Lame 80s pop teen horror

[John H. McCartney]

I think that here on this side of the pond we fared somewhat
better, depending on your point of view of course. Yes there
was an enormous load of crap pop, but the majority of the
UK/Euro fashion bands never gained a toehold over here. The
vast wateland of US radio & MTV was pretty much the exclusive
territory of crap hair-metal bands.

There were actually some of the 80's pop bands that had some
talent and some good songs. Men Without Hats was indeed great,
and had more depth than just Safety Dance (which had the massive
coolness to have a Maypole and dwarves in their video), early OMD
was brilliant, even the dreaded Duran Duran had a couple of cool
tracks, such as Union of the Snake and Girls On Film. Ultravox
was pretty good, even New Order had their moments.

On the other hand, there were truly inumerable "bands" that
were abominations upon the Earth - Spandau Ballet was excrement;
Haircut 100, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Hayzee Fantayzee and others of
their ilk existed primarily as fashion statements. I do particularily
loathe Culture Club, but a personal most-despised band of the time
is Dexy's Midnight Runs, er, Runners. 'Come On Eileen' gets me all
choked up, like the way Jimi died.....


scorch