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CBS-FM 1980 Countdown
- Thread starter oldies76
- Start date
A
andreajesus
Guest
I know, I'm just listening to it myself...8) Nice when someone gets that I GET IT!! (I DO know WHAT I'm talking about!! 
)
AJ
(ps: I LOVE Kim's "More Love" myself!!)
)AJ
(ps: I LOVE Kim's "More Love" myself!!)
1980 was a brutal year for music. There was almost no high energy rock or soul that were hits. 1980 was a year of bland adult contemporary crap.
GOTTA HATE IT
GOTTA HATE IT
RADIO TRUTH said:
1980 and 1981 was a transition from the disco filled 1978-79 to the upcoming New Wave of the early and mid 80's.
Yes..lots of adult comtemps, but also acts like the Cars, B-52's, Romantics, Gary Numan and others signaled of what was to come by 1983 and beyond. Lots of crossovers in 80/81, making this time period rather unique in music history.
GOTTA LOVE WCBS
1980 was a year of crappy hits by Barbara Streisand, Christopher Cross, Robbie Dupree, Kenny Rogers and other syrupy boredom.
A
abonita
Guest
RADIO TRUTH said:
Yup, a year full of wimpfests like Blondie's "Call Me," Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall," George Benson's "Give Me The Night," Eddie Rabbitt's "Drivin' My Life Away," and Stevie Wonder's "Master Blaster." And that's just what made Billboard's top five. :
RADIO TRUTH said:
wow, one person's trash is another's treasure I guess. i was just chatting with someone the other day about music and stated that 1980 was perhaps the BEST year in music EVER. but then again i enjoy old AC music. robbie dupree! now there's a name from the past. "steal away" is one of the greatest songs ever. and he's still around and making music. has a new album out called "time and tide" and will be at Bethlehem PA's legendary Musikfest this week with the guy from the band Orleans. a small college station in east central PA recently interviewed robbie. really nice guy.
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adma
Guest
Interstate 78 said:
Somehow, I can imagine you looking like Matt Damon in "The Informant". That's not a compliment.
1980 was not so great for Top 40. Until the MTV-primed resurgence of Top 40 in 1983, it really was a dullsville land of Adult Contemporary. But if you had switched to rock radio, as I had by that point, there was some good stuff:
Rush - Spirit of Radio.....and early 81 Tom Sawyer
AC/DC - Back In Black album
Judas Priest - Livin' After Midnight
Van Halen - Women and Children First album
Genesis - Duke album
Dire Straits - Making Movies album
ZZ Top - Cheap Sunglasses
Springsteen - The River
Zeppelin's last album (I think released in late 79)
Rush - Spirit of Radio.....and early 81 Tom Sawyer
AC/DC - Back In Black album
Judas Priest - Livin' After Midnight
Van Halen - Women and Children First album
Genesis - Duke album
Dire Straits - Making Movies album
ZZ Top - Cheap Sunglasses
Springsteen - The River
Zeppelin's last album (I think released in late 79)
scooty430 said:
"All My Love" released late 1979 (not as a single though) and heard through 1980. Great stuff there. 1980 and 81 would be duller than say, 82-85, but still had some memorable hits...contrary to RadioTruth's say. Ok..Christopher Cross is slow A/C, but "Sailing" is a GREAT song..no doubt, better than "Ride Like the Wind".
Like I said, '80 was a year of slowdown...cooling off after the disco tirade of the late 70's. Obviously it was accepted by consumers, considering that "Lady", "Woman in Love" and "Starting Over" combined for 14 consecutive weeks at #1 to end the year! It was not crappy for them. People wanted a change from disco and mellowed out for a couple years.
By comparison to 1980, pick the same week in 1964 to 1967 and if you can tell me the same week in 1980 was better, you are on another planet. 1980 was one of the most bland and boring years in music history. How many Barry Manilow records can one take?
A
adma
Guest
oldies76 said:
But except among Yacht Rock ironists, the latter still has a pretty nasty "purgatory" reputation to live down--and demonstrates, too, that if we must judge 1980 musically in any positive, "culturally reflective" sense, we have to keep as far away from the Top 40/AC axis as possible. Stick with accounting for something more urban/AOR/KROQ-style alternative, or whatever paved the way for MTV--even if it gives Sleepy Hollow Stepford dentists conniptions.
Sadly, nostalgia for Christopher Cross and Robbie Dupree today registers like nostalgia for Lawrence Welk and Guy Lombardo did then--if not worse.
M
MarcR
Guest
RADIO TRUTH said:
Perhaps it was for the mainstream or "casual" listener, but it was an auspicious moment for the so-called underground or semi-popular music scene, where you could hear punk, ska, post-disco, early hip hop, new wave and no-wave records if you knew where to find them.
A
adma
Guest
MarcR said:
Exactly--and it's interesting how, when it comes to posterity, it's anything from the Clash to U2 to Talking Heads to Grandmaster Flash to even AC/DC (hey, metal counts too) that's tended to dominate the *real* retrospective mainstream narrative of the day--at least, if you want a 1980 approximation of what "1964-to-1967" signifies for many.
The mainstream/casual-listener narrative? Sure, it's still valid if you're some grossly obese never-married middle-aged lummox or crazy lady working at the gas bar...
Anita Bonita said:RADIO TRUTH said:
Yup, a year full of wimpfests like Blondie's "Call Me," Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall," George Benson's "Give Me The Night," Eddie Rabbitt's "Drivin' My Life Away," and Stevie Wonder's "Master Blaster." And that's just what made Billboard's top five. :
What?
I LOVED those songs...!
A
andreajesus
Guest
Hey, Garrett, i wouldn't freak out too much over Radio Truth's comments - he does that to everybody (including little ole' me!! )
AJ
)AJ
D
drpickle
Guest
scooty430 said:
I guess Genesis Duke was one of their better albums before they totally sold out. Granted, they were never that great once Gabriel left, but at this point they still had some shred of legitimacy. You also forgot Breakfast In America by Supertramp. While released in 79 it still carried over strongly into 1980.
Garrett said:Anita Bonita said:RADIO TRUTH said:
Yup, a year full of wimpfests like Blondie's "Call Me," Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall," George Benson's "Give Me The Night," Eddie Rabbitt's "Drivin' My Life Away," and Stevie Wonder's "Master Blaster." And that's just what made Billboard's top five. :
What?
I LOVED those songs...!
I'm with ya. I don't believe in musical guilty pleasures, because someone shouldn't feel guilty for liking something... unless it's like child porn, or things of that nature, but I digress.
I am a proud Yacht Rocker and carry my lucky harpoon with pride!
It's not the only genre I listen to by any means, but there's a certain mellowness to that '79-'81 sound of music that I just totally dig. A lot of it was so slickly produced and performed by some of the hottest session players of the day.
Is it a joke now? Absolutely.
But Guy Lombardo and Lawrence Welk? C'mon.
It's fun, innocent pop reflecting a moment where society and culture was slowing down and shifting from the feel good disco seventies into the **** you eighties.
Songs of that era were like a recess from punk and new wave and disco and metal and to this day make me smile when I hear them. I was a small child back then, and it also reminds me a lot of being a kid.
These are MY oldies, man.
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