info:

Memories is an album released by Barbra Streisand in 1981. It is primarily a compilation of previously released material, but includes three newly recorded songs. The album was certified 5x Platinum by the RIAA,^[2] reaching #10 on the US charts.

Her sales do own Newton John but when talking about "biggest", is it only about the sales? Isn't it about cultural impact, too?

Here's Diana's:

80- Diana- Platinum diana is a 1980 album by American R&B and soul singer Diana Ross, released by Motown. Her 11th studio album, it was, and still is, the biggest-selling studio collection of Ross' career.

81- Why Do Fools Fall In Love- Platinum Why Do Fools Fall in Love is a 1981 album released by American singer Diana Ross on the RCA label. It stands as one of the biggest-selling albums of Diana's 50 year career. It featured back-to-back Top 10 Pop hits with the title track and the rock-edged 'Mirror Mirror'.

82-Silk Electric- Gold Silk Electric is a 1982 album released by American singer Diana Ross on the RCA label. The album is most notable for its iconic Andy Warhol-designed^{[citation needed]} album cover of Ross and for the Top 10, Grammy-nominated single, "Muscles"^{[citation needed]}. It was the second album self-produced^{[citation needed]} by the singer except for the aforementioned hit, which was produced and written by Michael Jackson. The album was certified Gold for sales surpassing 500,000 units in the United States alone, eventually selling approximately 800,000 copies.

83- Ross (not certified) The album reached #32 on the US charts, #14 on the US R&B charts and #44 in the UK.

[Edited 11/2/11 9:14am]

I'm having fun researching all this stuff. Here's what else I found:'

Donna Summers, all of her 80-83 releases only went gold (including She Works Hard For The Money).

Pat Benatar, all of her 80-83 releases went platinum and she won four years in a row Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.

Tina Turner is out:

• Love Explosion (1979)
• Private Dancer (1984)

Did we miss anyone? It's looking like its Babs Streisand for the win. I guess because she never released videos that got MTV exposure, we forget her influence. Interesting...

Here's the 411 on Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun:

She's So Unusual is the debut studio album by American pop singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper, released in 1983 by Portrait Records. The album catapulted Lauper to stardom with such hits as "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", "Time After Time", "She Bop", "All Through the Night", and "Money Changes Everything", reached the top thirty of the Hot 100, with first four singles of them becoming Top 5 hits, became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album on the Billboard Hot 100.

Upon its release, the album received generally positive reviews from music critics. The album earned Lauper several awards and accolades, including two Grammy Awards at the 27th Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist. She's So Unusual peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 chart, stayed in the Billboard 200 top forty to sixty-five weeks, staying on the charts for 77 weeks. It has sold over 6 million copies in the United States and 16 million copies worldwide, became Lauper's best-selling album to date and is one of the best-selling albums of the 1980s decade.

Still looks like Babs holds.

I think;

- Diana Ross

- Tina Turner

- Barbra Streisand

- Pat Benatar

sosgemini said:

musicjunky318 said:

LOL @ the list of names.

Barbra Streisand. Commercially and critically.

Interesting...

Guilty is an album released by Barbra Streisand in 1980. After the success of the Bee Gees in 1977/1978 there was some time to perform songwriting for other artists and Barbra Streisand asked Barry Gibb to write an album for her.^[4] It became her best-selling album to date with sales (according to Streisand's official website) of over 20 million copies^[5] and was produced by the Bee Gees' Barry Gibb and the Bee Gees' regular production team of Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson.

Yet, this all happened in 1980. Babs then dissappeared till 84 with The Broadway Album. Soo---I'd say the verdict is still out. Let me see how much Physical sold. BRB.

Thank you Sosgemini for your research, Barbara Streisand certainly has a place on the list of pop singers who was big before MTV. I guess I shouldve composed my list based on sales.

musicjunky318 said:

LOL @ the list of names.

Barbra Streisand. Commercially and critically.

No offense, but how can you 'lol' at any of the answers in this thread? I don't even think you were even alive at this time.

What about Donna Summer?

sosgemini said:

Pat Benatar, all of her 80-83 releases went platinum and she won four years in a row Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.

this is pretty noteworthy, esp depending on how you define "pop star"

Babs had one album, and even if she sold the most she was not really pop star in my mind, but rather more of an adult contemporary kinda gal.

Pat Benetar & the others were still doing music for kids.

SoulAlive said:

What about Donna Summer?

good one!

pre-MTV???

Donna Summer

Diana Ross

Barbra Streisand

Cher

Olivia Newton-John

Carly Simon

for me, Joan Jett, Cindy, Madonna, Pat Benatar are completely MTV

[Edited 11/2/11 11:14am]

xLiberiangirl said:

SoulAlive said:

What about Donna Summer?

good one!

Summers barely cracked gold status during the 80's. she's not anywhere near Babs and Lauper in sales.

JoeTyler said:

pre-MTV???

Donna Summer

Diana Ross

Barbra Streisand

Cher

Olivia Newton-John

Carly Simon

for me, Joan Jett, Cindy, Madonna, Pat Benatar are completely MTV

[Edited 11/2/11 11:14am]

Carly Simon's career had already peeked. She released three albums during 80-83 and only one went gold. She did, however, have a gold record hit with Jesse.

Cher was musically irrelevant during this time-period. She released two albums during the period and both flopped.

sosgemini said:

JoeTyler said:

pre-MTV???

Donna Summer

Diana Ross

Barbra Streisand

Cher

Olivia Newton-John

Carly Simon

for me, Joan Jett, Cindy, Madonna, Pat Benatar are completely MTV

[Edited 11/2/11 11:14am]

Carly Simon's career had already peeked. She released three albums during 80-83 and only one went gold. She did, however, have a gold record hit with Jesse.

Cher was musically irrelevant during this time-period. She released two albums during the period and both flopped.

uh? oh, ok, if we're talking about 79-83 then it's def Diana Ross, Pat Benatar, and Olivia, and maybe Kim Carnes

Hmm, 1980-1983? What about Linda Ronstadt? Or was she passed her peak by then?

Radio was kind of a hodgepodge in the late 70s-early 80s, to me, it was a very mellow sounding period of time, even though there's plenty of music to indicate otherwise. Talking about top 40 pop music. Some new wave made it on the charts, but then you go look at Billboard and it's Air Supply or Christopher Cross.

Anything that's considered "before MTV" is 1980, but MTV was airing a lot of music videos made in '78-81 so I'm sure it created renewed interest in some songs due to how much they were getting played.

Madonna never played Central Park. Diana did. Barbra did, too (Lady Gaga didn't do a full length show there...yet).

Diana - Endless Love, It's My Turn, I'm Coming Out, Upside Down.

The original reason why music labels gave budget for a video had to do with the logistics of touring Australia in the 60s and 70s. Which is why a lot of early MTV were Australian and British bands.

Streisand did videos in the mid 80s on, but after "Guilty" (which was a good way for the Bee Gees to deal with the disco backlash) she threw herself into doing "Yentl" for the next few years, so she fell off the radar for a while.

Carly Simon was more of a 70s artist, and towards the end of the 70s she had "You Belong To Me" and "Nobody Does It Better". But she did make a bunch of music videos, and I think the "Working Girl" movie helped revive her career a bit.

Pat Benatar had hits prior to MTV, but had already made videos, so MTV already had something of hers to play.

Blondie was pretty big in 1980, MTV played what already existed as far as videos went.

There's a lot of names of singers and bands from the pre MTV era you could throw in, but a lot of them just had the one hit then a few years later, got played on MTV. Laura Branigan, Bonnie Tyler, Kim Wilde, Berlin, The Motels, Quarterflash. Stevie Nicks had her first solo album and timing couldn't have been better as far as MTV went. Captain and Tennille, Carpenters had still been putting songs out and still had popularity.

Bette Midler had done "The Rose" and the HBO specials helped bring her into the 80s.

Pointer Sisters had a fair amount of hits without the help of MTV, then of course Beverly Hills Cop came out and had a nice success when they made the videos.

Dolly Parton had pop hits with 9 to 5, and Here You Come Again. So you can also say she was the "biggest" pop star at the time.

Even though Chic and ABBA might not count as being "female pop stars", their songs were hits prior to MTV.