Having grown up in the 1980s, much of their output seemed to me like past-it-rockers-by-numbers trying to hang on to their glory days with trendy production and keyboards.

1980,s were fantastic for music, especially yhe first half of the decade, so many great bands and singers, most trying to be different, it was all downhill after the 80,s fizzled out, as rap and hiphop crap became more prominant.

some amazing bands in the 80,s

the rolling stones
u2
big country
the alarm
the waterboys
queen
depeche mode
OMD
dire straits

to name but a few.

the stones themselves released great music in the 80,s especially the stuff from tattoo you and undercover.

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24FPS

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jackflash1129
80s was the worst decade in popular music history. I think the stones in hindsight did pretty well.

Really? Queen, The Clash, Blondie, Michael Jackson, Springsteen, Prince, the Police, Hall and Oates, Cyndy Lauper, and a whole barrel full of one hit wonders. At least the first half of the 80s was fantastic.

I don't think listing hall and Oates and Cyndy Lauper is a good idea when trying to build up a deacde.

But really your post does nothing at all to address the issue. TO show the 80s were not the worst decade ever musically you have have to show make a list artist for artist against other decades, just listing a handful or artists means nothing because you can do that with any decade.


In other words tell us what decade was worse then the 80s.

In any decade there is good music and bad music. But in the 80s charts-crap was more horrible than usual. Keyboards replaced guitars, drums sounded awful. Some acclaimed Bands and solo-artists made horrible music and there were Phil Collins, Joe Cocker, Tina Turner and Bryan Adams torturing me all the time. And Lhimal, anybody remember Lhimal? Turning on the radio those days was really painful, Madonna and Kylie Minogue everywhere, there was no escape. And all these hardrock posers, oh my goodness. And those Synthie-Pop-groups and New Romantics, terrible....For me the Stones were an anchor, a lifeline back then.

I remember when we would throw out "commercial" as a cut to any music we thought had either sold out or was too pop to be taken seriously. The 80's was the decade that just about everything became too commercialized to be taken seriously by those of us still hanging on the the concept of nasty rock and roll for the sake of the music. A HMS pointed out, the poser hard rock hair bands and synth driven pop stuff just added to the feeling that real rock was dying and everybody had sold out. The Stones were no exception, imo. Their 80's stuff was completely lost on me, a mere shadow of the relevant stuff they did in the late 60's and 70's.

The amazing amount of new music technology emerging during that time seemed only to take away from the sound of the music, people got lost in all that stuff, some still do. The organic feel and sound that made the 70's music so good was disappearing as a result. Yeah, there were a few exceptions, The Police, Dire Straits, Little Feat, The Neville Brothers, Stevie Ray Vaugh to name a few but looking back I would have a hard time saying the 80's were awesome.

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stanlove

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24FPS

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jackflash1129
80s was the worst decade in popular music history. I think the stones in hindsight did pretty well.

Really? Queen, The Clash, Blondie, Michael Jackson, Springsteen, Prince, the Police, Hall and Oates, Cyndy Lauper, and a whole barrel full of one hit wonders. At least the first half of the 80s was fantastic.

I don't think listing hall and Oates and Cyndy Lauper is a good idea when trying to build up a deacde.

But really your post does nothing at all to address the issue. TO show the 80s were not the worst decade ever musically you have have to show make a list artist for artist against other decades, just listing a handful or artists means nothing because you can do that with any decade.


In other words tell us what decade was worse then the 80s.

I think the first part of the 80s were amazing, including Hall and Oates and Cindy Lauper. But then again I'm not a rock snob, and neither are the Rolling Stones, who constantly changed styles up until Steel Wheels. (Which is also when the band should have quit). I think the early 80s were a golden time for pop, and for rock too with groups like the Clash. The Stones stage act in the early 80s was almost a throw back to the 50s and early 60s.

I will admit that most of the old gods were dead by the 80s, but most of their good stuff was in the early 70s. By the late 70s Led Zeppelin was done, Eric dried up, and Rod simply mimicked whatever the Stones were doing (in a weak way). Groups like Blondie and the Cars goosed things up again on into the early 80s.

I'd say the 90s were worse than the 80s. The Stones put out less than a handful of memorable songs, with most of them being retro Stones, and no artistic progression. Nirvana was briefly great, and the rest of pack is spotty. And by 2000 rock and roll was a museum artifact, which is where we are today. I marvel that the Stones are still out there, but they've been standing in place since 1989.

the music industry today is poor, its dominated by artists who can barely write good songs and instead play cover versions, then theres boy bands, many who cant play an instrument or write songs, then theres bimbo,s who wear little clothing and have no talent musically whatsoever, then add in tuneless rap and thats about it for today, the turning point was the mid to late 80,s and its all been downhill ever since.

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buttons67
1980,s were fantastic for music, especially yhe first half of the decade, so many great bands and singers, most trying to be different, it was all downhill after the 80,s fizzled out, as rap and hiphop crap became more prominant.

some amazing bands in the 80,s

the rolling stones
u2
big country
the alarm
the waterboys
queen
depeche mode
OMD
dire straits

to name but a few.

the stones themselves released great music in the 80,s especially the stuff from tattoo you and undercover.

Um, other than the Stones, who in this list is epic? No one

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buttons67
1980,s were fantastic for music, especially yhe first half of the decade, so many great bands and singers, most trying to be different, it was all downhill after the 80,s fizzled out, as rap and hiphop crap became more prominant.

some amazing bands in the 80,s

the rolling stones
u2
big country
the alarm
the waterboys
queen
depeche mode
OMD
dire straits

to name but a few.

the stones themselves released great music in the 80,s especially the stuff from tattoo you and undercover.

I would add INXS to that list

The thing is, that the Stones didn't contribute to anything new in the eighties. They tried to catch on with reggae, disco and punk in the seventies. With mixed results. But what did they add to the eighties?
If it hadn't been for the success with Tattoo You (especially SMU) and the Still Life Tour I think they would probably have quit in the mid-eighties (which they did in a way...).

I disagree. since we all hammer the subject of set lists and War Horses ....Dammit Mixed Emotions is up there with Start Me Up and Rocks Off

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buttons67
1980,s were fantastic for music, especially yhe first half of the decade, so many great bands and singers, most trying to be different, it was all downhill after the 80,s fizzled out, as rap and hiphop crap became more prominant.

some amazing bands in the 80,s

the rolling stones
u2
big country
the alarm
the waterboys
queen
depeche mode
OMD
dire straits

to name but a few.

the stones themselves released great music in the 80,s especially the stuff from tattoo you and undercover.

Um, other than the Stones, who in this list is epic? No one

I would rather have mentionned, even if I myself was not aware of most of them before after a lag of a couple of years, bands like
New Order as the continuing band for Joy Division, after the loss of Ian Curtis through suicide
Birthday Party, with as prime splinter group Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Sonic Youth
and, towards the end of the decade, the Pixies.

Besides, maybe as a more acquired taste,
Bauhaus
Einsturzende Neubauten
Laibach

The Rolling Stones' achievements were of more mixed quality. Really great studio albums to me were EMOTIONAL RESCUE and UNDERCOVER. The limiting factor to more of those achievements in my horizon was the increasing conservatism of Stones' albumbuyers and concert audiences. The creativity of the band might have continued to a greater extent and possibly with less longer breaks, without the reserved reception to UNDERCOVER.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2015-08-26 02:20 by Witness.

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jackflash1129
The 80s were a hard time for 60s acts going through the mid life crisis of no longer being young hip and cool but not yet secure in legend status.

The 80's were a good time for old acts, at least they still had hits and airplay on mainstream radio, name any act from Stones, Macca, Harrison, BB King, Dylan or any old act around were still getting Top 40 hits and albums charting well, even Jagger as solo act got 7 Hot 100 hits during 1984-1988 (and only 1 since then in 1993).
After 1991-92 it never was the same, no more mainstream radio airplay for old acts or any act over 40 years old, only grunge/alternative, R&B/Rap and Pop music on the radio.

The best band and music to come out of the 1980s was The Cult.

My favourite band from the 80s is TC Matic.

DIRTY WORK is the Stones' biggest embarrassment of their career, period. With the exception to Harlem Shuffle, which has nothing to do with DIRTY WORK really since Keith had been trying to get Mick to do it for years and it just happen to finally happen and be released on the worst Rolling Stones album of all time, DIRTY WORK should be deleted from their discography due to the fact that there's not one good song on the album other than the covers.

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GasLightStreet
DIRTY WORK is the Stones' biggest embarrassment of their career, period. With the exception to Harlem Shuffle, which has nothing to do with DIRTY WORK really since Keith had been trying to get Mick to do it for years and it just happen to finally happen and be released on the worst Rolling Stones album of all time, DIRTY WORK should be deleted from their discography due to the fact that there's not one good song on the album other than the covers.

Yeah but without Dirty Work everyone would be directing their vehement dislike toward other mediocre efforts. At least people can now say "it was better than Dirty Work" about just about anything they decide to release.

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GasLightStreet
DIRTY WORK is the Stones' biggest embarrassment of their career, period. With the exception to Harlem Shuffle, which has nothing to do with DIRTY WORK really since Keith had been trying to get Mick to do it for years and it just happen to finally happen and be released on the worst Rolling Stones album of all time, DIRTY WORK should be deleted from their discography due to the fact that there's not one good song on the album other than the covers.

Yeah but without Dirty Work everyone would be directing their vehement dislike toward other mediocre efforts. At least people can now say "it was better than Dirty Work" about just about anything they decide to release.

LOL! Yeah... so DIRTY WORK is the epitome of the pinnacle of mediocre efforts.

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GasLightStreet

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Naturalust

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GasLightStreet
DIRTY WORK is the Stones' biggest embarrassment of their career, period. With the exception to Harlem Shuffle, which has nothing to do with DIRTY WORK really since Keith had been trying to get Mick to do it for years and it just happen to finally happen and be released on the worst Rolling Stones album of all time, DIRTY WORK should be deleted from their discography due to the fact that there's not one good song on the album other than the covers.

Yeah but without Dirty Work everyone would be directing their vehement dislike toward other mediocre efforts. At least people can now say "it was better than Dirty Work" about just about anything they decide to release.

LOL! Yeah... so DIRTY WORK is the epitome of the pinnacle of mediocre efforts.

Actually most of the 80s studio output is kind of pointless. Emotional Rescue is a lot of leftovers from the Some Girls sessions, and Tattoo You is mostly from the 70s. They don't get most of their mojo back until Steel Wheels, and then it's mostly over.

I feel like the 80s was the beginning of the end (at least for my music tastes) where video slowly begun to overtake audio in terms of importance to the average consumer and the record companies realised the formula to exploit pop music. Every decade there has still been some decent stuff if you look hard enough, but otherwise it has become gradually worse.

For the stones I like a lot of their early 80s stuff (she's so cold, sent it to me etc) aside from their tattoo you output. Otherwise I feel their best 80s work for the latter part of the decade was the unreleased studio efforts for dirty work and some of the stuff for steel wheels (almost hear you sigh outtakes are great).

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woodyweaving
I feel like the 80s was the beginning of the end (at least for my music tastes) where video slowly begun to overtake audio in terms of importance to the average consumer and the record companies realised the formula to exploit pop music. Every decade there has still been some decent stuff if you look hard enough, but otherwise it has become gradually worse.

For the stones I like a lot of their early 80s stuff (she's so cold, sent it to me etc) aside from their tattoo you output. Otherwise I feel their best 80s work for the latter part of the decade was the unreleased studio efforts for dirty work and some of the stuff for steel wheels (almost hear you sigh outtakes are great).

i agree, although i will point out that pop music traditionally was exploited by the record companies in formulaic ways... in other words it was an aberration that in the 60s and 70s edgy, harder, rebellious music regularly topped the charts.

poison

def leppard

billy idol

loverboy

split enz

zz top

cold chisel

Inxs

Faster pussycat

david bowie

bon jovi

bryan adams

AC/DC

tears for fears

these bands were good in the 80s

Feel The Fear
And Do It Anyway

Bryan Adams?

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jackflash1129
80s was the worst decade in popular music history. I think the stones in hindsight did pretty well.

Really? Queen, The Clash, Blondie, Michael Jackson, Springsteen, Prince, the Police, Hall and Oates, Cyndy Lauper, and a whole barrel full of one hit wonders. At least the first half of the 80s was fantastic.

wait, were you arguing for or against that post?

80's Stones were awkward. Bad decade for music, in general.

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GasLightStreet
DIRTY WORK is the Stones' biggest embarrassment of their career, period. With the exception to Harlem Shuffle, which has nothing to do with DIRTY WORK really since Keith had been trying to get Mick to do it for years and it just happen to finally happen and be released on the worst Rolling Stones album of all time, DIRTY WORK should be deleted from their discography due to the fact that there's not one good song on the album other than the covers.

Yes definatly a low point. Personally I would add "One Hit to the body" and
"Too Rude" in with "Harlem Shuffle". None of the three are epic but above average
and beyond filler - at least in my opinion.

Dirty Work is a hard-hitting, high-powered collection of amazingly good rock songs plus a heavenly ballad to die for. It stands the test of time brilliantly. In troubled times it showed that nobody and nothing can stop the Stones from rolling. Dirty Work can not be praised enough, it´s awesome from the bottom to the top.

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HMS
Dirty Work is a hard-hitting, high-powered collection of amazingly good rock songs plus a heavenly ballad to die for. It stands the test of time brilliantly. In troubled times it showed that nobody and nothing can stop the Stones from rolling. Dirty Work can not be praised enough, it´s awesome from the bottom to the top.

Did you say something?

1980 stones were cool. Was there anything cooler than the She's So Cold video?

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treaclefingers
1980 stones were cool. Was there anything cooler than the She's So Cold video?

oh, yes, in 1980 there was...