OFF: what was it with the 80s...?

[K Henderson]

Ketil speaks...

>80s....
>oh well - gotta love the sugarcubes, though......   :-)
>but all in all; the 80s was imo the decade of utter bad taste (and i'm not
>talking about the little icelandic record label). i mean fashion, music,
>general design and arcitecture - gawd!
>personally i'm not that fond of hawkwind's output during the 80s, but
compared >with the more popular music of that decade they're not that bad
after all  ;-)
>if only musicians had explored the potensial of the DX7 instead of using
the >dreadful pads!  ;-)  ;-)

Finally, a man speaking some sense!!  :)  There was nothing remotely
interesting about any of the 'new wave' electronic pop music and the
simultaneous 'hair metal' / glam-poseur movement of the 1981-1987 years.
(Joy Division I tried out awhile back - had never heard before.  Omigod!
And never have attempted Barbieri's Japan....don't *eeee-ven* want to know!
Depeche Mode?  I don't even know one song.  They *have* to be horrible, just
with that name alone.)  Somehow, all that complete nonsense managed to drown
out any and all attempts at a serious underground movement of any kind (that
I could care about...I suppose somebody will now tell me about some, but I
probably am not interested so much - prolly involves defecation in some form
or another), save maybe the Minneapolis
too-early-for-grundge-coattail-riding-status 'post-punk' bands like Husker
Du, Soul Asylum and the Place Mats (all of who were just sort of 'ok'
anyway).  And then, as Ketil indicated, the few proggy and/or spacey bands
that persevered, like Hawkwind and Eloy for instance, were gently nudged
towards modifying their sound to fit in a little bit more ('metallized' and
'dumbed down somewhat').  Total unmitigated disaster of a time, and just
when I was going through *those* years in college when I first began my
obssessive record-shopping habits (have only gotten worse).  I imagine that
my fondness for Queensryche, Marillion, and 10,000 Maniacs were greatly
enhanced by being up against such pathetic competition.  And I think U2 and
REM were also 'nothing' bands that reaped the benefits big time of being
just 'better than any of that other crap.'

Without the internet, we might have *still* been stuck in that same rut
frighteningly, though I think that the 1989-90 transition in music was
fruitful in some ways even if a lot of that music was 'pants,' or at least
overhyped, so I believe things were already improving before 'indie' took on
a whole new meaning in the last five years.

Grakkl (FAA), who feels that the 1977-1981 period that suffered from disco,
multiple mis-interpretations of what 'punk' was supposed to mean, and the
massive overexposure of the classic rock analogue of the movies 'Titanic'
and/or 'Pearl Harbor,' also known as Boston, at least had some tail-end
classic prog/spacerock and some interesting NWOBHM bands (Diamond Head
especially).  And as we just talked about a few days' ago, also the Police
and the spread of "reggae awareness."  [And also, Blondie's "Heart of Glass"
is *my* song that I should be embarrassed to admit I like, but will, 'cause
I want to help those who have (partially-)defended Culture Club, Spandau
Ballet (come on!) and Duran Duran to feel a little better about themselves
today.]  :)

P.S.  What Atomic Rooster to get?  I've been intending to get something one
of these days, but wasn't sure if a 'best hits' was the way to go or not.
Is there a seminal AR album?