80's
I have a bit of beef with the current perception of 80's music. Nowadays 80's means mostly new wave. Sure there are plenty of hits from the likes of Tears for Fears etc, but by in large it seems the nostalgia is leaning towards the new wave end of the scale. I believe, at least in the case of my high school, this is revisionist history. I loved new wave, and was a social outcast thanks in no small part to my eclectic tastes. The songs that could truly be called popular in my high school were from;
Taylor Dayne
Rick Astley
Lionel Richie
Phil Collins
Mike and the goddam mechanics
Huey Lewis and the effing news
I could go on and on. The exception seems to be silly hair metal, which was popular and still gets of lot of play, albeit tongue in cheek.
So what's the problem? Those new wave songs are, if not better certainly more fun to revisit anyway right?
This post makes no sense to anyone not named me....I'm losing the plot. Can you tell my reunion is coming up, and I don't want to go. I feel like I should want to go, so I have this dialogue in my head about how fun it will be, but I know better.
I guess my point is the yuppie larva I went to school with loved them some Huey Lewis, and now they wanna wax nostalgic about Turning Japanese...so eff em.
Taylor Dayne
Rick Astley
Lionel Richie
Phil Collins
Mike and the goddam mechanics
Huey Lewis and the effing news
I could go on and on. The exception seems to be silly hair metal, which was popular and still gets of lot of play, albeit tongue in cheek.
So what's the problem? Those new wave songs are, if not better certainly more fun to revisit anyway right?
This post makes no sense to anyone not named me....I'm losing the plot. Can you tell my reunion is coming up, and I don't want to go. I feel like I should want to go, so I have this dialogue in my head about how fun it will be, but I know better.
I guess my point is the yuppie larva I went to school with loved them some Huey Lewis, and now they wanna wax nostalgic about Turning Japanese...so eff em.
posted by Robert_M at 9:10 AM
6 Comments:
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The current 80's radio format is much like the "classic rock" format that dominated radio during, uh, the actual 1980's. Selling fake nostalgia to the 37 year-old is always a big marketing sucess. Funny how the same 37-year-old suburbanite mom who professes to love the song "Love Cats" would have been considered a freak in 1985 had she professed her love of the Head on the Door album during biology class. Such revisionist history.
I remember you owned one of those cartoon noir shirts where the character said: "Damn. I forgot to get a job again today." That always made me laugh.
Where's Bill "Hey Man" when you need him.
John succeeds where I fail, he summed it up in one paragraph. Genius!
I should be more forgiving in truth, I mean I can't blame someone for not wanting to revisit Rick Astley.
I think the people from high school have seen enough John Hughes type movies to think they liked the Furs and the Smiths even though they had a lot of cassette tapes by people on your list in their collections. My friend Tracy used to get spit on in HS for liking Echo and the Bunnymen. While I regret a lot about my metal days, at least I didn't like Huey Lewis. I think that's worse.
I also would like to thank Robert M for recommending to me the first Smiths LP, which I bought in 1986. Even though I probably got a Krokus record that same day, it was a step in the right direction. Who knows how my life would be if I never got that Smiths record. By the way, did I tell you guys I saw Sound Warehouse Donna on a bird field trip? I was too chicken to talk to her. She is the one who hired me at SW even though I showed up at the interview wearing a t-shirt on which I had drawn Steven Tyler with a magic marker. What a freakin dork. Extra double thanks to Rob.
Donna was involved in my hiring also, we should buy her a Cadillac.
You are welcome for twee recomendations, I wonder why I felt you would like fey indie music when you were full on Rawk!
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