• Cindy Lauper
•
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIb6AZdTr-A
1980s Youth Culture
What to be thinking
about…
How does music reflect the mood of a
generation?
How did music videos impact culture?
What would be different if MTV hadn’t come
about?
Looking and listening to the music of the time,
what do you think the ‘80s was like for someone
your age?
Brief Pop Music History
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•
1936: Electric Guitar
1951: term “Rock’n’Roll
1955: Elvis
1959: Motown Records
– Marvin Gaye
– Stevie Wonder
• 1961: Patsy Cline brings Country and Pop
together
• 1964: Beatles release “I Want to Hold Your
Hand” = British Invasion
• 1969: Woodstock
– Music with a “message”
• 1970s: New Genres (UK and US)
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Psychedelic: Jefferson Airplane
New “Folk”: Bob Dylan, Neil Young
Disco
Punk: Rolling Stones
UK: Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd
Sheena is a Punk Rocker…
– Garage bands of the 1960s
– Reflected political and economic unrest
“Nihilism” – reject current moral and
established beliefs
– NYC: Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, David
Bowie, Velvet Underground
– UK: Sex Pistols
– 1980s: Hard Core: Black Flag
Hip Hop Culture
• Born out of South Bronx block parties
• Merges Rock, Jazz, Soul and African
Drumming
– Hip Hop Culture:
Rapping
DJ-ing
Breakdancing
Graffiti
New York
• Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5
pioneered DJ-ing techniques
– “The Message” becomes 1st major song of hiphop with a social commentary
• Public Enemy: 1982
– Political and social commentary
– African American Empowerment
– 1989 Fight the Power
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj9SeMZE_Yw
Going Back to Cali
• 1965 Watts Race Riots
• Formation of the Watts Writers Workshop
– Place for people to express themselves
• 1978: Hip Hop Scene
– “Unique Entertainment Group”
Ain’t Nuthin but a G Thang
• 1988 NWA: Pioneers of Gangsta Rap
- Commentary on street life
- Inequality
- Popularity due to
fascination with gangster
life
- Influenced by Black
Panthers
- Dr. Dre pioneered Gsound
I WANT MY MTV!!!!
• 1979 Sony
Walkman
• 1981 MTV airs
• 1983 CDs
1987
• 1985 Michael
Jackson’s
“Thriller” video
1988
SO WHAT??
• What was going on in the country?
– Economic Unrest
– Unemployment
– New Conservative President
– Economic and Racial Divides
– Deregulation
• Rise of Cable TV
• Ironically, Parents Music Resource Center (1985)
want a music rating system (Parental Advisory Label)
Video Killed the Radio... And
Changed Youth Culture
• MTV put a “Face” to music
• People could copy their favorite stars
– Reflected in the fashion, hair & dance
• Exposed people to different kinds of music
• Worked to morph music, as well as make
certain types “mainstream”
Impact of MTV
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The “One Hit Wonder”
Old artists got new careers
Madonna – new female confidence
Run DMC and Aerosmith knocked down
walls between Rock and Rap
Michael Jackson broke racial barriers
U2 made social awareness popular
Shift from music focus to theatrics
Country music declined
1st Music Video on MTV:1981
• August 1, 1981
• The Buggles’
– “Video Killed the Radio Star”
New Pop Stars are born
• Madonna’s first video was “Borderline”
– But “Like a Virgin” was ground breaking
• Female confidence
• Paved way for modern singers (Gaga, etc.)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4iZfQ9YZx4
Crossing the Racial Divide
• MTV was seen as racist because no Black
artists
– “Nothing to choose from”
• Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean” 1st widely
played video opened the door
•
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi_XLOBDo_Y
• New generation of Black Pop Stars:
Prince, Whitney Houston, etc.
Rap Moves Beyond the Coasts
• Michael Jackson paves the way for Black
musicians on MTV
• Commercialization of Rap
• New audience
• LL Cool J
• Biz Markie
• Run DMC
• Fusion of Rap and Rock
•
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B_UYYPbGk&index=6&list=PLpiEH3_VexzECgXa4fiHNhux3hpstFze1
And Beyond Race
• Rap crosses racial lines
– Beastie Boys
• Originally a hard core NY Punk Band
• Transitioned into Hip Hop
• Toured with Madonna post MTV debut
• Fight For Your Right became an MTV staple
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBShN8q
T4lk
• Laid groundwork for Eminem
One Hit Wonders
• Fast moving music industry
• Labels could make just as much with 1 hit
as investing in a long term contract
hoping for more hits
• Devo “Whip It”
•
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIEVqFB4WUo&index=2&list=PLpiEH3_Ve
xzECgXa4fiHNhux3hpstFze1
• MC Hammer “Can’t Touch This”
•
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otCpCn0l4Wo&list=PLpiEH3_VexzECgXa4
fiHNhux3hpstFze1&index=2
Made Their Identity
Cars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0Kv6vx
ZwL8
Changes
• New Wave formed from punk and morphed
to pop
– Artistic styling
– Use of technology to create different music
• Talking Heads: Punk turned New Wave
•
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNnAvTTaJjM
• Glam Style: Blurring of gender lines
– David Bowie
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4d7Wp9kKjA
Old Dogs, New Tricks?
• Artists who had been popular in a group
now had a better shot at solo career:
– Tina Turner, Cher, Diana Ross, Lionel Ritchie
– Drew in an older audience
Tina Turner: What’s Love Got to Do With It?
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu8KFlfzk3Y
Peter Gabriel went solo from Genesis
known pretty much for his creative videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBAl9cchQac
Flowing locks and eyeliner
• Glam Rock: morphs out of NY Punk
scene/Rock/Heavy Metal into Hair Metal
– Sunset Strip in L.A.
– Represent excess of ‘80s
– Drugs/Women/Law (Groupies)
– Power Ballads
– Range from pop to heavy
– Bon Jovi to Metallica and all the mullets in
between…
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_tfq0qTDDE&index=7&list=PLpiEH3
_VexzECgXa4fiHNhux3hpstFze1
For a Good Cause
The flip side of the excesses of the 1980s…
the poverty
Huge charity concerts
Videos with many artists performing
together
Farm Aid
Live Aid
Hands Across America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoDY8ce_3zk
1990s: Changed the Game again…
• Nirvana: Smells Like Teen Spirit
– Reflected Apathy
• Late 1980s
• Bush era conservatism
• Drew on anarchism, punk attitudes
= Grunge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWKbfoikeg
And Today
• Between the Reality and Awards Shows…
MTV occasionally plays music…
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zWAuir7Krk