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How was We Built This City considered "bad?"

The problem with a lot of 80's music was the slick production. There were many good songs that were marred by the production gloss. It dated many of those songs and didn't age well. Many bands like Heart, Starship, Chicago, and countless others were convinced to record vapid Power Ballads.

There was a lot of great music back then. Other artists like R.E.M., Clash, Psychedelic Furs, Talking Heads, and many others created excellent records in the 80's. Their sound had more of a timeless quality...
 
radiofan2023 said:
That’s a non visionary idea
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The boss who told me that was a master at talking dirty and playing the hits. He did mornings.

We did monthly listener appreciation parties (free drinks, appetizers, prizes) but once a year, we partnered with MDA and did a 50's-style sock hop, charging admission with proceeds going to Jerry's Kids.

During the couple of weeks of promotion leading up to that, I'd take our Gold library, which in those days (1977-80) went back to 1964 and add the monsters from 1955-63.

We're about midway through the two weeks, I'm driving in to work and Dave takes a call from Cathy, the station's receptionist, on the air:

"Dave, I love hearing some of these oldies---Chuck Berry, Bill Haley, Buddy Holly---but I don't hear any Annette Funciello records, Dave. She had hit records, too, Dave---"Tall Paul" and "Pineapple Princess." Do you just not like Annette, Dave?

"Oh, no, Cathy. I love Annette. Remember those old beach blanket movies she did back in the early 60s? My favorite was the one where she performed Funicello on Frankie Avalon."

(cold into spot break)
 
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radiofan2023 said:
That song rules
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Uh...yeah. A solid second to "Burn Rubber":


She Blinded Me With Science?? "And failed me in biology". I'm sold right there. Bonus points for "She's tidied up and I can't find anything!" and "Good Heavens, Miss Sakotmoto! You're Beautiful."


Maniac? Tell me you never saw "Flashdance" without telling me you never saw "Flashdance".


Rock Me Amadeus---okay, I'll give you that---except without that, we wouldn't have this:

 
tall_guy1 said:
And "You Dropped A Bomb on Me."
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Funny that you should mention that song. Nationally, it wasn't all that big a record--if memory serves, it peaked at #31 or #30 in 1982. More importantly, as shown by the ARSA surveys (which you now have to create an account to view), there were a lot of radio stations, especially stations in areas that had very small African-american populations, that never played the song at all and you could only hear it on "American Top 40," if your market (and most markets did) carried that program.

For example, in Los Angeles, where I was attending college at the time, KIQQ-FM, KFI, and KRLA all played the song regularly. On the other hand in Phoenix, where my family had moved a decade earlier (and which is still my home), neither of the two top-40 stations, KOPA nor KZZP, played that one in regular rotation.
 
ted chittenden said:
Funny that you should mention that song. Nationally, it wasn't all that big a record--if memory serves, it peaked at #31 or #30 in 1982. More importantly, as shown by the ARSA surveys (which you now have to create an account to view), there were a lot of radio stations, especially stations in areas that had very small African-american populations, that never played the song at all and you could only hear it on "American Top 40," if your market (and most markets did) carried that program.

For example, in Los Angeles, where I was attending college at the time, KIQQ-FM, KFI, and KRLA all played the song regularly. On the other hand in Phoenix, where my family had moved a decade earlier (and which is still my home), neither of the two top-40 stations, KOPA nor KZZP, played that one in regular rotation.
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Yeah---depended on where you were. Neither it nor "Burn Rubber" got airplay in Reno, but cross the Sierra and tune in KFRC and you'd have sworn they were both #1.
 
michael hagerty said:
Yeah---depended on where you were. Neither it nor "Burn Rubber" got airplay in Reno, but cross the Sierra and tune in KFRC and you'd have sworn they were both #1.
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I think that was from the era when St. Louis really didn't have a hit-music station (not until KMOX-FM became KHTR, but that took a while). What we did have, however, were black-oriented FM stations that had significant crossover appeal - KMJM "Majic 108" and WZEN. WZEN actually started out as a disco station before moving over to R&B. The Gap Band had no trouble getting traction in that environment; artists such as Denroy Morgan also got quite a bit of airplay!
 
Mark Roberts said:
I think that was from the era when St. Louis really didn't have a hit-music station (not until KMOX-FM became KHTR, but that took a while). What we did have, however, were black-oriented FM stations that had significant crossover appeal - KMJM "Majic 108" and WZEN. WZEN actually started out as a disco station before moving over to R&B. The Gap Band had no trouble getting traction in that environment; artists such as Denroy Morgan also got quite a bit of airplay!
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Using the ARSA surveys, the same could be said for Chicago, Cincinnati, and a host of other eastern and southern cities. However, in Phoenix, in the fall of 1982, I'm not sure if even KUKQ was still running an R&B format. If it wasn't, then you didn't hear "You Dropped a Bomb on Me," at all in that market. And I'm willing to bet that there were markets, particularly in the western half of the U.S., (Reno, Nevada; Eugene, Oregon; Salt Lake City, Utah; among others) that had the same problem.
 
Across Missouri, Kansas City did have a hit-music station in KBEQ, once it transitioned back from its year in the album-rock wilderness, but I think it was fairly conservative about adds. To be fair, in those days, I wasn't paying too much attention to KBEQ. The Midwestern market, surprisingly, that had hit-music stations willing to add more R&B and even New Wave was Omaha.
 
tbolt909 said:
The problem with a lot of 80's music was the slick production. There were many good songs that were marred by the production gloss. It dated many of those songs and didn't age well. Many bands like Heart, Starship, Chicago, and countless others were convinced to record vapid Power Ballads.

There was a lot of great music back then. Other artists like R.E.M., Clash, Psychedelic Furs, Talking Heads, and many others created excellent records in the 80's. Their sound had more of a timeless quality...
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I despise pretty much anything by Chicago. To me, "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" and "If You Leave Me Now" (mostly the instrumentals) are their only really good songs. I sort of like some of their early stuff.

I like most of the bad songs and I don't like what is called "great music" here, so I guess that tells you something.
 
I think everyone here has more than proven the point I made about musical tastes way back in this thread. Do we have to keep proving it with endless examples of songs we love that others hate and songs we hate that others love until a moderator closes the discussion?
 
vchimpanzee said:
I despise pretty much anything by Chicago. To me, "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" and "If You Leave Me Now" (mostly the instrumentals) are their only really good songs. I sort of like some of their early stuff.
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"Color My World" was a staple theme of Midwestern high-school proms in the 1970s, maybe even into the 1980s, so much so that I started calling it "Color My Squirrel".
 
CTListener said:
I think everyone here has more than proven the point I made about musical tastes way back in this thread. Do we have to keep proving it with endless examples of songs we love that others hate and songs we hate that others love until a moderator closes the discussion?
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If you have to ask that question, you know the answer. :p
 
Mark Roberts said:
I have the long version, on a 12" single. That should tell you my opinion of it.
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Same. I would play it now and then when doing family parties on my cousin's farm in a nice refurbished barn. I only had one complaint which was a friend of my cousin that his mom would leave since it reminded her of growing up during WWII since that version as the extended air-raid sirens.
 


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