DeadEyeMetal t1_j25sj17 wrote on December 29, 2022 at 9:33 PM

The 1980s did have a set of very distinctive sounds across many genres. A lot of them haven't aged well - or at least, not fashionably. That doesn't mean that the music was uniformly, or even generally, inferior, just that some styles have longevity while some have to wait for periodic revivals to enjoy popularity again.

That reverb thing you mention is definitely an '80s trait, especially on vocals and drums. Then there is the limited palette of synth sounds and all the chorus on the guitars, lol. Anyone who lived through it can often nail an '80s song at 50 paces even if they never heard it before.

As with every decade I experienced before it and after, there was some music I loved and some I hated.

I can understand people saying they hate '80s music, but really it is a sweeping generalisation that is quite difficult to justify. There was probably stuff you'd have loved but if it wasn't fashionable you may not have found it. What you probably hate were the predominant popular/fashionable musical trends in the '80s that featured heavily in record charts, radio and TV.

Ok-Pressure-3879 t1_j260utt wrote on December 29, 2022 at 10:29 PM

I think it was butch vig talking about the 80s and how the drums all had to sound like cannons. I cant not hear it now.

Grouchy_Interview_95 OP t1_j28bjv5 wrote on December 30, 2022 at 10:53 AM

I don't really like to generalise it, but maybe because my father used to only listen to 80's songs and praises them just for being "the golden era" while it all sounded so generic to me, it's the reason why I feel like the whole decade is souless and shallow.

Still, I do think there are gems that I do love to hear, like "Stay on these roads - Aha" and "I'm still standing - Elton John", but to me they look like exceptions in a sea of "We're gonna party, dance, all the time" 80's themes (And the reverbs)

DeadEyeMetal t1_j28fpaa wrote on December 30, 2022 at 11:46 AM

That's the problem with most decades, I think. What we are exposed to as passive listeners is the stuff that is declared fashionable. That's not always what many of us would consider best or most interesting but it's what we mostly hear unless we actively go hunting for new stuff.

Finding new music is easy now thanks to the net but in past decades opportunities were sometimes limited by whether one lived somewhere with a fresh music scene or whether one was aware of people like (in UK) John Peel, Andy Kershaw etc who would play stuff that was very far from fashionable and which didn't have a snowball in hell's chance of getting mainstream airtime.

The good music has always been there, but the salesmen have often been pushing other things.