Best 80s music?

Gazza

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My brother has no time at all for the 80s as a music era, he's certain it's the absolute worst decade of popular music. I think he's talking shit, that a lot of great music from the 80s, and he's just looking in the wrong places.

So list great songs/bands/albums from the 80s or post a youtube vid so I can prove my point.
 
Dramarama - Work for Food​

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*Not the same without the volume turned up as high as your system can take it.


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or...


The Jam - That's Entertainment

Just sneaking in under the wire at 1980​


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*One of the better sound quality versions that I've seen.

And couldn't just want to get up and rip the floor up too - 'In the City'?


or the coolest version of the Batman Theme
Been so long I forgot about this one.




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Never in my life have I heard anyone say the didn't like;

U2 - One Tree Hill




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And he's a complete spaz if he doesn't agree that Peter Gabriel is one of history's greatest composer/performers

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New Order deserve a mention for shaping music through the 80's til now.

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Or the Epic worldwide sensation 'The Clash'

The Clash Charlie Don't Surf Live 1982
(a better song and video)


or anything from London Calling (released in the US 1980 -so it counts on my side of the pond) which had been voted Rolling Stone magazine's *album of the decade.

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Any and all of the Ramones and nearly all of the Pixies and Frank Black music....

Can't leave out Concrete Blonde



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If he's a club going sort:

One of the most remixed club songs of all time -



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Is Metal his thing, even if it is tame, it's a great one.



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... or if he's a closet cross-dressing-homo
(The 80's didn't discriminate, it made ok to dress like a fag... but just don't feckin' touch me, ...ok?!)



I need to stop, otherwise I'll be on this all feckin' day.


*You may need to explain to him what an album is...
 
Anything REM did in the 80's is pure class. May post some links of favourites later.
 
Pet Shop Boys are my guilty pleasure from the 80's. Some classic pop tunes from them
 
Joy Division
New Order
R.E.M.
The Smiths
U2
Sonic Youth
Pixies
The Stone Roses
Talking Heads


You wouldn't have rock as we know it, had it not been for those bands. Alternative Rock was born in the 80s. Some of the production during the decade was awful, but there were plenty of great bands.
 
Good stuff, keep it coming. Youtube links if possible.

Joy Division and New Order were already at the top of my mental list of great music from the 80s, and of all time. Unfathomably underrated band(s).
 
Easy V said:
You wouldn't have rock as we know it, had it not been for those bands. Alternative Rock was born in the 80s. Some of the production during the decade was awful, but there were plenty of great bands.
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Good point about production. A lot of great songs from that decade sound dated these days. Mostly due to the drum sounds - you can detect an 80s song just from the overly processed drum sounds that were going around at the time.
 
Gazza said:
Good point about production. A lot of great songs from that decade sound dated these days. Mostly due to the drum sounds - you can detect an 80s song just from the overly processed drum sounds that were going around at the time.
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Definitely.

Joy Division are one of my favourite bands, but compare the production on both "Unknown Pleasures" and "Closer", with a recent album of similar style, like "Turn On the Bright Lights" by Interpol (which is arguably the best produced album of the last 10 years), and it really hasn't aged well at all. The songs themselves are fantastic; not many people could, or ever will, write a song like Ian Curtis, but the production is very, very dated.

Just look at "She's Lost Control", undoubtedly one of their finest songs, but that intro sounds terrible in comparison to some of today's production.
 
Some of the best albums of the 80's.

AC/DC — Back in Black
Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill
Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
Brian Eno & David Byrne - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
Bruce Springsteen — Nebraska
The Cure - Disintegration
The Cure - Pornography
De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising
Depeche Mode - Black Celebration
Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over Me
Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Get Happy
The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace
Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy
Joy Division - Closer
Kraftwerk - Computer World
Michael Jackson - Thriller
My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything
N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton
New Order - Power, Corruption & Lies
Pixies - Doolittle
Pixies - Surfer Rosa
Prince & The Revolution - Purple Rain
The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy & The Lash
Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
R.E.M. - Murmur
Run-DMC - Raising Hell
The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
The Smiths - Meat is Murder
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
The Smiths - The Smiths
The Smiths - Strangeways, Here We Come
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
Sonic Youth - EVOL
Sonic Youth - Sister
The Sugarcubes — Life's Too Good
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones
U2 - The Joshua Tree
Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
XTC - English Settlement
XTC - Skylarking
 
Easy V said:
Definitely.

Joy Division are one of my favourite bands, but compare the production on both "Unknown Pleasures" and "Closer", with a recent album of similar style, like "Turn On the Bright Lights" by Interpol (which is arguably the best produced album of the last 10 years), and it really hasn't aged well at all. The songs themselves are fantastic; not many people could, or ever will, write a song like Ian Curtis, but the production is very, very dated.

Just look at "She's Lost Control", undoubtedly one of their finest songs, but that intro sounds terrible in comparison to some of today's production.
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Joy Division were really a 70's band although the second album was released in 80 after Curtis died but otherwise I agree with you.
 
Easy V said:
Definitely.

Joy Division are one of my favourite bands, but compare the production on both "Unknown Pleasures" and "Closer", with a recent album of similar style, like "Turn On the Bright Lights" by Interpol (which is arguably the best produced album of the last 10 years), and it really hasn't aged well at all. The songs themselves are fantastic; not many people could, or ever will, write a song like Ian Curtis, but the production is very, very dated.

Just look at "She's Lost Control", undoubtedly one of their finest songs, but that intro sounds terrible in comparison to some of today's production.
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Turn on the Bright Lights is a fantastic album, true.

The Stone Roses first album, which is obviously a classic, is another which suffers a bit production-wise, imo.
 
Some not mentioned:

Cocteau Twins.
Japan + David Sylvian and Mick Karn as solo artists too.
Yello
Guns 'n' Roses Edit: Already mentioned.
Kate Bush
 
Gazza said:
My brother has no time at all for the 80s as a music era, he's certain it's the absolute worst decade of popular music. I think he's talking shit, that a lot of great music from the 80s, and he's just looking in the wrong places.

So list great songs/bands/albums from the 80s or post a youtube vid so I can prove my point.
Click to expand...

It's the best era imo.

How old is your brother?
 
Great 80s albums

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I_live_cement said:
It's the best era imo.

How old is your brother?
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21.

In fairness to him he likes his 60s and 70s music so it's not like he's cut off from past eras, but I think he's quite snobbish and closed-minded.

Funny thing is, he knows I'm a New Order fan and likes their latest album, which came out in 2005, but thinks their 80s stuff is lame, when the opposite is more the case, if anything.

I think he sees 80s music as synth, disco, electronic pop and nothing else, which is as much VH1's fault as his.
 
Doogie said:
Some of the best albums of the 80's.

AC/DC — Back in Black
Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill
Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
Brian Eno & David Byrne - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
Bruce Springsteen — Nebraska
The Cure - Disintegration
The Cure - Pornography
De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising
Depeche Mode - Black Celebration
Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over Me
Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Get Happy
The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace
Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy
Joy Division - Closer
Kraftwerk - Computer World
Michael Jackson - Thriller
My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything
N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton
New Order - Power, Corruption & Lies
Pixies - Doolittle
Pixies - Surfer Rosa
Prince & The Revolution - Purple Rain
The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy & The Lash
Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
R.E.M. - Murmur
Run-DMC - Raising Hell
The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
The Smiths - Meat is Murder
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
The Smiths - The Smiths
The Smiths - Strangeways, Here We Come
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
Sonic Youth - EVOL
Sonic Youth - Sister
The Sugarcubes — Life's Too Good
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones
U2 - The Joshua Tree
Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
XTC - English Settlement
XTC - Skylarking
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Nice list.

Would add an Echo & the Bunnymen album in there, probably Crocodiles or Ocean Rain.

Was Magazine 80s or late 70s? I think the latter. The Fall were around through the 80s though, I know that much!
 
Gazza said:
Nice list.

Would add an Echo & the Bunnymen album in there, probably Crocodiles or Ocean Rain.

Was Magazine 80s or late 70s? I think the latter. The Fall were around through the 80s though, I know that much!
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Yes there are many more albums, no Bowie album there even though I could easily include Scary Monster (and Super Creeps). And yes, Echo & the Bunnymen should also be there.

Regarding Magazine I think The Correct Use of Soap was released in 1980 or 81 so that one is definitely one to include.
 
Joan Jett - Bad Reputation​

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Being that the ladies haven't gotten much of a mention... this one is a classic.


Let me know if he isn't convinced... I'm sure I can come up with more.

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If he isn't convinced, pull out the hard shit...

Social-Distortion--C10127606.jpg
 
Beat me to it. The 80s had some utter shit, especially at the more commercial end of the market. The Stock Aitken and Waterman stuff plus Agado type embarrassment but it also had some of the most innovative and downright great music of any era.
 
Wibble said:
Beat me to it. The 80s had some utter shit, especially at the more commercial end of the market. The Stock Aitken and Waterman stuff plus Agado type embarrassment but it also had some of the most innovative and downright great music of any era.
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what he said ---^


though to me even some of the more commercial stuff, not the stuff you're referring to Wibbs, was so, so much better than the shite that's around now - think Soft Cell, Haircut 100, Human League et al
 
ruuds left boot said:
what he said ---^


though to me even some of the more commercial stuff, not the stuff you're referring to Wibbs, was so, so much better than the shite that's around now - think Soft Cell, Haircut 100, Human League et al
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Indeed, even some of the highly commerial stuff was brilliant.
 
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