5 ms·

Is it me, or did the 80's just have better music. Maybe it's just the when you become cognizant of music. My first album was Men at Work. Wore that tape out,

by madengr 11y ago

Is it me, or did the 80's just have better music. Maybe it's just the when you become cognizant of music. My first album was Men at Work. Wore that tape out, and the music is STILL good.

ekianjo 11y ago
Not just that, but the 80s had way more movement up and down in the top 5. There was fierce competition and experimentation. Look at the 90s and you get some bands that stay FOREVER on the top 5 for weeks in a row. Never happened in the 80s.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
rco8786 11y ago
> Maybe it's just the when you become cognizant of music. Almost certainly this.
- mwfunk 11y ago
  Not sure why anyone would downvote this, it's a huge factor. It's a well-known phenomenon. The emotional impact of the stuff you listened to in your early days of music fandom is often much greater than even your favorite music as a jaded music fan 20 years later. If that's combined with being a teenager (or younger), those associations are even stronger and more permanent, to the point where that music will always seem to have some intangible, emotionally resonant quality that seems to be missing from the stuff you get into later in life.
lmitchell 11y ago
So obviously YMMV, but I was born in '92 and my roommate and I listened through basically this whole thing last night - and we both agree with you, the '80s was where it was at.
Nav_Panel 11y ago
Here's what happened as far as I'm aware: changes in radio station ownership in the 1990s created a much less competitive and more homogeneous musical environment, leading to less variety in hit music. The details: 1996 Telecommunications Act (viewable http://transition.fcc.gov/Reports/tcom1996.txt http://transition.fcc.gov/Reports/tcom1996.txt ), string search for "SEC. 202. BROADCAST OWNERSHIP": > NATIONAL RADIO STATION OWNERSHIP RULE CHANGES REQUIRED- The Commission shall modify section 73.3555 of its regulations (47 C.F.R. 73.3555) by eliminating any provisions limiting the number of AM or FM broadcast stations which may be owned or controlled by one entity nationally. Prior to this, each city had its own local stations and they'd all compete with each other. This change paved the way for Clear Channel aka iHeartMedia, Inc to purchase pretty much every commercial radio station around the country, resulting in the same programs everywhere. I read a reddit post recently that went into more detail about the process but I can't find it.
coldtea 11y ago
>Is it me, or did the 80's just have better music. Maybe it's just the when you become cognizant of music. That can be part of it, but some eras can have better music than others too, period. The same way some centuries have tons of important artistic and intellectual works and others are mostly void of them: societies changes, new models, etc. This is especially the case with respect to specific genres: e.g. not so much good bebop in 1990-2010 as in 1940s, even though there is some. Genres have their peaks and lows. This holds for genres like rock and r&b too.
- ghaff 11y ago
  I suspect that, while there's a lot of subjectivity and personal preference involved, certain musical styles just age better than others overall. This is certainly true of architecture--ref: the various discussions here about the widely perceived ugliness of much of Brutalist architecture. On the flip side, some might not find it inventive or whatever, but few are going to call most examples of neoclassical or Beaux Arts architecture ugly.
- Nav_Panel 11y ago
  > some eras can have better music than others too, period I agree with your point within genres but I disagree with your point as a whole. The main issue is knowing where to look, which can actually be quite difficult for some periods, as a lot didn't make it onto Youtube or Spotify. I've done some digging, though, and within each decade since the dawn of electrically amplified recording (1925), I've personally managed to find a style of music that I consider "as good as anything in any other period" i.e. timeless. The thing is, some of these styles have been forgotten in contemporary discourse: Western Swing went from THE most popular style of music in the 1940s to being completely forgotten or tossed under the rug along with "I hate country and rap." If you ignore Western Swing because it's "country", you ignore the most interesting musical movement of that whole period (and you fail to fully understand the origins of Rock & Roll/Rockabilly/Sun Records/Elvis). Other styles/movements have been reduced to the work of one or two idiosyncratic artists who are revered/remembered more for their personal story than for their place in the broader context: Django Reinhardt is the first that comes to mind (listen to Eddie Lang & Joe Venuti[0], then Milton Brown & His Musical Brownies[1], then come back to Django[2] and see what you think). Johnny Cash and Hank Williams are two others where most people are more familiar with their personal stories than their contextual relevance (and I'd argue one is a lot more important than the other). I'm willing to list off my personal findings/recommendations on styles/artists but it would take me a while to get from 1925 to today. If there's interest I'll write it up but this post is already getting long. [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgzAoDhzUJA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgzAoDhzUJA [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnjE5aB-cWQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnjE5aB-cWQ [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTH_Nn_TtDI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTH_Nn_TtDI
gedy 11y ago
The late 70s to mid 80s always felt like the musical equivalent to the early 1900s in Modern art. A lot of breaking down of old styles and habits, introduction of new tools, collaborating and stealing ideas from each other. New Wave, Hip Hop, etc.
leoc 11y ago
Ian MacDonald in 1994, at the ending of Revolution in the Head: > Arguably pop music, as measured by the singles charts, peaked in early 1966, thereafter beginning a shallow decline in overall quality which was already steepening by 1970. While some will date this tail-off to a little later, only the soulless or tone-deaf will refuse to admit any decline at all. Those with ears to hear, let them hear. After a couple more decades of continuing (though not uniform and consistent) overall decline, the broad truth of this looks more evident than ever. In much the same way that classical music probably peaked roughly around the death of Beethoven, with the shallow decline in overall quality becoming steeper some time in the late nineteenth to early twentieth century.
- LanguageGamer 11y ago
  We have a lot more historical distance between us and pre-20th century classical music, than we do with pop music. Just anecdotally, it seems people are biased towards the music of their youth. At any rate, I grew up in the nineties, and Nirvana is greatest rock band of all time.
  - cfmcdonald 11y ago
    But Nirvana was never a chart-topping band. Smells Like Teen Spirit peaked at #6, and never makes it on this visualization. None of their other singles came close to that. The point is that The Beatles are better than Boyz II Men, not that Led Zeppelin is better than Nirvana.
    - spenczar5 11y ago
      I think it's not quite right to say that Nirvana wasn't popular, though. Being at #6 instead of #1 is a pretty minor difference in the grand scheme of all the music that gets made.
  - Grishnakh 11y ago
    I grew up in the 80s and 90s (went to college in the early 90s, I remember well when Nirvana was new and Smells Like Teen Spirit was all over the place). I never liked 90s music that much, and prefer late-60s through early 80s music, even though it was either before I was born or I was too young at the time to know about it. I'm sorry, in my opinion, music has just gotten a lot worse in quality over the years. And the other poster's post about ClearChannel taking over all the radio stations nationwide in the late 90s, I think, is good evidence that it's not just my biased opinion, the environment and the music industry has really changed for the worse. The industry was run in a very different manner back in the 70s and 80s, and it should be obvious that that's going to have a huge effect on the music.

by madengr 11y ago

Is it me, or did the 80's just have better music. Maybe it's just the when you become cognizant of music. My first album was Men at Work. Wore that tape out, and the music is STILL good.

ekianjo 11y ago

Not just that, but the 80s had way more movement up and down in the top 5. There was fierce competition and experimentation. Look at the 90s and you get some bands that stay FOREVER on the top 5 for weeks in a row. Never happened in the 80s.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

rco8786 11y ago

> Maybe it's just the when you become cognizant of music. Almost certainly this.

mwfunk 11y ago
Not sure why anyone would downvote this, it's a huge factor. It's a well-known phenomenon. The emotional impact of the stuff you listened to in your early days of music fandom is often much greater than even your favorite music as a jaded music fan 20 years later. If that's combined with being a teenager (or younger), those associations are even stronger and more permanent, to the point where that music will always seem to have some intangible, emotionally resonant quality that seems to be missing from the stuff you get into later in life.

lmitchell 11y ago

So obviously YMMV, but I was born in '92 and my roommate and I listened through basically this whole thing last night - and we both agree with you, the '80s was where it was at.

Nav_Panel 11y ago

Here's what happened as far as I'm aware: changes in radio station ownership in the 1990s created a much less competitive and more homogeneous musical environment, leading to less variety in hit music. The details: 1996 Telecommunications Act (viewable http://transition.fcc.gov/Reports/tcom1996.txt http://transition.fcc.gov/Reports/tcom1996.txt ), string search for "SEC. 202. BROADCAST OWNERSHIP": > NATIONAL RADIO STATION OWNERSHIP RULE CHANGES REQUIRED- The Commission shall modify section 73.3555 of its regulations (47 C.F.R. 73.3555) by eliminating any provisions limiting the number of AM or FM broadcast stations which may be owned or controlled by one entity nationally. Prior to this, each city had its own local stations and they'd all compete with each other. This change paved the way for Clear Channel aka iHeartMedia, Inc to purchase pretty much every commercial radio station around the country, resulting in the same programs everywhere. I read a reddit post recently that went into more detail about the process but I can't find it.

coldtea 11y ago

>Is it me, or did the 80's just have better music. Maybe it's just the when you become cognizant of music. That can be part of it, but some eras can have better music than others too, period. The same way some centuries have tons of important artistic and intellectual works and others are mostly void of them: societies changes, new models, etc. This is especially the case with respect to specific genres: e.g. not so much good bebop in 1990-2010 as in 1940s, even though there is some. Genres have their peaks and lows. This holds for genres like rock and r&b too.

ghaff 11y ago
I suspect that, while there's a lot of subjectivity and personal preference involved, certain musical styles just age better than others overall. This is certainly true of architecture--ref: the various discussions here about the widely perceived ugliness of much of Brutalist architecture. On the flip side, some might not find it inventive or whatever, but few are going to call most examples of neoclassical or Beaux Arts architecture ugly.
Nav_Panel 11y ago
> some eras can have better music than others too, period I agree with your point within genres but I disagree with your point as a whole. The main issue is knowing where to look, which can actually be quite difficult for some periods, as a lot didn't make it onto Youtube or Spotify. I've done some digging, though, and within each decade since the dawn of electrically amplified recording (1925), I've personally managed to find a style of music that I consider "as good as anything in any other period" i.e. timeless. The thing is, some of these styles have been forgotten in contemporary discourse: Western Swing went from THE most popular style of music in the 1940s to being completely forgotten or tossed under the rug along with "I hate country and rap." If you ignore Western Swing because it's "country", you ignore the most interesting musical movement of that whole period (and you fail to fully understand the origins of Rock & Roll/Rockabilly/Sun Records/Elvis). Other styles/movements have been reduced to the work of one or two idiosyncratic artists who are revered/remembered more for their personal story than for their place in the broader context: Django Reinhardt is the first that comes to mind (listen to Eddie Lang & Joe Venuti[0], then Milton Brown & His Musical Brownies[1], then come back to Django[2] and see what you think). Johnny Cash and Hank Williams are two others where most people are more familiar with their personal stories than their contextual relevance (and I'd argue one is a lot more important than the other). I'm willing to list off my personal findings/recommendations on styles/artists but it would take me a while to get from 1925 to today. If there's interest I'll write it up but this post is already getting long. [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgzAoDhzUJA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgzAoDhzUJA [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnjE5aB-cWQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnjE5aB-cWQ [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTH_Nn_TtDI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTH_Nn_TtDI

gedy 11y ago

The late 70s to mid 80s always felt like the musical equivalent to the early 1900s in Modern art. A lot of breaking down of old styles and habits, introduction of new tools, collaborating and stealing ideas from each other. New Wave, Hip Hop, etc.

leoc 11y ago

Ian MacDonald in 1994, at the ending of Revolution in the Head: > Arguably pop music, as measured by the singles charts, peaked in early 1966, thereafter beginning a shallow decline in overall quality which was already steepening by 1970. While some will date this tail-off to a little later, only the soulless or tone-deaf will refuse to admit any decline at all. Those with ears to hear, let them hear. After a couple more decades of continuing (though not uniform and consistent) overall decline, the broad truth of this looks more evident than ever. In much the same way that classical music probably peaked roughly around the death of Beethoven, with the shallow decline in overall quality becoming steeper some time in the late nineteenth to early twentieth century.

LanguageGamer 11y ago
We have a lot more historical distance between us and pre-20th century classical music, than we do with pop music. Just anecdotally, it seems people are biased towards the music of their youth. At any rate, I grew up in the nineties, and Nirvana is greatest rock band of all time.
- cfmcdonald 11y ago
  But Nirvana was never a chart-topping band. Smells Like Teen Spirit peaked at #6, and never makes it on this visualization. None of their other singles came close to that. The point is that The Beatles are better than Boyz II Men, not that Led Zeppelin is better than Nirvana.
  - spenczar5 11y ago
    I think it's not quite right to say that Nirvana wasn't popular, though. Being at #6 instead of #1 is a pretty minor difference in the grand scheme of all the music that gets made.
- Grishnakh 11y ago
  I grew up in the 80s and 90s (went to college in the early 90s, I remember well when Nirvana was new and Smells Like Teen Spirit was all over the place). I never liked 90s music that much, and prefer late-60s through early 80s music, even though it was either before I was born or I was too young at the time to know about it. I'm sorry, in my opinion, music has just gotten a lot worse in quality over the years. And the other poster's post about ClearChannel taking over all the radio stations nationwide in the late 90s, I think, is good evidence that it's not just my biased opinion, the environment and the music industry has really changed for the worse. The industry was run in a very different manner back in the 70s and 80s, and it should be obvious that that's going to have a huge effect on the music.