MotownSubdivision said:

I already thought '85 was pretty dope but man, I didn't realize just how dope it was until I came across this: http://www.liketotally80s...ospective/ The trifecta of years 1983-1984-1985 has to be the greatest streak in music history.

I agree that the mid-80s was a Golden Age for pop music, but given the advent of bop in the 30's and 40's, the commercial and critical peaks of jazz in the late 50's and early 60's, soul/r&b's golden years in the 60's, the explosion of great music and new sounds in the mid-to-late 70s, I can't agree that '83-'85 was the "greatest streak in music history."

In terms of pop music, it's hard to beat. Especially 1984. But in terms of music history overall, that's a tall order, and heck, one could make the (hard) argument that that 3-year streak isn't the best in the decade.

SoulAlive said:

As far as 80s music is concerned,1983 is my favorite year of that decade.

The year of my birth and I agree. Even universally, Arabic & Bollywood music was sublime during 83.

namepeace said:

NorthC said:

I've always felt 1984 was a unique and special year in popular music (Alan Light, in his book on Prince and Purple Rain, goes into some detail about why and how). I can see much less of a case, however, for 1985. I tend to associate that year with Live Aid, which was (musically) awful, and led to 1986, which was probably the worst year in pop music up to that point.

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Among other reasons I feel this way, I think 1984 is the end of the 1980-1984 crest of new wave + emergent "80s" sounds/artists that resulted in some interesting (if slightly dated) mainstream pop. 1984 is the commercial peak of all that, but by 1985 the phenomena (Prince, Thriller, Madonna, Born in the USA -- others in the UK) are over and it's just more of the same with less style and less substance.

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1986 is the nadir of the 80s, though. By then, the new wave-type influences have been rubbed out and it's just MTV-80s' gloss. Black mainstream artists are also sounding way too "white" by 1985/86.

SoulAlive said:

As far as 80s music is concerned,1983 is my favorite year of that decade.

Yep I'll take 1982 or 1983

1981 ...it seems EVERYONE released an exc album that year....

ozzy

sabbath

maiden

prince

kiss

halen

rush

[Edited 9/7/16 18:24pm]

ThePanther said:

MotownSubdivision said:

namepeace said:

But in terms of music history overall, that's a tall order, and heck, one could make the (hard) argument that that 3-year streak isn't the best in the decade.

I'd say the golden years of soul and R&B were the 70s and one can make a strong case for the 90s with R&B. '83-'85 was definitely the best streak of the 80s. No other consecutive combination that decade comes close on such a grand scale.

Soul/R&B had plenty of golden years. As a child of the 70s I prefer the soul/R&B of that decade, but a convincing case can be made for the 60's, given Motown, Stax, James Brown and everyone else in between. The sound of the 70's -- including many stars of the 60's -- built on the foundation of the 60's.

Like I said, it's hard to think of a better stretch than 83-85, but 1984 is the linchpin in that 83-85 stretch. You can't build a better 80's stretch without '84 in the mix; but IMHO there were better years for music in the decade than '85. An argument could be made for 82-84 or 84-86.

[Edited 9/7/16 8:18am]

MotownSubdivision said:

NorthC said:

namepeace said:

phunkdaddy said:

SoulAlive said:

As far as 80s music is concerned,1983 is my favorite year of that decade.

Yep I'll take 1982 or 1983

There was something really,really special about 1983....Prince crossing over in a big way.....Michael Jackson and his Thriller singles and his amazing,groundbreaking videos.....MTV becoming more diverse and showing videos from R&B artists......that year was incredible!

MotownSubdivision said:

NorthC said:

MotownSubdivision said:

namepeace said:

Soul/R&B had plenty of golden years. As a child of the 70s I prefer the soul/R&B of that decade, but a convincing case can be made for the 60's, given Motown, Stax, James Brown and everyone else in between. The sound of the 70's -- including many stars of the 60's -- built on the foundation of the 60's.

Like I said, it's hard to think of a better stretch than 83-85, but 1984 is the linchpin in that 83-85 stretch. You can't build a better 80's stretch without '84 in the mix; but IMHO there were better years for music in the decade than '85. An argument could be made for 82-84 or 84-86.

[Edited 9/7/16 8:18am]

The 60's were an indispensible decade for R&B music and the black artists who made it. However, just because the 60's was such a large influence for music that succeeded it doesn't necessarily make it better than the music its influenced. Like you said, music in the 60's served as the foundation for music henceforth (the lion's share of artists in the 80's and their music wouldn't have been what they were had it not been for the 60's) but the originator can be superceded.

All legitimate arguments. i'm making the case from an objective standpoint for the 60's. I think 70's black music is to 60's black music what late 60's-early 70's rock is late 50's-early 60's rock: a creative explosion built from the bones of the prior era.

Like I said, the music of my childhood is 70's soul and R&B, I'll always be partial to that. Stevie's 70's run alone is virtually unmatched in music history.

namepeace said:

I think that the 80s was the last truly "experimental" decade,when so much ground was being broken.The decades that followed were dissapointing by comparison.

SoulAlive said:

MotownSubdivision said:

namepeace said:

All legitimate arguments. i'm making the case from an objective standpoint for the 60's. I think 70's black music is to 60's black music what late 60's-early 70's rock is late 50's-early 60's rock: a creative explosion built from the bones of the prior era.

Like I said, the music of my childhood is 70's soul and R&B, I'll always be partial to that. Stevie's 70's run alone is virtually unmatched in music history.

I'm partial to music that is before my time and while I adore the 70s, I am partial to the 1980s. I like the glitz, glamour and larger than life superstars and megastars that defined the decade but more importantly, their music was excellent; it contained hints of retro-ness and nostalgia but was experimental and progressive though I guess that can be said for any decade.

Popular music of the 70's was more distinguished in its genres it seemed with pure funk, R&B, soul, disco, rock and country standing above the music that was simply defined as "pop". You can say that these genres were the pop music of the decade. It couldn't have been that way without all that happened in the 60's.

However, the 80's is the peak of pop music IMO. It's been largely downhill overall since the 90's which was like a spiritual successor to the 70's with individual genres overshadowing most of the general pop music of the time. [Edited 9/8/16 21:39pm]

In terms of capital-P Pop Music, again, strong arguments. The early part of the decade had retro-nostalgic tints because there were so many artists of the 70's -- and 60's -- who scored pop hits during the decade.

80's Pop Music broke new ground, from new wave to "hard rock" to rap, underground sounds became mainstream. The decade saw a 70's underground legend, Bruce Springsteen, become an true-blue pop star. It saw Madonna become a phenom, Prince become a transcendent multi-genre artist and Michael jackson become the Biggest Star on the Planet. All 4 of those artists made 1984 the greatest year in pop music history. And I haven't even gotten to Janet.

It is true that the 90's became more segregated in terms of genres, but 70's Pop stars were influenced more readily by other genres than 90's Pop artists. And Hip-Hop drew a lot of ears away from the airwaves.

[Edited 9/9/16 11:09am]

1984 was kind of a musical awakening for me. I had always loved music since I was a baby but the music of 1984 had an enormous effect on me. It's when I really started feeling it in my soul and I developed more of a spiritual connection to it. I saw artists I had been listening to for years finally blowing up huge: Chaka, Tina, Prince, The Pointers, Deniece, Bruce, Lionel. I went to my first concert in 1984 (Deniece Williams). It was just really a remarkable year for me. 1985 comes in a close second.

namepeace said:

I love this year and agree that 1983/85 was the best three years of music bar 1967/69 nothing will ever top that mind expanding period!

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In 1985 I was 8 going on 9 and hearing everything on the radio. It was the year I was still nuts about MJ and loved we are the world, discovered who Prince was and remembered Raspberry Beret (True fandom was in the future!). Remember loving all the Madonna songs, Cyndi was still on the charts and also loved the Tina Turner songs, although the albums were late 1984, the hit single release programme, saw their popularity reach well into 1985! My favourite of hers was "We don't need another hero" and then the end of the year was the great "Saving all my love for you" by this new artist called Whitney Houston was blowing up!

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My favourites were the Tears for Fears singles - Shout and Head over heels, along with Go wests, Call me and we close our eyes, those are so 1985 its not true. 1984/85 British Electro pop was just great and here in New Zealand it ruled the charts. Another favourite was Lay your hands on me by the Thompson twins (1985's "Here's to future days" is my favourite album of theirs). I bought very few singles, being only 9 and getting $5 pocket money every month or so, a single then cost about $4 and I only bought one in 1985 - bizarrely a song called "My Toot toot" by Denise Lasalle, I guess it was an early sign of my gayness, over the top electropop about men by big Black female singers.

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Reggae was popular here too, I remember going halves with my 11 year old brother to buy our Dad a copy of "Legend" by Bob Marley and the record never got to him, we listened to it to death and discovered Bob Marley, I also bought an album by the Maori reggae group - Herbs. I had no idea the name was a play on words about marijuana, I just loved the songs and its vibe. All of the music at the time was on the radio or vinyl records, we did not have a CD player until the early 1990s.

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Today I still like most of that stuff, 85 was also the year of Eurythmics - Be yourself tonight and of course ATWIAD. Yes great memories of that year, and I also really like the rest of the 1980s too, I still think 1987 was the best year and 1983 the 2nd best, but the rest of the decade except 1980/81 is right up there too.

Adorecream said:

God, forgot about Phil, he was everywhere in 1985 and I didn't really care for his music then, but kind of like it now, even if it was a bit sappy.

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Also remember the brand JVC was everywhere, when I think of 1985 I think of JVC video players and synthesisers and LCD numbering and robotic computer voices for some reason.