I Love and hate the 80’s 10/04/2016
OpinionReview
84 Comments

Why I could or should hate the 80’s? Simple, it’s because of: Jermaine Jackson, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, New kids on the Block, Culture Club + Boy George, Lionel Richie, Billy Ocean, A-ha, Wham + George Michael, Bon Jovi, Cher, Scorpions, Europe, Spandau Ballet, Phil Collins, Live Aid, Paul Young, Tears for Fears, Enya, Alphaville, Kajagoogoo, Modern Talking…do I really have to continue?

But…fact of the matter is that I love the 80’s. The above list is just to remind me that the decade also produced pretty horrible music (and fashion). I need to remind me that in the 80’s Michael Jackson and Madonna were called the King and Queen of Pop. I should also never forget that in the 80’s MTV transformed music into a visual experience, which not only resulted in beautiful videos to make already great songs even better, but also in the musician as a visual product to be marketed and sold.

Goes to show there are no great decades, or horrible ones, just artists, listeners and trends. I think fondly of the 80’s because it fulfilled the promise of punk; first come creativity and energy, only then technical competence. Do It Yourself! When punk transformed into (this weird garbage can term called) New Wave it created space for experimentation. Bands like P.I,L, Wire, Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle, Clock DVA, Coil, Cabaret Voltaire, A Certain Ratio, the Swans, Gang of Four all took the spirit of Punk and took it elsewhere. Most also experimented with electronic music, effectively injecting Kraftwerk’s template with a double dose of weirdness, nihilism and creepiness. The House revolution of ’86 would have been totally different without those experiments. And this time the revolution was televised.