80’s radio

so we’re listening to 80’s retro radio courtesy of live365.com at work right now. Its such a sin. There’s just virtually nothing redeeming about the 80’s. Oddly, though I was but a pup in the 80’s, I know some of the word to almost every song I hear. Maybe the 80’s was where lyrics held pre-eminence in music, as the singing itself is generally much clearer than anything that preceded or followed it. Compare even artists such as Madonna now vs. Madonna then – you can *always* clearly hear the words in her 80’s tunes. Not so much anymore. The melodies seems very secondary then, whereas now the ‘atmosphere’ created by the song as a whole seems to be more important. Any thoughts?

10 Replies to “80’s radio”

  1. Okay, of course I had to go try this out for myself, and it’s great — it gives me one good laugh every fifteen minutes, and fades into the background the rest of the time. Of course I’m a serious child of the 80s so my tolerance level of this stuff is very high. The one I’m listening to is mostly top 40 but has the odd bit of Bauhaus & Clash thrown in, which is a good balance for “One in a Million Girl” and Bon Jovi.

    But the one that freaked me out was the station that plays nothing but Nelson. As in the twin blond rockers. I mean, what is that about? How terrifying.

  2. Okay, of course I had to go try this out for myself, and it’s great — it gives me one good laugh every fifteen minutes, and fades into the background the rest of the time. Of course I’m a serious child of the 80s so my tolerance level of this stuff is very high. The one I’m listening to is mostly top 40 but has the odd bit of Bauhaus & Clash thrown in, which is a good balance for “One in a Million Girl” and Bon Jovi.

    But the one that freaked me out was the station that plays nothing but Nelson. As in the twin blond rockers. I mean, what is that about? How terrifying.

  3. Sorry, I have to disagree. I find little redeeming in current popular music. As soon as everyone decided they needed to sound like Pearl Jam in order to be popular, it all started going downhill. Now, everyone sounds like Tool or Limp Bizkit, and most of them suck. Loudly.

    Not that all 80’s music was good – but at least it was listenable.

  4. Sorry, I have to disagree. I find little redeeming in current popular music. As soon as everyone decided they needed to sound like Pearl Jam in order to be popular, it all started going downhill. Now, everyone sounds like Tool or Limp Bizkit, and most of them suck. Loudly.

    Not that all 80’s music was good – but at least it was listenable.

  5. I won’t argue with the statement that there’s lots of crappy music now. The amount of corporate rock has if anything increased. And what we were listening to was not by any means some of the inventive music from the 80’s, it was top-40. Which probably sucks in any era (although I admit a particular fondness for 70’s-era rock). But maybe 80’s era music was simply less intrusive that contemporary rock, which may speak to the state of pop culture of each era. There’s simply that much more ‘noise’ to get through to anyone nowadays.

  6. I won’t argue with the statement that there’s lots of crappy music now. The amount of corporate rock has if anything increased. And what we were listening to was not by any means some of the inventive music from the 80’s, it was top-40. Which probably sucks in any era (although I admit a particular fondness for 70’s-era rock). But maybe 80’s era music was simply less intrusive that contemporary rock, which may speak to the state of pop culture of each era. There’s simply that much more ‘noise’ to get through to anyone nowadays.

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