Wednesday 23 January 2013

M

The thought of the Nineteen Eighties usually evokes in me a depressed sort of feeling. It all seemed so dismal. The years 1980 to 1989 covered the latter half of my childhood which, as an experience ranged from being a bit boring at times to absolutely bloody fantastic at others. So I don't know why I should be so generally down on the Eighties.

Anyway, I will admit that of all the decades that we so arbitrarily clump music together in the Eighties were great for innovation and weirdness.  Looking it up (and to prove the arbitrary point) I see that the track below was actually released in 1979. But it is so not Seventies. The bouncy, squiggly sounds in this made me think of the Vince Clark remix of WFL. But, listening again to WFL, it seems incredibly sluggish in comparison.

M Pop Muzik

11 comments:

  1. Ha! Correctly guessed this would be the subject of the post to follow MOR and Mr.

    Must get out more.

    PS: 1979-1983 was a golden period in music for me. It's probs an age thing - I was 14-18.

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  2. I've enjoyed these little posts, I think I might do it again! Following on again from More!

    PPS: Yeah, I've said before somewhere that the awakening of my pop-consciousness can be fairly accurately pinpointed to around about Dec '81 into Jan '82. The mid-Eighties though seemed terrible at the time, all Whitney Houston records with that horrible buh bonng noise on them.

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  3. 1983: the year Bowie failed to be relevant. Just saying.

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  4. I can't say it causes me much angst when a favourite loses it. Bowie had a good run for his money, but if you knew where to look* in 1983 there was stuff that was as good as he'd ever been.

    (*I didn't, but then I was 11 and anyway I absolutely loved Let's Dance.)

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  5. The difference between music in 1981 and 1989 seems so huge it seems almost absurd to call them both The 80s; mind the difference between 87 and 89 seems almost as big.

    Pop Muzik is a very good record.

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  6. Of all the years I remember 1987 as the worst, the absolute nadir of the Eighties. The Pet Shop Boys, Terence Trent Darby that kind of stuff. They both did some decent tunes I suppose, but it was all just so...I dunno, glossy shoulder pads bollocks or something. Clothes with big words on them. Madonna. Ugh.

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  7. Ted Chippington came out of the 80s. Don't think he went in for shoulder pads.

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  8. Had to look him up, and no, you're right not much sign of shoulder pads there John, fair point.

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  9. I take it House wasn't your thing as 1987 were a great year for 4/4 beats.

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  10. I've got a soft spot for early House. But a lot of it hasn't aged very well. I didn't really buy any at the time, but old house/techno compilations are one of my favourite niche purchases at charity shops. A couple of my friends accumulated massive collections of 12"s back in the day, nearly all of which are now utterly fucked. Their lifestyles were not conducive to good vinyl maintenance.

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  11. It's just come to me - the reason the eighties seemed so utterly grim - it was all down to Thatcher, of course.

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