NeoConMan Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 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." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeoConMan Posted January 26, 2011 Author Share Posted January 26, 2011 What about you folks? Did the music from your high school years really rock - or really suck? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tman Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shnate McDuanus Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 I'll admit that the pop music from my high school years (2006-2010) was dreadful--but there were a few rock bands like Wolfmother, The Answer, Hot Leg, Early Man, The Sword, Evile, etc., that really are excellent. None of them were overwhelmingly mainstream, except for Wolfmother which kinda was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Tari Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 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. David Bowie in 1974 Count Basie in 1974 [edit] Events January - Joni Mitchell releases her monumental album Court and Spark, supported by the single "Help Me" reaching the highest moment of commercial success. February 1 - The Doobie Brothers release their album What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits featuring their signature and hit song "Black Water". February 8 - KISS releases their self-titled debut album. February 10 - record producer Phil Spector is badly injured in a car accident. Details of the accident are kept secret. February 12 - New York's rock club, Bottom Line, opens in Greenwich Village. February 14 - The Captain & Tennille are married in Virginia City, Nevada. February 18 - Yes sells out the first of two nights at Madison Square Garden, without a bit of advertising for the show. February 20 - Cher files for divorce from her husband of 10 years, Sonny Bono. March 12 - John Lennon is involved in an altercation with a photographer outside The Troubadour in Los Angeles, California. Lennon and friend Harry Nilsson have been heckling comedian Tommy Smothers and are forced to leave the club. March 16 - Country music's Grand Ole Opry moves to a new location at the Opryland USA theme park in Nashville, Tennessee March 30 - The Ramones play their first concert at the Performance Studio in New York. April 5 - Van Halen play their first gig on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood at Gazzarri's. April 6200,000 music fans attend The California Jam rock festival. Artists performing at the event include Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Black Oak Arkansas, and the Eagles. Swedish group ABBA win the 19th Eurovision Song Contest in The Dome, Brighton, England, with the song "Waterloo", kickstarting their stellar international career. [*]April 25 - Pam Morrison, Jim Morrison's widow, is found dead in her Hollywood, California apartment from an apparent heroin overdose.[*]July 29 - Having performed at two sold-out concerts at the London Palladium, 'Mama' Cass Elliot dies in her sleep after suffering a heart attack in a Mayfair flat in London, aged 32.[*]August 7 - Peter Wolf, lead singer of The J. Geils Band, marries actress Faye Dunaway.[*]August 17 Ramones play their first concert at CBGB. The venue would help establish their place at the forefront of punk rock.[*]December 12- Mick Taylor leaves The Rolling Stones after 6 years[*]December 31- Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks join Fleetwood Mac[*]Patti Smith releases her debut recording, "Hey Joe", which many consider to be the first punk rock single.[*]Lord Shorty's Endless Vibrations is the first soca LP and the first major soca hit worldwide.[*]Peter Gabriel leaves Genesis and begins solo career.[*]Rover Thomas claims to have been visited in a dream by a deceased friend near Warmun, Australia and receives the Krill Krill song cycle.[*]Dino Martin, singer and son of Dean Martin, is arrested on suspicion of possession and sale of two machine guns.[*]Journey signs to Columbia Records.[*]Daniel Amos forms out of the remnants of Jubal's Last Band.[*]Twenty years after it was recorded, "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and His Comets returns to the Billboard Top 40, after it gains renewed popularity from its use in the film American Graffiti and the TV series Happy Days.[*]Robin Zander joins with Tom Petersson, Bun E. Carlos and Rick Nielson and the "real" Cheap Trick band line-up is created.[*]The original Alice Cooper group breaks up. The band's leader, Vincent Furnier, changes his name to Alice Cooper and goes on to a solo career. [edit] Bands formed Bad Company Blondie (originally Angel and the Snake, changed name in 1975) Cheap Trick Japan The Nits The Ramones Talking Heads The Stranglers Van Halen [edit] Bands disbanded Jefferson Airplane The Moody Blues (reformed in 1977) The Stooges (reformed in 2003) 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookieman15061 Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freak show Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 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... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinner 13 Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freak show Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 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.... Like I said before, the 80's produced some incredible music! It just never got played on the radio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinner 13 Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 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.... 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tman5293 Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 I'm in High School right now. I graduate next year. Music is dreadfully awful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saturn Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 What about you folks? Did the music from your high school years really rock - or really suck? 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TommyK Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
57classic Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 I graduated high school in '75. Even though the music was better than when you graduated, Neo, we still felt that music was better in the prior years. In retrospect, we were right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silenced Fred Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 Well I graduated last year so... Wolfmother (nod to you XDemon) Black Keys Raconteurs I mean I could go on for days because this music was big to me and really changed the way I played guitar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grampa Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zigzag Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 Top 40 sucks in any year. Might be good the first time, not so good the 100th. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeoConMan Posted January 26, 2011 Author Share Posted January 26, 2011 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookieman15061 Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 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!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tman Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 I was thinking about it and besides disco we also had Bob Seeger's live album which was played heavily in Arkansas as well as Frampton comes alive and of course Skynard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zigzag Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 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." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVOL! Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVOL! Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 Electric Avenue - sucked. Every time I heard it. On ROCK radio. I firmly disagree. That song is a tight jam. It is the mad notes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zigzag Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 I'm with you EVOL. "Classic Rock" sucks. Give me the "B-sides" or groups that didn't make the top 100 and I'll be happy. I may love Hendrix and think he was great, but I don't want to hear him every day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingarmadillo Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 I graduated from High School in 1969 so my HS years were pretty much the core of the Brit rock invasion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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