PondaBlog

another homage to the ’80s.

synchronicity, eh?

lately i’ve been getting into a few debates about the ’80s. basically, i’ve found myself on the wrong end of an accusation that states thus: the ’80s suck.

i couldn’t disagree more. sure, the ’80s had their fair share of lameness – as does any decade. what will people think when they look back at tweeting?

and yes, the ’80s have plenty to mock. but aside from the usual suspects – miami vice, shoulder pads - it needs to be stated that the  ’80s were a phenomenal decade for music. here are eight reasons why:

1 - hip hop comes into its own

the beats developed, as did the rapping and the vibe. the ’80s were a golden period for hip hop, when a sound really began to find its footing. and that sound was so diverse – de la soul, nwa, eric b and rakim, ice t, biz, schoolly d, rob base and hell yeah the beasties – licensed to ill and paul’s boutique stand among the best one-two punches ever. and then PE comes along and the bomb squad blows it all up.

it’s strange how history repeats – the noughties were a modern-day take on the ’80s, with grime and dubstep echoing the two-decades-old template of hip hop and rave.

2 - hardcore

and no, i don’t mean pre-jungle breakbeat. although that will come in my eventual ’90s post.

i mean the (mostly) north american strain that took punk and made it harder, louder and above all, faster (well, most of the time – apologies to post-damaged black flag). hardcore was young and crass and violent and stupid and fun and mind-expanding, often all at the same time. going to hardcore shows in my teens was a godsend, a portal to another reality, i guess. lots of crappy bands, to be sure – but some amazing ones too – minor threat, bad brains, black flag, husker du, DRI, corrosion of conformity, snfu, doa, christ on parade, mdc, suicidal tendencies, circle jerks, government issue, crucifix, blast, reagan youth…then there were the crazy europeans, rattus, crude SS, etc…

anyways, i suppose this formative stuff never really dies. last weekend, i went to a gig celebrating the 50th birthday of ron reyes, who was the second singer for the legendary black flag. greg ginn, the god-like guitarist for black flag back in the day and the dude who founded the essential SST record label, guested on a few songs. having never seen black flag (during the one chance i had, i was camping with my parents), it was a divine experience to see him onstage, playing as only he can play. and when the ron reyes band launched into “gimmie gimmie gimmie” and the immortal “police story,” i was transported, grinning and screaming the lyrics like an idiot.

3 - duran duran – rio

a tehnicolour orgasm. those suits! that hair! the videos! the girls! rio represents everything fabulous about pop music.

4 – 1988: year of the giants

 in 1988, three stupendous albums were released: daydream nation, isn’t anything, it takes nation of millions to hold us back.

sonic youth’s daydream nation, a double album, came out on blast first, and represented the apex of the youth’s oeuvre. a grand, sprawling epic, daydream nation took the band’s atonal groundings and merged them with star-spangled psychedelia and full-on grooves – the perfect culmination of a trio of albums that includes evol and sister.

my bloody valentine’s isn’t anything came out on creation. what a debut, and what a departure from their earlier garage/gothy sound. loveless, the next album, is the one that gets all the attention – and understandably so, given that it pushed rock about as far as it can go (surely no one has surpassed it). but isn’t anything is also beautiful – sometime punishingly so, as in the case of “feed me with your kiss” and “sueisfine,” and sometimes devastatingly so, as in the case of “soft as snow (but warm inside)” and ”no more sorry.” i reckon that isn’t anything stands just as mightily alongside loveless.

and then there was public enemy’s it takes a nation of millions to hold us back, released on def jam. what to say? one of the greatest titles ever and one of the greatest albums ever, a torrent of organized chaos infused by flavor flav’s psychosis (a legacy later borne by ol’ dirty bastard), chuck d’s crushing baritone and the machine genius of the bomb squad. when this came out, it sounded like alien funk – and it still does. 

5 - acid house

i remember reading in spin mag, in the later ’80s, about this sound called acid house. it had roots in chicago, and then got massively fucked up by brits on drugs (er, ecstacy). anyways, the article featured a photo that’s pasted itself permanently onto my brain cells – this sweaty bloke, completely out of it and wearing a t-shirt featuring the album cover of the the’s soul mining. everything around him is dark and blurred, he’s smiling like a loon and dancing like a madman. i was instantly hooked on a revolution that made punk seem, well, rather pedestrian.

6 - joy division – closer 

the second and final album from one of the all-time greats. a stark and sometimes terrifying record, closer is joy division’s grand closing statement, and ian curtis is otherworldly – about to step into the next realm. amazing how a bunch of kids in their early 20s could produce such an overpowering, eternal sound. what a cover, what an album, what a band.

7 - melody maker

in the late ’80s, melody maker rose to the challenge that had been set by the NME of paul morley and ian penman. it featured an amazing stable of writers – david stubbs, the stud brothers, chris roberts, jonh wilde and simon reynolds, who influenced me enormously. and it featured music writing that didn’t shy from theory – the big thoughts about why this matters and what it means. and why oblivion = release, etc. think mbv, loop, spacemen 3, acid house, techno, sonic youth, hip hop, extreme metal. and it also had a great sense of humour, championed by the peerless mr. disagreeable. i was a lucky lad – i was working in the audio-visual department in edmonton’s main library, which subscribed to melody maker and so enabled me to devour every issue during its golden years and get turned on to so much great music. thank you, edmonton public library system!

8 - the grand triumvirate: the smiths, the cure, new order

what review of the ’80s could possibly leave aside this hallowed trio? i loved hip hop and hardcore, but i was also anglo-obsessed, and these three helped soothe the cravings. the melancholy of the smiths, the day-glo darkness of the cure, the machine funk of new order. i wonder how ian curtis would have danced to “blue monday.”

and some more reasons why the ’80s don’t suck: a thousand plateaus, the fall, the birthday party, nick cave and the bad seeds, einstuerzende neubauten, metal (slayer’s reign in blood, south of heaven, metallica’s ride the lightning, master of puppets) neuromancer, blade runner, alien, predator and terminator.

plus, i always kinda liked miami vice.

now add your own justifications. or belittle me mercilessly.