YES! THIS IS THE GREATEST TOPIC EVER!
I'll start with one of the most underrated songs of the 80's. I'm glad that after Grace Jones did her memorable Diamond Jubilee performance of this song its started to get more attention - and I think this song got to no.2 in some countries (so its not obscure in any way) but it should be up there with Billie Jean, Take On Me, Come on Eileen, and Love Will Tear Us Apart as one of the best songs of the decade. Its a funk/R&B/soul pop song about slavery/everyday work and you can dance to it. What more do you want?
There is of course such songs as Blue Monday, Ghost Town, Baggy Trousers, West End Girls, Its A Sin, Relax, Where Is My Mind, Money For Nothing, I Die: You Die, Der Kommissar, Safety Dance and Smalltown Boy to name but a select few. Whilst Kraftwerk's The Model was made in 1978, it inexplicably got to number 1 in the UK around 1981 - technically making the German quartet a one hit wonder. A huge shame, since both Kraftwerk and Yellow Electric Orchestra basically invented synthesised music. Without those two, the 80's would have been a very different decade music-wise.
You could also say that music made in 1979 counts as 80's music - in which case I could go on all day. 1979 was a great year for pop music, with such greats as Cars, Are 'Friends' Electric, Heart of Glass, Ashes to Ashes, Another Brick In The Wall (you could cheat and name every song from 'The Wall'), Rock With You, and Behind The Mask (the Yellow Electric Orchestra version, although both the Eric Clapton and Michael Jackson covers are worth listening to).
In contrast to the synth, there was also Talking Heads. I wasn't alive in the 80's, but I imagine they were brilliant if you'd gotten bored of all the synth, ska, hair, and genre-mixing.
I should also mention this. Its weird. The video will scare you in a way you cannot describe. But Trio, whilst not necessarily producing great music, did something no-one else did - they stripped down music to just three guys. Of course, today you have just one person playing guitars with pedals and loops and fancy gadgetry that makes me jealous I can't play an instrument - but I wish there was a modern equivalent to these guys. In an age where pop music is overproduced with that horrid Dubstep-inspired fuzz sound (I don't dislike Dubstep/Grime, I just hate the effect its had on music as a whole), its so refreshing to see just two/three instruments playing a song. That guitar riff would fade into the background of any normal song, but because its the only instrument aside from the drums and the deliberately cheap Casio keyboard loop, we love such simple sounds. Anyone interested?
Similarly, I think this takes the biscuit as the strangest thing from the 80's. Although, I always feel bad for laughing at it. Klaus Nomi was exceptionally talented, but was also one of the first notable gay men to die of AIDs (back before anyone understood the disease). He wasn't taken in his prime, he was taken just before he was about to break out. And its heartbreaking because this man could've been up there with artistic geniuses such as David Bowie had his career been longer and richer.
I've always wanted to get into the more obscure 80's stuff - since I feel embarrassed when I say that I'm fascinated by 80's culture and can only name music that was (and still is) humongously popular. Hopefully more will contribute to this thread and we can all enrich ourselves.
Last edited by Max Butcher (January 29, 2013 (05:57pm))
History always repeats itself. I have to admit, though, that when I watch the old 80's videos, all the make up and the "wall o' hair" hairdos are rather frightening.
