What Are You Listening To Now VII

PureX

Well-known member
There was an excellent show at the White House the other day, in honor of the National Endowment for the Arts. On it, James Taylor and Keb Mo sang a Hank Williams song … beautifully.



And Buddy Guy played one of the most honest and heart-felt blues I'd heard in a long time.

 

freelight

Eclectic Theosophist
synth-pop, post-punk, new romantic delights!

synth-pop, post-punk, new romantic delights!

I truly feel bad for you. That's not a decade anyone wants to be stuck in! :chuckle:

Not stuck purex, just enjoying the creative innovative original musical forms, feel and expressions during this era. It was my adolescent years, so perhaps there is a nostalgic element of independence there. I'm by no means limited to any one decade, of course ;)
 

PureX

Well-known member
Not stuck purex, just enjoying the creative innovative original musical forms, feel and expressions during this era. It was my adolescent years, so perhaps there is a nostalgic element of independence there. I'm by no means limited to any one decade, of course ;)
Let's see, the 80's start off with punk, which as an ideal was fine, but as actual music was … well … a bit of a waste land.

That morphed into new wave, which I admit to liking at the time, and was somewhat innovative, but still, not a spectacularly influential stream as it seems to have died nearly as fast as it was born.

Meanwhile, the new 'greed generation' were all dancing up a storm to disco, which was basically a near total musical and artistic abomination that put a whole lot of real musicians out of work.

There was glam-rock, which was a pathetic attempt at getting rich while pretending to be rock-n-rollers, or at playing gay when they weren't really. (Or were, but who cared, anyway?)

There was MTV, which was basically just a 24-7 advertisement network for "pop" stars and pop-star wannabes. There we're some outstanding pop artists in the 80s, but unfortunately, the business of selling music had become so predominant and overwhelming that they wore us all out with it.

I swear if I never hear another 80s pop song as long as I live it'll be too soon. Even the good ones. (There are a few very rare exceptions, like Micheal Jackson, who was so insanely good at the "pop" genre in the 80s that he's still interesting to listen to.)

All in all, though, the 1980s was not a good decade for musicians or musical artists. It was ruled by money and cocaine in a way that the music scene had never been, before. And the effect was not positive.
 
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