The Best of the 1980’s (Part 1)
Cheesy synths, gated drums, epic saxophone solos: the sounds of the 1980’s, right? While those trademarks were fairly ubiquitous, there was also a ton of variety and innovation during the decade. Tune in to hear our thoughts and recommendations.
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Echo & the Bunnymen’s compilation “Songs to Learn and Sing” was my introduction to them–kind of like those Smiths compilation albums you guys talk about–it’s got a great collection of their songs. Their 1987 self-titled also has some great songs (I was going to name a few, but then looking at the album, it’s pretty solid throughout. I don’t know how much of it is nostalgia vs. actual greatness. It came out when I was 14, so it’s pretty up there for me.)
It’s interesting to hear your program as a class of 91-er–just those 4-5 years between us makes up a HUGE difference in how we view the 80s. The 70s were the decade of disdain for my age. We loved the 60s and classic rock. 70s was cheesy and disco. 80s was my coming of age music–6th grade was 84-85, so middle of the decade was when I started figuring out my musical tastes, so it’s strange to hear the perspectives of you young whippersnappers, even though we’re not that far apart. 🙂 (It will also be telling when we get to the 90s, as I was in college by the time Nirvana hit it big. It took me several years before I could listen to and appreciate what they were doing–partly because I was put off by the hullaballoo surrounding them.)
Sounds like I need to dive into Echo & the Bunnymen.
Yeah, I would guess our 80’s/90’s discussions would be very different since so much depends on our age at the time. But it will also be interesting to see if by the 2000’s that 5 year gap makes things much different anymore?