1980s Popular Music
Day 45: Intro to the Eighties
• John Lennon murdered on Dec. 8, 1980
• Ronald Reagan is President.
• Slump in the music industry
– Home taping (illegally taping records instead of
buying them)
– Piracy (selling illegal copies of records)
– VCR was developed
– Video Game Market took away some money
(Atari)
Day 46: Early Music Television
• The visual impact of a performance enables music to
deliver its full measure of pleasure.
• First music video: Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen
• MTV was launched on August 1, 1981 as the first 24hour music video cable channel by Warner
Communications and the American Express Company.
– Music industry was slow to warm-up to the idea.
– 85% of its audience was white suburban viewers between
the ages of 12-24.
– Was the most effective way for a record to get national
exposure.
MTV continued…
• Three Periods of MTV
– 1981-1983
• 24-continuous flow of music (a visual radio station)
• MTV was forced to rely on British music videos.
– 1983-1985
• Channel became available in NY and LA.
• New music video outlets were created to fill the gaps left by
MTV’s rock-oriented programming.
– Black Entertainment Television (BET)
• MTV entered into exclusive agreements with major labels.
– Third Period
• Broadening of musical scope and deeper commitment to
youth culture
• Videos aimed at 25-44 year-olds were transferred to adultoriented VH-1
• Abandoned the continuous flow of music format
Second British Invasion
• MTV devoted a lot of time to introducing white rock
acts from other English-speaking countries (like Britain)
• The channel’s first music video that they aired, was
Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles (British
Group)
• Beginning in 1982, MTV showcased so many English
groups, that it helped start the second British Invasion.
• Many British groups made their US debuts in 1983 on
MTV and exploited that exposure into International
Stardom.
• July 16, 1983 – no fewer than 18 singles of British
origin charted in the US Top 40
Day 47: MTV Racist?
• MTV’s selection process favored British groups at
the expense of American artists, especially
African American artists.
• Only African American video was Donna
Summer’s She Works Hard for the Money
• MTV was trashed in the popular press for its
racism. MTV executives defended their practices
by claiming that few black artists recorded the
kind of R&R that the channel’s format required.
But, the format was the cause of the racial bias.
Michael Jackson
His incredible success with Thriller
finally broke MTV’s racist ways
Thriller won 12 Grammy Awards
in 1983. Spent $300,000 on the
production of 15-minute version
of the video.
Did not “earn” the title of ‘King of
Pop’ until decades later because
of racial prejudices
The Girl is Mine
Billie Jean – first performed on
Motown 25 and launched the
moonwalk. Broke the color line
on MTV.
Beat It – MTV first refused to play
the video. Jackson spent
$150,000 on the production.
Women and Gender Roles in Videos
• Treatment of women and the portrayal of
gender roles in music videos have the longest
running debates.
• Madonna’s Material Girl
• Lionel Richie’s Hello
• Early music videos sometimes challenged the
traditional images of men and women.
– Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Day 48: Superstars
• In order to move out of the music industry
recession, major record companies started
focusing on fewer artists.
• They wanted to make more money, using
fewer artists.
Prince
1984 belonged to Prince
Combined funk and rock
A singer, guitarist, and
producer…his first albums
were entirely self-written,
played, sung, and produced.
Little Red Corvette
Purple Rain – Assembled the
Revolution as his band.
Released the album and
movie.
Bruce
Springsteen
1985 belonged to Bruce with
his release of Born to Run
Album generated seven Top 10
singles and remained in the Top
40 for nearly 2 years, selling 11
million copies
Combined the image of a harddriving, blue collar rock ‘n’
roller with a socially conscious
1960s romantic – “working class
hero”
Born in the USA
Focused on charity work and
playing benefit concerts to raise
money
Whitney Houston
Worked as an actress and
model before becoming a
singer
Emerged as a pop
entertainer instead of a
soul diva
2nd album, Whitney, tallied
seven #1 hit singles in a
row
Dance with Somebody
Lionel Richie
Started as a founding
member of the
Commodores
Began by playing the
saxophone, then became
lead vocalist and main
songwriter
Dancing on the Ceiling
(1986) – also sold a
“making of” documentary
Madonna
Combined good
promotion, danceable
material, engaging
choreography & visual
appeal
Began her career as a disco
diva with Borderline and
Lucky Star
Used music videos to
transition to rock star
All of her albums have
been certified platinum
Superstars continued…
• Movie Tie-ins
– Kept albums in circulation for months
– Music became essential for movies
– Dirty Dancing (1987) completed the fusion of music
and film.
• CD developed
– Compact Disc was introduced by Sony and Phillips in
the late 1970s
– Greater reliability and ease of use than either records
or cassette tapes
African American International
Superstars
• African American producers: Quincy Jones &
Nile Rogers paved the way for LA Reid and
Babyface Edmunds
• A trend started that released a number of
well-calculated cross-racial ethnic duets from
1984.
– Attempted to break down the segregation of the
music industry
Day 49: Charity Rock and Mega-Events
• Band Aid
– Bob Geldoff was inspired to
action after seeing a BBC
documentary on Ethiopian
famine
– Wrote the song Do They Know
It’s Christmas Time and
organized the biggest names in
British pop to record the song as
Band Aid
– Was the first charity rock event
and the biggest selling UK single
ever
Charity Rock continued…
• We Are the World
– US charity rock initiated by
African Americans with
Michael Jackson providing the
leadership and musical
direction
– Song was co-written by
Jackson and Lionel Richie
– Released by an all-star
ensemble recording as ‘U.S.A.
(United Support of Artists) for
Africa’
Charity Rock continued…
• Live Aid
– Organized by Bob Geldof as a Band
Aid project
– Concert was staged simultaneously
at Wembley Stadium in London and
JFK Stadium in Philadelphia on July
13, 1985.
– Was the largest single event in
human history!
– Used corporate sponsors like AT&T,
Kodak, Chevrolet, & Pepsi.
– Most important function was
fundraising…raised over $67
million!
– Bob Geldof was nominated for a
Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.
Day 50: Mega-Events
• Farm Aid
– Organized by Willie Nelson, John
Cougar Mellancamp, & Neil Young
– Concert brought together rock and
country artists
– Raised $10 million and became an
annual event
• Sun City
– Politically charged song supporting
the UN-sponsored cultural boycott
of South Africa to end apartheid
U2
Irish rock band from Dublin
Headlined US tour titled
Conspiracy of Hope, for
Amnesty International
Acted as advocates for
prisoners of conscience
around the world
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Amnesty International USA
• Conspiracy of Hope Tour
– Connected rock with the human rights movement
– Goal was to recruit new “freedom writers” to
participate in letter-writing campaigns
– Tour targeted 6 political prisoners, three of whom
were freed within two years as a result
• Human Rights Now! Tour
– Bruce Springsteen and Sting both headlined
Nelson Mandela Concerts
at Wembley Stadium
• June 11, 1988
– First concert held to celebrate Mandela’s 70th
birthday
– An 11-hour tribute, broadcast to about 600
million people in more than 60 countries
– Called for the release of the imprisoned leader
of the African National Congress
• April 16, 1990
– Celebrated the end of his 30 years of
imprisonment
– Organized by An International Tribute for a
Free South Africa
– 72,000 tickets sold
– 4-hour concert broadcast in 64 countries
Global Environmental Concerns
• Greenpeace
– Geffen Records and VH1 teamed up
– VH-1 produced more than 24 60-second sports called
“World Alerts” which featured celebrities discussing a
range of environmental issues
– Rainbow Warriors, compilation album
• Our Common Future
– Stage at Lincoln Center in 1989
– Provided a platform for scientists and world leaders to
voice their concerns over global environmental
decline
Paul Simon’s Graceland Album
• A defining contribution to
world music in 1986.
• Music was based primarily
on South African styles.
• Won the 1986 Grammy
Award for Album of the
Year and 1987 Grammy
Award for Record of the
Year
• 1992 South African Tour
Day 53: Technology
• Digital Audio Tape (DAT) – made it possible to make studio
quality recordings in your own home
• PMRC – Parents Music Resource Center, a Washington, DCbased pressure group who launched a campaign against
explicit lyrics in popular music
– PMRC initially targeted heavy metal, but then moved on to rap
• Technology – Builds the connection between youth, their
music, and its politics. Rap and metal artists incorporated
advances in technology into the very essence of their
music.
– Heavy Metal with their heavy guitar sound (power and volume)
– Rap with dual turntable rigs and boom boxes that became
localized radio stations.
• Samplers – digital devices capable of recording, storing, and
reproducing any sound in nature perfectly
• Less about melody and harmony – more about organized sound or
noise.
New Wave of British heavy metal
• AC/DC – Formed in Australia, outrageous stage shows,
broke the US Top 40 with Highway to Hell (1979)
• Def Leppard – Debut album, On Through the Night (1980)
• Iron Maiden – Were pegged as a Satanist group with their
album, The Number of the Beast
• Motorhead- Leaned toward a hardcore punk style
• The new wave of metal featured shorter, catchier songs,
more sophisticated production techniques, and higher
technical standards.
– Van Halen – Turned out nothing but Top 10 platinum albums
throughout the 80s. Jump
Los Angeles Heavy Metal
Motley Crue
Quiet Riot
• Leaned toward glam rock
appearance and a lite metal
sound
• Rose to stardom after
opening for Kiss in 1983
• Scored two hit singles from
their Metal Health album in
1984
• Cum on Feel the Noize
LA Heavy Metal continued…
• US ‘83 Festival – organized by Steve Wosniak (founder of
Apple Computer)
– Organized around different genres on different days
– Heavy metal day drew the largest crowd
– Made many heavy metal groups move to LA
• Hair Bands – Defined by carefully tended, artfully moused,
blow-dried hair (example: Poison)
• Exposure on MTV was crucial to the growth of metal, since
metal had been excluded from radio since its beginnings
– “Headbanger’s Ball” was a weekly late-night program on MTV
devoted solely to metal, became MTV’s most popular show with
1.3 million viewers
Day 54: Metal Fragments
• Distinctions between metal categories
– Traditional or classic heavy metal
– Lite or pop metal **
– Glam metal
– Thrash and speed metal **
– Death metal
– Black metal
– White metal
Lite Metal
• Was favored by MTV, gained greater access to
radio, and expanded the music into arena and
stadium-sized venues
• Audience shifted in 1985 away from primarily
male high-school teenagers to include older
(college-aged), younger (pre-teen), and more
females.
• Romance themes – Bon Jovi’s, Slippery When
Wet album
Bon Jovi
Named after lead singer
John Bon Jovi, formed in NJ
in the early 80s
Early 80s, they were a
standard heavy metal
group
For the album, Slippery
When Wet, they
restructured their image
and their sound.
Biggest Hit – Livin’ On a
Prayer
Speed/Thrash Metal
• Didn’t want to become mainstream
• Wanted to keep metal all-male
• Began on the West Coast with groups like Metallica,
Slayer, Testament, Megadeth, Exodus, and Possessed
• Influenced by hardcore punk
• Lyrics focused on chaos, alcohol and drugs were judged
as bad
• “Ugly, Nasty, Angry”
• Also included themes of justice and environmental
concern
Metallica
Became the best-known
speed/metal group
Formed in LA in early 80s
Master of Puppets (1986)
became first platinumselling speed/thrash album
Achieved Top 10 status and
platinum sales with
virtually no radio air play in
1988 with And Justice for
All
The 1988 Grammy’s
• New Grammy Award established for Hard
Rock/Metal Performance
• Because it included hard rock, they gave the
award to Jethro Tull instead of Metallica
• Metallica finally won in 1989 when they
separated Hard Rock from Metal
Guns ‘N’ Roses
LA group who had 2
albums in the Top 10 most
popular albums of 1989
Appetite for Destruction
rose to #1 and generated
three Top 10 singles
They loved to stir up
trouble wherever they
went…became the new
bad boys of heavy metal
Paradise City and Welcome
to the Jungle
Living Colour
Most prominent African
American group to hit the
Top 10 with their album,
Vivid in 1989
Received hard rock
Grammy in 1990
Had trouble getting signed
to a label, were assigned a
new marketing category,
funk metal
Female Heavy Metal Groups
Heart
• What About Love
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Female Heavy Metal Continued…
Lita Ford
• Was a member of the
Runaways in the 70s
• Managed by Sharon
Osbourne
• Kiss Me Deadly
Vixen
Day 55: Hip Hop
• Rap music is one cultural element within a
larger social movement known as hip hop,
which also includes break dancing and graffiti
art.
• Hip Hop flourished as a genuine street
movement.
Old School Rap
• DJs – were the heroes of hip hop and had big
followings and territories
• Dancing – Break dancing (b-boys and b-girls)
• MCing – Members of the DJs crew who
provided vocal entertainment as a means of
crowd control
• Rapper’s Delight – First rap record from the
Sugar Hill Gang sold 2 million copies
Old School Rap continued…
• Hip Hop Discovered – the
phenomenal success of
Rapper’s Delight alerted the
mainstream media to the
existence of hip hop
• Flashdance – Blockbuster
film that brought hip hop to
the attention of a mass
audience.
Hip Hop: The Next Generation
• Second generation of New York rap artists
included Whodini, The Force MDs, The Fat
Boys, and Run-D.M.C.
• LA Rap Scene included Dr. Dre, Yella, Ice-T and
Kid Frost.
• The Album – NY hip hop moved from the 12inch single to the album
EAST COAST RAP
Run-D.M.C.
Joseph Simmons, Darryl
McDaniels, and Jason Mizell
Came from lower middleclass neighborhood of Hollis
in Queens, were collegeeducated and wanted to
conquer both the rock and
rap markets
King of Rock album featured
live guitar backing them up
(Rock Box)
Walk This Way – the first
“rap” video played on MTV
Beastie Boys
Group of white bohemians
from Manhattan
Had bad boy images
You’ve Got to Fight For
Your Right to Party
First significant white
performers in rap
Day 56: Rap continued…
• West Coast Rap & Gangsta Rap
– Featured harder rhymes set to a slower pace
– Ice T
– Ice Cube
• Public Enemy
– Had the most politically advanced lyrics in rap
– Formed in Long Island, NY
– Chuck D, MC Flavor Flav, DJ Terminator X, The
Bomb Squad, Professor Griff, & Security of the
First World
– Wanted to advance the cause of Black
Nationalism
West Coast Rap & Gangsta Rap
continued…
• N.W.A. – Portrayed the rough side of LA gang
life…they lived the things they talked about in
their rap.
• A Generation Gap developed in black music as
rap was mainly listened to by 12-24 year olds.
– Black radio stations were reluctant to play rap on
the air.
Female Rappers
Salt-N-Pepa
• Helped start the trend to
promote female rappers
with success of their double
platinum album, Hot, Cool
& Vicious (1988)
Queen Latifah
• Projected a powerful and
dignified image
• Ladies First
Stop the Violence
• Violence was prevalent in rap lyrics as well as at
their concerts.
• A number of rap groups initiated a campaign,
called ‘Stop the Violence’ in 1989, which was
aimed at black-on-black crime
• Self Destruction – East Coast
• We’re All in the Same Gang – West Coast
• Found that rap lyrics actually had a very high
percentage of anti-violent, anti-drug messages,
aimed at improving self-esteem and encouraging
the youth of the 80s to continue their education
Day 57: Rap continued…
• Yo! MTV Raps – rap show on MTV that became one of
its most popular
• Grammy Awards add a rap category in 1988. Will
Smith received the first Rap Grammy.
• Television
– The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (Will Smith)
– A Different World and The Cosby Show.
– In Living Colour
• Film
– House Party starring Kid N Play
– Spike Lee made movies about life in the “hood”
MC Hammer
Rapper/Dancer
Album, Please Hammer
Don’t Hurt ‘Em (1990),
became the best-selling rap
album ever. Sold over 10
million copies.
He was “dissed” by the hip
hop nation for being too
mainstream
2 Legit to Quit
U Can’t Touch This
Vanilla Ice
Toured as Hammer’s
opening act
Released To The Extreme
and skyrocketed to #1
He falsified his own
biography to make himself
look more “street”
Ice Ice Baby
LA Gangsta Rap
Cypress Hill
House of Pain
• Known for their “old school”
hook lines and harmony
approach to rap
• Brought an Irish experience
to rap with Jump Around
Day 58: Popular Music and Censorship
• Popular music communicates on many levels.
Its meaning may be different for different
people in different places, and that meaning
may change over time.
• In the 80s and 90s, the reaction to popular
music seemed to lack a sense of proportion. It
was being treated as if it were solely
responsible for the social problems it
referenced.
PMRC
• The Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC)
– Founded in 1985 by a group of prominent women in
Washington, DC
– They were concerned about the growing trend in
music towards lyrics that were sexually explicit,
excessively violent, or glorifying the use of drugs and
alcohol.
• Wanted to “educate and inform” parents
– August 1985: Parental Advisory/Explicit Lyrics stamp
on music
– November 1985: began a “voluntary” rating system
PMRC continued…
• In 1988, PMRC produced Rising to the Challenge, a
video in which the group outlined “5 major themes” in
popular music that were of concern to them:
–
–
–
–
–
Abuse of drugs and alcohol
Suicide
Graphic Violence
Fascination with the occult (the unexplained, mythology)
A sexuality that is graphic and explicit
– They directed this push toward heavy metal music.
Day 59: Violence in Rap
• 1992 – police received not guilty verdict after
beating Rodney King in LA…lead to a lot of
violence.
• Ice-T’s Cop Killer song sparked further debate
over rap’s encouragement of violence.
• Many rap artists were being arrested for allegedly
crossing the line into violence in real life.
• TV station fought back with anti-violence
campaigns and PSA’s.
Violence in Rap continued…
• NPCBW (National Political Congress of Black
Women) – pushed for government hearings
about violence in rap (1994)
– Why do so many fans find offensive rappers
appealing?
• Tupac died on September 13, 1996 after being
shot in Las Vegas while riding in a car
• Biggie Smalls foretold his own death on his debut
album Ready to Die (1994). Was killed March
1997.
– P Diddy’s tribute, I’ll Be Missing You