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High school years - the music


NeoConMan

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I was in high school 1979-1983.

There was some good rock n roll in those years, though I was hung up in the seventies.

 

But I remember thinking that rock music had gone to HELL by the year I graduated - 1983.

The rock stations were playing Men at Work, Cindy Lauper, Michael Jackson...

1983 sucked BIG TIME for rock n roll.

 

Everytime I would see something advertising the "Greatest Music of the 80s" I would just shake my head.

 

I was actually HAPPY when hair metal came on the scene with Ratt, etc...

 

So I did a search for the Billboard charts from 1983.

http://hotpopsongs.com/Music/Billboard/1983.html

Here's the Top Twenty according to them;

 

Every Breath You Take - The Police

Billie Jean - Michael Jackson

Flashdance... What A Feeling - Irene Cara

Say Say Say - Paul McCartney & Micheal Jackson

All Night Long (All Night) - Lionel Ritchie

Total Eclipse Of The Heart - Bonnie Tyler

Down Under - Men At Work

Beat It - Micheal Jackson

Islands In The Stream - Kenny Rogers with Dolly Parton

Baby, Come To Me - Patti Austin with James Ingram

Maniac - Michael Sembello

Let's Dance - David Bowie

Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) - Eurythmics

Tell Her About It - Billy Joel

Africa - Toto

Come On Eileen - Dexys Midnight Runners

Electric Avenue - Eddy Grant

Say It Isn't So - Daryl Hall and John Oates

Shame On The Moon - Bob Seger

The Girl Is Mine - Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney

 

 

The Police did some cool music - Every Breath You Take doesn't qualify though.

Billie Jean - GTFO...

Flashdance... AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!! That song was EVERYWHERE!

Say Say Say proved that Paul McCartney could do sh!tty songs too.

All Night Long - Lionel Ritchie did lotsa pleasant, hummable toe-tapping songs that suck.

Total Eclipse Of The Heart - AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!! "Freebird" for drama-queeen chicks!

Down Under - Men At Work were okay I guess - the first MILLION TIMES I heard that goofy sh!t.

Beat It - I don't give a fxck WHO played guitar on it...

Islands In The Stream - Kenny Rogers with Dolly Parton. My MOM liked that one...

Baby, Come To Me - Patti Austin with James Ingram. Actually a decent R&B/soul song to get chicks undressed.

Maniac - Michael Sembello. Chicks loved it - I fxcking hated it.

Let's Dance - David Bowie. Never been a Bowie fan, except for a few Tin Machine tunes. SRV? WTF?

Sweet Dreams - Eurythmics. Annie Lennox had a voice that I simply could not ignore. I pretended not to like it.

Tell Her About It - Billy Joel. Bouncy, happy bubblegum pop. How about some cake and Kool-Aid?

Africa - Toto did some cool stuff, though I was never a big fan of this one. Bobbie Kimball vocals rock though.

Come On Eileen - Dexys Midnight Runners shoulda kept on running. Other than the tempo changes - Blech...

Electric Avenue - Eddy Grant. What the fxck was this doing on ANY rock station?

Say It Isn't So - Daryl Hall and John Oates had MUCH better tunes than this one.

Shame On The Moon - Bob Seger made a fan of my MOM with this one, and I hated it.

The Girl Is Mine - Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney do it again - for the money. Neo's radio goes "click."

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High school 1976-1978 for me. Disco mostly. Yep, I'm older than the President of the United States, by a smidge.

Late 78 to 79 the cars came out with "Best friends girl". Man I thought the end of disco! I was happy at that point.

During high school I was in a band playing, "Play that funky music white boy" seriously I was, and that's exactly what it was!. A lot of Bee Gees also. Good stuff, but it was what it was.

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I graduated in 1974! Everything was hot then The Music, The Girls, and (SORRY YOUNGENS) the drugs were top notch. Hadn't had a President trying to change what we touched or smoked. Music for the Year.

220px-Bowie-DD-1974-10.jpg magnify-clip.pngDavid Bowie in 1974220px-Count_Basie_Hamburg_1974_1410740040.jpg magnify-clip.pngCount Basie in 1974

[edit] Events

[edit] Bands formed

[edit] Bands disbanded

Had just moved from the west coast and got some guys together to build our own Custom vans. Hot music on my new 8 Track Tape player with Quade sound. I was on Planet Steven. Playen, Partying,and just living life. Wish I could go back and do it again. No Changes. [thumbup]

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I was in high school 1979-1983.

There was some good rock n roll in those years, though I was hung up in the seventies.

 

Every Breath You Take - The Police

Billie Jean - Michael Jackson

Flashdance... What A Feeling - Irene Cara

Say Say Say - Paul McCartney & Micheal Jackson

All Night Long (All Night) - Lionel Ritchie

Total Eclipse Of The Heart - Bonnie Tyler

Down Under - Men At Work

Beat It - Micheal Jackson

Islands In The Stream - Kenny Rogers with Dolly Parton

Baby, Come To Me - Patti Austin with James Ingram

Maniac - Michael Sembello

Let's Dance - David Bowie

Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) - Eurythmics

Tell Her About It - Billy Joel

Africa - Toto

Come On Eileen - Dexys Midnight Runners

Electric Avenue - Eddy Grant

Say It Isn't So - Daryl Hall and John Oates

Shame On The Moon - Bob Seger

The Girl Is Mine - Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney

 

I not sure where you were for your HS days Neo. Those songs were on the radio here in Pittsburgh but not on any rock stations. They were all over the top 40 station down the dial though.

Like Tman I graduated in 78 and for us it was the Bee Gees and that ilk (brother Andy) all over the top 40 radio.

Our large rock station here in the burgh was and still is WDVE and they were my saving grace through the disco era.

 

Boston, Foreigner, Cheap Trick and The Cars, all hit during my HS days. Combine that with the usual rock radio regs like Seger, Springsteen, The Eagles, Foghat, Zep, BOC, Aerosmith, ZZTop and I was able to ride out the disco wave.

 

Maybe you were just on the wrong station.msp_flapper.gif

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The Police did some cool music - Every Breath You Take doesn't qualify though.

Billie Jean - GTFO...

Flashdance... AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!! That song was EVERYWHERE!

Say Say Say proved that Paul McCartney could do sh!tty songs too.

All Night Long - Lionel Ritchie did lotsa pleasant, hummable toe-tapping songs that suck.

Total Eclipse Of The Heart - AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!! "Freebird" for drama-queeen chicks!

Down Under - Men At Work were okay I guess - the first MILLION TIMES I heard that goofy sh!t.

Beat It - I don't give a fxck WHO played guitar on it...

Islands In The Stream - Kenny Rogers with Dolly Parton. My MOM liked that one...

Baby, Come To Me - Patti Austin with James Ingram. Actually a decent R&B/soul song to get chicks undressed.

Maniac - Michael Sembello. Chicks loved it - I fxcking hated it.

Let's Dance - David Bowie. Never been a Bowie fan, except for a few Tin Machine tunes. SRV? WTF?

Sweet Dreams - Eurythmics. Annie Lennox had a voice that I simply could not ignore. I pretended not to like it.

Tell Her About It - Billy Joel. Bouncy, happy bubblegum pop. How about some cake and Kool-Aid?

Africa - Toto did some cool stuff, though I was never a big fan of this one. Bobbie Kimball vocals rock though.

Come On Eileen - Dexys Midnight Runners shoulda kept on running. Other than the tempo changes - Blech...

Electric Avenue - Eddy Grant. What the fxck was this doing on ANY rock station?

Say It Isn't So - Daryl Hall and John Oates had MUCH better tunes than this one.

Shame On The Moon - Bob Seger made a fan of my MOM with this one, and I hated it.

The Girl Is Mine - Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney do it again - for the money. Neo's radio goes "click."

 

 

These songs are all mainstream pop. I don't see anything from a Rock band on here. I really do believe that the 80's produced some great music, but it wasn't played on the radio.

 

Yesterday I read a quote from Zappa that seems fitting here:

 

"Americans hate music, but they love entertainment."

 

I think that explains the list of songs you posted -- and most radio stations -- pretty well...

 

[biggrin]

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Let me start off by saying I went to a small school in mid coast Maine and two years in a private school in central Maine.

So I was really the odd man out, with new wave long gone and hair metal on it's death bed, the Seattle scene about to explode.

that was 87 to 92.

the local college radio was my saving grace.

I was one of two or three punk kids, most of my formative music listening were bands like:

Sex pistols, Black Flag, Bad religion, Fugazi / Minor threat, Angry samoan's, 7 seconds,

Dead Milkmen, JFA, Social D, ect. ect.

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I was one of two or three punk kids, most of my formative music listening were bands like:

Sex pistols, Black Flag, Bad religion, Fugazi / Minor threat, Angry samoan's, 7 seconds,

Dead Milkmen, JFA, Social D, ect. ect.

 

Exactly!

 

But don't forget the Butthole Surfers, Sound Garden, Meat Puppets, Hüsker Dü, X, Sonic Youth, Mission of Burma, Dinosaur Jr., etc., etc., etc.... [biggrin]

 

Like I said before, the 80's produced some incredible music! It just never got played on the radio.

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Exactly!

 

But don't forget the Butthole Surfers, Sound Garden, Meat Puppets, Hüsker Dü, X, Sonic Youth, Mission of Burma, Dinosaur Jr., etc., etc., etc.... [biggrin]

 

Like I said before, the 80's produced some incredible music! It just never got played on the radio.

MoB, The Freeze, The Pixies, all Boston's finest.

why you think I moved here?

this city has been a mecca of punk and wave for many years.

And the weird thing, it has never"broke big" like Seattle, or LA

 

 

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What about you folks?

 

Did the music from your high school years really rock - or really suck? [woot]

 

Well my HS days began right where yours were ending. 1983-1986. Musically, I usually fit in with the guys 5-10 years older than me, more than I did with my age group. For some reason though, I have a soft spot for 1983 and it's music, even the sucky music. It's nostalgic I guess. I mean "Every Breath You Take" was played everywhere I went that summer, and that was one of the most fun times of my young life.

 

For the most part (there are always exception) I think the popular music got worse as the 80s went on. At least the early 80s was new and different sounding and seemed to be cutting edge, even if us rockers didn't like it. By the late 80s most everything was like cookie-cutter, paint-by-numbers, pre-fabricated, crap IMO. The year I graduated HS, I can't think of any "new" albums I purchased that weren't by "older" artists. :-k

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Never was a rock and roll kind of guy. There were a few songs here and there I liked but not much. My one rock concert I attended in high school (actually, it may have been post high school), was Kansas at Assembly Hall at the UofI, Urbana-Champaign sums up my interest in Rock and Roll.

 

I and my companion were pretty much bored to tears and bemused by the burning lighters. The shorty-short shorted keyboardist seemed to be doing calisthenics through out the concert. After they played 'Dust in the Wind', we jetted to grab a late supper at Pizza Hut before heading home. We beat the crowds and traffic. We weren't out much as we got the tickets for free.

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I graduated in '64. The Beatles arrived during my senior year. Surf music was big, Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, The Ventures. "Pop" and "Rock" were still a small part of the national music scene. Music didn't so much suck but as far as rock, well back then it wasn't much.

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I not sure where you were for your HS days Neo.

Those songs were on the radio here in Pittsburgh but not on any rock stations.

Maybe you were just on the wrong station.

My point was two-fold - pop music was everywhere, and some of the crap crossed over in 1983.

 

Every Breath You Take was constant on the ROCK stations where I lived.

 

Down Under, and other Men At Work goofiness was considered "rock" enough for heavy rotation.

 

Beat It had Eddie Van Halen playing guitar - good enough to get Michael Jackson onto rock radio...

 

Let's Dance - I'm sorry, I STILL consider that a "dance" song. Never liked it.

 

Africa - The Toto pvssy ballad that got chicks to listen to rock radio. Where was Hold The Line?

 

Electric Avenue - sucked. Every time I heard it. On ROCK radio.

 

Say It Isn't So - Yep, that mellow pop confection got played PLENTY. Yeah, we were ROCKIN' to that one...

 

That was part of my point - Rock radio had gone soft in the country's heartland.

As I traveled and talked to friends and family in various states, they agreed.

 

It used to kill me when they started playing only mellow cuts by classic rock bands too.

NOTHING rocked anymore, in 1983 and 1984 (a HORRIBLE Van Halen album) it was becoming Lite Rock.

Even on the "rock" stations.

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Strange we didn't have that happen here in western PA. Certainly the new wave bands such as Talking Heads, The Police and Elvis Costello were getting air play on our major FM rock flamethrower here but rarely if ever their mellow stuff.

 

 

 

And never ever any Micheal Jackson!!! dry.gif

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Hate to tell you that rock music doesn't always have to rock. There are few that would tell you that Buddy Holly was not rock 'n' roll, and very little of his stuff "rocked."

 

So what you're sayin is that, if it's not metal, it's "P_ssy Rock."

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Top 40 sucks in any year. Might be good the first time, not so good the 100th.

 

100% true. The best songs do not and did not get played on the radio, although I am old enough to remember FM radio before the Communications Act of '96 and the Clear Channel take over. We had a great alternative station out of Windsor, Ontario (89X) and 94.7 (classic rock) out of Detroit would play deep cuts every day. Classic rock radio wasn't all Steve Miller Band's The Joker (what a POS) or Pink Floyd's Money (least favorite Floyd song). Those days are long gone like the Model T and musket riffle. I was dodging New Kids On the Block in high school and getting into Godflesh, Ministry, and Sonic Youth.

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