80s Music
by Molly Duke
It’s been said before and it will be said again – the music of the 80s was pure awesomeness. There was something for everyone – metal and hard rock, rap and R&B, pop, country, and plenty of brand new sounds too. Hip-hop officially hit mainstream and became a force to be reckoned with. Dancing was a running theme throughout the decade and obviously, it relied heavily on 80s music, though it also infiltrated film, fashion, and television. MTV practically kicked off the decade, launching in 1981 and changing the face of the music industry forever.
No More Disco
Toward the end of the seventies, disco music was being mass-produced by record labels that were trying to cash in on the popular sound, making it generic and irrelevant. Plus, legions of rock fans and hardcore musicians protested the disco sound, bashing it as effeminate and fake due to its large gay following and use of electronic drum beats and synthesizers rather than real musicians.
80s Music and the Synthesizer
Disco may have died but the synthesizer survived well into the 80s. Every band had to have its token keyboard player, even rock masters Van Halen. The synthesizer and keyboards were so heavily used in 80s music that these instruments came to define the the sound of the decade. Plus, they were accessible and mass produced in a variety of sizes, so many smaller versions ended up under millions of Christmas trees throughout the 80s.
A New Wave of Sound
With synthesizers and keyboards permeating 80s music, new styles started to pop up, most notably new wave and synthpop. Defined as much by its post-disco dance sound as its style, which melded ultra-mainstream pop fashion with punk stylings, new wave music found a home in the dance clubs that were formerly discotheques.
Other genres emerged as well. Most notably, hip-hop entered mainstream thanks to a groundbreaking duet featuring Run-DMC and Aerosmith in the 1986 single “Walk This Way.” Alternative music has its roots in 80s modern rock. The techno and electronica genres also have roots in the 80s music that featured synthesizers and other electronic instruments.
Video Killed the Radio Star
On August 1, 1981, MTV (Music Television) launched and almost overnight changed the way musicians performed and marketed themselves. MTV also permanently altered the way the public viewed and listened to music. The format was simple and straightforward – music videos 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The channel featured commentaries and introductions by its veejays (video jockeys) and camera-friendly stars started to rise, a phenomenon foreshadowed by the title of the first video that played on the channel: “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles.
The 80s Music Genre Craze
In the 80s, music started to split into smaller niches, which appealed to more targeted audiences. Genres become more defined in part because of the greater visibility that MTV’s platform provided. The sound of each genre became heavily tied to a particular style. Big hair and glam metal bands appealed to rockers. The goth predecessors, sometimes known as “mods,” were drawn to the alternative modern rock and new wave sounds. Pop music was associated with “preppies” and “fluffs,” who were sometimes viewed as followers due to their adherence to mainstream entertainment.
The 80s is one of the most outstanding decades in history, revered for the bulk, diversity, and originality of the music that was produced from 1980 to 1989. Cultural fads and icons like the walkman, boom box, and cassette (as well as the beloved mix tape) and the cultural phenomenon that was MTV helped propagated the popularity of 80s music, which was so totally awesome that we still listen to it and totally love it almost 30 years later.
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