How did 70s rock music transition into 80s music?
80s music appeared to be a re-visitation of the beginning of Rock — when "singles" ruled the AM radio. In those early days, in the event that a craftsman had a hit, he/she could get to record an "collection" (when those modern LP records appeared). A LP could have two hits and 10 tunes of forgettable filler melodies. Most craftsmen were characterized by their hit singles.
The 60s and 70s saw an ascent in FM radio and AOR (Album Oriented Rock) which gave numerous specialists the opportunity to make bigger works, or gatherings of melodies which frequently remained all in all work, and empowered a more extended tuning in/focus time. Beside funk and disco dance hits, the 70s inclined towards Album Oriented Rock.
The 80s saw a swing away from longer works and AOR, and back towards snappy singles. I'd say MTV had a great deal to do with the progress to 80s music. ("Video killed the radio star"):
MTV presented many gatherings who had fantastic singles, yet probably won't have accomplished acknowledgment without MTV video openness: Squeeze, The Vapors, Duran, Adam and the Ants, the B-52s, The Cars — to give some examples. (Note, I said "may" — yet that is my hypothesis.)
MTV constrained many long settled stars — David Bowie, Rod Stewart, even The Rolling Stones — to make video-commendable tunes. (That is — SINGLES.)
Peter Gabriel is a story regardless of anyone else's opinion. He was genuinely known from his Genesis Days — yet those astonishing recordings of "For sure" and "Demolition hammer" certainly kicked him into the super frightening.
MTV — after a ton of asking, cajoling, and dangers — at last changed their bigoted whites-just strategy, and began broadcasting recordings by people like Michael Jackson and Prince — presenting various dark craftsman to a lot bigger crowd.
In outline, I think MTV during the 80s — and later the Internet and YouTube — abbreviated individuals' capacity to focus, made a market weighty on short snappy singles, and made it progressively hard for craftsman to make "collections" which would allow them an opportunity to introduce their bigger vision.
Am glad to see somebody finally mentioned Roxy Music (Bryan Ferry as a solo act got mentioned early in the thread). A few others that have slipped under the radar include: Art of Noise, The Beautiful South, Bow Wow Wow, Jim Carroll, House of Freaks, It's Immaterial, Pixies, The Stranglers, Talk Talk, Teardrop Explodes, Throwing Muses and the Violent Femmes. |
I am not sure the posts definition of AOR is correct: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Album-oriented_rock |
MTV did change what younger people wanted in "music" on August 1st, 1981, creating an outlet for bands that LOOKED (and sounded) good on TV. But as others note, rock music started becoming pompous and self-important in the 1973-1977 years. And a lot of the founding bands of rock from the 1960s were getting long in the tooth. A lot of 15 to 22 year olds don’t particularly care about listening to what 40 year old guys want to say or sing about. |
@moonwatcher , for all the popularity of Michael Jackson in the 80's, and all the New Wave bands, that certainly drove the buying habits of youth, the top selling artists were mostly identifiable with rock. Not exclusively, but mostly, and certainly up to about 87/88. Things really shifted after that. |
