TonyVanDam said:

LiLi1992 said:

I do not think 1989 was great for music, but "the worst year for mainstream music"?
it's not even the worst year in the 80's ..

Exactly. And this is one more reason why I think from reading the opening post that 2Point5D might be younger than most of us, meaning that the early 1980's may have been before his/her time.

Stay on-topic, if I was going to pinpoint a weak moment in the 1980's concerning mainstream pop culture, It was definitely 80-82 (before Michael Jackson's Thriller album was release) because that was a transitition period after disco "died" in the 1980. Around this time, there were plenty of country artists that were having crossover pop success. And adult contempory artists (when the genre was still called soft-rock at the time) was the definitely sound of the early 1980's. Remember, Christopher Cross damn nearly became the King Of Pop!


The "death" of disco was totally nonsense, given by the fact that genre was a foundation of Chicago's house, NYC's garage, and Itaty's italo-house respectfully on an underground level. And also, r&b/soul radio stations were not negatively effected by the translation period of 80-82 because funk was still alive and well, especially when that genre became more synth-driven and much more different from the horn-driven era of the 1970's. The hip-hop/rap culture was still young, underground-level, and not full-time mainstream yet. But yet, it was defintely cutting edge when electro was THE hip-hop sound of the moment. And it was all good timing when Kool & The Gang, Michael Jackson, & Prince help spearheaded the post-disco era in the mainstream that the 1980's needed soon after.

I was a huge fan of Christopher Cross

mrjun18 said:

I'd easily take 1989 over recent years in mainstream music.

Totally agree, pretty much everything post about 1998 mainstream, has me gritting my teeth.

SoulAlive said:

TonyVanDam said:

if I was going to pinpoint a weak moment in the 1980's concerning mainstream pop culture, It was definitely 80-82 (before Michael Jackson's Thriller album was release) because that was a transitition period after disco "died" in the 1980. Around this time, there were plenty of country artists that were having crossover pop success. And adult contempory artists (when the genre was still called soft-rock at the time) was the definitely sound of the early 1980's. Remember, Christopher Cross damn nearly became the King Of Pop!


The "death" of disco was totally nonsense, given by the fact that genre was a foundation of Chicago's house, NYC's garage, and Itaty's italo-house respectfully on an underground level. And also, r&b/soul radio stations were not negatively effected by the translation period of 80-82 because funk was still alive and well, especially when that genre became more synth-driven and much more different from the horn-driven era of the 1970's. The hip-hop/rap culture was still young, underground-level, and not full-time mainstream yet. But yet, it was defintely cutting edge when electro was THE hip-hop sound of the moment. And it was all good timing when Kool & The Gang, Michael Jackson, & Prince help spearheaded the post-disco era in the mainstream that the 1980's needed soon after.

I disagree that "transition period" that you mentioned,resulted in some of the best funk and R&B music of the 80s.Rick James' 'Street Songs'....Kool and The Gang's 'Something Special'....EW&F's 'Raise' (arguably their best album of the 80s)....Luther Vandross' debut album 'Never Too Much'....etc

The best R&B music of the 80s was made in the first few years of that decade,imo.

Excuse you, but you missed the part when I said that "r&b/soul radio stations were not negatively affected by the translation period of 80-82 because funk was still alive and well, especially when that genre became more synth-driven and much more different from the horn-driven era of the 1970's". Please re-read my pervious post.

[Edited 8/11/13 5:39am]

Scorp said:

TonyVanDam said:

Exactly. And this is one more reason why I think from reading the opening post that 2Point5D might be younger than most of us, meaning that the early 1980's may have been before his/her time.

Stay on-topic, if I was going to pinpoint a weak moment in the 1980's concerning mainstream pop culture, It was definitely 80-82 (before Michael Jackson's Thriller album was release) because that was a transitition period after disco "died" in the 1980. Around this time, there were plenty of country artists that were having crossover pop success. And adult contempory artists (when the genre was still called soft-rock at the time) was the definitely sound of the early 1980's. Remember, Christopher Cross damn nearly became the King Of Pop!


The "death" of disco was totally nonsense, given by the fact that genre was a foundation of Chicago's house, NYC's garage, and Itaty's italo-house respectfully on an underground level. And also, r&b/soul radio stations were not negatively effected by the translation period of 80-82 because funk was still alive and well, especially when that genre became more synth-driven and much more different from the horn-driven era of the 1970's. The hip-hop/rap culture was still young, underground-level, and not full-time mainstream yet. But yet, it was defintely cutting edge when electro was THE hip-hop sound of the moment. And it was all good timing when Kool & The Gang, Michael Jackson, & Prince help spearheaded the post-disco era in the mainstream that the 1980's needed soon after.

I was a huge fan of Christopher Cross

Has anyone heard from Christopher since 1982?

lastdecember said:

Well from that list i would take off EXPOSE, they are a really good female group actually, New Kids on the Block actually now are 100 times better than the BS groups in Pop and RB. The Bangles were LONG before 1989, there first album was in 1982, they formed in the later 70's, i would only site their decline was when Walk Like an Egyptian was forced on them, no one in the group wanted to do it, also they had a brutal producer that broke them up, and doing that Prince song though a big hit, didnt really help their cred as this punk rock band. As for transitions 1989 can be viewed as that period where DANCE was going out and there was this mix of rap and rb starting, which to me lead to a crappy decade in RB for the most part, RB all of a sudden in the 90's had nothing to do with playing, it was all about sex and image, and no substance at all, how many RB groups can we name that fell into this 112, Next, Shai etc....not one form of an instrument, and then it merged with Rap and BYEBYE it went. The transition spoken of 1980-82 u had a mix of things going on, it was very diverse so i can never compare those times with these, id fucking kill for Air Supply and Rick james on the radio as opposed to what is on there now, shit dont even come close.

I actually agree with the Vh-1 Behind The Music episode when the narrator mention that Walk Like an Egyptian was the beginning of the end of the The Bangles as a "rock" band. But in my professional opinion, Eternal Flame was the real final nail to the coffin.

TonyVanDam said:

Scorp said:

I was a huge fan of Christopher Cross

Has anyone heard from Christopher since 1982?

Actually though not mainstream obviously, though none of these artists get attention still, CHristopher just released a cd dvd combo a few weeks ago, and has had a few more solo records in the last decade, but not surprising that no one really knows because its not mainstream or news, i mean most of the 80's artists still have new stuff but really how many still know that

I've been sayin' this for years

mainstream popular music started its decline during the late 80's

the early 90's were a rush of fresh air to the brain...

Expose shits all over Bangles, Go-Gos, Bananarama, and The Pointer Sisters. Their singles which weren't big hits didn't sound like skippable filler.

Hudson said:

Expose shits all over Bangles, Go-Gos, Bananarama, and The Pointer Sisters. Their singles which weren't big hits didn't sound like skippable filler.

they were what many are not these days

professional recording artists who made solid videos w/out exposing their bodies all over the place and carving their skins up w/cross cut tattoos

TonyVanDam said:

Scorp said:

I was a huge fan of Christopher Cross

Has anyone heard from Christopher since 1982?

what happened to Cross was the same thing that happened to a ton of artists who were beyond 30 years of age

they were deemed too old, as the recording industry brought forth the pop ascension movement solely predicated on appealing to a youth oriented audience

and as of 2013, that's why album sales have tanked because the industry pushed out the adult following...

lastdecember said:

RB all of a sudden in the 90's had nothing to do with playing, it was all about sex and image, and no substance at all, how many RB groups can we name that fell into this 112, Next, Shai etc....not one form of an instrument, and then it merged with Rap and BYEBYE it went.

Um, hell no. Shai was the most vocally talented male R&B group of the '90s bar none. Every member could sing lead; they were the closest thing to a male En Vogue. They even wrote their own songs. So again, hell no.

Scorp said:

they were what many are not these days

professional recording artists who made solid videos w/out exposing their bodies all over the place and carving their skins up w/cross cut tattoos

The Plasmatics on Solid Gold 1981

AlexdeParis said:

lastdecember said:

RB all of a sudden in the 90's had nothing to do with playing, it was all about sex and image, and no substance at all, how many RB groups can we name that fell into this 112, Next, Shai etc....not one form of an instrument, and then it merged with Rap and BYEBYE it went.

Um, hell no. Shai was the most vocally talented male R&B group of the '90s bar none. Every member could sing lead; they were the closest thing to a male En Vogue. They even wrote their own songs. So again, hell no.

I agree,Shai was a great group I was a huge fan of theirs.They stood out from all the other male vocal groups that were hot at that time.If I Ever Fall In Love was a very promising debut album.

JoeTyler said:

I've been sayin' this for years

mainstream popular music started its decline during the late 80's

I always say that 1987 was truly the last GREAT year for music.After that year,things really began to change.Real R&B was on its way out,being replaced by New Jack Swing.Funk bands became obsolete.The late 80s is when I really began re-visting the amazing sounds of the 70s and I've been doing that ever since,lol.

Scorp said:

SoulAlive said:

I disagree that "transition period" that you mentioned,resulted in some of the best funk and R&B music of the 80s.Rick James' 'Street Songs'....Kool and The Gang's 'Something Special'....EW&F's 'Raise' (arguably their best album of the 80s)....Luther Vandross' debut album 'Never Too Much'....etc

The best R&B music of the 80s was made in the first few years of that decade,imo.

"Street Songs" is one of the greatest r&b albums/all time albums I ever heard

that album made the summer of 81 what it was.....

for me, Luther Vandross's best work as a solo artist took occurred with his first two albums, "Never Too Much" and "Forever, For Always, For Love" (my favorite Luther album)

and I forgot to mention Cameo.In the early 80s,they were kicking ass with great albums like 'Cameosis' and 'Knights Of The Sound Table'.

speaking of the summer of '81....look at all those amazing jams we had that summer

SoulAlive said:

JoeTyler said:

I've been sayin' this for years

mainstream popular music started its decline during the late 80's

I always say that 1987 was truly the last GREAT year for music.After that year,things really began to change.Real R&B was on its way out,being replaced by New Jack Swing.Funk bands became obsolete.The late 80s is when I really began re-visting the amazing sounds of the 70s and I've been doing that ever since,lol.

I couldn't agree more, 91-94 were great years for dance and rock music, but that's all

1985-87 was the pinnacle of the whole 74-87 music scene...

TonyVanDam said:

if I was going to pinpoint a weak moment in the 1980's concerning mainstream pop culture, It was definitely 80-82 (before Michael Jackson's Thriller album was release) because that was a transitition period after disco "died" in the 1980. Around this time, there were plenty of country artists that were having crossover pop success. And adult contempory artists (when the genre was still called soft-rock at the time) was the definitely sound of the early 1980's. Remember, Christopher Cross damn nearly became the King Of Pop!

....

It may not have been the biggest period for album sales, but Pop music for Pop's sake-- from 1980-82 was just fine....I was coming up in high school at the time, and all of the following were getting played on the mainstream radio, fairly regularly.....if anything, I remember that point in time being an era where Pop Rock , New Wave, Punk R&B, Funk and Dance were colliding with each other, and even giving birth to new combinations....I grew up on R&b and Jazz, but I would venture to say that I heard more Pop during that period than ever before..so IMO, the early eighties may have been the beginning of the end of hearing diverse music on mainstream radio....it sure seems as though by the end of the decade,the airwaves got pretty divided and conservative....Michael Jackson, and the advent of the CD would get people back into record stores...but radio sure was dying by 1989....

I guess it might be more accurate to say that 1979-1980 was kind of a weird, transitional year --Dance groups like CHIC were suddenly seen as un-cool and passe ( Even though Nile Rodgers would soon be sought out by everybody from Duran Duran and Madonna, to David Bowie), Hip-Hop hit the R&B airwaves in Late summer of '79, Thanks to the Sugar Hill Gang and The Fatback Band ('King Tim the III"). The Knack's 'My Sharona" became the top Pop hit....

Now what did happen after the 'Death of Disco' is that for awhile...that period you mentioned, late '79 to about '82--was that you didn't hear much Black music on those Pop stations...disco didn't really die, but Black artists kinda got shaken out of Pop Radio...That's one of the things that MJ and Prince brought back...black artists being heard on Pop stations again...

....

Some Pop/Rock from 1980-1982:

The Talking Heads - Remain In Light

The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta

The Police - Ghost In The Machine

Rolling Stones - Emotional Rescue

Genesis - ABACAB

The Cure - Faith

King Crimson - Discipline

Journey - Escape

Rolling Stones - Tattoo You

Roxy Music - Avalon

Donald Fagen -The Nightfly

Peter Gabriel - Security (Shock The Monkey)

Phil Collins - Face Value

Jeff Beck - There and Back

Duran Duran - Duran Duran

Duran-Duran - Rio

Genesis - Duke

AC/DC - For Those About to Rock...

Rush - Moving Pictures

Joe Jackson - Night and Day

Thomas Dolby - The Golden Age of Wirelss

Culture Club - Kissing To Be Clever

XTC - Black Sea

XTC - English Settlement

Rickie Lee Jones - Pirates

The Clash - Combat Rock

Stevie Nicks - Bella Donna

The Pretenders - Pretenders II

Kate Bush - The Dreaming

The Human League - Dare

Bruce Springsteen - The River

Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska

The Fixx - Shuttered Room

Elvis Costello - Imperial Bedroom

The Jam - The Gift

Billy Idol - Billy Idol

NRBQ - TiddlyWinks

Lou Reed - The Blue Mask

Billy Joel - The Nylon Curtain

Marshall Crenshaw - Marshall Crenshaw

David Byrne , Brian Eno - My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts

....

[Edited 8/12/13 14:51pm]

These two alone make it one of the better years for me...

paligap said:

TonyVanDam said:

if I was going to pinpoint a weak moment in the 1980's concerning mainstream pop culture, It was definitely 80-82 (before Michael Jackson's Thriller album was release) because that was a transitition period after disco "died" in the 1980. Around this time, there were plenty of country artists that were having crossover pop success. And adult contempory artists (when the genre was still called soft-rock at the time) was the definitely sound of the early 1980's. Remember, Christopher Cross damn nearly became the King Of Pop!

....

It may not have been the biggest period for album sales, but Pop music for Pop's sake-- from 1980-82 was just fine....I was coming up in high school at the time, and all of the following were getting played on the mainstream radio, fairly regularly.....if anything, I remember that point in time being an era where Pop Rock , New Wave, Punk R&B, Funk and Dance were colliding with each other, and even giving birth to new combinations....I grew up on R&b and Jazz, but I would venture to say that I heard more Pop during that period than ever before..so IMO, the early eighties may have been the beginning of the end of hearing diverse music on mainstream radio....it sure seems as though by the end of the decade,the airwaves got pretty divided and conservative....Michael Jackson, and the advent of the CD would get people back into record stores...but radio sure was dying by 1989....

I guess it might be more accurate to say that 1979-1980 was kind of a weird, transitional year --Dance groups like CHIC were suddenly seen as un-cool and passe ( Even though Nile Rodgers would soon be sought out by everybody from Duran Duran and Madonna, to David Bowie), Hip-Hop hit the R&B airwaves in Late summer of '79, Thanks to the Sugar Hill Gang and The Fatback Band ('King Tim the III"). The Knack's 'My Sharona" became the top Pop hit....

Now what did happen after the 'Death of Disco' is that for awhile...that period you mentioned, late '79 to about '82--was that you didn't hear much Black music on those Pop stations...disco didn't really die, but Black artists kinda got shaken out of Pop Radio...That's one of the things that MJ and Prince brought back...black artists being heard on Pop stations again...

....

Some Pop/Rock from 1980-1982:

The Talking Heads - Remain In Light

The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta

The Police - Ghost In The Machine

Rolling Stones - Emotional Rescue

Genesis - ABACAB

The Cure - Faith

King Crimson - Discipline

Journey - Escape

Rolling Stones - Tattoo You

Roxy Music - Avalon

Donald Fagen -The Nightfly

Peter Gabriel - Security (Shock The Monkey)

Phil Collins - Face Value

Jeff Beck - There and Back

Duran Duran - Duran Duran

Duran-Duran - Rio

Genesis - Duke

AC/DC - For Those About to Rock...

Rush - Moving Pictures

Joe Jackson - Night and Day

Thomas Dolby - The Golden Age of Wirelss

Culture Club - Kissing To Be Clever

XTC - Black Sea

XTC - English Settlement

Rickie Lee Jones - Pirates

The Clash - Combat Rock

Stevie Nicks - Bella Donna

The Pretenders - Pretenders II

Kate Bush - The Dreaming

The Human League - Dare

Bruce Springsteen - The River

Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska

The Fixx - Shuttered Room

Elvis Costello - Imperial Bedroom

The Jam - The Gift

Billy Idol - Billy Idol

NRBQ - TiddlyWinks

Lou Reed - The Blue Mask

Billy Joel - The Nylon Curtain

Marshall Crenshaw - Marshall Crenshaw

David Byrne , Brian Eno - My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts

Exactly. Good grief, George Clinton's Atomic Dog, a definite #1 hit on the r&b/soul charts in 1982 was never given a chance on Billiboard's Hot 100 Singles Charts. I'll never forget reading about that.

TonyVanDam said:

paligap said:

....

It may not have been the biggest period for album sales, but Pop music for Pop's sake-- from 1980-82 was just fine....I was coming up in high school at the time, and all of the following were getting played on the mainstream radio, fairly regularly.....if anything, I remember that point in time being an era where Pop Rock , New Wave, Punk R&B, Funk and Dance were colliding with each other, and even giving birth to new combinations....I grew up on R&b and Jazz, but I would venture to say that I heard more Pop during that period than ever before..so IMO, the early eighties may have been the beginning of the end of hearing diverse music on mainstream radio....it sure seems as though by the end of the decade,the airwaves got pretty divided and conservative....Michael Jackson, and the advent of the CD would get people back into record stores...but radio sure was dying by 1989....

I guess it might be more accurate to say that 1979-1980 was kind of a weird, transitional year --Dance groups like CHIC were suddenly seen as un-cool and passe ( Even though Nile Rodgers would soon be sought out by everybody from Duran Duran and Madonna, to David Bowie), Hip-Hop hit the R&B airwaves in Late summer of '79, Thanks to the Sugar Hill Gang and The Fatback Band ('King Tim the III"). The Knack's 'My Sharona" became the top Pop hit....

Now what did happen after the 'Death of Disco' is that for awhile...that period you mentioned, late '79 to about '82--was that you didn't hear much Black music on those Pop stations...disco didn't really die, but Black artists kinda got shaken out of Pop Radio...That's one of the things that MJ and Prince brought back...black artists being heard on Pop stations again...

Exactly. Good grief, George Clinton's Atomic Dog, a definite #1 hit on the r&b/soul charts in 1982 was never given a chance on Billiboard's Hot 100 Singles Charts. I'll never forget reading about that.

...

Ndeed!--the Ironic thing is that if Atomic Dog was released now, it would probably have a better chance of being heard on Mainstream Pop radio than during that period......

...

[Edited 8/12/13 15:24pm]

MickyDolenz said:

Scorp said:

they were what many are not these days

professional recording artists who made solid videos w/out exposing their bodies all over the place and carving their skins up w/cross cut tattoos

The Plasmatics on Solid Gold 1981

LOL, "Wendy O'Williams"?!?

RodeoSchro said:

Wendy O'Williams

It's actually Wendy O. Williams, the poster labeled it wrong. The O is the initial of her middle name. She died in the 1990's.

It was the beginning of a long dark run in R&B I know that much

Scorp said:

TonyVanDam said:

Exactly. And this is one more reason why I think from reading the opening post that 2Point5D might be younger than most of us, meaning that the early 1980's may have been before his/her time.

Stay on-topic, if I was going to pinpoint a weak moment in the 1980's concerning mainstream pop culture, It was definitely 80-82 (before Michael Jackson's Thriller album was release) because that was a transitition period after disco "died" in the 1980. Around this time, there were plenty of country artists that were having crossover pop success. And adult contempory artists (when the genre was still called soft-rock at the time) was the definitely sound of the early 1980's. Remember, Christopher Cross damn nearly became the King Of Pop!


The "death" of disco was totally nonsense, given by the fact that genre was a foundation of Chicago's house, NYC's garage, and Itaty's italo-house respectfully on an underground level. And also, r&b/soul radio stations were not negatively effected by the translation period of 80-82 because funk was still alive and well, especially when that genre became more synth-driven and much more different from the horn-driven era of the 1970's. The hip-hop/rap culture was still young, underground-level, and not full-time mainstream yet. But yet, it was defintely cutting edge when electro was THE hip-hop sound of the moment. And it was all good timing when Kool & The Gang, Michael Jackson, & Prince help spearheaded the post-disco era in the mainstream that the 1980's needed soon after.

And as a result R&B as a whole started to suffer after this cross over period took off. While you may be right that the pop charts were suffering in 80-82, the black music scene was in a really good place and not being directed by one sound. Hell just the Jazz-Funk scene alone around this time was enough to carry it... but then you add he New York sophisticated sound (Kashif, Luther, etc) SOLAR sound of the west coast, Midwest funk of Roger & Zapp and the early days of the Minneapolis sound and you have one of the most versatile sounding eras ever.

RodeoSchro said:

MickyDolenz said:

The Plasmatics on Solid Gold 1981

LOL, "Wendy O'Williams"?!?

Ugh. Andy Gibb and Marilyn McCoo are prob'ly backstage cringing with earplugs.

2Point5D said:

1989 will always be remembered as a miserable year.

[Edited 7/31/13 7:58am]

[Edited 7/31/13 7:59am]

[Edited 7/31/13 7:59am]

[Edited 7/31/13 8:00am]

[Edited 7/31/13 8:05am]

[Edited 7/31/13 8:07am]

Oh hell naw!!!!!!!!!!

Yes there was some marginal acts that year, but dosen't every year have them. Young MC is much better than Nicki Minaj, Soulja boy and all these other minstrel style rappers and yes a lot of fluffy girl pop like Tiffany( Who was pretty outre by 1989 anyway) and Debbie Gibson, but now we have Justin Bieber and No Direction. Hello!!!!!

1989 was a great year mainly for one big reason, its called "LIKE A PRAYER" Probably Madonna's best ever album, it had 4 huge hits and is pop perfection. For that one album alone, 1989 will go down in history as one of the greatest years for pop music. Plus Madonna was composing the song Vogue in late 1989 as well.

I also thought it was a great year for the emergence of poppy dance songs and poppy rap music. Pump up the Jam is 1989 as it gets and it is awesome, also Soul 2 Soul, Back to Life and Keep on Moving are amazing jams, again its 1989.

In 1989 I was 13 and in your equivalent of 7th grade, it was a great time for me and music.

the only thing i agree with is paula abdul, she gave me a toothache.even though i hated her,c&c music factory and all the other studio manufactured acts 1989 had some great moments as well.i think the la,babyface sound was getting kinda stale also.

C+C Music Factory debuted in 1990. I certainly wouldn't call the LaFace sound stale by any stretch. 1990 saw some of their finest work: "My, My, My," "Ready or Not," "Can't Stop," "I'm Your Baby Tonight," "Fairweather Friend," "Giving You the Benefit"...