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The 80s sucked. Discuss.
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Fitter Stoke
Fitter Stoke
2611 posts

Edited Mar 12, 2020, 20:26
Re: The 80s sucked. Discuss.
Mar 12, 2020, 18:19
unleasHell wrote:


Bands like Joy Division, OMD, Depeche, the Cure, Sisters of Mercy, Ultravox, New Order, Talk Talk, the Smiths, the Chameleons, Clan of Xymox, Echo and the Bunnymen, Simple Minds, Stray Cats, Madness and on and on..

Now, who wants to make a thread about how all the 80's bands SUCKED in the 90's?



Well, I'd go a little bit further and argue that some of the names you mention (most of which I like(d), by the way) had begun to suck long before the 80s ended. Many of your examples were active at the start of the decade and were producing their best work then; I'm thinking primarily of Simple Minds who made three decent albums between 1980 and 1982 before churning out bland, stadium-filling toss from '83 onwards*. Mac and his Bunnymen, bless'em, peaked with 'Porcupine' (1982) and 'Ocean Rain' (1983) and never threatened greatness thereafter, though their self-titled fifth album had its moments. OMD bored me rigid after their first couple of albums. Ultravox were only great in the 70's when John Foxx led them; the Ure-fronted 80s version was pompous, posey and over-produced. Madness peaked long before the 80s were more than a couple of years old, as did the Stray Cats. The Cure lost me after 'Pornography' and New Order largely left me cold after the glory of Joy Division (themselves past tense by 1980 of course), though I do dig 1983's 'Blue Monday'. All just my own opinion, as I keep saying.

One great exception to all of this was, naturally, The Smiths, as I pointed out in my original post, to which I'd also add The Wedding Present. As for Talk Talk, I have to confess that it's only in recent years that I've come to appreciate how good they were; in fact, they're the one act I honestly feel to have improved with each successive release, after an iffy, Duranesque start. But even the genius of Mark Hollis is not enough to convince me that most of the 80's were kack for modern music.

(*Afterthought/Edit: The same could be said for the rarely mentioned in these pages U2, though in their case even those few decent early albums were hampered by crap production.)
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