Were the 1980s the last great decade for music?



Geppetto said:
There was some tremendous music in the 80s and the 90s too. It went to pot in the naughties somewhat although the early naughties were still good. Now a lot of the mainstream stuff being churned out is utterly chod.
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The 90s were the beginning of the heritage mining. Oasis were inspired by The Beatles, Blur by The Kinks.

Britpop as a whole was an effort to repeat the British Invasion of the 1960s, and many of the cues came from the earlier bands.

Mercia Blackcat said:
I liked Trance to be honest.
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Started in the late 1980s.
 
Some great pop music came off the back of punk but the 80s were also a bit style over substance. It's hard to consider the 80s to be great when the same decade managed to ruin Stevie Wonder.
 
It's probably more to do with instrumentation than "forward looking writing".

For centuries you had orchestras. Then all of a sudden you have electric guitars and amplifiers. Then the digital age emerges in the late 70s/early 80s with synths, samples, drum machines and all that nonsense.

There's been no truly new instrumentation in a generation.
Monty Pigeon said:
The 90s were the beginning of the heritage mining. Oasis were inspired by The Beatles, Blur by The Kinks.

Britpop as a whole was an effort to repeat the British Invasion of the 1960s, and many of the cues came from the earlier bands.



Started in the late 1980s.
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Well that's a load of bollocks for a start. You had The Jam wanting to be mod in the 70s. Then there's the Teddy boy rockabilly revival. Blues never really went away.

Heritage mining is how music comes about. All the British blues bands of the 60s were heritage mining. All the folk artists were. It's a bit of a nonsense term really. I've not watched the vid, but I'm not sure what Neil Tennant things was so cutting edge about covering Elvis.
 
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Nowadays though, if you bother listening to the charts on a sunday, pretty much every song either sounds like a one from the past or has samples from a previous hit.
 
Flick over during adverts in soaps on a friday to totp and watch a bit, but once totp gets into mid 90s or so its absolute dogturd. If its not a Rutles tribute band its mc jazzy d featuring his marras -bloody rubbish
 
90s were massive. 00s had some good stuff but was starting to dive, 10s was f***ing horrendous, 20s not so sure yet, not great but theirs signs it could be good.

90s had a massive mixture of music though.

Britpop and other bands from that sort of era - Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Manics.

Hip Hop - 2Pac, Biggie, NWA, Eminem.

Grunge - Nirvana, AIC, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden.

Metal - Slipknot, Tool, SOAD, Korn

Alt Rock - RHCP, Rage, Faith No More, Kyuss

Dance/Rave - Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, Massive Attack

Pop probably hit it apex with like girl/boy bands and the likes.

Every era has shite mins but the 90s had some f***ing Greta stuff all over and that's trying not to include artists that came in earlier decades who were releasing great stuff as well.
 
No and the music industry has been mining its own heritage since before the hosts got into pop journalism.

The Beatles who along with the Stones and other bands of the 60s and 70s were inspired by blues, gospel and folk music of previous generations. Some of the progressive rock bands were plainly inspired by jazz and orchestral music.

I was listening to Blackbird by the Beatles the other day and realised the use of the drum click is basically the same sound that Georgio Moroder attributes to the foundation of his electronic dance music, he just replicated it on a synthesiser and sped it up. If we can credit this as the birth of a new genre at the time then why not grunge, drum and bass or trip hop in the 90s, dubstep in 00s or any genre that brings a new twist to what went before?
 
High Entropy said:
What were you even talking about ?

You can make almost any sound you like with software, a truly new instrumentation happening in this generation.
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Well it's not difficult is it. Name me a new instrument.

Saying you can digitally re-create the sound of any instrument is not the same thing is it. It's still a re-creation of something that already exists.

Technology advanced instrumentation in the 20th century in an unprecedented way, which led to a great deal of creativity and new sounds. That advancement has ceased.
 
chriswallace85 said:
Saying you can digitally re-create the sound of any instrument is not the same thing is it. It's still a re-creation of something that already exists.
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Digital Audio Workstations (software) can produce sounds that no traditional instrument could make, this is a new instrument.

chriswallace85 said:
Technology advanced instrumentation in the 20th century in an unprecedented way, which led to a great deal of creativity and new sounds. That advancement has continued into the 21st century without chriswallace even noticing.
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FTFY
 
Also, pretty much anyone can have their voice put through that much enhancement that even Stephen Hawking could be made to sound like Aled Jones. Listen to music nowadays and a lot is programmed and sounds nothing like the actual 'singers voice'. Chers Believe as an example from years ago or even John Lennon always double tracking his voice coz he hated it sounding trill.
 

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