Friday, February 7, 2025

The Eighties: Revolutionary Decade of Music

This topic opens a wide range of memories for me, growing up in the 80’s as a teen it resonates well as I was a staunch lover of music and a great break dancer in my hometown. Pop, classical, disco, soul and reggae was all part of my kind of music with Pop and soul my favorites, and it is amazing to note that the ‘Generation X’ my generation ushered in the prelude to the best era of music. The decade is predominantly considered as the great decade for music due to the rise of the use of saxophones and synthesizers mixing into different musical styles accompanying by powerful dancing.

It was fascinating to see saxophone changed the entire music production when Eddie Grant “Walking on the Sunshine” (1978) set the stage and then came volumes upon volumes of saxophones empowered music: George Michaels: Careless Whisper (1984), Diana Ross: Am coming out and upside down (1980),  Chaka Khan: Ain’t nobody (1983),  just to name a few among the great music that revolutionized our world and usher in a variety of dance styles including break dancing, moon walk, running man etc.

Clearly, American contribution to music pervaded my life during the eighties and although I still love music my genre has changed to gospel music. Music has been a medium of communication to me as I can attribute them to my life stages and preferences but there has been no musical performer as iconic as Michael Jackson, the king of pop, rock and soul. He was named King of Pop, rock and soul at the 1989 soul train aware by Elizabeth Taylor: a British American actor. These unique styles of American popular music emerged early in the 19thn century, and in the 20th century when the American music industry developed a series of new forms of music, using elements of blues and other genres. These popular styles included country, R&B, jazz and rock but the eighties dominated decades that preceded it. Americans say the 80’s was the decade with the best decade music. Four in ten Americans (40%) say the 1980’s produced the best music, followed closely by the 70’s (37%) and 90’s (32%) (Lohr et al., 2021).

Michael Jackson 

https://youtu.be/L55jpld7gzA?si=1-X2JBEJ4ozD0iM1


https://youtu.be/dsUXAEzaC3Q?si=oDDHHIUOrcviBWzV


George Michaels Careless Whispers

https://youtu.be/izGwDsrQ1eQ?si=0CyWgKDa4GmmBgap


https://youtu.be/4UFre6YFNNk?si=DqJoVOxegqQteEhw

Dayne Taylor:

Tell me to my heart: 1988

https://youtu.be/Ud6sU3AclT4?si=ddgfYfjGvKIukiKH

Visual:

The music got me: 1983

https://youtu.be/UYfG8tcEl3E?si=RKavWaBJ-o6yjLT8

Company B

Fascinated 1987

https://youtu.be/-b-6ksMdkrU?si=ehOaiou2ts1Adq1f


Shannon

Let the music play

https://youtu.be/_-0sUuGufmw?si=cM8jW2ElD6ArlRIU


Are there any time you can record that music was so fascinating than the decade of the 80’s?

What is music to you and how often do you play it?


  


3 comments:

  1. I believe music has a different effect on everyone who comes across it. I feel as if people look for something different in all forms of music whether that is in emotion, introspective or something educational. To me, I determine some of my favorites based on the way I feel after listening to it. I know this might sound crazy, but just last year I discovered some older artists such as Christopher Cross, George Michaels and that’s just to name a couple. Growing up I was not exposed to many genres of music. Honestly it was whatever my older siblings and my parents enjoyed listening to. So when we people say that they don’t enjoy a certain genre of music I just think they have not heard the right song yet. I also know there are people out there that are more into breaking down the details within the lyrics and the specific musical notes that are used. But I love seeing how they all come together to create something great.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would agree the 80’s was a revolutionary decade of music from the emergence of pop, rap, and heavy metal. For all of its innovation, it still borrows from the greatest musical period of all time, the late 1960s into the 1970s. This period saw the true evolution and advancement of musical creativity in all genres. There are no comparisons to bands like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Jim Hendrix, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Queen, the Eagles, and Van Halen. The list just goes on and on. Don’t get me wrong, I love 80’s music, but the foundation for all of it was laid in the decade that preceded it. Of course, Adorno would say it’s all just standardized, reproduced garbage, and there is really nothing special about any of it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. While I was not raised in the 80's era, I would agree that the music that came from the 80's are hits and a decade of amazing talent. I feel it is interesting to see that many artist will try and replicate what was done in the 80's. A good example of two artist coming together are Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak who created the album called an evening with Silk Sonic. Listening to the album it has the 80's vibe and beats. They even do a cover of the song Love's train. This to me showcases Adorno's Standardized theory of using the same tunes over and over. Although Adorno's not wrong with certain songs and tunes I do feel artist have taken creative liberty to change music to fit them. Overall music is fascinating and everyone has different tastes.

    ReplyDelete