And Now for the 80's

So now it is the 1980's.  What a great time.  You have to admit, someone can say "come to an 80's party" and you immediately have images in your head of what you could wear and what kind of music would be played.  It is one of those eras with a distinct style and life of its own.

I had the hair, I had the leggings, I had the shoulder pads and big earrings.  Music was changing from the Disco sounds of the 70's and the all important music video was born.!  In 1981, the video channel MTV launched, "Video Killed the Radio Star" and the beginning an era of 24-hour-a-day music on television.

It was the early 80's and Madonna hit the scene.  She was ripe to exploit the new music video craze with her unique look, dance moves and choreographed video productions.  I immediately liked her music and her bitchy don't give a frack attitude.  Her impacts went far beyond music, she had a look that became synonymous for the 80's if you were a girl.

It is hard to talk about 80's music without talking about 80's fashion.  Suddenly everyone was pretty androgynous.  Women wore shoulder pads and strong structured jackets.  Men wore earrings (in the right ear), pink shirts, skinny ties and big over styled hair.   If you watched the Thompson twins, the male and female siblings looked pretty much the same.

But anyway, back to the music. I had a ton of influences and liked many types of 80's music.

Michael Jackson - Thriller
I still remember being at the coliseum for some event in 1982 and there were big screens and everyone was standing around watching this new video and song called Thriller.  Like MJ or not, that video was amazing and groundbreaking.  (and he looked close to normal back then)

Billy Idol

Yes, I thought Billy Idol was kind of hot.  Liked the snarl and the attitude.  I even went to a Billy Idol concert at the U of A RAT.  I was in the mosh pit in the front and it was a Nice Day for a White Wedding!

Kiss
When I was in Junior High school we all had a favorite Kiss member.  Mine was Paul Stanley back in the day, and often at Halloween we dressed up like Kiss.  I remember my mom being freaked out by the Kiss album cover, but now when I think of their tame lyrics it makes me laugh.  O gee, I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day....ooooooo...that's evil!

Guns N' Roses 
I have a lot of favorite GNR songs, but Sweet Child o Mine still works for me today.  I think Axl Rose has such an amazing voice, too bad he turned out to be such a douche bag, but that's OK, he can rock it out!

ACDC
In the 80's I bought myself a car with the money from my part time shoe store job.  It was a green 1972 Chev Impala.  It was a boat and could fit at least 8 teenagers pretty comfortably.  So the cassette of choice was ACDC Back in Black.  It was played a lot!  By the way, when cassettes were played a lot they wore out, the tape got stretched and they eventually sounded like crap : )



A lot of the music I liked was coming from outside of Canada or the US.  Much of it was considered New Wave or Punk and came from Australia or Britain.  Some of my favorites were:

Men at Work
Men at work, who are not to be confused with Men without Hats had a different sound. Their music differed from the US type of Rock sound and their debut album was a must have in every cassette collection.  Although, Men without Hats did have an awesome mid-evil dancing midget video - the Safety Dance!.


A Flock of Seagulls - "I Ran (So Far Away) 

I loved this song and danced my ass of to it on many occasions!

Berlin - The MetroThe 80's had some great female voices, like Terri Nunn, Debbie Harry and Pat Benetar.  They didn't have to show their hooch to sell records either!
  
Modern English - Melt with You
This was just a great song, its used in car commercials today. 


The Clash  and the Kinks
I went through a phase where I was really into New Wave.  The Clash and the Kinks were bands that i listened to. L O L A  Lola.  I also really liked the Boomtown Rats and listened to their Fine Art of Surfacing album many many times.

This list of songs and bands are really just the tip of the iceberg of stuff I liked in the 80's.  There were a lot of one hit wonders and also a lot of artists like Madonna, U2 and Aerosmith that are still recording years later.  I see teenagers on the street now that are dressing like we did in the 80s so this was a decade of influence.  Lots of fairly happy, goofy and unusual music and bands. 

Devo, B52s, Duran Duran, The Cure and Twisted Sister!  What was not to love.

Check out what VH1 says are the top songs of the 80's.