1980s in music
Encyclopedia
For music from a year in the 1980s, go to 80
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For a history of music in all times, see Timeline of musical events.
This article includes an overview of the major events and trends in popular music
in the 1980s
.
In the First World
, this decade saw the emergence of pop
and dance
music. As the term disco
fell out of fashion by the early part of the decade, genres such as post-disco
, Italo disco
, Euro disco
and dance-pop
in general became popular in the 1980s. Rock music
was also very popular throughout the decade, especially New Wave
, soft rock
, and glam metal
. On addition, adult contemporary, quiet storm
, and smooth jazz
music remained popular genres and radio formats. Futhermore, the 1980s are commonly associated with the usage of synthesizer
s, thus, synthpop
music and other electronic
genres became popular; as a matter of fact, several major electronic genres were born during the 1980s, such as electro
, techno
, house
, freestyle
and Eurodance
, despite many of them rose to prominence later on in the 1990s. Throughout the decade, R&B
, hip hop
and urban
music in general were also popular; rap music, nonetheless, was especially successful in the latter part of the decade, with the advent of the golden age of hip hop; urban music would continue its height of popularity into the 1990s.
The 1980s saw the reinvention of Michael Jackson
and the emergence of Madonna
, who arguably were the most powerful musicians during the time. Their videos became a permanent fixture on MTV
and gained a worldwide mass audience. Michael Jackson
's Thriller
album from 1982 is the best-selling album of all time, it is cited as selling as many as 110 million copies worldwide. Being the biggest selling artist of that decade he was indisputably the biggest star of the 1980s.
By 1980, the disco
production of the 1970s, largely dependent on orchestra
s, is replaced by a lighter synthpop
production, which is replaced by dance music. In the second half of the 1980s teen pop
has its first wave. Bands and artists include New Kids on the Block
, Debbie Gibson, Tiffany
, Tommy Page
, New Edition
, Stacey Q
, The Bangles
, Madonna
, Olivia Newton-John
and others.
Prominent American Urban pop acts of the 1980s include Tina Turner
, Lionel Richie
, Michael Jackson
, Whitney Houston
and Deniece Williams
.
During the mid-1980s American pop singer Cyndi Lauper
became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album, when her album She's So Unusual
spawned the Top 5 hits "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", "She Bop
", "All Through the Night
" and number-one single "Time After Time
". The album earned Lauper two Grammy Awards in 1985, including Best New Artist
.
American artists such as Whitney Houston
, Michael Jackson
, Bruce Springsteen
, Tina Turner
, Bon Jovi
, Prince
and Janet Jackson
ruled the charts throughout the decade and achieved tremendous success worldwide. Their fame and commercial success lasts up to date.
By 1984, a majority of groups signed to independent record labels were mining from a variety of rock and particularly 1960s rock influences. This represented a sharp break from the futuristic, hyper rational post-punk years.
Throughout the 1980s, alternative rock was mainly an underground phenomena. While on occasion a song would become a commercial hit or albums would receive critical praise in mainstream publications like Rolling Stone
, alternative rock in the 1980s was primarily relegated to independent record labels, fanzines, and college radio stations. Alternative bands built underground followings by touring constantly and regularly releasing low-budget albums. In the case of the United States, new bands would form in the wake of previous bands, which created an extensive underground circuit in America, filled with different scenes in various parts of the country. Although American alternative artists of the 1980s never generated spectacular album sales, they exerted a considerable influence on later alternative musicians and laid the groundwork for their success.
Early American alternative bands such as R.E.M.
, The Feelies
, and Violent Femmes
combined punk influences with folk music
and mainstream music influences. R.E.M. was the most immediately successful; its debut album, Murmur
(1983), entered the Top 40 and spawned a number of jangle pop
followers.
American indie record labels SST Records
, Twin/Tone Records
, Touch and Go Records
, and Dischord Records
presided over the shift from the hardcore punk
that then dominated the American underground scene to the more diverse styles of alternative rock that were emerging. Minnesota
bands Hüsker Dü
and The Replacements were indicative of this shift. Both started out as punk rock bands, but soon diversified their sounds and became more melodic.
By the late 1980s, the American alternative scene was dominated by styles ranging from quirky alternative pop (They Might Be Giants
and Camper Van Beethoven
), to noise rock
(Sonic Youth
, Big Black
) to industrial rock
(Ministry
, Nine Inch Nails
). These sounds were in turn followed by the advent of Boston
's the Pixies and Los Angeles
' Jane's Addiction.
The top mainstream American Alternative Rock
bands of 1980s included Hüsker Dü
, The Replacements, R.E.M.
, The Pixies, and Sonic Youth
which were popular long before the Grunge
movement of the early 1990s.
music and the emergence of its pop metal
subgenre. Bands such as Queen, Def Leppard
, Mötley Crüe
, Bon Jovi
, Quiet Riot
, Europe
, Ratt, Twisted Sister
, Poison
, Whitesnake
, and Cinderella
were among the most popular acts of the decade. The 1980s saw the emergence of wildly popular hard rock band Guns N' Roses
and the successful comebacks of Aerosmith
and Alice Cooper
in the late 1980s. The success of hard rock act Van Halen
spanned throughout the entire decade, first with singer David Lee Roth
and later with Sammy Hagar
. Queen
, which had expanded its music to experimental and crossover genres in the early 1980s, returned to guitar-driven hard rock with The Miracle in 1989. Additionally, a few women managed to achieve stardom in the 1980s' hard rock scene: Pat Benatar
, who had been around since the late 1970s, is a prime example of female success in hard rock, and so are both ex-Runaways
Joan Jett
and Lita Ford
.
The Arena rock
trend of the 1970s continued in the 1980s with bands like Styx
, Rush
, Journey
, Foreigner
, REO Speedwagon
, ZZ Top
, and Aerosmith
which were popular into the early 1980s, with hair metal taking their place later.
Traditionally associated (and often confused) with Hard rock, heavy metal was also extremely popular throughout the decade, with Ozzy Osbourne
achieving success during his solo career ; bands like Judas Priest
and Dio
were also widely popular North American acts. Speed metal
pioneer Motörhead maintained its popularity through the releases of several albums.
Underground scenes
produced an array of more extreme, aggressive Metal subgenres: thrash metal
broke into the mainstream with bands such as Metallica
, Slayer
, Anthrax
, and Megadeth
, while other styles like death metal
and black metal
remaining subcultural
phenomena.
The decade also saw the emergence of a string of guitar virtuosi, influenced by guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix
and Eddie Van Halen
; Joe Satriani
, Steve Vai
and Yngwie Malmsteen achieved international recognition for their skills. While considerably less numerous, bass guitar
virtuosi also gained momentum in the 1980s : Billy Sheehan
(of David Lee Roth
and Mr. Big
fame), Cliff Burton
(of Metallica
) and alternative/funk metal bassist Les Claypool
(of Primus
fame) became famous during that period.
Both Hard rock and Heavy metal were extremely popular live genres and bands toured extensively around the globe.
By the late 1970s and early 1980s the original wave of singer-songwriters had largely been absorbed into a more general pop or soft rock
format, but some new artists in the singer-songwriter tradition (including Michael Jackson
, Bruce Springsteen
, Tom Petty
, Mark Heard
, Lucinda Williams
, Patti Smith
, Kate Bush
, Rickie Lee Jones
, Stevie Nicks
, Cheryl Wheeler
and Warren Zevon
) continued to emerge, and in other cases rock and even punk rock
artists such as Peter Case
, Paul Collins
and Paul Westerberg
transitioned to careers as solo singer-songwriters.
In the late 1980s, the term was applied to a group of predominantly female U.S. artists, beginning with Suzanne Vega
whose first album sold unexpectedly well, followed by the likes of Tracy Chapman
, Nanci Griffith
, k.d. lang
and Tori Amos
, who found success first in the United Kingdom, then in her home market.
have a hit with Kokomo
. The Kinks
have hits with Come Dancing
and Do It Again. The Steve Miller Band
have a hit with Abracadabra. Steely Dan
have a hit with Hey Nineteen
. Bruce Springsteen
released his blockbuster album Born In The USA. Stevie Ray Vaughan
and George Thorogood
spark a revival of blues
. Led Zeppelin
disbanded after John Bonham
's 1980 death. Country rock
sees a decline after Lynyrd Skynyrd
's 1977 plane crash.
Hardcore punk
flourished throughout the early to mid 1980s, with bands leading the genre such as Black Flag
, Bad Brains
, Minor Threat
, Suicidal Tendencies
, amongst others. It began to wane however in the latter-half of the decade, with the New York hardcore scene
dominating the genre.
-like beats, high-tech production, and elements of hip hop
, soul
and funk
to rhythm and blues
, making it more danceable and modern. The top mainstream R&B artists of 1980s included Michael Jackson
, Prince
, Jermaine Jackson
, The Whispers
, The S.O.S. Band, Stevie Wonder
, Kool & the Gang
, Yarbrough and Peoples
, Smokey Robinson
, Rick James
, Diana Ross
, Lionel Richie
, Earth, Wind & Fire
, Dazz Band
, Evelyn King
, Marvin Gaye
, Mtume
, DeBarge
, Midnight Star
, and Freddie Jackson
.
In the mid-1980s, many of the recordings by artists Luther Vandross
, Freddie Jackson
, Sade
, Anita Baker
, Teddy Pendergrass
, Peabo Bryson
and others became known as quiet storm
. The term had originated with Smokey Robinson's 1975 album A Quiet Storm
. Quiet storm has been described as "R&B's answer to soft rock
and adult contemporary—while it was primarily intended for black audiences, quiet storm had the same understated dynamics, relaxed tempos and rhythms, and romantic sentiment."
Tina Turner
made a comeback during the second half of the 1980s, while Whitney Houston
and Janet Jackson
broke into the pop music charts with a series of hits. Richard J. Ripani wrote that Janet Jackson's third studio album Control
(1986) was "important to the development of R&B for a number of reasons", as she and her producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis
, "crafted a new sound that fuses the rhythmic elements of funk and disco, along with heavy doses of synthesizers, percussion, sound effects, and a rap music sensibility." Ripani wrote that "the success of Control led to the incorporation of stylistic traits of rap over the next few years, and Janet Jackson was to continue to be one of the leaders in that development." That same year, Teddy Riley
began producing R&B recordings that included hip hop influences. This combination of R&B style and hip hop rhythms was termed new jack swing
, and was applied to artists such as Bobby Brown
, Keith Sweat
, Guy
, Jodeci
, and Bell Biv DeVoe
.
Michael Jackson remained a prominent figure in the genre in the late 1980s, following the release of his album Bad
(1987) which sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. Janet Jackson's 1989 album Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 continued the development of contemporary R&B into the 1990s, as the album's title track "Rhythm Nation
" made "use of elements from across the R&B spectrum, including use of a sample loop, triplet swing, rapped vocal parts and blues notes."
and Hispanic
communities in the 1980s. The Hip hop musical genre had a strong influence on pop music in the late 1980s which still continues to the present day.
During the 1980s, the hip hop genre started embracing the creation of rhythm by using the human body, via the vocal percussion
technique of beatboxing
. Pioneers such as Doug E. Fresh
, Biz Markie
and Buffy from the Fat Boys made beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using their mouth, lips, tongue, voice, and other body parts. "Human Beatbox" artists would also sing or imitate turntablism
scratching or other instrument sounds.
The 1980s also saw many artists make social statements through hip hop. In 1982, Melle Mel
and Duke Bootee recorded "The Message" (officially credited to Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five), a song that foreshadowed the socially conscious statements of Run-DMC's "It's like That
" and Public Enemy's "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos
".
Popular Hip hop artists of the 1980s include Run D.M.C., Beastie Boys
, NWA, LL Cool J
, Public Enemy, Eric B. & Rakim
, Big Daddy Kane
, Boogie Down Productions
, and Ice T
, among others.
records made using only electronic instruments
became increasingly popular, largely influenced from the Electronic music of Kraftwerk
and 1970s disco music. Such music was originally born of and popularized via regional nightclub
scenes in the 1980s, and became the predominant type of music played in discothèques as well as the rave
scene.
House music
is a style of electronic dance music
which originated in Chicago, Illinois, USA in the early 1980s. House music was strongly influenced by elements of soul
- and funk
-infused varieties of disco
. Club play from pioneering DJs like Ron Hardy
and Lil Louis
, local dance music record shops, and the popular Hot Mix 5 shows on radio station WBMX-FM helped popularize house music in Chicago and among visiting DJs & producers from Detroit. Trax Records and DJ International Records, local labels with wider distribution, helped popularize house music outside of Chicago. It eventually reached Europe before becoming infused in mainstream pop & dance music worldwide during the 1990s.
It has been widely cited that the initial blueprint for Techno
was developed during the mid-1980s in Detroit, Michigan
, by Juan Atkins
, Kevin Saunderson
, Derrick May (the so-called "Belleville Three"), and Eddie Fowlkes
, all of whom attended school together at Belleville High
, near Detroit. Though initially conceived as party music that was played on daily mixed radio programs and played at parties given by cliquish, Detroit high school clubs, it has grown to be a global phenomenon.
was the dominant style, through such acts as Kenny Rogers
, Ronnie Milsap
, T.G. Sheppard, Eddie Rabbitt
, Crystal Gayle
, Anne Murray
and Dolly Parton
. The 1980 movie Urban Cowboy
, a romantic comedy starring John Travolta
and Debra Winger
, spawned a successful soundtrack album featuring pop-styled country songs, including "Lookin' for Love
" by Johnny Lee
, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia
" by the Charlie Daniels Band, "Could I Have This Dance
" by Murray and "Love the World Away
" by Rogers. The songs, and the movie itself, resulted in an early 1980s boom in pop-styled country music, and the era is sometimes known as the "Urban Cowboy Movement".
By the mid-1980s, country music audiences were beginning to tire of country pop. Although some pop-country artists continued to record and release successful songs and albums, the genre in general was beginning to suffer. By 1985, a New York Times article declared country music "dead". However, by this time, several newcomers were working behind the scenes to reverse this perception.
The year 1986 brought forth several new artists who performed in traditional country styles, such as honky-tonk. This sparked the "new traditionalist" movement, or return to traditional country music. The most successful of these artists included Randy Travis
, Dwight Yoakam
, Ricky Van Shelton
and Holly Dunn
. Also, artists like Kathy Mattea
and Keith Whitley
, both of whom had been performing for a few years prior, had their first major hits during 1986; Mattea was more folk-styled, while Whitley was pure honky-tonk. But the new traditionalist movement had already taken hold as early as 1981, when newcomers such as Ricky Skaggs
and George Strait
had their first big hits, and Reba McEntire
had her first big hit in 1980; in addition, songwriter–guitarist and Chet Atkins
prodigy Steve Wariner
also emerged as a popular act starting in the early 1980s. Another boom period for newcomers with new traditionalist styles was 1989, when artists such as Clint Black
, Garth Brooks
, Mary Chapin Carpenter
, Lorrie Morgan
and Travis Tritt
had their first big hits.
Vocal duos were also popular because of their harmonies, most notably The Bellamy Brothers and The Judds
. Several of the Bellamy Brothers' songs included double-entendre' laden hooks
, on songs such as "Do You Love as Good As You Look". The Judds, a mother-and-daughter duo, combined elements of contemporary pop and traditional country music on songs such as "Why Not Me" and "Grandpa (Tell Me 'Bout the Good Ol' Days)
".
Country music groups and bands continued to rise in popularity during the 1980s. The most successful of the lot was Alabama
, a Fort Payne
-based band that blended traditional and pop country sounds with southern rock
. Their concerts regularly sold out, while their single releases regularly reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. In 1989, Alabama was named the Artist of the Decade by the Academy of Country Music
. By the end of the 1980s, the group had sold more than 24 million albums in the United States.
Ranking just behind Alabama in popularity, as far as groups were concerned, were The Oak Ridge Boys
and The Statler Brothers, both four-part harmony groups with gospel and country-pop stylings. The popularity of those three groups sparked a boom in new groups and bands, and by the end of the 1980s, fans were listening to such acts as Restless Heart
and Exile
, the latter which previously enjoyed success with the pop hit "Kiss You All Over
".
Despite the prevailing pop country sound, enduring acts from the 1970s and earlier continued to enjoy great success with fans. George Jones
, one of the longest-running acts of the time, recorded several successful singles, including the critically acclaimed "He Stopped Loving Her Today
". Conway Twitty
continued to have a series of No. 1 hits, with 1986's "Desperado Love" becoming his 40th chart-topper on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, a record that stood for nearly 20 years. The movie Coal Miner's Daughter
profiled the life of Loretta Lynn
(with Sissy Spacek
in the lead role), while Willie Nelson
also had a series of acting credits. Dolly Parton
had much success in the 1980s, with several leading movie roles, two No. 1 albums and 13 number one hits, and having many successful tours. Others who had been around for a while and continued to have great success were Eddy Arnold
, Johnny Cash
, Merle Haggard
, Waylon Jennings
, Ray Price
, Hank Williams Jr. and Tammy Wynette
.
as the best Artist of the Decade for the 1980s. He joined the list with The Beatles, Elvis Presley, and Elton John, who have also been awarded with this prestigious honor in their respective decades.
Some of the most successful post punk bands in the 1970s, such as Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Psychedelic Furs, also continued their success during the 1980s. Members of Bauhaus
and Joy Division
explored new stylistic territory as Love and Rockets
and New Order
respectively.
The second generation of British post-punk bands that broke through in the early 1980s, including The Fall, The Pop Group
, The Mekons, Echo and the Bunnymen and Teardrop Explodes, tended to move away from dark sonic landscapes.
Arguably the most successful band to emerge from post-punk was Ireland's U2
, who incorporated elements of religious imagery together with political commentary into their often anthemic music, and by the late 1980s had become one of the biggest bands in the world.
Although many post-punk bands continued to record and perform, it declined as a movement in the mid-1980s as acts disbanded or moved off to explore other musical other areas, but it has continued to influence the development of rock music and has been seen as a major element in the creation of the alternative rock movement.
The arrival of MTV
in 1981 would usher in New Wave's
most successful era. British artists, unlike many of their American counterparts, had learned how to use the music video
early on. Several British acts signed to independent labels were able to outmarket and outsell American artists that were signed with major labels. Journalists labeled this phenomenon a "Second British Invasion
".
In the fall of 1982, "I Ran (So Far Away)
" by A Flock of Seagulls
entered the Billboard Top Ten, arguably the first successful song that owed almost everything to video. They would be followed by bands like Duran Duran
whose glossy videos would come to symbolize the power of MTV. Dire Straits
' "Money for Nothing
" gently poked fun at MTV which had helped make them international rock stars. In 1983, 30% of the record sales were from British acts. 18 of the top 40 and 6 of the top 10 singles on July 18 were by British artists. Overall record sales would rise by 10% from 1982. Newsweek
magazine featured Annie Lennox
and Boy George
on the cover of one of its issues while Rolling Stone Magazine would release an England Swings issue. In April 1984 40 of the top 100 singles were from British acts while 8 of the top 10 singles in a May 1985 survey were of British origin. Veteran music journalist Simon Reynolds
theorized that similar to the first British Invasion the use of black American influences by the British acts helped to spur success. Commentators in the mainstream media credited MTV
and the British acts with bringing colour and energy to back to pop music while rock journalists were generally hostile to the phenomenon because they felt it represented image over content. MTV continued its heavy rotation of videos by New Wave-oriented acts until 1987, when it changed to a heavy metal
and rock dominated format.
New Romanticism emerged as part of the New Wave music
movement in London nightclubs including Billy's and The Blitz Club
towards the end of the 1970s. Influenced by David Bowie
and Roxy Music
, it developed glam rock
fashions, gaining its name from the frilly fop
shirts of early Romanticism
. New Romantic music often made extensive use of synthesisers. Pioneers included Visage
and Ultravox
and among the commercially most successful acts associated with the movement were Adam and the Ants
, Culture Club
, Spandau Ballet
and Duran Duran
. By about 1983 the original movement had dissolved, with surviving acts dropping most of the fashion elements to pursue mainstream careers.
Gothic rock, often shortened to goth, developed out of the post punk scene in the later 1970s. It combines dark, often keyboard-heavy music with introspective and depressing lyrics. Notable early gothic rock bands include Bauhaus
(whose "Bela Lugosi's Dead
" is often cited as the first goth record), Siouxsie and the Banshees (who may have coined the term), The Cure
, The Sisters of Mercy
, and Fields of the Nephilim
. Gothic rock gave rise to a broader goth subculture
that included clubs, various fashion trends
and numerous publications that grew in popularity in the 1980s, gaining notoriety by being associated by several moral panic
s over suicide and Satanism.
broke into the mainstream
, as albums by Judas Priest
, Iron Maiden
, Saxon and Motörhead, reached the British top 10. In 1981, Motörhead became the first of this new breed of metal bands to top the UK charts with No Sleep 'til Hammersmith
. Many metal artists, including Def Leppard, benefited from the exposure they received on MTV
and became the inspiration for American Glam Metal
. However, as the sub-genre fragmented, much of the creative impetus moved away from Britain to American and continental Europe (particularly Germany and Scandinavia), which produced most of the major new sub-genres of metal, which were then taken up by British acts. These included thrash metal
and death metal
, both developed in the USA; black metal
and power metal
, both developed in continental Europe, but influenced by the British band Venom
; and doom
, which was developed in the USA, but which soon were adopted by a number of bands from England, including Pagan Altar
and Witchfinder General
.
Frankie goes to Hollywood
's initially controversial dance pop gave then three consecutive number ones in 1984, until they faded away in the mid-1980s. Dead or Alive
, also from Liverpool
, was another popular dance pop band in the mid-1980s. It was fronted by lead singer Pete Burns
.
Probably the most successful British pop band of the era were the duo Wham!
with an unusual mix of disco
, soul
, ballads and even rap
, who had eleven top ten hits in the UK, six of them number ones, between 1982 and 1986.
In 1988 Irish singer Enya
achieved a breakthrough in her career with the album Watermark which sold over eleven million copies worldwide and helped launch Enya's successful career as a leading New Age
, Celtic
, World
singer.
, producing a form of pop music
that followed electronic rock pioneers in the 1970s like Kraftwerk
, Jean Michel Jarre
, and Tangerine Dream
, in which the synthesizer
is the dominant musical instrument. The sounds of synthesizers came to dominate the pop music of the early 1980s as well as replacing disco in dance clubs in Europe.
Other successful synthpop artists of this era included Alphaville
, Soft Cell
, Depeche Mode
, New Order
, The Human League
, Thomas Dolby
, Yazoo
, Art of Noise, Heaven 17
, OMD
, Japan
, Thompson Twins
, Eurythmics
, a-ha
, Telex
, Real Life
, Camouflage
, London Boys
, Modern Talking
, Bananarama
, and others are bands of the Synthpop style.
, Timbiriche
, and Los Chicos
, as well as child stars such as Luis Miguel
. By 1988, however, the aforementioned Luis Miguel would transform into an adult superstar at age 18 with the hit La Incondicional. Not too far behind was former Los Chicos' member Chayanne
as he became a leading pop star by the end of the decade. As young stars begin to rise in Latin music, veterans such as Julio Iglesias
, José José
, Juan Gabriel
, and José Luis Rodríguez El Puma continue their dominance in Latin music. After the slow decline of Fania All-Stars
, the new romantic genre of salsa romantica would rise beginning in 1984. Younger salseros such as Frankie Ruiz
, Luis Enrique
, and Eddie Santiago
would take advantage of this new genre rising salsa to new heights. Tejano Music
starts to give little rise after Mazz
crosses over to Mexico after their albums Una Noche Juntos and No Te Olvidare win Grammys.
movement began around the 1980s. Until the mid 80s the rock scene of most Spanish American countries were not connected, and it was rare for a rock band to gain acclaim and popularity outside its homecountry. Argentina, that had the largest national rock scene and music industry, became the birthplace of several influential rock acts. Soda Stereo
from Buenos Aires
is often acclaimed as the most influential rock band of the 80s. Soda Stereo was among the first bands to successfully tour across Latin America. Argentina developed also during the 80s a punk rock scene, despite popular anthypathhy towards British influnces after the Falklands War
. The punk movement, that was pioneered by Los Violadores
, led to the rise of the Buenos Aires Hardcore
around 1990.
In Chile, that was ruled by a military dictatorship
all over the 80s, Nueva canción
protest songs from the 60s and 70s maintained their popularity despite of severe censorship. The rock band Los Prisioneros
were successful in combining the protest song atmosphere of the 80s with newer trends in rock including punk, ska, New Wave and techno. Until its dissolution in 1991 it remained one of the most popular rock bands in Chile together with Argentine Soda Stereo
.
Other influential rock groups of the time include La Ley
, Caifanes
, Hombres G
.
Brazil saw the emergence of BRock
.
had developed in the 1960s and '70s by Puerto Rican and Cuba
n immigrants to the New York City
area but did not enter into mainstream popularity in Latin America until the late 1980s. The salsa music became together with cumbia
the two most popular dance music but did not penetrate other countries outside the Caribbean as cumbia did.
The 1980s was a time of diversification, as popular salsa evolved into sweet and smooth salsa romantica
, with lyrics dwelling on love and romance, and its more explicit cousin, salsa erotica. Salsa romantica can be traced back to Noches Calientes, a 1984 album by singer José Alberto
with producer Louie Ramirez. A wave of romantica singers, found wide audiences with a new style characterized by romantic lyrics, an emphasis on the melody over rhythm, and use of percussion breaks and chord changes. However, salsa lost popularity among many Latino youth, who were drawn to American rock in large numbers, while the popularization of Dominican merengue
further sapped the audience among Latinos in both New York and Puerto Rico. The 1980s also saw salsa expand to Mexico, Argentina
, Peru
, Europe and Japan, and diversify into many new styles.
In the 1980s some performers experimented with combining elements of salsa with hip hop music
, while the producer and pianist Sergio George
helped to revive salsa's commercial success. He created a sound based on prominent trombones and rootsy, mambo-inspired style. He worked with the Japanese salsa band Orquesta de la Luz
, and developed a studio orchestra that included Tito Nieves
, Celia Cruz, José Alberto, La India
, Tito Puente
and Luis Enrique
. The Colombian singer Joe Arroyo first rose to fame in the 1970s, but became a renowned exponent of Colombian salsa in the 1980s. Arroyo worked for many years with the Colombian arranger Fruko and his band Los Tesos
.
would hit its golden years during the 1980s starting in the late 70s with acts such as Wilfrido Vargas, Johnny Ventura, and Fernando Villalona. Their orchestras would also churn future solo acts such as Eddy Herrera and Rubby Perez
. By the end of the decade, La Cocoband would reinvent merengue with a more comedic style.
Australian rock band INXS
achieved international success during the decade with a series of hit recordings, including the albums Listen Like Thieves (1985), Kick (1987), and the singles "Original Sin
" (1984), "Need You Tonight
" (1987), "Devil Inside
" (1988) and "New Sensation
" (1987).
Kylie Minogue
first single, "Locomotion
" became a huge hit in Minogue's native Australia spending seven weeks at number one on the Australian singles chart. The single eventually became the highest selling Australian single of the decade. Throughout Europe and Asia the song also performed well on the music charts, reaching number one in Belgium
, Finland
, Ireland
, Israel
, Japan
, and South Africa
.
In 1980, New Zealand
rock band Split Enz
released their album True Colours, which became an international success. Their single I Got You
, which was praised for its "Beatle-esque" chorus, reached the top ten in New Zealand
, Australia
and Canada
, reached number twelve in the United Kingdom
, and even charted the United States
. Split Enz
also received significant exposure in the United States
upon the release of MTV
, which featured several Split Enz
videos in the early days of its broadcast. However, after several line-up changes, which included the departure of prominent member Tim Finn
, the band broke up in 1984 (another prominent New Zealand
/Australian band, Mi-Sex
, known for its hit single Computer Games, disbanded the same year). Neil Finn
, the younger brother of Tim Finn
who had become Split Enz's de facto front man after his departure in 1983, went on to form Crowded House
in Australia
in 1985. In 1986 Crowded House
released their hugely successful self-titled debut album, which went to number one in Australia
and number three in New Zealand
, as well as reaching the top ten in Canada
and top twenty in the United States
. It spawned the song Don't Dream It's Over
, which hit number one in New Zealand
and Canada
, number two in the United States
and number eight in Australia
, and has since become a pop/rock anthem in Australasia
. Crowded House's follow up album Temple of Low Men
, released in 1988, did not achieve the same success as their debut, but was still popular in the band's homelands of Australia
and New Zealand
.
Back at home, New Zealand
continued to have a small and vibrant music scene, and the eighties saw the formation of many new bands, including The Swingers
, Coconut Rough
, The Crocodiles
and Peking Man. Many of these bands were short-lived and did not see much success outside of New Zealand and Australia.
1980 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1980.-January–March:*January 1**Cliff Richard is appointed an MBE by Elizabeth II.**The Zorros audition drummer Greg Pedley....
| 81
1981 in music
See also:* Timeline of musical eventsThis is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1981.-January–April:*January 10 – A revival of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance opens at Broadway's Uris Theatre, starring Linda Ronstadt and Rex Smith.*January 24 –...
| 82
1982 in music
This is a list of notable events in music from 1982. 1982 was a big year in music with Madonna making her debut as well as the year that Michael Jackson released Thriller which became the world's best selling album and it still holds that title today....
| 83
1983 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1983.-January-April:*January – ZTT Records is founded.*January 8 – The UK singles chart is tabulated from this week forward by The Gallup Organization...
| 84
1984 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1984.-Janury-March:*January 21 – "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood reaches number one in the UK singles chart, despite being banned by the BBC; it spends a total of forty-two weeks in the Top 40.*January 27 – Michael Jackson's...
| 85
1985 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1985.-January–March:*January 1 - The newest music video channel, VH-1, debuts on American cable. It is aimed at an older demographic than its sister station, MTV...
| 86
1986 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1986.-January-June:*January 23 – The first induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame takes place...
| 87
1987 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1987.See also:Record labels established in 1987-January-February:*January 3 – Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
| 88
1988 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1988.-January-March:* January 1 – André Rieu's Johann Strauss Orchestra plays its first concert....
| 89
1989 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1989.-Events:*January 14 – Paul McCartney releases Снова в СССР exclusively in the USSR...
For a history of music in all times, see Timeline of musical events.
This article includes an overview of the major events and trends in popular music
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
in the 1980s
1980s
File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
.
In the First World
First World
The concept of the First World first originated during the Cold War, where it was used to describe countries that were aligned with the United States. These countries were democratic and capitalistic. After the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the term "First World" took on a...
, this decade saw the emergence of pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
and dance
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
music. As the term disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
fell out of fashion by the early part of the decade, genres such as post-disco
Post-disco
Post-disco refers to a historically significant period in popular music history beginning with the commercial death of disco music in the late 1970s and ending with the mainstream appearance of house music in late 1980s.The stripped-down musical trends followed from the DJ- and producer-driven,...
, Italo disco
Italo disco
Italo disco encompasses much of the dance music output in Europe during the 1980s. It is one of the world's first forms of mostly electronic dance music and evolved during the late 1970s and early 1980s in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and other parts of Europe...
, Euro disco
Euro disco
Euro disco is an all encompassing colloquial term used to describe a variety of European electronic dance music that first originated from disco in the 1970s; incorporating elements of pop, New Wave and rock into disco-like continuous dance atmosphere...
and dance-pop
Dance-pop
Dance-pop is dance-oriented pop music that originated in the early 1980s. Developing from post-disco, it is generally up-tempo music intended for clubs with the intention of being danceable or merely dancey...
in general became popular in the 1980s. Rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
was also very popular throughout the decade, especially New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
, soft rock
Soft rock
Soft rock is a style of music which uses the techniques of rock music to compose a softer, more toned-down sound. Soft rock songs generally tend to focus on themes like love, everyday life and relationships. The genre tends to make heavy use of acoustic guitars, pianos, synthesizers and sometimes...
, and glam metal
Glam metal
Glam metal is a subgenre of hard rock and heavy metal that arose in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United States, particularly on the Los Angeles Sunset Strip music scene...
. On addition, adult contemporary, quiet storm
Quiet storm
Quiet storm is a late-night radio format, featuring soulful slow jams, pioneered in the mid-1970s by then-station-intern Melvin Lindsey at WHUR-FM, in Washington, D.C. Smokey Robinson's like-titled hit single, released in 1975 as the title track to his third solo album, lent its name to the format...
, and smooth jazz
Smooth jazz
Smooth jazz is a genre of music that grew out of jazz fusion and is influenced by R&B, funk, rock, and pop music styles ....
music remained popular genres and radio formats. Futhermore, the 1980s are commonly associated with the usage of synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
s, thus, synthpop
Synthpop
Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...
music and other electronic
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
genres became popular; as a matter of fact, several major electronic genres were born during the 1980s, such as electro
Electro (music)
Electro is a genre of electronic dance music directly influenced by the use of TR-808 drum machines, Moog keytar synthesizers and funk sampling...
, techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
, house
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
, freestyle
Freestyle music
Freestyle or Latin freestyle, sometimes referred to as Latin hip hop, is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in the early 1980s. Mostly popular during the mid 80s to the early 90s...
and Eurodance
Eurodance
Eurodance is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s or early 1990s primarily in Europe. It combines many elements from House, Techno, Hi-NRG and especially Italo-Disco...
, despite many of them rose to prominence later on in the 1990s. Throughout the decade, R&B
Contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B is a music genre that combines elements of hip hop, soul, R&B and funk.Although the abbreviation “R&B” originates from traditional rhythm and blues music, today the term R&B is most often used to describe a style of African American music originating after the demise of disco in...
, hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
and urban
Urban contemporary
Urban contemporary is a music radio format. The term was coined by the late New York DJ Frankie Crocker in the mid 1970s. Urban contemporary radio stations feature a playlist made up entirely of hip hop/rap, contemporary R&B, pop, electronica such as dubstep and drum and bass and Caribbean music...
music in general were also popular; rap music, nonetheless, was especially successful in the latter part of the decade, with the advent of the golden age of hip hop; urban music would continue its height of popularity into the 1990s.
Pop
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
and the emergence of Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
, who arguably were the most powerful musicians during the time. Their videos became a permanent fixture on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
and gained a worldwide mass audience. Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
's Thriller
Thriller (album)
Thriller is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was released on November 30, 1982, by Epic Records as the follow-up to Jackson's critically and commercially successful 1979 album Off the Wall...
album from 1982 is the best-selling album of all time, it is cited as selling as many as 110 million copies worldwide. Being the biggest selling artist of that decade he was indisputably the biggest star of the 1980s.
By 1980, the disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
production of the 1970s, largely dependent on orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
s, is replaced by a lighter synthpop
Synthpop
Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...
production, which is replaced by dance music. In the second half of the 1980s teen pop
Teen pop
Teen pop is a subgenre of pop music that is created, marketed and oriented towards teenagers. Teen pop copies genres and styles such as pop, dance, R&B, hip hop, country and rock....
has its first wave. Bands and artists include New Kids on the Block
New Kids on the Block
New Kids on the Block are an American boy band from Boston, Massachusetts, assembled in 1984 by producer Maurice Starr. The band currently consists of brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, and Danny Wood.New Kids on the Block enjoyed success in the late 1980s and...
, Debbie Gibson, Tiffany
Tiffany (singer)
Tiffany Renee Darwish , known popularly as Tiffany, is an American singer and former teen icon. She is most notable for her 1987 cover version of "I Think We're Alone Now", originally recorded by Tommy James and the Shondells in 1967. Released as the second single from her eponymous album, Tiffany,...
, Tommy Page
Tommy Page
Tommy Page is an American singer, best known for his 1990 hit single, "I'll Be Your Everything."-Career:...
, New Edition
New Edition
New Edition is an R&B group formed in Boston in 1978. The group reached its height of popularity during the 1980s. They were the progenitors of the boy band movement of the 1980s and 1990s and led the way for groups like New Kids on the Block, Boyz II Men, Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync...
, Stacey Q
Stacey Q
Stacey Q is a pop singer, dancer and actress. She is best known for her 1985 hit single "Two of Hearts".-Early life:Stacey Swain was born on November 30, 1958 in Fullerton, California. She is the youngest of three children...
, The Bangles
The Bangles
The Bangles are an American all-female band that originated in the early 1980s, scoring several hit singles during the decade.-Formation and early years :...
, Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
, Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...
and others.
Prominent American Urban pop acts of the 1980s include Tina Turner
Tina Turner
Tina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have led many to call her the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...
, Lionel Richie
Lionel Richie
Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr. , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Since 1968, he has been a member of the musical group Commodores signed to Motown Records...
, Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
, Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston is an American singer, actress, producer and a former model. Houston is the most awarded female act of all time, according to Guinness World Records, and her list of awards include 1 Emmy Award, 6 Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among...
and Deniece Williams
Deniece Williams
June Deniece Chandler known by her stage name Deniece Williams is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and record producer who achieved success in the 1970s and 1980s...
.
During the mid-1980s American pop singer Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album, when her album She's So Unusual
She's So Unusual
She's So Unusual is the debut studio album by American pop singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper. Released in 1983 by Portrait Records, the album catapulted Lauper to stardom with such hits as "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", "Time After Time", "She Bop", "All Through the Night", and "Money Changes...
spawned the Top 5 hits "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", "She Bop
She Bop
"She Bop" is a song by American singer Cyndi Lauper, released as the third single from her album She's So Unusual. It reached number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart on June 9, 1984. Worldwide, the song is her most commercially successful single after "Time After Time", and reached number...
", "All Through the Night
All Through the Night (Cyndi Lauper song)
"All Through the Night" is a song performed by American singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper from her debut album She's So Unusual. It was written by Jules Shear for his album Watch Dog, as a mid-tempo folk-rock song. After The Cars recorded their own version, which they did not use on any of their...
" and number-one single "Time After Time
Time after Time (Cyndi Lauper song)
"Time After Time" is a song by American singer Cyndi Lauper, released as the second single from her album She's So Unusual. It reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart on June 9, 1984, and remained there for two weeks...
". The album earned Lauper two Grammy Awards in 1985, including Best New Artist
Grammy Award for Best New Artist
The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since 1959. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, for records released in the previous year. The award was not presented in 1967...
.
American artists such as Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston is an American singer, actress, producer and a former model. Houston is the most awarded female act of all time, according to Guinness World Records, and her list of awards include 1 Emmy Award, 6 Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among...
, Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
, Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
, Tina Turner
Tina Turner
Tina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have led many to call her the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...
, Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi is an American rock band from Sayreville, New Jersey. Formed in 1983, Bon Jovi consists of lead singer and namesake Jon Bon Jovi , guitarist Richie Sambora, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, as well as current bassist Hugh McDonald...
, Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
and Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson
Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years...
ruled the charts throughout the decade and achieved tremendous success worldwide. Their fame and commercial success lasts up to date.
Alternative rock
Throughout the 1980s, alternative rock was mainly an underground phenomena. While on occasion a song would become a commercial hit or albums would receive critical praise in mainstream publications like Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, alternative rock in the 1980s was primarily relegated to independent record labels, fanzines, and college radio stations. Alternative bands built underground followings by touring constantly and regularly releasing low-budget albums. In the case of the United States, new bands would form in the wake of previous bands, which created an extensive underground circuit in America, filled with different scenes in various parts of the country. Although American alternative artists of the 1980s never generated spectacular album sales, they exerted a considerable influence on later alternative musicians and laid the groundwork for their success.
Early American alternative bands such as R.E.M.
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...
, The Feelies
The Feelies
The Feelies are a rock band from Haledon, New Jersey. They formed in 1976 and disbanded in 1992 having released four albums. The band reunited in 2008 and most recently released an album in 2011....
, and Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes were an American alternative rock band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, initially active between 1980 and 1987 and again from 1988 to 2009...
combined punk influences with folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
and mainstream music influences. R.E.M. was the most immediately successful; its debut album, Murmur
Murmur (album)
Murmur is the debut album by the American alternative rock band R.E.M., released in 1983 on I.R.S. Records. Murmur drew critical acclaim upon its release for its sound, defined by singer Michael Stipe's cryptic lyrics, guitarist Peter Buck's jangly guitar style, and bassist Mike Mills' melodic...
(1983), entered the Top 40 and spawned a number of jangle pop
Jangle pop
Jangle pop is a genre of alternative rock from the mid-1980s that "marked a return to the chiming or jangly guitars and pop melodies of the '60s" bands such as The Byrds, with their electric twelve-string guitars and power pop song structures. Mid-1980s jangle pop was a non-mainstream "pop-based...
followers.
American indie record labels SST Records
SST Records
SST Records is an American independent record label formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California by musician Greg Ginn. The company was initially called Solid State Transmitters through which Ginn sold electronics equipment...
, Twin/Tone Records
Twin/Tone Records
Twin/Tone Records was a record label based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that operated from 1977 until 1994 and helped several local groups receive national attention. The label was born from the Minneapolis punk rock music scene, which included venues like Jay's Longhorn Bar. The label was begun by...
, Touch and Go Records
Touch and Go Records
Touch and Go Records is an independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois, USA.After its genesis as a hand-made fanzine in 1979, it grew into one of the key record labels in the American 1980s alternative and underground rock scenes, Touch & Go carved out a reputation for releasing adventurous...
, and Dischord Records
Dischord Records
Dischord Records is a Washington, D.C.-based independent record label specializing in the independent punk music of the D.C.-area music scene. The label is co-owned by Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, who founded Dischord in 1980 to release Minor Disturbance by The Teen Idles...
presided over the shift from the hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
that then dominated the American underground scene to the more diverse styles of alternative rock that were emerging. Minnesota
Music of Minnesota
The music of Minnesota began with the native rhythms and songs of native Americans, the first inhabitants of the lands which later became the U.S. state of Minnesota. Their relatives, the half-breed Métis fur-trading voyageurs, introduced the chansons of their French ancestors in the late...
bands Hüsker Dü
Hüsker Dü
Hüsker Dü was an American rock band formed in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1979. The band's continual members were guitarist Bob Mould, bassist Greg Norton, and drummer Grant Hart....
and The Replacements were indicative of this shift. Both started out as punk rock bands, but soon diversified their sounds and became more melodic.
By the late 1980s, the American alternative scene was dominated by styles ranging from quirky alternative pop (They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years Flansburgh and Linnell were frequently accompanied by a drum machine. In the early 1990s, TMBG became a full band. Currently, the members of TMBG are...
and Camper Van Beethoven
Camper Van Beethoven
Camper Van Beethoven is an American alternative rock group formed in Redlands, California in 1983.An eclectic band, Camper Van Beethoven mixes elements of pop, ska, punk rock, folk and alternative country, as well as various types of world music. Their aggressive musical pluralism created a...
), to noise rock
Noise rock
Noise rock describes a style of post-punk rock music that became prominent in the 1980s. Noise rock makes use of the traditional instrumentation and iconography of rock, but incorporates atonality and especially dissonance, and also frequently discards usual songwriting conventions.-Style:Noise...
(Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
, Big Black
Big Black
Big Black was an American punk rock band from Evanston, Illinois, active from 1981 to 1987. Founded by singer and guitarist Steve Albini, the band's initial lineup also included guitarist Santiago Durango and bassist Jeff Pezzati, both of Naked Raygun...
) to industrial rock
Industrial rock
Industrial rock is a musical genre that fuses industrial music and specific rock subgenres. Industrial rock spawned industrial metal, with which it is often confused...
(Ministry
Ministry (band)
Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...
, Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...
). These sounds were in turn followed by the advent of Boston
Boston (band)
Boston is an American rock band from Boston, Massachusetts that achieved its most notable successes during the 1970s and 1980s. Centered on guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter, and producer Tom Scholz, the band is a staple of classic rock radio playlists...
's the Pixies and Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
' Jane's Addiction.
The top mainstream American Alternative Rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
bands of 1980s included Hüsker Dü
Hüsker Dü
Hüsker Dü was an American rock band formed in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1979. The band's continual members were guitarist Bob Mould, bassist Greg Norton, and drummer Grant Hart....
, The Replacements, R.E.M.
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...
, The Pixies, and Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
which were popular long before the Grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
movement of the early 1990s.
Hard rock and heavy / Glam metal
Beginning in 1983 and peaking in success in 1986-1989, the decade saw the resurgence of hard rockHard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
music and the emergence of its pop metal
Glam metal
Glam metal is a subgenre of hard rock and heavy metal that arose in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United States, particularly on the Los Angeles Sunset Strip music scene...
subgenre. Bands such as Queen, Def Leppard
Def Leppard
Def Leppard are an English rock band formed in 1977 in Sheffield as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. Since 1992, the band have consisted of Joe Elliott , Rick Savage , Rick Allen , Phil Collen , and Vivian Campbell...
, Mötley Crüe
Mötley Crüe
Mötley Crüe is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1981. The group was founded by bass guitarist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee, who were later joined by lead guitarist Mick Mars and lead singer Vince Neil...
, Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi is an American rock band from Sayreville, New Jersey. Formed in 1983, Bon Jovi consists of lead singer and namesake Jon Bon Jovi , guitarist Richie Sambora, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, as well as current bassist Hugh McDonald...
, Quiet Riot
Quiet Riot
Quiet Riot is an American Heavy Metal band. They are best known for their hit singles "Metal Health" and "Cum On Feel the Noize". They were founded in 1973 by guitarist Randy Rhoads and bassist Kelly Garni, under the original name Mach 1, before changing the name to Little Women and finally Quiet...
, Europe
Europe (band)
Europe is a Swedish rock band formed in Upplands Väsby in 1979 under the name Force by vocalist Joey Tempest, guitarist John Norum and drummer Tony Reno. Although widely associated with glam metal, the band's sound incorporates heavy metal and hard rock elements...
, Ratt, Twisted Sister
Twisted Sister
Twisted Sister is an American heavy metal band from Long Island. Musically, the band implements elements of traditional heavy metal bands such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, along with a style that is similar to early glam metal bands...
, Poison
Poison (band)
Poison is an American glam metal band that achieved great success in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s. To date, Poison has sold over 30 million records worldwide and have sold 15 million records in the United States alone. The band has also charted ten singles to the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100,...
, Whitesnake
Whitesnake
Whitesnake are an English rock band, founded in 1978 by David Coverdale after his departure from his previous band, Deep Purple. The band's early material has been compared by critics to Deep Purple, but by the mid 1980s they had moved to a more commercial hard rock style...
, and Cinderella
Cinderella (band)
Cinderella is an American heavy metal band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They emerged in the mid-1980s with a series of multi-platinum albums and hit singles whose music videos received heavy MTV rotation. They were famous for being a glam metal band, but then shifted over towards a more hard...
were among the most popular acts of the decade. The 1980s saw the emergence of wildly popular hard rock band Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
and the successful comebacks of Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...
and Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper is an American rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than four decades...
in the late 1980s. The success of hard rock act Van Halen
Van Halen
Van Halen is an American hard rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. The band has enjoyed success since the release of its debut album, Van Halen, . As of 2007 Van Halen has sold 80 million albums worldwide and has had the most #1 hits on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart...
spanned throughout the entire decade, first with singer David Lee Roth
David Lee Roth
David Lee Roth is an American rock vocalist, songwriter, actor, author, and former radio personality. Roth was ranked nineteenth by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Singers of All Time....
and later with Sammy Hagar
Sammy Hagar
Sam Roy "Sammy" Hagar , also known as The Red Rocker, is an American rock singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Also sings Country Music....
. Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
, which had expanded its music to experimental and crossover genres in the early 1980s, returned to guitar-driven hard rock with The Miracle in 1989. Additionally, a few women managed to achieve stardom in the 1980s' hard rock scene: Pat Benatar
Pat Benatar
Pat Benatar is an American singer and four-time Grammy winner. She had considerable commercial success particularly in the United States...
, who had been around since the late 1970s, is a prime example of female success in hard rock, and so are both ex-Runaways
The Runaways
The Runaways were an American all-girl rock band that recorded and performed in the second half of the 1970s. The band released four studio albums and one live set during its run. Among its best known songs: "Cherry Bomb", "Queens of Noise", "Neon Angels On the Road to Ruin", "California Paradise"...
Joan Jett
Joan Jett
Joan Jett is an American rock guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and actress.She is best known for her work with Joan Jett & the Blackhearts including their hit cover "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", which was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 from March 20 to May 1, 1982, as well as for their other popular...
and Lita Ford
Lita Ford
Lita Ford is a British-born, American rock musician and singer who was the lead guitarist for The Runaways and achieved popularity for her solo career between the 1980s and late 2000s.-Early life:...
.
The Arena rock
Arena rock
Arena rock is a term used to describe rock music that utilised large arena venues, particularly sports venues, for concerts or series of concerts linked in tours...
trend of the 1970s continued in the 1980s with bands like Styx
Styx (band)
Styx is an American rock band that became famous for its albums from the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Chicago band is known for melding the style of prog-rock with the power of hard rock guitar, strong ballads, and elements of American musical theater....
, Rush
Rush (band)
Rush is a Canadian rock band formed in August 1968, in the Willowdale neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario. The band is composed of bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart...
, Journey
Journey (band)
Journey is an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco by former members of Santana. The band has gone through several phases; its strongest commercial success occurred between the 1978 and 1987, after which it temporarily disbanded...
, Foreigner
Foreigner (band)
Foreigner is a British-American rock band, originally formed in 1976 by veteran English musicians Mick Jones and ex-King Crimson member Ian McDonald along with American vocalist Lou Gramm...
, REO Speedwagon
REO Speedwagon
REO Speedwagon is an American rock band. Formed in 1967, the band grew in popularity during the 1970s and peaked in the early 1980s. Hi Infidelity is the group's most commercially successful album, selling over ten million copies and charting four Top 40 hits in the US...
, ZZ Top
ZZ Top
ZZ Top is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "That Little Ol' Band from Texas". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based boogie rock, has come to incorporate elements of arena, southern, and boogie rock. The band, from Houston Texas, formed in 1969...
, and Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...
which were popular into the early 1980s, with hair metal taking their place later.
Traditionally associated (and often confused) with Hard rock, heavy metal was also extremely popular throughout the decade, with Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne is an English vocalist, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, whose radically different, intentionally dark, harder sound helped spawn the heavy metal...
achieving success during his solo career ; bands like Judas Priest
Judas Priest
Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, England, formed in 1969. The current line-up consists of lead vocalist Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis. The band has gone through several drummers over the years,...
and Dio
Dio (band)
Dio was an American heavy metal band from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Formed in 1982 and led by vocalist Ronnie James Dio, after he left Black Sabbath with intentions to form a new band with fellow former Black Sabbath member, drummer Vinny Appice. Naming the band Dio made sense from a commercial...
were also widely popular North American acts. Speed metal
Speed metal
Speed metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music that originated in the late 1970s from NWOBHM and hardcore punk roots. It is described by Allmusic as "extremely fast, abrasive, and technically demanding" music....
pioneer Motörhead maintained its popularity through the releases of several albums.
Underground scenes
Underground music
Underground music comprises a range of different musical genres that operate outside of mainstream culture. Such music can typically share common values, such as the valuing of sincerity and intimacy; an emphasis on freedom of creative expression; an appreciation of artistic creativity...
produced an array of more extreme, aggressive Metal subgenres: thrash metal
Thrash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
broke into the mainstream with bands such as Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
, Slayer
Slayer
Slayer is an American thrash metal band formed in Huntington Park, California, in 1981 by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. Slayer rose to fame with their 1986 release, Reign in Blood, and is credited as one of the "Big Four" thrash metal acts, along with Metallica, Megadeth and...
, Anthrax
Anthrax (band)
Anthrax is an American heavy metal band from New York City, formed in 1981. Founded by guitarists Scott Ian and Danny Lilker, the band has since released ten studio albums and 20 singles, and an EP featuring Public Enemy. The band was one of the most popular of the 1980s thrash metal scene...
, and Megadeth
Megadeth
Megadeth is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California which was formed in 1983 by guitarist/vocalist Dave Mustaine, bassist Dave Ellefson and guitarist Greg Handevidt, following Mustaine's expulsion from Metallica. The band has since released 13 studio albums, three live albums, two...
, while other styles like death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
and black metal
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
remaining subcultural
Subculture
In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong.- Definition :...
phenomena.
The decade also saw the emergence of a string of guitar virtuosi, influenced by guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
and Eddie Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen
Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
; Joe Satriani
Joe Satriani
Joseph "Joe" Satriani is an American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, with multiple Grammy Award nominations...
, Steve Vai
Steve Vai
Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....
and Yngwie Malmsteen achieved international recognition for their skills. While considerably less numerous, bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
virtuosi also gained momentum in the 1980s : Billy Sheehan
Billy Sheehan
William "Billy" Sheehan is an American bassist known for his work with Talas, Steve Vai, David Lee Roth, Mr. Big, and Niacin. Sheehan has won the "Best Rock Bass Player" readers' poll from Guitar Player Magazine five times for his "lead bass" playing style...
(of David Lee Roth
David Lee Roth
David Lee Roth is an American rock vocalist, songwriter, actor, author, and former radio personality. Roth was ranked nineteenth by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Singers of All Time....
and Mr. Big
Mr. Big (band)
Mr. Big is an American rock supergroup, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1988. The band is a quartet composed of Eric Martin , Paul Gilbert , Billy Sheehan , and Pat Torpey ; Mr. Big also included Richie Kotzen, a reputable blues-based guitarist who replaced Gilbert in 1999...
fame), Cliff Burton
Cliff Burton
Clifford Lee "Cliff" Burton was an American musician, best known as the bass guitarist for the American heavy metal band Metallica....
(of Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
) and alternative/funk metal bassist Les Claypool
Les Claypool
Leslie Edward "Les" Claypool is an American musician and writer, best known as the lead vocalist and bassist in the band Primus. Claypool's playing style on the electric bass mixes tapping, flamenco-like strumming, whammy bar bends and slapping.Claypool has also self produced and engineered his...
(of Primus
Primus (band)
Primus is an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, currently composed of bassist/vocalist Les Claypool, guitarist Larry "Ler" LaLonde and drummer Jay Lane. Primus originally formed in 1984 with Claypool and guitarist Todd Huth, later joined by Lane, though the latter two departed...
fame) became famous during that period.
Both Hard rock and Heavy metal were extremely popular live genres and bands toured extensively around the globe.
Soft rock and singer-songwriter
Soft rock
Soft rock is a style of music which uses the techniques of rock music to compose a softer, more toned-down sound. Soft rock songs generally tend to focus on themes like love, everyday life and relationships. The genre tends to make heavy use of acoustic guitars, pianos, synthesizers and sometimes...
format, but some new artists in the singer-songwriter tradition (including Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
, Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
, Tom Petty
Tom Petty
Thomas Earl "Tom" Petty is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is the frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and was a founding member of the late 1980s supergroup Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch. He has also performed under the pseudonyms of Charlie T...
, Mark Heard
Mark Heard
John Mark Heard was a record producer, folk-rock singer, and songwriter originally from Macon, Georgia, USA....
, Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Williams is an American rock, folk, blues and country music singer and songwriter. She recorded her first albums in 1978 and 1980 in a traditional country and blues style and received very little attention from radio, the media, or the public. In 1988, she released her self-titled album,...
, Patti Smith
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
, Kate Bush
Kate Bush
Kate Bush is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic vocal style have made her one of the United Kingdom's most successful solo female performers of the past 30 years.In 1978, at the age of 19, Bush topped the UK Singles Chart...
, Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones is an American vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, blues, pop, soul, and jazz standards.-Childhood:...
, Stevie Nicks
Stevie Nicks
Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums...
, Cheryl Wheeler
Cheryl Wheeler
Cheryl Wheeler is an American singer-songwriter of contemporary folk music, based in New England. To date, she has recorded several folk albums, and has toured extensively throughout the United States....
and Warren Zevon
Warren Zevon
Warren William Zevon was an American rock singer-songwriter and musician noted for including his sometimes sardonic opinions of life in his musical lyrics, composing songs that were sometimes humorous and often had political or historical themes.Zevon's work has often been praised by well-known...
) continued to emerge, and in other cases rock and even punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
artists such as Peter Case
Peter Case
Peter Case is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, who has had a wide-ranging career ranging from new wave music to folk rock to solo acoustic performance.-Early career:...
, Paul Collins
Paul Collins (musician)
Paul Collins is an American writer, author, music producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known for his work in the power pop groups The Nerves, The Breakaways and The Beat.-Biography:...
and Paul Westerberg
Paul Westerberg
Paul Westerberg is an American musician, best known as the former lead singer, rhythm guitarist, and songwriter of The Replacements, one of the seminal alternative rock bands of the 1980s. He launched a solo career after the dissolution of that band...
transitioned to careers as solo singer-songwriters.
In the late 1980s, the term was applied to a group of predominantly female U.S. artists, beginning with Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Nadine Vega is an American songwriter and singer known for her eclectic folk-inspired music.Two of Vega's songs reached the top 10 of various international chart listings: "Luka" and "Tom's Diner"...
whose first album sold unexpectedly well, followed by the likes of Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her singles "Fast Car", "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution", "Baby Can I Hold You", "Give Me One Reason" and "Telling Stories". She is a multi-platinum and four-time Grammy Award-winning artist.-Biography:Tracy Chapman was born in Cleveland,...
, Nanci Griffith
Nanci Griffith
Nanci Griffith, is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter from Austin, Texas.-Biography:...
, k.d. lang
K.D. Lang
Kathryn Dawn Lang, OC , known by her stage name k.d. lang, is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress...
and Tori Amos
Tori Amos
Tori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...
, who found success first in the United Kingdom, then in her home market.
Other trends
Various older rock bands make a comeback. The Beach BoysThe Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
have a hit with Kokomo
Kokomo (song)
"Kokomo" is a song written by John Phillips, Scott McKenzie, Mike Love and Terry Melcher and recorded by The Beach Boys in spring 1988. Its lyrics describe two lovers taking a trip to a relaxing Caribbean island called Kokomo. It was released as a single in July 1988 by Elektra Records and became a...
. The Kinks
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...
have hits with Come Dancing
Come Dancing (song)
"Come Dancing" is a 1982 recording by British rock group The Kinks; a 1983 hit single in both the US and the UK, the track was included on the album State of Confusion.-Song themes and meaning:...
and Do It Again. The Steve Miller Band
Steve Miller Band
The Steve Miller Band is an American rock band formed in 1967 in San Francisco, California. The band is managed by Steve Miller on guitar and lead vocals, and is known for a string of mid-1970s hit singles that are staples of the classic rock radio format.-History:In 1965, Steve Miller and...
have a hit with Abracadabra. Steely Dan
Steely Dan
Steely Dan is an American rock band; its core members are Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The band's popularity peaked in the late 1970s, with the release of seven albums blending elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop...
have a hit with Hey Nineteen
Hey Nineteen
"Hey Nineteen" is a song by American jazz rock band Steely Dan, written by members Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, and released on their 1980 album Gaucho.-Story:...
. Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
released his blockbuster album Born In The USA. Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...
and George Thorogood
George Thorogood
George Thorogood is an American blues rock vocalist/guitarist from Wilmington, Delaware, United States, known for his hit song "Bad to the Bone" as well as for covers of blues standards such as Hank Williams' "Move It On Over" and John Lee Hooker's "House Rent Boogie/One Bourbon, One Scotch, One...
spark a revival of blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
. Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
disbanded after John Bonham
John Bonham
John Henry Bonham was an English musician and songwriter, best known as the drummer of Led Zeppelin. Bonham was esteemed for his speed, power, fast right foot, distinctive sound, and "feel" for the groove...
's 1980 death. Country rock
Country rock
Country rock is sub-genre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock with country. The term is generally used to refer to the wave of rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s, beginning with Bob Dylan and The Byrds; reaching its greatest...
sees a decline after Lynyrd Skynyrd
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Lynyrd Skynyrd is an American rock band prominent in spreading Southern Rock during the 1970s.Originally formed as the "Noble Five" in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1964, the band rose to worldwide recognition on the basis of its driving live performances and signature tune, Freebird...
's 1977 plane crash.
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
flourished throughout the early to mid 1980s, with bands leading the genre such as Black Flag
Black Flag (band)
Black Flag was an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. The band was established by Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes in the band...
, Bad Brains
Bad Brains
Bad Brains is an American hardcore punk band formed in Washington, D.C., in 1977. They are widely regarded as among the pioneers of hardcore punk, though the band's members objected to this term to describe their music. They are also an adept reggae band, while later recordings featured elements of...
, Minor Threat
Minor Threat
Minor Threat was an American hardcore punk band formed in Washington, D.C. in 1980 and disbanded in 1983. The band was relatively short-lived, but had a strong influence on the hardcore punk music scene, both stylistically and in establishing a "do it yourself" ethic for music distribution and...
, Suicidal Tendencies
Suicidal Tendencies
Suicidal Tendencies is a U.S. crossover thrash band founded in 1981 in Venice, Los Angeles, California by Mike Muir, its leader and only permanent member. The band is sometimes credited as one of "the fathers of crossover thrash"...
, amongst others. It began to wane however in the latter-half of the decade, with the New York hardcore scene
New York hardcore
New York hardcore refers to hardcore punk and metalcore music created in New York City and to the subculture associated with that music. New York hardcore grew out of the hardcore scene established in Washington, D.C., by bands such as Bad Brains and Minor Threat. Hardcore '81 is an album by the...
dominating the genre.
Contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B originated in the 1980s, when musicians started adding discoDisco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
-like beats, high-tech production, and elements of hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
and funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
to rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
, making it more danceable and modern. The top mainstream R&B artists of 1980s included Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
, Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
, Jermaine Jackson
Jermaine Jackson
Jermaine La Jaune Jackson is an American singer, bassist, composer, a member of The Jackson 5, older brother of American pop stars Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson and occasional film director...
, The Whispers
The Whispers
The Whispers are a long-established R&B-dance vocal group from Los Angeles, California, with a consistent track record of hit records dating back to the late 1960s.-Career:...
, The S.O.S. Band, Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
, Kool & the Gang
Kool & the Gang
Kool & the Gang are an American jazz, R&B, soul, and funk group, originally formed as the Jazziacs in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1964.They went through several musical phases during the course of their recording career, starting out with a purist jazz sound, then becoming practitioners of R&B and...
, Yarbrough and Peoples
Yarbrough and Peoples
Yarbrough and Peoples was an American R&B duo from Dallas, Texas. Their biggest selling release was "Don't Stop the Music", a US Billboard R&B chart topper in 1981.-Career:...
, Smokey Robinson
Smokey Robinson
William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. Robinson is one of the primary figures associated with Motown, second only to the company's founder, Berry Gordy...
, Rick James
Rick James
James Ambrose Johnson, Jr. , better known by his stage name Rick James, was an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. James was a popular performer in the late 1970s and 1980s, scoring four number-one hits on the U.S. R&B charts performing in the genres of funk and R&B...
, Diana Ross
Diana Ross
Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer, record producer, and actress. Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway...
, Lionel Richie
Lionel Richie
Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr. , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Since 1968, he has been a member of the musical group Commodores signed to Motown Records...
, Earth, Wind & Fire
Earth, Wind & Fire
Earth, Wind & Fire is an American soul and R&B band formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1969 by Verdine and Maurice White. Also known as EWF, the band has won six Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards. They have been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of...
, Dazz Band
Dazz Band
The Dazz Band is an American funk music band that was most popular in the early 1980s. Emerging from Cleveland, Ohio, the group's biggest hit songs include the Grammy Award-winning "Let It Whip" , "Joystick" , and "Let It All Blow"...
, Evelyn King
Evelyn King (singer)
Evelyn "Champagne" King is an American R&B, disco and post-disco singer. Some of her best-known songs are "Shame", "Love Come Down," and "I'm in Love."-Biography:...
, Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
, Mtume
Mtume
Mtume was a funk and soul group that had several R&B hits in the 1980s. Its founder, percussionist James Mtume, previously played with Miles Davis in the 1970s. Other members of the group included Reggie Lucas and Tawatha Agee.-History:...
, DeBarge
DeBarge
DeBarge was a sibling music group of American origin whose repertoire included R&B, soul, funk, and later gospel. Active as a professional recording group from 1979 and 1989, the group was one of the few recording acts to bring success to the Motown label during the 1980s.-Background:Hailing from...
, Midnight Star
Midnight Star
Midnight Star is an R&B and electro-funk group that had a string of R&B hits in the 1980s.-Band history:The group was formed in 1976 at Kentucky State University by trumpeter Reggie Calloway, vocalist Belinda Lipscomb, guitarist/vocalist Melvin Gentry, bassist Kenneth Gant, multi-instrumentalist...
, and Freddie Jackson
Freddie Jackson
Frederick Anthony "Freddie" Jackson is an American soul singer. He was an important figure in R&B during the 1980s and early 1990s...
.
In the mid-1980s, many of the recordings by artists Luther Vandross
Luther Vandross
Luther Ronzoni Vandross was an American singer-songwriter and record producer. During his career, Vandross sold over twenty-five million albums and won eight Grammy Awards including Best Male R&B Vocal Performance four times...
, Freddie Jackson
Freddie Jackson
Frederick Anthony "Freddie" Jackson is an American soul singer. He was an important figure in R&B during the 1980s and early 1990s...
, Sade
Sade Adu
Helen Folasade Adu OBE , is a British singer-songwriter, composer, and record producer. She first achieved success in the 1980s as the frontwoman and lead vocalist of the Brit and Grammy Award winning English group Sade.-Biography:Sade was born in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria...
, Anita Baker
Anita Baker
Anita Baker is an American R&B/soul jazz singer-songwriter. To date, Baker has won eight Grammy Awards, and has four platinum albums and two gold albums to her credit....
, Teddy Pendergrass
Teddy Pendergrass
Theodore DeReese "Teddy" Pendergrass was an American R&B/soul singer and songwriter. Pendergrass first rose to fame as lead singer of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes in the 1970s before a successful solo career at the end of the decade...
, Peabo Bryson
Peabo Bryson
Peabo Bryson is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, born in Greenville, South Carolina...
and others became known as quiet storm
Quiet storm
Quiet storm is a late-night radio format, featuring soulful slow jams, pioneered in the mid-1970s by then-station-intern Melvin Lindsey at WHUR-FM, in Washington, D.C. Smokey Robinson's like-titled hit single, released in 1975 as the title track to his third solo album, lent its name to the format...
. The term had originated with Smokey Robinson's 1975 album A Quiet Storm
A Quiet Storm
This is one of the most highly acclaimed soul albums of the 1970s. A longtime innovator at Motown, Robinson responded to the funk revolution in black music with an effective counterpoint: the stylish and mature album A Quiet Storm...
. Quiet storm has been described as "R&B's answer to soft rock
Soft rock
Soft rock is a style of music which uses the techniques of rock music to compose a softer, more toned-down sound. Soft rock songs generally tend to focus on themes like love, everyday life and relationships. The genre tends to make heavy use of acoustic guitars, pianos, synthesizers and sometimes...
and adult contemporary—while it was primarily intended for black audiences, quiet storm had the same understated dynamics, relaxed tempos and rhythms, and romantic sentiment."
Tina Turner
Tina Turner
Tina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have led many to call her the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...
made a comeback during the second half of the 1980s, while Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston is an American singer, actress, producer and a former model. Houston is the most awarded female act of all time, according to Guinness World Records, and her list of awards include 1 Emmy Award, 6 Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among...
and Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson
Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years...
broke into the pop music charts with a series of hits. Richard J. Ripani wrote that Janet Jackson's third studio album Control
Control (Janet Jackson album)
Control is the third studio album by American recording artist Janet Jackson, released on February 6, 1986 by A&M Records. Her collaborations with songwriters and record producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis resulted in an unconventional sound: a fusion of rhythm and blues, funk, disco, rap vocals,...
(1986) was "important to the development of R&B for a number of reasons", as she and her producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis
Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis
James Samuel "Jimmy Jam" Harris III and Terry Steven Lewis are an American R&B and pop-music songwriting and record production team...
, "crafted a new sound that fuses the rhythmic elements of funk and disco, along with heavy doses of synthesizers, percussion, sound effects, and a rap music sensibility." Ripani wrote that "the success of Control led to the incorporation of stylistic traits of rap over the next few years, and Janet Jackson was to continue to be one of the leaders in that development." That same year, Teddy Riley
Teddy Riley (new jack swing)
Edward Theodore Riley , professionally known as Teddy Riley, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, keyboardist, and record producer credited with the creation of New Jack Swing. Through his production work with Michael Jackson, Bobby Brown, Doug E. Fresh, Today, Keith Sweat, Heavy D., Jane...
began producing R&B recordings that included hip hop influences. This combination of R&B style and hip hop rhythms was termed new jack swing
New jack swing
New jack swing or swingbeat is a fusion genre spearheaded by Teddy Riley and Bernard Belle which became extremely popular from the late-1980s into the mid-1990s. Its influence, along with hip-hop, seeped into pop culture and was the definitive sound of the inventive Black New York club scene...
, and was applied to artists such as Bobby Brown
Bobby Brown
Robert Barisford "Bobby" Brown is an American R&B singer-songwriter, occasional rapper, and dancer. After success in pop group New Edition, Brown began his solo career in 1987 and had a string of Top 10 Billboard hits, culminating in a Grammy Award. He was a pioneer of New Jack Swing music, a...
, Keith Sweat
Keith Sweat
Keith Sweat is an American R&B/soul, singer-songwriter, record producer, radio personality and a major contributor to the new jack swing era.-Music career:...
, Guy
Guy (band)
Guy are a hip hop, R&B and soul band most closely associated with the new jack swing style of the 1980s and 1990s.-Origins :Guy was formed in Harlem, New York in 1987 by R&B singer-songwriters Aaron Hall, young musician/record producer Teddy Riley and Timmy Gatling...
, Jodeci
Jodeci
Jodeci is an American band, whose repertoire includes R&B, soul music, and new jack swing. The group consists of two pairs of brothers from Hampton, Virginia and Charlotte, North Carolina: Cedric & Joel Hailey and Donald & Dalvin DeGrate, all respectively known by their stage names: K-Ci & Jojo,...
, and Bell Biv DeVoe
Bell Biv DeVoe
Bell Biv DeVoe is an American R&B musical group which branched off from New Edition. It consists of three of New Edition's previous members, Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, and Ronnie DeVoe...
.
Michael Jackson remained a prominent figure in the genre in the late 1980s, following the release of his album Bad
Bad (album)
Bad is the seventh studio album by American songwriter and recording artist Michael Jackson. The album was released on August 31, 1987 by Epic/CBS Records, nearly five years after Jackson's previous studio album, Thriller, which went on to become the world's best-selling album...
(1987) which sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. Janet Jackson's 1989 album Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 continued the development of contemporary R&B into the 1990s, as the album's title track "Rhythm Nation
Rhythm Nation
"Rhythm Nation" is the second single from American R&B and pop singer Janet Jackson's fourth studio album, Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 .-Background:...
" made "use of elements from across the R&B spectrum, including use of a sample loop, triplet swing, rapped vocal parts and blues notes."
Hip hop
Encompassing graffiti art, break dancing, rap music, and fashion, hip-hop became the dominant cultural movement of the African AmericanAfrican American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
and Hispanic
Hispanic and Latino Americans
Hispanic or Latino Americans are Americans with origins in the Hispanic countries of Latin America or in Spain, and in general all persons in the United States who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino.1990 Census of Population and Housing: A self-designated classification for people whose origins...
communities in the 1980s. The Hip hop musical genre had a strong influence on pop music in the late 1980s which still continues to the present day.
During the 1980s, the hip hop genre started embracing the creation of rhythm by using the human body, via the vocal percussion
Vocal percussion
Vocal percussion is the art of creating sounds with one's mouth that approximate, imitate, or otherwise serve the same purpose as a percussion instrument, whether in a group of singers, an instrumental ensemble, or solo.-In Western music:...
technique of beatboxing
Beatboxing
Beatboxing is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of producing drum beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice. It may also involve singing, vocal imitation of turntablism, and the simulation of horns, strings, and other musical instruments...
. Pioneers such as Doug E. Fresh
Doug E. Fresh
Douglas E. Davis , better known by the stage name Doug E. Fresh, is an American rapper, record producer, and beat boxer, also known as the Human Beat Box...
, Biz Markie
Biz Markie
Marcel Theo Hall better known by his stage name, Biz Markie, is an American rapper, beatboxer, DJ, comedian, singer, reality television personality, and commercial spokesperson. He is best known for his single "Just a Friend", an American Top 10 hit in 1989...
and Buffy from the Fat Boys made beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using their mouth, lips, tongue, voice, and other body parts. "Human Beatbox" artists would also sing or imitate turntablism
Turntablism
Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating music using phonograph turntables and a DJ mixer.The word 'turntablist' was coined in 1995 by DJ Babu to describe the difference between a DJ who just plays records, and one who performs by touching and moving the records, stylus and mixer...
scratching or other instrument sounds.
The 1980s also saw many artists make social statements through hip hop. In 1982, Melle Mel
Melle Mel
Grandmaster Mele Mel , also known as Melle Mel , is an American hip-hop musician — one of the pioneers of old school hip hop as lead rapper and main songwriter for Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.- Biography :...
and Duke Bootee recorded "The Message" (officially credited to Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five), a song that foreshadowed the socially conscious statements of Run-DMC's "It's like That
It's Like That (Run-D.M.C. song)
"It's like That" is a song by American hip hop group Run-D.M.C. It was first released in 1983 on a cassette backed with the track "Sucker M.C.'s". The release marked the start of Run-D.M.C.'s career and is widely regarded as ushering in a new school of hip hop artists with a street image and an...
" and Public Enemy's "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos
Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos
"Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" is a song by the American hip hop group Public Enemy from their second album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back...
".
Popular Hip hop artists of the 1980s include Run D.M.C., Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....
, NWA, LL Cool J
LL Cool J
James Todd Smith , better known as LL Cool J , is an American rapper, entrepreneur, and actor...
, Public Enemy, Eric B. & Rakim
Eric B. & Rakim
Eric B. & Rakim were a hip-hop duo composed of DJ Eric Barrier and MC Rakim .Hailing from Long Island, New York, the pair are generally considered by hip hop enthusiasts to be one of the most influential and innovative groups in the genre...
, Big Daddy Kane
Big Daddy Kane
Antonio Hardy better known by his stage name Big Daddy Kane, is an American rapper who started his career in 1986 as a member of the rap group the Juice Crew. He is widely considered to be one of the most influential and skilled MC's in Hip Hop...
, Boogie Down Productions
Boogie Down Productions
Boogie Down Productions was a hip hop group that was originally composed of KRS-One, D-Nice, and DJ Scott La Rock. DJ Scott La Rock was murdered on August 27, 1987, months after the release of BDP's debut album, Criminal Minded. The name of the group, Boogie Down, derives from a nickname for the...
, and Ice T
Ice T
Tracy Marrow , better known by his stage name Ice-T, is an American musician and actor.He was born in Newark, New Jersey and moved to the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles when he was in the 7th grade. After graduating from high school he served in the United States Army for four years...
, among others.
Electronic music
In the 1980s, dance musicDance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
records made using only electronic instruments
Electronic musical instrument
An electronic musical instrument is a musical instrument that produces its sounds using electronics. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical audio signal that ultimately drives a loudspeaker....
became increasingly popular, largely influenced from the Electronic music of Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
and 1970s disco music. Such music was originally born of and popularized via regional nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
scenes in the 1980s, and became the predominant type of music played in discothèques as well as the rave
Rave
Rave, rave dance, and rave party are parties that originated mostly from acid house parties, which featured fast-paced electronic music and light shows. At these parties people dance and socialize to dance music played by disc jockeys and occasionally live performers...
scene.
House music
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
is a style of electronic dance music
Electronic dance music
Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
which originated in Chicago, Illinois, USA in the early 1980s. House music was strongly influenced by elements of soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
- and funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
-infused varieties of disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
. Club play from pioneering DJs like Ron Hardy
Ron Hardy
Ron Hardy was an instrumental DJ in the development of house music. An innovator and originator of the genre, he is highly regarded not only for his iconic performances at the Muzic Box, a Chicago house music club, but for his pioneering edits and mixes of disco, soul music, funk and early house...
and Lil Louis
Lil Louis
Lil Louis is the stage name used by Chicago-born house-music producer and DJ Louis Sims. He scored a number of hits on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in the 1980s and 1990s, three of which hit #1....
, local dance music record shops, and the popular Hot Mix 5 shows on radio station WBMX-FM helped popularize house music in Chicago and among visiting DJs & producers from Detroit. Trax Records and DJ International Records, local labels with wider distribution, helped popularize house music outside of Chicago. It eventually reached Europe before becoming infused in mainstream pop & dance music worldwide during the 1990s.
It has been widely cited that the initial blueprint for Techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
was developed during the mid-1980s in Detroit, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, by Juan Atkins
Juan Atkins
Juan Atkins is an American musician. He is widely credited as the originator of techno music, specifically Detroit techno along with Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson...
, Kevin Saunderson
Kevin Saunderson
Kevin Saunderson is an American electronic music producer. At the age of nine he moved to Belleville, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit where he attended Belleville High School and befriended two students, Derrick May and Juan Atkins...
, Derrick May (the so-called "Belleville Three"), and Eddie Fowlkes
Eddie Fowlkes
Eddie "Flashin'" Fowlkes is a techno DJ from Detroit, Michigan, influential to the early Detroit techno scene.Fowlkes began his career as a DJ in high school, and attended business college briefly before turning full-time to a career in music...
, all of whom attended school together at Belleville High
Belleville High School (Belleville, Michigan)
Belleville High School is a public high school located in Belleville, Michigan and the only zoned high school in the Van Buren School District.- History :...
, near Detroit. Though initially conceived as party music that was played on daily mixed radio programs and played at parties given by cliquish, Detroit high school clubs, it has grown to be a global phenomenon.
Country music
As the 1980s dawned, pop-influenced country musicCountry pop
Country pop, with roots in both the countrypolitan sound and in soft rock, is a subgenre of country music that first emerged in the 1970s. Although the term first referred to country music songs and artists that crossed over to Top 40 radio, country pop acts are now more likely to cross over to...
was the dominant style, through such acts as Kenny Rogers
Kenny Rogers
Kenneth Donald "Kenny" Rogers is an American singer-songwriter, photographer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur...
, Ronnie Milsap
Ronnie Milsap
Ronnie Lee Milsap is an American country music singer and pianist. He was one of country’s most popular and influential performers of the 1970s and 1980s...
, T.G. Sheppard, Eddie Rabbitt
Eddie Rabbitt
Edward Thomas "Eddie" Rabbitt was an American singer-songwriter and musician. His career began as a songwriter in the late 1960s, springboarding to a recording career after composing hits such as "Kentucky Rain" for Elvis Presley in 1970 and "Pure Love" for Ronnie Milsap in 1974...
, Crystal Gayle
Crystal Gayle
Crystal Gayle is an American country music singer best known for her 1977 country-pop hit, "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue". An award-winning singer, she accumulated 18 number one country hits during the 1970s and 1980s...
, Anne Murray
Anne Murray
Morna Anne Murray CC, ONS is a Canadian singer in pop, country and adult contemporary styles whose albums have sold over 54 million copies....
and Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
. The 1980 movie Urban Cowboy
Urban Cowboy
Released as a 2× vinyl record album, re-released on CD in 1995.Side A:#Hello Texas – Jimmy Buffett #All Night Long – Joe Walsh #Times Like These – Dan Fogelberg #Nine Tonight – Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band...
, a romantic comedy starring John Travolta
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
and Debra Winger
Debra Winger
Mary Debra Winger is an American actress. Three-times an Oscar nominee, she received awards for acting in Terms of Endearment, for which she won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress in 1983, and in A Dangerous Woman, for which she won the Tokyo International Film Festival...
, spawned a successful soundtrack album featuring pop-styled country songs, including "Lookin' for Love
Lookin' for Love
"Lookin' for Love" is the title of a song written by Wanda Mallette, Bob Morrison, and Patti Ryan. It was recorded by American country music singer Johnny Lee...
" by Johnny Lee
Johnny Lee
Johnny Lee is an American country music singer. His 1980 single, "Lookin' for Love" not only spent three weeks at the top of the Billboard country singles chart in the second half of 1980 but also went to the Top 5 on the Pop charts, and Top 10 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary survey...
, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia
The Devil Went Down to Georgia
"The Devil Went Down to Georgia" is a song written and performed by the Charlie Daniels Band and released on their 1979 album Million Mile Reflections....
" by the Charlie Daniels Band, "Could I Have This Dance
Could I Have This Dance
"Could I Have This Dance" is a 1980 single by Anne Murray. "Could I Have This Dance" was included in the 1980 film "Urban Cowboy" and would be Anne Murray's fifth number one country hit as a solo artist. The single went to number one for one week and spent a total of ten weeks on the country chart...
" by Murray and "Love the World Away
Love the World Away
"Love the World Away" is the title of a song written by Bob Morrison and Johnny Wilson, and recorded by American country music artist Kenny Rogers. IT was released in June 1980 as the second single from the Urban Cowboy soundtrack. The song reached #4 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart and...
" by Rogers. The songs, and the movie itself, resulted in an early 1980s boom in pop-styled country music, and the era is sometimes known as the "Urban Cowboy Movement".
By the mid-1980s, country music audiences were beginning to tire of country pop. Although some pop-country artists continued to record and release successful songs and albums, the genre in general was beginning to suffer. By 1985, a New York Times article declared country music "dead". However, by this time, several newcomers were working behind the scenes to reverse this perception.
The year 1986 brought forth several new artists who performed in traditional country styles, such as honky-tonk. This sparked the "new traditionalist" movement, or return to traditional country music. The most successful of these artists included Randy Travis
Randy Travis
Randy Travis is an American country music singer and actor. Since 1985, he has recorded 20 studio albums and charted more than 30 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, 22 of which were number one hits...
, Dwight Yoakam
Dwight Yoakam
Dwight David Yoakam is an American singer-songwriter, actor and film director, most famous for his pioneering country music...
, Ricky Van Shelton
Ricky Van Shelton
Ricky Van Shelton is a currently retired American country music artist. Active between 1986 and 2006, he has charted more than twenty singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts...
and Holly Dunn
Holly Dunn
Holly Dunn is a country music artist who first found fame with her 1986 Top-10 hit "Daddy's Hands" from her self-titled début album. Dunn has charted more than a dozen country singles, two of which reaching the #1 spot.Dunn is the daughter of a minister father...
. Also, artists like Kathy Mattea
Kathy Mattea
Kathleen Alice "Kathy" Mattea is an American country music and bluegrass performer who often brings folk, Celtic and traditional country sounds to her music. Active since 1983 as a recording artist, she has recorded seventeen albums and has charted more than thirty singles on the Billboard Hot...
and Keith Whitley
Keith Whitley
Jackie Keith Whitley , known professionally as Keith Whitley, was an American country music singer. Whitley's brief career in mainstream country music lasted from 1984 until his death in 1989, but he continues to influence an entire generation of singers and songwriters...
, both of whom had been performing for a few years prior, had their first major hits during 1986; Mattea was more folk-styled, while Whitley was pure honky-tonk. But the new traditionalist movement had already taken hold as early as 1981, when newcomers such as Ricky Skaggs
Ricky Skaggs
Rickie Lee "Ricky" Skaggs is a country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He primarily plays mandolin; however, he also plays fiddle, guitar, and banjo.-Early career:...
and George Strait
George Strait
George Harvey Strait is an American country music singer, actor, and music producer. Strait is referred to as the "King of Country," and critics call Strait a living legend. He is known for his unique style of western swing music, bar-room ballads, honky-tonk style, and fresh yet traditional...
had their first big hits, and Reba McEntire
Reba McEntire
Reba Nell McEntire is an American country music artist and actress. She began her career in the music industry as a high school student singing in the Kiowa High School band , on local radio shows with her siblings, and at rodeos. As a solo act, she was invited to perform at a rodeo in Oklahoma...
had her first big hit in 1980; in addition, songwriter–guitarist and Chet Atkins
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...
prodigy Steve Wariner
Steve Wariner
Steven Noel "Steve" Wariner is an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist. He has released eighteen studio albums, including six on MCA Records, and three each on RCA Records, Arista Records and Capitol Records...
also emerged as a popular act starting in the early 1980s. Another boom period for newcomers with new traditionalist styles was 1989, when artists such as Clint Black
Clint Black
Clint Patrick Black is an American country music singer-songwriter, record producer, multi-instrumentalist and occasional actor. Signed to RCA Records in 1989, Black made his debut with his Killin' Time album, which produced four straight Number One singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country...
, Garth Brooks
Garth Brooks
Troyal Garth Brooks , best known as Garth Brooks, is an American country music artist who helped make country music a worldwide phenomenon. His eponymous first album was released in 1989 and peaked at number 2 in the US country album chart while climbing to number 13 on the Billboard 200 album chart...
, Mary Chapin Carpenter
Mary Chapin Carpenter
Mary Chapin Carpenter is an American folk and country music artist. Carpenter spent several years singing in Washington, D.C. clubs before signing in the late 1980s with Columbia Records, who marketed her as a country singer...
, Lorrie Morgan
Lorrie Morgan
In 1996 Morgan married Jon Randall, a singer/songwriter now credited with writing the 2004 Brad Paisley/Alison Krauss hit "Whiskey Lullaby"; they divorced three years later in 1999....
and Travis Tritt
Travis Tritt
James Travis Tritt is an American country music singer from Marietta, Georgia. He signed to Warner Bros. Records in 1989, releasing seven studio albums and a greatest hits package for the label between then and 1999. In the 2000s, he released two albums on Columbia Records and one for the defunct...
had their first big hits.
Vocal duos were also popular because of their harmonies, most notably The Bellamy Brothers and The Judds
The Judds
The Judds were an American country music duo composed of Naomi Judd and her daughter, Wynonna Judd. Signed to RCA Records in 1983, the duo released six studio albums between then and 1991. One of the most successful acts in country music history, The Judds won five Grammy Awards for Best Country...
. Several of the Bellamy Brothers' songs included double-entendre' laden hooks
Hook (rhetoric)
A hook in rhetoric is a rhetorical device that gets the attention of the audience and makes them want to listen to the rest of the speech. Hooks can often be metaphors, playing on emotional appeal, and they can also be a series of intriguing questions, a statistic, a fact, or any other rhetorical...
, on songs such as "Do You Love as Good As You Look". The Judds, a mother-and-daughter duo, combined elements of contemporary pop and traditional country music on songs such as "Why Not Me" and "Grandpa (Tell Me 'Bout the Good Ol' Days)
Grandpa (Tell Me 'Bout the Good Ol' Days)
"Grandpa " is a 1986 song written by Jamie O'Hara, and made famous by The Judds."Grandpa" — as the song is sometimes known — is a reflection on days gone by, wherein the narrator expresses discontent about the decline in traditional values, the hectic lifestyle of the day and how progress hasn't...
".
Country music groups and bands continued to rise in popularity during the 1980s. The most successful of the lot was Alabama
Alabama (band)
Alabama is a country music and southern rock band from Fort Payne, Alabama, United States. The band was founded in 1969 by Randy Owen and his cousin Teddy Gentry , soon joined by Jeff Cook...
, a Fort Payne
Fort Payne, Alabama
Fort Payne is a city in DeKalb County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 12,938. The city is the county seat of DeKalb County. It bills itself as the "Official Sock Capital of the World."...
-based band that blended traditional and pop country sounds with southern rock
Southern rock
Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music, and genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country music, and blues, and is focused generally on electric guitar and vocals...
. Their concerts regularly sold out, while their single releases regularly reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. In 1989, Alabama was named the Artist of the Decade by the Academy of Country Music
Academy of Country Music
The Academy of Country Music was founded in 1964 in Los Angeles, California as the Country & Western Music Academy. Whereas the Country Music Association, founded in 1958, was based in Nashville, the Academy sought to promote country music in the western states. Among those involved in the...
. By the end of the 1980s, the group had sold more than 24 million albums in the United States.
Ranking just behind Alabama in popularity, as far as groups were concerned, were The Oak Ridge Boys
The Oak Ridge Boys
The Oak Ridge Boys are an American country and gospel vocal quartet.The group was founded in the 1940s as the Oak Ridge Quartet. They became popular in southern gospel during the 1950s...
and The Statler Brothers, both four-part harmony groups with gospel and country-pop stylings. The popularity of those three groups sparked a boom in new groups and bands, and by the end of the 1980s, fans were listening to such acts as Restless Heart
Restless Heart
Restless Heart is an American country music band established in 1984. The band's original members were John Dittrich , Paul Gregg , Dave Innis , Greg Jennings , and Verlon Thompson...
and Exile
Exile (American band)
Exile, originally known as The Exiles, is an American band founded in Richmond, Kentucky by J.P. Pennington. They started by playing local clubs which led to touring with Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars opening shows and providing backup for major rock artists of the period.Their name was shortened...
, the latter which previously enjoyed success with the pop hit "Kiss You All Over
Kiss You All Over
"Kiss You All Over" is a number one single in the United States during 1978 by the group Exile. It was included on the band's album Mixed Emotions, and it featured primarily the late Jimmy Stokley on lead vocals...
".
Despite the prevailing pop country sound, enduring acts from the 1970s and earlier continued to enjoy great success with fans. George Jones
George Jones
George Glenn Jones is an American country music singer known for his long list of hit records, his distinctive voice and phrasing, and his marriage to Tammy Wynette....
, one of the longest-running acts of the time, recorded several successful singles, including the critically acclaimed "He Stopped Loving Her Today
He Stopped Loving Her Today
"He Stopped Loving Her Today" is the title of a song by American country music artist George Jones that has been named in several surveys as the greatest country song of all time. It was released in April 1980 as the lead single from the album I Am What I Am. The song was Jones's first No. 1 single...
". Conway Twitty
Conway Twitty
Conway Twitty , born Harold Lloyd Jenkins, was an American country music artist. He also had success in early rock and roll, R&B, and pop music. He held the record for the most number one singles of any act with 55 No. 1 Billboard country hits until George Strait broke the record in 2006...
continued to have a series of No. 1 hits, with 1986's "Desperado Love" becoming his 40th chart-topper on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, a record that stood for nearly 20 years. The movie Coal Miner's Daughter
Coal Miner's Daughter
Coal Miner's Daughter is a 1980 American biographical film which tells the story of country music icon Loretta Lynn. It stars Sissy Spacek in her Academy Award for Best Actress winning role, Tommy Lee Jones, Beverly D'Angelo and Levon Helm, and was directed by Michael Apted.-Background:The film was...
profiled the life of Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn is an American country music singer-songwriter, author and philanthropist. Born in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky to a coal miner father, Lynn married at 13 years old, was a mother soon after, and moved to Washington with her husband, Oliver Lynn. Their marriage was sometimes tumultuous; he...
(with Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek is an American actress and singer. She came to international prominence for her for role as Carrie White in Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film Carrie for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination...
in the lead role), while Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
also had a series of acting credits. Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
had much success in the 1980s, with several leading movie roles, two No. 1 albums and 13 number one hits, and having many successful tours. Others who had been around for a while and continued to have great success were Eddy Arnold
Eddy Arnold
Richard Edward Arnold , known professionally as Eddy Arnold, was an American country music singer who performed for six decades. He was a so-called Nashville sound innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the Billboard country music charts, second only to George Jones. He sold more...
, Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
, Merle Haggard
Merle Haggard
Merle Ronald Haggard is an American country music singer, guitarist, fiddler, instrumentalist, and songwriter. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster guitars, vocal harmonies,...
, Waylon Jennings
Waylon Jennings
Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. Jennings began playing at eight. He began performing at twelve, on KVOW radio. Jennings formed a band The Texas Longhorns. Jennings worked as a D.J on KVOW, KDAV and KLLL...
, Ray Price
Ray Price (musician)
Ray Price is an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist. His wide-ranging baritone has often been praised as among the best male voices of country music...
, Hank Williams Jr. and Tammy Wynette
Tammy Wynette
Virginia Wynette Pugh, known professionally as Tammy Wynette , was an American country music singer-songwriter and one of the genre's best-known artists and biggest-selling female vocalists....
.
Billboard Artist of the Decade
In December 1989 the American music magazine Billboard Magazine named Michael JacksonMichael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
as the best Artist of the Decade for the 1980s. He joined the list with The Beatles, Elvis Presley, and Elton John, who have also been awarded with this prestigious honor in their respective decades.
The U.K and Europe
Post punk
Bauhaus (band)
Bauhaus was an English rock band formed in Northampton in 1978. The group consisted of Peter Murphy , Daniel Ash , Kevin Haskins and David J . The band was originally Bauhaus 1919 before they dropped the numerical portion within a year of formation...
and Joy Division
Joy Division
Joy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis , Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris .Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences...
explored new stylistic territory as Love and Rockets
Love and Rockets (band)
Love and Rockets were an English alternative rock band formed in 1985 by former Bauhaus members Daniel Ash , David J , and Kevin Haskins . Former Bauhaus vocalist Peter Murphy had embarked on a solo career after Bauhaus split in 1983...
and New Order
New Order
New Order are an English rock band formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris...
respectively.
The second generation of British post-punk bands that broke through in the early 1980s, including The Fall, The Pop Group
The Pop Group
The Pop Group are a British post-punk band from Bristol, England, formed in 1978, whose dissonant sound spanned punk, free jazz, funk and dub reggae. Their lyrics were often political in nature...
, The Mekons, Echo and the Bunnymen and Teardrop Explodes, tended to move away from dark sonic landscapes.
Arguably the most successful band to emerge from post-punk was Ireland's U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
, who incorporated elements of religious imagery together with political commentary into their often anthemic music, and by the late 1980s had become one of the biggest bands in the world.
Although many post-punk bands continued to record and perform, it declined as a movement in the mid-1980s as acts disbanded or moved off to explore other musical other areas, but it has continued to influence the development of rock music and has been seen as a major element in the creation of the alternative rock movement.
New wave music
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
in 1981 would usher in New Wave's
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
most successful era. British artists, unlike many of their American counterparts, had learned how to use the music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
early on. Several British acts signed to independent labels were able to outmarket and outsell American artists that were signed with major labels. Journalists labeled this phenomenon a "Second British Invasion
Second British Invasion
The term Second British Invasion refers to British music acts that became popular in the United States during the 1980s primarily due to the cable music channel MTV...
".
In the fall of 1982, "I Ran (So Far Away)
I Ran (So Far Away)
"I Ran" is a song by English New Wave band A Flock of Seagulls. It was released on their debut album A Flock of Seagulls in 1982 and was its most successful single, reaching number 9 in the United States and number 1 in Australia.-Single:The single was promoted by a distinctive music video in...
" by A Flock of Seagulls
A Flock of Seagulls
A Flock of Seagulls are an English New Wave band originally formed by brothers Michael "Mike" Score and Alister "Ali" James Score , with Frank Maudsley , Michael Kuby , H.J...
entered the Billboard Top Ten, arguably the first successful song that owed almost everything to video. They would be followed by bands like Duran Duran
Duran Duran
Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...
whose glossy videos would come to symbolize the power of MTV. Dire Straits
Dire Straits
Dire Straits were a British rock band active from 1977 to 1995, composed of Mark Knopfler , his younger brother David Knopfler , John Illsley , and Pick Withers .Dire Straits' sound drew from a variety of musical influences, including jazz, folk, blues, and came closest...
' "Money for Nothing
Money for Nothing (song)
"Money for Nothing" is a single by British rock band Dire Straits, taken from their 1985 album Brothers in Arms. It was one of Dire Straits' most successful singles, peaking at number one for three weeks in the United States, and it also reached number one for three weeks on the U.S. Mainstream...
" gently poked fun at MTV which had helped make them international rock stars. In 1983, 30% of the record sales were from British acts. 18 of the top 40 and 6 of the top 10 singles on July 18 were by British artists. Overall record sales would rise by 10% from 1982. Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
magazine featured Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox, OBE , born Ann Lennox, is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving minor success in the late 1970s with The Tourists, with fellow musician David A...
and Boy George
Boy George
Boy George is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by...
on the cover of one of its issues while Rolling Stone Magazine would release an England Swings issue. In April 1984 40 of the top 100 singles were from British acts while 8 of the top 10 singles in a May 1985 survey were of British origin. Veteran music journalist Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds is an English music critic who is well-known for his writings on electronic dance music and for coining the term "post-rock". Besides electronic dance music, Reynolds has written about a wide range of artists and musical genres, and has written books on post-punk and rock...
theorized that similar to the first British Invasion the use of black American influences by the British acts helped to spur success. Commentators in the mainstream media credited MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
and the British acts with bringing colour and energy to back to pop music while rock journalists were generally hostile to the phenomenon because they felt it represented image over content. MTV continued its heavy rotation of videos by New Wave-oriented acts until 1987, when it changed to a heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
and rock dominated format.
New romantics
New Romanticism emerged as part of the New Wave music
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
movement in London nightclubs including Billy's and The Blitz Club
Blitz Kids
The Blitz Kids were a group of young people who frequented the Blitz nightclub in Covent Garden, London in the very early 1980s, and are credited with launching the New Romantic cultural movement...
towards the end of the 1970s. Influenced by David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
and Roxy Music
Roxy Music
Roxy Music was a British art rock band formed in 1971 by Bryan Ferry, who became the group's lead vocalist and chief songwriter, and bassist Graham Simpson. The other members are Phil Manzanera , Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson . Former members include Brian Eno , and Eddie Jobson...
, it developed glam rock
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
fashions, gaining its name from the frilly fop
Fop
Fop became a pejorative term for a foolish man over-concerned with his appearance and clothes in 17th century England. Some of the very many similar alternative terms are: "coxcomb", fribble, "popinjay" , fashion-monger, and "ninny"...
shirts of early Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
. New Romantic music often made extensive use of synthesisers. Pioneers included Visage
Visage
Visage are a British New Wave rock band. Formed in 1978, the band became closely linked to the burgeoning New Romantic fashion movement of the early 1980s, and are best known for their 1980 hit "Fade to Grey".-New Wave years :...
and Ultravox
Ultravox
Ultravox is a British New Wave rock band. They were one of the primary exponents of the British electronic pop music movement of the late 1970s/early 1980s. The band was particularly associated with the New Romantic and New Wave movements....
and among the commercially most successful acts associated with the movement were Adam and the Ants
Adam and the Ants
Adam and the Ants were a British rock band active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The original group, which existed from 1977 to 1980, became notable as a cult band marking the transition from the late-1970s punk rock era to the post-punk and New Wave era...
, Culture Club
Culture Club
Culture Club are a British rock band who were part of the 1980s New Romantic movement. The original band consisted of Boy George , Mikey Craig , Roy Hay and Jon Moss...
, Spandau Ballet
Spandau Ballet
Spandau Ballet are a British band formed in London in the late 1970s. Initially inspired by, and an integral part of, the New Romantic fashion, their music has featured a mixture of funk, jazz, soul and synthpop. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s, achieving ten Top Ten singles...
and Duran Duran
Duran Duran
Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...
. By about 1983 the original movement had dissolved, with surviving acts dropping most of the fashion elements to pursue mainstream careers.
Gothic rock
Bauhaus (band)
Bauhaus was an English rock band formed in Northampton in 1978. The group consisted of Peter Murphy , Daniel Ash , Kevin Haskins and David J . The band was originally Bauhaus 1919 before they dropped the numerical portion within a year of formation...
(whose "Bela Lugosi's Dead
Bela Lugosi's Dead
"Bela Lugosi's Dead" is a gothic rock song written by the band Bauhaus. The song was the band's first single, released in August 1979, and is often considered to be the first gothic rock record released. It did not enter the UK charts. The b-side features the song "Boys" and some versions also...
" is often cited as the first goth record), Siouxsie and the Banshees (who may have coined the term), The Cure
The Cure
The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member...
, The Sisters of Mercy
The Sisters of Mercy
The Sisters of Mercy are an English rock band that formed in 1980. After achieving early underground fame in UK, the band had their commercial breakthrough in mid-1980s and sustained it until the early 1990s, when they stopped releasing new recorded output in protest against their record company...
, and Fields of the Nephilim
Fields of the Nephilim
Fields of the Nephilim are an English gothic rock band formed in Stevenage, Hertfordshire in 1984. The original line-up consisted of vocalist Carl McCoy, saxophonist Gary Whisker, Tony Pettitt on bass, guitarist Paul Wright and drummer Alexander "Nod" Wright...
. Gothic rock gave rise to a broader goth subculture
Goth subculture
The goth subculture is a contemporary subculture found in many countries. It began in England during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post-punk genre. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify...
that included clubs, various fashion trends
Gothic fashion
Gothic fashion is a clothing style worn by members of the Goth subculture; a dark, sometimes morbid, eroticized fashion and style of dress. Typical Gothic fashion includes dyed black hair, black lips and black clothes. Both male and female goths wear dark eyeliner and dark fingernails. Styles are...
and numerous publications that grew in popularity in the 1980s, gaining notoriety by being associated by several moral panic
Moral panic
A moral panic is the intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order. According to Stanley Cohen, author of Folk Devils and Moral Panics and credited creator of the term, a moral panic occurs when "[a] condition, episode, person or group of...
s over suicide and Satanism.
Heavy metal
In the 1980s, the New Wave of British Heavy MetalNew Wave of British Heavy Metal
The New Wave of British Heavy Metal was a heavy metal movement that started in the late 1970s, in Britain, and achieved international attention by the early 1980s. The movement developed as a reaction in part to the decline of early heavy metal bands such as Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black...
broke into the mainstream
Mainstream
Mainstream is, generally, the common current thought of the majority. However, the mainstream is far from cohesive; rather the concept is often considered a cultural construct....
, as albums by Judas Priest
Judas Priest
Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, England, formed in 1969. The current line-up consists of lead vocalist Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis. The band has gone through several drummers over the years,...
, Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band from Leyton in east London, formed in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. Since their inception, the band's discography has grown to include a total of thirty-six albums: fifteen studio albums; eleven live albums; four EPs; and six...
, Saxon and Motörhead, reached the British top 10. In 1981, Motörhead became the first of this new breed of metal bands to top the UK charts with No Sleep 'til Hammersmith
No Sleep 'til Hammersmith
No Sleep ’til Hammersmith is the first live album by Motörhead. Released on 27 June 1981, it peaked at #1 on the UK album charts. It was followed by the release of the single "Motorhead" on 11 July, which peaked in the UK singles chart at #6.-History:With the exception of "Iron Horse / Born To...
. Many metal artists, including Def Leppard, benefited from the exposure they received on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
and became the inspiration for American Glam Metal
Glam metal
Glam metal is a subgenre of hard rock and heavy metal that arose in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United States, particularly on the Los Angeles Sunset Strip music scene...
. However, as the sub-genre fragmented, much of the creative impetus moved away from Britain to American and continental Europe (particularly Germany and Scandinavia), which produced most of the major new sub-genres of metal, which were then taken up by British acts. These included thrash metal
Thrash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
and death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
, both developed in the USA; black metal
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
and power metal
Power metal
Power metal is a style of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context. The term refers to two different but related styles: the first pioneered and largely practiced in North America with a harder sound similar to speed metal, and a...
, both developed in continental Europe, but influenced by the British band Venom
Venom (band)
Venom are an English heavy metal band that formed in 1979 in Newcastle upon Tyne. Coming to prominence towards the end of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Venom's first two albums—Welcome to Hell and Black Metal —are considered a major influence on thrash metal and extreme metal in general...
; and doom
Doom metal
Doom metal is an extreme form of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other metal genres...
, which was developed in the USA, but which soon were adopted by a number of bands from England, including Pagan Altar
Pagan Altar
Pagan Altar is a doom metal band from England. They are regarded as one of the pioneers of their genre.-Biography:Pagan Altar, formed 1976 by Alan and Terry Jones in Brockley, England...
and Witchfinder General
Witchfinder General (band)
Witchfinder General is a doom metal band from Stourbridge, England. They were part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal scene and have been cited as a major influence on the doom metal genre.-Biography:...
.
Pop
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Frankie Goes to Hollywood were a British dance-pop band popular in the mid-1980s. The group was fronted by Holly Johnson , with Paul Rutherford , Peter Gill , Mark O'Toole , and Brian Nash .The group's debut single "Relax" was banned by the BBC in 1984 while at number six in the charts and...
's initially controversial dance pop gave then three consecutive number ones in 1984, until they faded away in the mid-1980s. Dead or Alive
Dead or Alive (band)
Dead or Alive were a British New Wave band from Wirral, England, United Kingdom, Europe. The band rose to fame in the 1980s with their number one single on the UK Singles Chart, "You Spin Me Round ". They were the first group to have a number one single under the production team Stock Aitken Waterman...
, also from Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, was another popular dance pop band in the mid-1980s. It was fronted by lead singer Pete Burns
Pete Burns
Pete Burns is an English singer-songwriter, author and television personality who founded the band Dead or Alive in 1980, for which he acted as the vocalist and songwriter, and which rose to mainstream success with their 1985 single "You Spin Me Round "...
.
Probably the most successful British pop band of the era were the duo Wham!
WHAM!
Wham! were a short-lived British musical duo formed by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley in the early 1980s. They were briefly known in the United States as Wham! UK due to a naming conflict with an American band....
with an unusual mix of disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
, soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
, ballads and even rap
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
, who had eleven top ten hits in the UK, six of them number ones, between 1982 and 1986.
In 1988 Irish singer Enya
Enya
Enya is an Irish singer, instrumentalist and songwriter. Enya is an approximate transliteration of how Eithne is pronounced in the Donegal dialect of the Irish language, her native tongue.She began her musical career in 1980, when she briefly joined her family band Clannad before leaving to...
achieved a breakthrough in her career with the album Watermark which sold over eleven million copies worldwide and helped launch Enya's successful career as a leading New Age
New Age music
New Age music is music of various styles intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation, and optimism. It is used by listeners for yoga, massage, meditation, and reading as a method of stress management or to create a peaceful atmosphere in their home or other environments, and is often...
, Celtic
Celtic music
Celtic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe...
, World
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
singer.
Synth pop
Synth pop emerged from New WaveNew Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
, producing a form of pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
that followed electronic rock pioneers in the 1970s like Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
, Jean Michel Jarre
Jean Michel Jarre
Jean Michel André Jarre is a French composer, performer and music producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and New Age genres, and known as an organiser of outdoor spectacles of his music featuring lights, laser displays, and fireworks.Jarre was raised in Lyon by his mother and...
, and Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The band has undergone many personnel changes over the years, with Froese being the only continuous member...
, in which the synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
is the dominant musical instrument. The sounds of synthesizers came to dominate the pop music of the early 1980s as well as replacing disco in dance clubs in Europe.
Other successful synthpop artists of this era included Alphaville
Alphaville (band)
Alphaville is a German synthpop group which gained popularity in the 1980s. The founding members were Marian Gold , Bernhard Lloyd , and Frank Mertens Alphaville is a German synthpop group which gained popularity in the 1980s. The founding members were Marian Gold (real name Hartwig Schierbaum,...
, Soft Cell
Soft Cell
Soft Cell are an English synthpop duo who came to prominence in the early 1980s. They consist of vocalist Marc Almond and instrumentalist David Ball. The duo is most widely known for their 1981 worldwide hit version of "Tainted Love" and platinum debut Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret...
, Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan , Martin Gore , Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke...
, New Order
New Order
New Order are an English rock band formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris...
, The Human League
The Human League
The Human League are an English electronic New Wave band formed in Sheffield in 1977. They achieved popularity after a key change in line-up in the early 1980s and have continued recording and performing with moderate commercial success throughout the 1980s up to the present day.The only constant...
, Thomas Dolby
Thomas Dolby
Thomas Dolby is an English musician and producer. Best known for his 1982 hit "She Blinded Me with Science", and 1984 single "Hyperactive!", he has also worked extensively in production and as a session musician.-Early life:Dolby was born in London, England, contrary to information in early 1980s...
, Yazoo
Yazoo (band)
Yazoo are a British synthpop duo from Basildon, Essex. They had a number of Top 10 hits in the UK charts in the early 1980s...
, Art of Noise, Heaven 17
Heaven 17
Heaven 17 are an English synthpop band originating from Sheffield in the early 1980s. The trio comprises Martyn Ware , Ian Craig Marsh and Glenn Gregory...
, OMD
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark are a synthpop group whose founding members are originally from the Wirral Peninsula, England...
, Japan
Japan (band)
Japan were a British New Wave group, formed in 1974 in Catford, South London. The band achieved success in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when they were often associated with the burgeoning New Romantic fashion movement .- History :The band began as a group of friends...
, Thompson Twins
Thompson Twins
The Thompson Twins were a British pop group that were formed in April 1977 and disbanded in May 1993. They achieved considerable popularity in the mid 1980s, scoring a string of hits in the United Kingdom, the United States and around the globe. The band was named after the two bumbling detectives...
, Eurythmics
Eurythmics
Eurythmics were a British pop rock duo, formed in 1980, currently disbanded, but known to reunite from time to time. Consisting of members Annie Lennox and David A...
, a-ha
A-ha
A-ha were a Norwegian pop band formed in Oslo in 1982. The band was founded by Morten Harket , Magne Furuholmen , and Pål Waaktaar...
, Telex
Telex (band)
The Belgian synth-pop group Telex was formed in 1978 by Marc Moulin, Dan Lacksman, and Michel Moers, with the intention of "Making something really European, different from rock, without guitar — and the idea was electronic music." Mixing the aesthetics of disco, punk and experimental electronic...
, Real Life
Real Life (band)
Real Life are a Melbourne-based Australian New Wave/Synthpop band that had hits with their debut single, "Send Me an Angel" and with "Catch Me I'm Falling" , both of which were featured on the band's debut album Heartland .-Biography:...
, Camouflage
Camouflage (band)
Camouflage is a German New Wave trio consisting of Marcus Meyn, Heiko Maile and Oliver Kreyssig. Their only Billboard Hot 100 hit was "The Great Commandment" which climbed to #59 in 1988, though it did spend three weeks at #1 on the US dance chart...
, London Boys
London Boys
London Boys were a British/German dance pop duo composed of Edem Ephraim and Dennis Fuller...
, Modern Talking
Modern Talking
Modern Talking was a German dance pop duo consisting of Thomas Anders and Dieter Bohlen. Their music has often been classified as Europop. They have been referred to as Germany's most successful pop duo, and have had a number of hit singles, reaching the top 5 in many countries...
, Bananarama
Bananarama
Bananarama are an English female pop duo who have had success on the pop and dance charts since 1982. Rather than relying on a two part harmony, the duo generally sings in unison, as do their background vocalists. Although there have been line-up changes, the group enjoyed their most popular...
, and others are bands of the Synthpop style.
Pop
The 1980s gives to the rise of teenage groups such as MenudoMenudo (band)
Menudo was a Puerto Rican boy band that was formed in the 1970s by producer Edgardo Díaz, releasing their first album in 1977. The band achieved much success, especially during the 1980s, becoming the most popular Latin American teen musical group of the era....
, Timbiriche
Timbiriche
Timbiriche is the name of a Mexican group that debuted on April 30, 1982, during a broadcast of the news program Hoy Mismo with Alex Gongora and disbanded in 1994....
, and Los Chicos
Los Chicos
Los Chicos was a popular boy band in Puerto Rico, created to rival Menudo's success.The band was created by Eric Laboy in 1978 to 1985, with the name Encuentro. Due to a political campaign slogan, the name was changed to Los Chicos, which translates to The Kids. They enjoyed huge success during the...
, as well as child stars such as Luis Miguel
Luis Miguel
Luis Miguel Gallego Basteri is a Mexican singer. He is widely known only by the name Luis Miguel and is often referred to as "El Sol de México"...
. By 1988, however, the aforementioned Luis Miguel would transform into an adult superstar at age 18 with the hit La Incondicional. Not too far behind was former Los Chicos' member Chayanne
Chayanne
Elmer Figueroa Arce , best known under the stage name Chayanne, is a Puerto Rican Latin pop singer and actor. As a solo artist, Chayanne has released 21 solo-albums and sold over 20 million albums worldwide.-Early life:...
as he became a leading pop star by the end of the decade. As young stars begin to rise in Latin music, veterans such as Julio Iglesias
Julio Iglesias
Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva , better known simply as Julio Iglesias, is a Spanish singer who has sold over 300 million records worldwide in 14 languages and released 77 albums. According to Sony Music Entertainment, he is one of the top 15 best selling music artists in history,...
, José José
José José
José Rómulo Sosa Ortiz , known by his artistic name José José, is a Mexican singer.Referred in the entertainment world as "El Príncipe de la Canción" , José José is best known for his romantic ballads and renowned for his vocals...
, Juan Gabriel
Juan Gabriel
Alberto Aguilera Valadez , better known by his stage name Juan Gabriel , is a Mexican singer and songwriter who is one of the most famous living representatives of the Mexican ranchera, ballad, mariachi, and pop music....
, and José Luis Rodríguez El Puma continue their dominance in Latin music. After the slow decline of Fania All-Stars
Fania All-Stars
The Fania All-Stars was a musical ensemble established in 1968 by the composer, Johnny Pacheco, as a showcase for the musicians on the record label Fania Records, the leading salsa record company of the time.-Beginnings:...
, the new romantic genre of salsa romantica would rise beginning in 1984. Younger salseros such as Frankie Ruiz
Frankie Ruiz
Frankie Ruiz was a famous Puerto Rican salsa singer.-Early years:Born Jose Antonio Torresola Ruiz, he was born and raised in Paterson, New Jersey. His parents moved from Puerto Rico to the United States in search of a better way of life. In Paterson, Ruiz received his primary and secondary...
, Luis Enrique
Luis Enrique (singer)
Luis Enrique Mejía López, is a Nicaraguan singer and composer. He started his career in the late 1980s and achieved success in the 1990s earning the title "El Principe de la Salsa . He was one of the leading pioneers that led to the salsa romantica movement in the 1980s...
, and Eddie Santiago
Eddie Santiago
Eddie Santiago is a salsa singer from Puerto Rico. At a young age, Eddie demonstrated great love for salsa music...
would take advantage of this new genre rising salsa to new heights. Tejano Music
Tejano music
Tejano music or Tex-Mex music is the name given to various forms of folk and popular music originating among the Mexican-American populations of Central and Southern Texas...
starts to give little rise after Mazz
Mazz
Mazz is a Grammy Award–winning Tejano band originating from south Texas. They were formed in Brownsville, TX, by singer/guitarists Jimmy González and Joe López, and emerged as one of the most innovative bands in their genre after adding synthesizer to combine traditional Mexican music and popular...
crosses over to Mexico after their albums Una Noche Juntos and No Te Olvidare win Grammys.
Rock
The Rock en EspañolRock en Español
Rock en español is the Spanish-language rock music. While the term is used widely in English, it is used in Spanish mainly to distinguish such music from "Anglo rock." It is a style of rock music that developed in Latin American countries and Latino communities, along with other genres like...
movement began around the 1980s. Until the mid 80s the rock scene of most Spanish American countries were not connected, and it was rare for a rock band to gain acclaim and popularity outside its homecountry. Argentina, that had the largest national rock scene and music industry, became the birthplace of several influential rock acts. Soda Stereo
Soda Stereo
Soda Stereo were an Argentine rock band who are recognized as one of the most influential and important Latin American and Ibero-American bands of all time...
from Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
is often acclaimed as the most influential rock band of the 80s. Soda Stereo was among the first bands to successfully tour across Latin America. Argentina developed also during the 80s a punk rock scene, despite popular anthypathhy towards British influnces after the Falklands War
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
. The punk movement, that was pioneered by Los Violadores
Los Violadores
Los Violadores is a punk band from Argentina and the pioneers of the genre in Latin America.-History:Los Violadores was founded in 1981 by guitarist Hari B . The rest of the band included Stuka , Pil Trafa and Sergio Gramatika...
, led to the rise of the Buenos Aires Hardcore
Buenos Aires Hardcore
Buenos Aires Hardcore was the name of the scene that gathered the Hardcore bands that started to play in Buenos Aires in the late 80's.The style of these bands was often influenced by the New York Hardcore scene; often mixing styles like punk, metal and hip hop, however some bands like Fun People...
around 1990.
In Chile, that was ruled by a military dictatorship
Military dictatorship
A military dictatorship is a form of government where in the political power resides with the military. It is similar but not identical to a stratocracy, a state ruled directly by the military....
all over the 80s, Nueva canción
Nueva canción
Nueva canción is a movement and genre within Latin American and Iberian music of folk music, folk-inspired music and socially committed music...
protest songs from the 60s and 70s maintained their popularity despite of severe censorship. The rock band Los Prisioneros
Los Prisioneros
Los Prisioneros was a chilean rock band formed in San Miguel, Santiago, Chile in 1982. They began as a local band during the early 1980s, playing small shows in their neighborhood and high school...
were successful in combining the protest song atmosphere of the 80s with newer trends in rock including punk, ska, New Wave and techno. Until its dissolution in 1991 it remained one of the most popular rock bands in Chile together with Argentine Soda Stereo
Soda Stereo
Soda Stereo were an Argentine rock band who are recognized as one of the most influential and important Latin American and Ibero-American bands of all time...
.
Other influential rock groups of the time include La Ley
La Ley (band)
La Ley was a Grammy Award and two-time Latin Grammy Award-winning Chilean pop rock band formed by Andrés Bobe and Rodrigo Aboitiz with Mauricio Claveria, Beto Cuevas and Luciano Rojas. After a failed first album, Desiertos , they released Doble Opuesto , which appears as the official first album...
, Caifanes
Caifanes
Caifanes is a Spanish-language rock band from Mexico City formed in 1987. They achieved fame throughout the late 80’s and early 90’s. The original lineup consisted of Saúl Hernández , Sabo Romo , Alfonso André and Diego Herrera . Argentine guitarist Alejandro Marcovich joined in 1989...
, Hombres G
Hombres G
Hombres G is a Spanish pop rock band, formed in Spain in 1982. They are widely considered one of Spain's most important groups of the late 1980s and 1990s...
.
Brazil saw the emergence of BRock
Brock
-Places:*In the United States:** Brock, Nebraska, a village located in Nemaha County, Nebraska** Brock, Texas*In Canada** Brockville in Ontario** Brock, Ontario, a township in Ontario** Brock, Saskatchewan, a village in west central Saskatchewan, Canada...
.
Salsa
The salsa musicSalsa music
Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...
had developed in the 1960s and '70s by Puerto Rican and Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n immigrants to the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
area but did not enter into mainstream popularity in Latin America until the late 1980s. The salsa music became together with cumbia
Cumbia
Cumbia is a music genre popular across Latin America. The cumbia originated in the Caribbean coast of Colombia, where it is associated with an eponymous dance and has since spread as far as Mexico and Argentina...
the two most popular dance music but did not penetrate other countries outside the Caribbean as cumbia did.
The 1980s was a time of diversification, as popular salsa evolved into sweet and smooth salsa romantica
Salsa romantica
Salsa Romántica, also known as Salsa Erotica, is a soft form of salsa music that emerged between the mid 1980s and early 1990s in New York City and Puerto Rico...
, with lyrics dwelling on love and romance, and its more explicit cousin, salsa erotica. Salsa romantica can be traced back to Noches Calientes, a 1984 album by singer José Alberto
José Alberto
José Alberto is a Dominican salsa singer. José Alberto moved to Puerto Rico with his family at the age of 7, and inspired by Latin music went on to polish his singing at Las Antillas Military Academy...
with producer Louie Ramirez. A wave of romantica singers, found wide audiences with a new style characterized by romantic lyrics, an emphasis on the melody over rhythm, and use of percussion breaks and chord changes. However, salsa lost popularity among many Latino youth, who were drawn to American rock in large numbers, while the popularization of Dominican merengue
Merengue music
Merengue is a type of music and dance from the Dominican Republic. It is popular in the Dominican Republic and all over Latin America. Its name is Spanish, taken from the name of the meringue, a dessert made from whipped egg whites and sugar...
further sapped the audience among Latinos in both New York and Puerto Rico. The 1980s also saw salsa expand to Mexico, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, Europe and Japan, and diversify into many new styles.
In the 1980s some performers experimented with combining elements of salsa with hip hop music
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, while the producer and pianist Sergio George
Sergio George
Sergio George is a pianist and record producer, known for working with many famous performers of salsa music, although he has worked in other genres as well...
helped to revive salsa's commercial success. He created a sound based on prominent trombones and rootsy, mambo-inspired style. He worked with the Japanese salsa band Orquesta de la Luz
Orquesta de la Luz
is a Japanese salsa band that began performing and recording in 1990. The band sings in Spanish, and is led by vocalist Nora, who returned to traditional salsa after the band broke up in the mid-1990s...
, and developed a studio orchestra that included Tito Nieves
Tito Nieves
Humberto "Tito" Nieves became one of the leading Salsa singers of the 1980s and the early 1990s....
, Celia Cruz, José Alberto, La India
La India
La India , known also as "La Princesa de la Salsa" , is a singer of salsa. She has been nominated for both Grammy and Latin Grammy awards.-Early years:...
, Tito Puente
Tito Puente
Tito Puente, , born Ernesto Antonio Puente, was a Latin jazz and Salsa musician. The son of native Puerto Ricans Ernest and Ercilia Puente, of Spanish Harlem in New York City, Puente is often credited as "El Rey de los Timbales" and "The King of Latin Music"...
and Luis Enrique
Luis Enrique
Luís Enrique is a given name, and may refer to:*Luis Enrique Martínez García, Spanish football manager and former player*Luis Enrique "Neco" Martinez, Colombian football goalkeeper*Luis Enrique, Nicaraguan salsa singer...
. The Colombian singer Joe Arroyo first rose to fame in the 1970s, but became a renowned exponent of Colombian salsa in the 1980s. Arroyo worked for many years with the Colombian arranger Fruko and his band Los Tesos
Fruko y sus Tesos
Fruko y sus Tesos is a salsa group from Colombia which enjoys immense popularity throughout the Latin American world. It was formed in 1970 by Julio Ernesto Estrada, artistically known as "Fruko" who modeled it after the New York salsa sound of the Fania All-Stars, one of the leading salsa groups...
.
Merengue
Merengue musicMerengue music
Merengue is a type of music and dance from the Dominican Republic. It is popular in the Dominican Republic and all over Latin America. Its name is Spanish, taken from the name of the meringue, a dessert made from whipped egg whites and sugar...
would hit its golden years during the 1980s starting in the late 70s with acts such as Wilfrido Vargas, Johnny Ventura, and Fernando Villalona. Their orchestras would also churn future solo acts such as Eddy Herrera and Rubby Perez
Rubby Perez
Rubby Perez is a singer born in the Dominican Republic, better known as " La voz mas alta del merengue" or "The highest voice in merengue." He has had two hits on Billboard's charts...
. By the end of the decade, La Cocoband would reinvent merengue with a more comedic style.
Australia and New Zealand
INXS
INXS are an Australian rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. Mainstays are Garry Gary Beers on bass guitar, Andrew Farriss on guitar/keyboards, Jon Farriss on drums, Tim Farriss on lead guitar and Kirk Pengilly on guitar/sax...
achieved international success during the decade with a series of hit recordings, including the albums Listen Like Thieves (1985), Kick (1987), and the singles "Original Sin
Original Sin (INXS song)
"Original Sin" is a hit single by Australian rock group INXS released in 1984 on their fourth album The Swing. It was written by Michael Hutchence and Andrew Farriss, and produced by Nile Rodgers....
" (1984), "Need You Tonight
Need You Tonight
"Need You Tonight" is the fourth song on INXS's 1987 album Kick as well as the first single from the album released worldwide. It is the only INXS single to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100...
" (1987), "Devil Inside
Devil Inside (INXS song)
"Devil Inside" is a song by Australian band INXS. The song was written by Andrew Farriss and Michael Hutchence and is one of INXS's best known songs.It was released as a single in February 1988...
" (1988) and "New Sensation
New Sensation
"New Sensation" is a song by the Australian rock group INXS. It was the third single from their 1987 album Kick. The music was written by Andrew Farriss and the lyrics by Michael Hutchence...
" (1987).
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
first single, "Locomotion
The Loco-Motion
"The Loco-Motion" is a 1962 pop song written by American songwriters Gerry Goffin and Carole King. The song is notable for appearing in the American Top 5 three times – each time in a different decade: for Little Eva in 1962 ; for Grand Funk Railroad in 1974 ; and for Kylie Minogue in 1988 "The...
" became a huge hit in Minogue's native Australia spending seven weeks at number one on the Australian singles chart. The single eventually became the highest selling Australian single of the decade. Throughout Europe and Asia the song also performed well on the music charts, reaching number one in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
.
In 1980, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
rock band Split Enz
Split Enz
Split Enz were a New Zealand band of the 1970s and early 1980s featuring Phil Judd and brothers Tim Finn and Neil Finn. They achieved chart success in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada during the early 1980s ‒ most notably with the single "I Got You", and built a cult following elsewhere...
released their album True Colours, which became an international success. Their single I Got You
I Got You (Split Enz song)
"I Got You" is a 1980 song by New Zealand rock group Split Enz from their studio album True Colours. Split Enz's most commercially successful single, "I Got You" was written by Neil Finn and released in January 1980.-Music video:...
, which was praised for its "Beatle-esque" chorus, reached the top ten in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, reached number twelve in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, and even charted the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Split Enz
Split Enz
Split Enz were a New Zealand band of the 1970s and early 1980s featuring Phil Judd and brothers Tim Finn and Neil Finn. They achieved chart success in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada during the early 1980s ‒ most notably with the single "I Got You", and built a cult following elsewhere...
also received significant exposure in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
upon the release of MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
, which featured several Split Enz
Split Enz
Split Enz were a New Zealand band of the 1970s and early 1980s featuring Phil Judd and brothers Tim Finn and Neil Finn. They achieved chart success in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada during the early 1980s ‒ most notably with the single "I Got You", and built a cult following elsewhere...
videos in the early days of its broadcast. However, after several line-up changes, which included the departure of prominent member Tim Finn
Tim Finn
Brian Timothy "Tim" Finn, OBE is a New Zealand singer and musician. Finn is most known for his music with New Zealand 1970s and 1980s rock group Split Enz, and later for his solo work, a temporary membership in his brother Neil's band Crowded House and his joint efforts with Neil Finn as the Finn...
, the band broke up in 1984 (another prominent New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
/Australian band, Mi-Sex
Mi-Sex
Mi-Sex was a New Zealand new wave rock band active from 1978 to 1984. Led by Steve Gilpin as vocalist, they were best known for their singles "Computer Games" in 1979 and "People" in 1980.-History:...
, known for its hit single Computer Games, disbanded the same year). Neil Finn
Neil Finn
Neil Mullane Finn, OBE is a New Zealand Pop recording artist. Along with his brother Tim Finn, he was the co-frontman for Split Enz and is now frontman for Crowded House...
, the younger brother of Tim Finn
Tim Finn
Brian Timothy "Tim" Finn, OBE is a New Zealand singer and musician. Finn is most known for his music with New Zealand 1970s and 1980s rock group Split Enz, and later for his solo work, a temporary membership in his brother Neil's band Crowded House and his joint efforts with Neil Finn as the Finn...
who had become Split Enz's de facto front man after his departure in 1983, went on to form Crowded House
Crowded House
Crowded House are a rock band, formed in Melbourne, Australia and led by New Zealand singer-songwriter Neil Finn. Finn is the primary songwriter and creative director of the band, having led it through several incarnations, drawing members from New Zealand , Australia and the United States...
in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in 1985. In 1986 Crowded House
Crowded House
Crowded House are a rock band, formed in Melbourne, Australia and led by New Zealand singer-songwriter Neil Finn. Finn is the primary songwriter and creative director of the band, having led it through several incarnations, drawing members from New Zealand , Australia and the United States...
released their hugely successful self-titled debut album, which went to number one in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and number three in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, as well as reaching the top ten in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and top twenty in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It spawned the song Don't Dream It's Over
Don't Dream It's Over
-12": Capitol / 12CL 438 United Kingdom :* also available on CD and MC-Personnel:*Neil Finn: Vocals and guitar*Nick Seymour: Bass guitar*Paul Hester: Drums and backing vocals*Mitchell Froom: Keyboards-Release history:- Charts :...
, which hit number one in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, number two in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and number eight in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and has since become a pop/rock anthem in Australasia
Australasia
Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...
. Crowded House's follow up album Temple of Low Men
Temple of Low Men
Temple of Low Men is Crowded House's second studio album, released in 1988. The album had five singles, Sister Madly, I Feel Possessed, Into Temptation, When You Come and Better Be Home Soon.-Album:...
, released in 1988, did not achieve the same success as their debut, but was still popular in the band's homelands of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
.
Back at home, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
continued to have a small and vibrant music scene, and the eighties saw the formation of many new bands, including The Swingers
The Swingers
The Swingers were a New Zealand rock band. Formed out of the remnants of The Suburban Reptiles, the founding members were Phil Judd , Wayne Stevens , and Mark Hough . Formed in 1979, the band released the single "One Good Reason" which was a top 20 hit in New Zealand...
, Coconut Rough
Coconut Rough
Coconut Rough were a short-lived New Zealand new wave/pop band formed in 1982.Despite their 1983 first single, "Sierra Leone", hitting the top five, and the band being named Most Promising Group of the Year at that year's RIANZ Awards they split up in 1984.-History:The band was formed in 1982 by...
, The Crocodiles
The Crocodiles
The Crocodiles was a New Zealand pop band formed in 1979 with lead singer Jenny Morris, who went on to commercial success as a solo artist in Australia; and later included drummer Barton Price who subsequently joined Sardine v and then Models...
and Peking Man. Many of these bands were short-lived and did not see much success outside of New Zealand and Australia.