MotownSubdivision said:

PennyPurple said:

Flashdance Soundtrack

Journey Faithfully

Stray Cats

Donna Summer She works hard for the money

Loverboy Hot Girls in Love

Men at Work

Bryan Adams Straight from the heart

The Cure Love Cats

Pat Benatar Love is a Battlefield

John Cougar (now Mellencamp) Crumblin Down

All right, honestly not familiar with most of those but I've been seeing some of those names a lot while putting together the chart info.

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Huh? Faithfully? That song was being played like every 5-minutes...I was in LOVE with Steve Perry!!....

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When the walls, come crumbling down....

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Love is a Battlefield.......not my favorite Benatar song.

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Straight from the heart......blah, boring.

New Order!!

ReddBlitz said:

A few more:

1983 is also IMO when the Second British Invasion hit its peak. Albums and singles from Def Leppard, Culture Club, Eddy Grant, Duran Duran, Human League, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Thomas Dolby, The Police, Bonnie Tyler, David Bowie and others hit big and added some major appeal to the charts. As great as things were here on the west side of the Atlantic, 1983 wouldn't have quite been the stacked year it was without that support from the UK.

Speaking of which, I just purchased this album a few days ago:

...and I am digging it (dope album cover too)! Bought it to beef up my new 1983 playlist and I haven't come across a bad song yet. Gonna pick up their '84 album Phantoms soon to further pad that playlist as well.

Also I know people tend to consider the Second British Invasion to be comprised exclusively of new wave artists but why exclude the other non-new wave UK acts like Genesis, Pink Floyd and Def Leppard from that group when they were hot at the time too?

After this year, world domination by MJ, Prince, Madonna, Whitney and Janet.

1983 was the first year that felt like the 80s in terms of identity. 80 and 81 still seemed tied to the late 70s even though you could see the changes starting there. 82 was a transition year. It's interesting that it only lasted about 4 years. After 87, there was a steep decline in the quality of music in pop music. Even though there were still great songs coming out, most of the pop scene became watered down and over processed. It was until the rise of underground rock and hip hop in 1991, that we saw a resurgance of great pop music, but that also lasted only until 94 or 95.

Around 97 , we saw the slow death of great pop music with artists like Spice Girls, N-Sync and Britney Spears. We saw the potential of what could be for the 2000s with 90s artists like D'Angelo, Jeff Buckley, Lauryn Hill, and Maxwell, but most of them didn't make it through that decade for various reasons. I do give credit to artists like Outkast, Jack White, Gnarls Barkely and other artists, for holding up the early to mid 2000s, but the type of great music eras like 83 to 87 were long gone and probably will never be seen again.

lrn36 said:

wonder505 said:

MotownSubdivision said:

lrn36 said:

1983 was the first year that felt like the 80s in terms of identity. 80 and 81 still seemed tied to the late 70s even though you could see the changes starting there. 82 was a transition year. It's interesting that it only lasted about 4 years. After 87, there was a steep decline in the quality of music in pop music. Even though there were still great songs coming out, most of the pop scene became watered down and over processed. It was until the rise of underground rock and hip hop in 1991, that we saw a resurgance of great pop music, but that also lasted only until 94 or 95.

Around 97 , we saw the slow death of great pop music with artists like Spice Girls, N-Sync and Britney Spears. We saw the potential of what could be for the 2000s with 90s artists like D'Angelo, Jeff Buckley, Lauryn Hill, and Maxwell, but most of them didn't make it through that decade for various reasons. I do give credit to artists like Outkast, Jack White, Gnarls Barkely and other artists, for holding up the early to mid 2000s, but the type of great music eras like 83 to 87 were long gone and probably will never be seen again.

1980 and '81 still felt distinctly different from the 1970s, at least in retrospect. The sonic shift from acoustic instruments to synths and drum machines began in the late 70s (see M's "Pop Muzik" hitting #1 in 1979 for example). By the dawn of the new decade, even though live instruments were still in common use, most new music sounded slicker and had a noticeable gloss to it not heard before. 1982 was definitely a year of transition but I think that transition started in 1981 with black music and British music ruling the dance clubs and underground scene which was absolutely smokin' in 1981 (and 1980). 1982 was when the sounds that crowded dancefloors and shook the underground began to make itself much more apparent in the mainstream. '82 is when the Second British Invasion started and that played a heavy role in 1983 being the year the decade found its identity. It was a perfect storm of culture that led to the decade blossoming the way it did in '83. Most of that is owed to the music. The 90s music scene, much like that of the 70s thrived on the success of individual genres. R&B, hip hop, rock, alternative and country was the pop music of the 90s like how soul, funk, disco and rock were the pop music of the 70s. The 1980s was basically the 1960s reincarnated which led to the 90s being the way they were music-wise.

80 and 81 were always interesting to me. Music seemed to be at its most bizarre. When I first heard Dirty Mind, even as a young kid I knew something crazy and unique was about to happen. Even music videos with their cheap production values seemed dreamlike and other worldly.

MotownSubdivision said:

wonder505 said:

After this year, world domination by MJ, Prince, Madonna, Whitney and Janet.

Those first 3 in particular all had a wonderful year in 1983. You had the already big star in MJ exceed expectations and become a bonafide megastar, you had Prince on the rise toward superstardom with 1999 garnering him an increasing mainstream audience and you had Madonna arriving on the scene with her first album. The 3 biggest names of the 1980s: all from the Midwest, all born during the summer months of 1958 and all being established in some way during 1983. Poetic.

Soooo true!

lrn36 said:

MotownSubdivision said:

lrn36 said:

80 and 81 were always interesting to me. Music seemed to be at its most bizarre. When I first heard Dirty Mind, even as a young kid I knew something crazy and unique was about to happen. Even music videos with their cheap production values seemed dreamlike and other worldly.

I was actually thinking of Dirty Mind while typing up my post. '80 and '81 still had a grittiness to them. Synthesizers were a new medium so I believe people hadn't got the hang of them quite yet. Looking at film in general from that time period, everything just seemed filthy and grimy to look at (in an attractive way). Movies and videos from the 70s to the early 80s always had a dirtiness to them. I know the world economy at the start of the 80s wasn't in the best shape and I wouldn't know how it looked in actuality but when watching content from that time, it always just looked unsanitary, even animation looked that way. Listening to the music only added to that atmosphere. This was 1982 but this is an example of what I'm talking about:

I know exactly what you mean. Every video from the UK had thay grey, gritty, overcast look. Prince's videos from Dirty Mind and Controversy had that cheap, gritty video look. It really defined the 80s aesthetic. Even movies like Dragonslayer, and American Werewolf in London had that dirty look. Raiders of the Lost Ark used to have it, but now its been digitally cleaned up so much it no longer looks like I emembered when I saw it in the theaters.

Here's an original 35mm print of ET from 1982 and Breathless from 1983. This is the way movies used to look.

[Edited 3/2/18 18:14pm]

lrn36 said:

Talking Heads - "Speaking in Tongues"

Bauhaus - "Burning From the Inside"

Cocteau Twins - "Head Over Heels"

Tears for Fears - "The Hurting"

Metallica - "Kill 'em All"

ZZ Top - "Eliminator"

Blue Oyster Cult - "The Revolution by Night"

Pointer Sisters - "Break Out"

New Order - "Power, Corruption & Lies"

Stevie Nicks - "The Wild Heart"

The Police - "Synchronicity"

Danielle Dax - "Pop-Eyes"

Tom Waits - "Swordfishtrombones"

U2 - "War"

Surgical Penis Klinik - "Auto-da-fe"

Dio - Holy Diver"

SSQ - "Playback"

Siouxsie and the Banshees - "Nocturne"

Stevie Ray Vaughan - "Texas Flood"

Iron Maiden - "Piece of Mind"

Red Rider - "Neruda"

Echo & the Bunnymen - "Porcupine"

Eurythmics - "Sweet Dreams/Touch"

Tangerine Dream - "Risky Business soundtrack"

Wild Style soundtrack

45 Grave - "Sleep in Safety"

Ramones - "Subterranean Jungle"

Black Sabbath - "Born Again"

Yes, a very good year indeed

It is a great year, but hard for Prince and Michael as their albums released in late 1982, saw their main success in 1983, but I know you guys are really after music from 1983 (Or at least released that year)

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Albums for me

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Touch and Sweet Dreams - Eurythmics

2 Low 4 Zero - Elton John, incredible comeback album for him

Lets Dance - David Bowie, not as good and poppier than his early stuff, still good

Madonna - Madonna, some great songs on her first album, Borderline is genius

Thompson Twins - Quick Step and a side Kick (Great synth pop album)

Paul Young - No Parlez (Another classic nu soul white boy soul album of British parentage

Colour by Numbers - Culture Club

Fantastic - Wham!

Some albums like Lionel Richie's and Cyndi Laupers have some great songs, but also quite a lot of dreadful filler and I can't include them

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Songs (Of which there are many, no order) - some may be 82 or 84 as songs were released a few months later in New Zealand then and some songs released at end of 83, hit in early 84

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Cold Blooded - Rick James

Always something there to remind me - Naked eyes

Send me an angel - Reel life

Puttin on the Ritz - Taco

A fraction too much fiction - Tim Finn

Say, say, say - Macca and Jacko

No parking on the dancefloor - Midnight Starr

IOU - Freez

Maniac - Michael Sembello

Gloria - Laura Branigan

Hello - Lionel Richie

All night long - Lionel Richie

Hold me now - Thompson Twins (From 84 album, but rush released as a single in late 83)

If you were here - Thompson Twins

Judy do - Thompson Twins

Lies - Thompson Twins

Come Back and Stay - Paul Young

Love of the common people - Paul Young

Holiday - Madonna

Borderline - Madonna

Cold as Christmas - Elton John

I guess thats why they call it the blues - Elton John

I'm still standing - Elton John

Crystal - Elton John

Break my stride - Mathew Wilder

Give it up - KC and Sunshine band

Joanna - Koolnthe gang

Ebony Eyes - Smokey and Rick (This may be 84 - I get confused)

Time will reveal - DeBarge

LRC Extended - Prince (Finally a Prince song from 83, released in 83)

Electric Intercourse - Prince (Since, he never released it and it dates from 83, it counts)

Loving You - Michael Jackson (This demo apparently dates from 1983)

Shiny shiny - Hayzee Fantassee

She works hard for the money - Donna Summer

Help yourself to my love - Kashif (This is a really unappreciated classic)

Lady love me one more time - George Benson

Communication - Spandau Ballet

Gold/True - Spandau Ballet

Home by the Sea - Genesis

Karma Chameleon - Culture Club

Miss me blind - Culture Club

Its a miracle - Culture Club

Church of the Poison mind - Culture Club

Victims - Culture Club

Club Tropicana - Wham!

Bad Boys - Wham!

Young Guns - Wham!

Out in La/ Police Helicopter - RHCP

Get up and Jump - RHCP (Released in the dying seconds of 83, although its probably an 84 jam)

Islands in the Stream - Kenny and Dolly (I know its ridiculously camp, but I love it)

Between the sheets - Isley brothers

Sweet Dreams/Love is a stranger/Here comes the rain again - Eurthymics

Dancing in the sheets - Shalamar (Again maybe early 84)

Leave a Tender moment alone - Billy Joel

Tell her about it - Billy Joel

Uptown Girl - Billy Joel

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That is just for now, no doubt reading your lists, I will find some more songs I have forgotten. In 1983 I was 7 and just getting into Music per se and it is the first year I can really remember a lot of what was on the radio. My mother was still under 30 and thus she was listening to the hot hits, after 84 she kind of went off new music.

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Many songs from 82 and earlier I have had to discover as an adult, but songs from Thriller onwards pretty much have stuck with me to the present day.

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Already the first updates, correcting song titles and realising I had forgotten Billy joel's biggie that year. I am getting old guys, 7 back then, 42 now a long time ago.

[Edited 3/6/18 14:37pm]

Adorecream said: