therealdeal

The 1980s are a much-maligned and misunderstood decade in the history of music. There’s a perfectly good reason for this: this was the first decade in which nearly all of the great music did not get played by radio stations. Though radio was not yet to its current congealed corporate state, it was trying to get there are quickly as possible. Weaned at the beginning of the decade on the excellent sugar of Michael Jackson and synth pop, radio increasingly looked for hits in bouncy choruses from prancing hair mops. By the end of the decade, radio was choking on a hairball covered with hairspray, tight leather pants and girly wails from vapid aluminum-strength metal.

During this trip straight into music hell, the masses missed out on some albums that are unmatched to this day for originality, power and their great impact on music. This was the beginning of alternative radio. For those of us who grew up during the 80s (I was 10 at the beginning and 20 at the end), you could not get what you needed on the airwaves. Yes, radio especially sucked where I grew up in Bakersfield (Q94?) but even on repeated trips to Los Angeles, the great KROQ, with the already-too-old Richard Blade, you’d get a steady dose of Depeche Mode and “Sex Dwarf.” Listen, I like any song with the words sex or dwarf in the title and to have them both makes Marc Almond some kind of diety but the point is even with the cutting-edge “Rock of the 90’s”, in 1984 you got nothing but frequent repitition of British bouncy 80s music. Better than Miami Sound Machine? Yup. The best that was out there? Not even close.

Call them what you will now (and there’s a lot to say) but R.E.M. was the link from great 70s music to what we now have as “alternative.” Those four dudes from Athens, GA nursed an industry out of nothing. The ghosts of the MC5, Big Star and the Velvet Underground (which got lost under the stomping foot of punk) were resurrected by the jangly guitars of R.E.M. College radio was born with them. The interns at universities could now spin music being made at the present time, that was relevant, new and exciting. This began the separation from mainstream Janet Jackson loving and those listeners who found a way into X, The Replacements, Husker Du and the like.

For those of us not near a cool university radio station there was only one option: independent record stores. We actually had a good one in Bakersfield. What was good? Well, you needed a large import section (great Euro bands and also, strangely, domestic bands with foreign releases). You had to carry all the labels you could not get the Wherehouse (our other big record store): IRS, Rough Trade, SST, etc.. And you had to play good music. a lot of us hung out in music stores to hear new music that we’d like and buy. With no internet, a limited budget, and no radio spins–this was one of the few options. And we would drive two hours to Los Angeles to shop all day at music stores to find great music. Literally, we’d get there at open (10 am) and stay until dinner before we drove back. We were not the only ones, either, these stores were packed with people after the same records. It was great.

Anyway, that is what this blog is about: the great music that was made in the 1980s. With the advent of iTunes, you can get a lot of this online and for less money then we would spend back in the 1980s (thank you, technology and crumbling music industry).  I’d like to take new adventurers for a ride on some of these great albums and for those of you who were there, we can reminisce together.

Your comments are welcome.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS