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The 80s were perhaps the worst decade on record from both an aesthetic and musical standpoint. Seriously, pop culture sensibilities reigned. Over-synthesized co

The 80s were perhaps the worst decade on record from both an aesthetic and musical standpoint. Seriously, pop culture sensibilities reigned. Over-synthesized corporate pop music, neon-light bright clothes, box shaped cars. The only thing cool about the 80s was that I was a kid and had no bills. And much better cartoons and imagination/cynicism ratio.

meddlepal 11y ago
I dunno man... New Wave was pretty awesome.
- aswanson 11y ago
  Maybe. Maybe its the cheesy over-acting of the words in the low-budget videos of those days that drive me crazy...something about that decade strikes me as decidedly fake looking back on it. But hell, Im a grown man now. Things about the 90s and 2000s seem just as phony as well.
  - vacri 11y ago
    music videos were in their infancy in the '80s. They were still figuring out the ropes. Synthesisers were also a new instrument, and people were toying around with them. If corporate-backed music is your problem, you need to look two decades later, when the formula was perfected and in heavy use. And if 'artificial' music is your bugbear, you must hate sampling :)
    - aswanson 11y ago
      I dont hate sampling. Nowhere near it. In fact, sampling brought back the raw early 70s/late60s sounds I love. Compare the early grittiness of a Public Enemy song from 1987 against a Cyndi Lauper or other neon-habadashery hair-metal corporate concoction from that decade. You can't. One was rawness and grit, the other a manufactured POS.
    - aswanson 11y ago
      Also, synths were around from the early 70s. Look up Bob Moog or ARP. The 80s marked the over-abuse and reliance on the instrument. Hollow sound for a hollow, soulless decade.
      - vacri 11y ago
        Yes, they were, but they hadn't really hit the public experimentation stage at that point. Guitars were around for centuries before guitar music really took off (and instruments similar to guitars go back millenia). I have the opposite view of sampling - I find it feels heavily artificial and manufactured (not always corporate, but still manufactured), and it doesn't really feel like you can 'hear' the musician's mood. Just a matter of taste, though. I just think you're giving the 80s a bit of rough stick - that corporate management increased through the 90s and 00s, and was around before the 80s, too - see the infamous 'wall of sound' methodology :)

meddlepal 11y ago

I dunno man... New Wave was pretty awesome.

aswanson 11y ago
Maybe. Maybe its the cheesy over-acting of the words in the low-budget videos of those days that drive me crazy...something about that decade strikes me as decidedly fake looking back on it. But hell, Im a grown man now. Things about the 90s and 2000s seem just as phony as well.
- vacri 11y ago
  music videos were in their infancy in the '80s. They were still figuring out the ropes. Synthesisers were also a new instrument, and people were toying around with them. If corporate-backed music is your problem, you need to look two decades later, when the formula was perfected and in heavy use. And if 'artificial' music is your bugbear, you must hate sampling :)
  - aswanson 11y ago
    I dont hate sampling. Nowhere near it. In fact, sampling brought back the raw early 70s/late60s sounds I love. Compare the early grittiness of a Public Enemy song from 1987 against a Cyndi Lauper or other neon-habadashery hair-metal corporate concoction from that decade. You can't. One was rawness and grit, the other a manufactured POS.
  - aswanson 11y ago
    Also, synths were around from the early 70s. Look up Bob Moog or ARP. The 80s marked the over-abuse and reliance on the instrument. Hollow sound for a hollow, soulless decade.
    - vacri 11y ago
      Yes, they were, but they hadn't really hit the public experimentation stage at that point. Guitars were around for centuries before guitar music really took off (and instruments similar to guitars go back millenia). I have the opposite view of sampling - I find it feels heavily artificial and manufactured (not always corporate, but still manufactured), and it doesn't really feel like you can 'hear' the musician's mood. Just a matter of taste, though. I just think you're giving the 80s a bit of rough stick - that corporate management increased through the 90s and 00s, and was around before the 80s, too - see the infamous 'wall of sound' methodology :)