wow, steven. This is perhaps more wrong than my arrogant, ignorant summation of the fifties as "a waste of time" in a college paper (I have considered myself as doing penance for that egregious error continually in the intervening years). The difference is, you LIVED through the eighties and should KNOW better...I DIDN'T live through the fifties.

You start off on a faulty premise with the music. Hair Metal? guess what, love it or hate it, it was 80's. There was a LOT more music than "punk" and "Springsteen" in the 80's (ever hear of John Cougar? U2? Metallica?).

I'll stop there so that readers that follow can pull apart their own sections of this mini-rant.

Actually, Punk was 70's, not 80's. The 80's was the era or the New Romantics, ska, big hair bands and the occasional techno-pop offering (think Flock Of Seagulls and Devo).

Actually, in the US, punk was more of an '80's thing. We were a long way behind the UK in that regard. Dead Kennedies, Suicidal Tendencies, Violent Femmes and similar groups made their mark in the 80's, and most of us on this side of the pond weren't even aware of the Clash, the Ramones, or the Sex Pistols until early '80s.

I gather you were not cognizant then?

Yes, as far as music went; I still listen to Percy Faith! Btw, it was not intended to be history just because it was under that "category."

Hmm...I learned somehting today. Thanks, Gid!

Oh? I don't even get a nod?

Gid: I make no pretense to be a scholar of music--simply a passing thought--metal, acid all the same to me. 

By the way, too.....not to pick nits, but the whole "Who shot JR" hullaballo was in early-mid 1980. Lennon was killed in December, and Reagan was shot in March of 1981. Nice of you to show such concern for a man you completely dismissed little more than a paragraph before, though.

Ever notice how all the "definitive" 80s songs were one-hit wonders? Think about it.....

I have to disagree with this statement. One of the more "definitive" 80s songs was "Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats, who were, technically, a TWO hit wonder ("Pop goes the world") and Men at Work, while best known for the song you mentioned, actually had a few releases (who can forget "Land Down Under", the tune that cemented my enduring fascination with Australia). I would also have to add that Kenny Loggins practically wrote the soundtrack for the 80's ("I'm All Right", "Footloose", Danger Zone").

Gosh, now I'm starting to feel old. Thanks for bringing up the topic, steven.

But think about some others...."Come on Eileen", "Video Killed the Radio Star", "True", "Our House", "Big Country", "99 Luftballoons", "Major Tom (Coming Home)", "19", "Break Out", "Obsession"....all 80s hits, and all one-hit-wonders. There so many more.

Man, I didn't think anyone rememebered "19". That was cool, with the narration and all. "Big Country"... I still get tingly whenever I hear that song on Sirius First Wave (all 80's proto-alternative channel). I saw Big Country perform on SNL back in the day. Fan ever since.

Men At Work, excellent choice. Had both albums, their first one (name escapes me) and "Cargo". Good stuff, even their non-released singles. Fave MAW song: "Overkill". Happy to hear it reprised on an episode of Scrubs last season. Acoustic guitar, Colin Hay singing throughout the episode.

Kenny Loggins didn't write the soundtrack to the 80's. He wrote the soundtrack for every 80's film. Good money in a couple of throwaway songs between albums, according to his own bio. Who doesn't associate "Top Gun" with "Danger Zone"? Or "Caddyshack" with the dancing gopher and "I'm Alright"?

Let me add a few good songs/bands to the list: decadent dance tunes, like Dead or Alive ("You Spin Me Round" or "My Heart Goes Bang") or Erasure (the entire "Innocents" album).
Goofy pop, like They Might Be Giants ("Istanbul not Constantinople", "Don't Let's Start", or "Birdhouse in Your Soul"), early REM ("It's the End of the World"), or the aforementioned Men Without Hats (surprised anyone remembers "Pop Goes the World").

and I believe that our collective American fascination with rock and roll deaths (see: Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin...the list goes on) helped to facilitate the explosion of punk this side of the pond.

Kurt Cobain was big before he died. 'Nevermind' made him and Nirvana HUGE. Hendrix was pretty big before his death too.

Kenny Loggins had lots of hits in the 80s, but "wrote the soundtrack"?

The reason I made this statement (and I will defend it...lol!) is because most of Kenny Loggins' hits made it to the soundtracks of definitive 80's movies. Madonna would be a close runner up, but Michael Jackson, despite his musical dominance, didn't make it to the soundtracks as consistently as either of the aforementioned. Possibly because his asking price was too high, but Loggins seemed to appear at least once a year with a hit from a movie soundtrack.

Even though we have different preferences, though, it's still fun to have this discussion.

The best comparisons I can give you would be to look at the Beatles. John Lennon is a rock and roll immortal because of his death.

---Gidmac

Well, let's not forget King Elvis. A heart attack after a life of wild indulgence....sounds kinda like Mama Cass, too.

Let's also not forget that McCartney went to be a Wing and be a "Band on the Run" that sang about "Silly Love Songs", but Lennon went on to write deep odes to "Woman" and to "Imagine" a better world. Two very different outlooks.

Ebony and Ivory" or McCartney's post 9/11 release "Freedom"?

---Gidmac

Well, okay....but he HAS had 25 years more than Lennon had.
I wonder what Lennon would have sung about 9/11?

Probably something about embracing others differences and cultural whatevers and make love not war and let's all hug and make up and let's try to understand them and why they hate us and we need to give them whatever they need to be happy and at one with the universe and.....well...he HAD those dinky little glasses!

I see that perhaps I am the only one to see the 80s music as just garbage.

---Dr. Guy


Well, here's one position of the Doc's that I gotta say I can't support. Of course, I was in my early-mid teens from 1980-85 (and, as any fan of 80s music can tell you, the 80s were SO over by 1986-87. By then we'd started down the slippery slope toward the 90s), and it's the music I came of age to. Any music that brings back memories of the golden teen years will always be the most welcome to our ears. First love....first job...cruisin'....hangin' out...now, I like all kinds of music; I have very eclectic tastes. I'll listen to Sinatra and Martin, Goodman and Ellington, Lennon and McCartney, Bowie and Stewart...just about anything. Rock, Gospel, classical....But the 80s; those tunes rule, dude!