@Purplecat: The entertainment of the 80’s was the escapism we needed to distract us from the existential horror of everyday living in the hellscape the 80’s actually were for the vast majority of average people everywhere. It’s a shame that US cultural hegemony became so dominant in that decade, though.
@FSogol: Early MST3K was my summer Sunday nights in the hot, hot summers before high school graduation in the Twin Cities. Joel was always bunny-eyed.
for DJ history going back to radio-only, go for Poschardt.
for hip hop history going back to Ebbits Field’s last game and the subsequent implosion of the Bronx, go for Chang.
both are excellent.
Yeah, and it depends on the filter. When someone mentions “the sixties,” this probably is not what jumps to mind, though (IIRC) he probably appeared on television more than any other musician during that decade.
OTOH, Zen Arcade was recorded that year… And, come to think of it, 1982 through the summer of '83 was probably the last period of time where I consistently enjoyed what was played on Top 40 stations.
I remember writing a letter to MRR (in 1994) where I opined they were doing themselves a disservice by restricting their coverage (more than they had been – they had very publicly drawn a line in the sand). Just dug thru the archives and found it. Not sure it’s too legible.
I remember Mykel Board warning that the restrictive stance was going to drive readers away to Forced Exposure or The Wall Street Journal, or both. (Man I still miss Forced Exposure.)
I’ll even suggest that, as dorky as a lot of them look in hindsight (Acid wash!? “Coca Cola clothes”?), the threads were better back then. Not that I was a clotheshorse, but I know I dressed better in those days – slacks vs. jeans for example (Like Leonard Cohen said, “I rarely ever look this good, or bad, depending on your politics”).
I remember when the Beastie Boys’ Check Your Head came out in 91 or 92, which was a really groundbreaking sound and had a hardcore track on it, it was the only non-punk (and major label!) release to make most of the MRR reviewers top ten lists that I ever saw. so that was super weird, because as you said, the music they covered was so proscribed.
but it did happen, if only once!
The 80’s was far and away the worst decade for music, and many of the bands in your list are examples. (In my opinion of course)
Also, yes, the 80’s did give us some pretty cool movies, as several examples in your list prove, but most of the junk in that tribute were bland corporate nothingness.
Oh man. I remember hearing Dr. Demento as an early teen in the late 1970s in San Diego and thinking “what on earth is this” and absolutely knowing that I couldn’t let my parents know I was listening to it.
Yeah, that’s a neat bit of historical knowledge most people aren’t’ aware of (I was not!)!
I don’t think so… she’s always had the long straight black hair, and that person has short, spiky rock-a-billy thing going on…
I think I have a love-hate relationships with rock critics, as a historian. They are often first producers of the historical narrative about music history, they can sometimes write interesting and very thoughtful things about popular music, and some have shown themselves to be excellent historians in addition to critics… but some have a tendency to be high-handed and think their opinion of music (even if well informed) is just fact…
I agree with your sentiment but the 80s also gave me my puberty so I think I’m conditioned to be biased. Like, “tons of the images from that video made me feel things” biased.
