09-08-2009, 13:56
With a few exceptions, 80s pop was shallow, glossy, and overproduced, even by pop standards. I won't mention "Starship" for fear of triggering anybody's PTSD. Oops...
The UK synth/punk-pop invasion produced a decent handful of good, somewhat groundbreaking tunes. But that fizzled-out pretty quickly.
After that, it was mostly about Madonna, and getting together to save Africa. That's ok, of course, from a charity perspective. But for a while it seemed to be less about making good music, and more about lining up high-profile divas to draw big crowds, put on big events, and crank out cheesy anthems about holding hands with your neighbors.
A few pop-rock songs from Genesis, Peter Gabriel, the Police, Bowie, etc. weren't bad, but there was almost no apples-apples equivalent to the great, simple pure-pop of the Beatles, Turtles, Abba and a long list of 1-5 hit wonders from the 60s and 70s.
The UK synth/punk-pop invasion produced a decent handful of good, somewhat groundbreaking tunes. But that fizzled-out pretty quickly.
After that, it was mostly about Madonna, and getting together to save Africa. That's ok, of course, from a charity perspective. But for a while it seemed to be less about making good music, and more about lining up high-profile divas to draw big crowds, put on big events, and crank out cheesy anthems about holding hands with your neighbors.
A few pop-rock songs from Genesis, Peter Gabriel, the Police, Bowie, etc. weren't bad, but there was almost no apples-apples equivalent to the great, simple pure-pop of the Beatles, Turtles, Abba and a long list of 1-5 hit wonders from the 60s and 70s.