(This blog post is brought to you by my great friend and ex-neighbor, Chad Blinman. He has earned the rank of Blog Badass for completing his entry in one day.)
Just say "eighties music" in a room full of people and watch the eyes roll. Some might cite their "guilty pleasures." Others will groan or express outright distaste. But the decade marred by cheesy synth-pop, hair metal, Starship and Rick Astley also bore some of the most innovative, vital and influential records ever produced. As the 1970s drew to a close, musicians liberated and inspired by punk rock were blending influences as diverse as Krautrock, prog, disco and funk, reggae and dub, Eastern and African music together with a completely new palette of sounds made available by electronic instruments and effects. The resulting explosion of music we now call post-punk and new wave is still felt throughout the musical landscape and continues to inform modern music today. 1981 was right smack in the middle of this intensely concentrated period of prolific invention: in that year alone we were given Movement by New Order, Faith by the Cure, Juju by Siouxsie and the Banshees, Heaven Up Here by Echo and the Bunnymen, Mask by Bauhaus, Prayers on Fire by the Birthday Party, Ghost in the Machine by the Police, Rage in Eden by Ultravox, and dozens of other landmark records. Just don't call it "eighties music."
Today's Drawing
Today's "365" Project (Do something with squares.)
Just say "eighties music" in a room full of people and watch the eyes roll. Some might cite their "guilty pleasures." Others will groan or express outright distaste. But the decade marred by cheesy synth-pop, hair metal, Starship and Rick Astley also bore some of the most innovative, vital and influential records ever produced. As the 1970s drew to a close, musicians liberated and inspired by punk rock were blending influences as diverse as Krautrock, prog, disco and funk, reggae and dub, Eastern and African music together with a completely new palette of sounds made available by electronic instruments and effects. The resulting explosion of music we now call post-punk and new wave is still felt throughout the musical landscape and continues to inform modern music today. 1981 was right smack in the middle of this intensely concentrated period of prolific invention: in that year alone we were given Movement by New Order, Faith by the Cure, Juju by Siouxsie and the Banshees, Heaven Up Here by Echo and the Bunnymen, Mask by Bauhaus, Prayers on Fire by the Birthday Party, Ghost in the Machine by the Police, Rage in Eden by Ultravox, and dozens of other landmark records. Just don't call it "eighties music."
Haiku of the Day:
Nineteen eighty one:
so many brilliant records
released in one year.
Today's "365" Project (Do something with squares.)
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