When will 80s retro end?

Inspired by what was the coolest band/artist you were into when you were 17?
, I took a trip down memory lane and remembered bands in the late 90s who started plumbing the depths of 80s music. DMX Krew, Les Rhythmes Digitales, Welle:Erdball, and many more that I'm sure I'm forgetting.

Back then it seemed new and almost transgressive to cop to the 1980s. Since then we've had nearly 2 decades of 80s retro to live with, and now with vaporwave and Stranger Things it seems like it's still stronger than ever.

When will this end, and what will it be replaced by? I'm pretty much sick of it at this point. Musically and culturally it feels like time has stood still for almost the past two decades. Why has 80s retro lasted so damn long? Am I just imagining this?

In music, it's here to stay. In pop culture, it'll move to the side once things go full 90s.

I'm interested in seeing what 00s retro looks like, because it seems completely devoid of defining characteristics.

Why has 80s retro lasted so damn long? Am I just imagining this?

60s/70s have it beat. 50s seems to be the only post-wwII decade that has faded away imo.

Yeah, maybe, I was looking forward to that "new shit every 10 years" thing.

Yeah, it's pretty much the case that once something is revived it stays revived.

90s revival has also been going on for some time but a lot of it isn't explicitly recognised as such: Calvin Harris et. al. draw a lot from early-90s dance-pop, for example, but those resemblances aren't remarked on very much.

One reason for this is that 90s stylistic trends were rarely specifically deemed off-limits in the way that 80s trends were, so they form more of the mulchy fabric of available source material that doesn't sound specific to a particular moment in history.

Even cases of very strong and specific 90s revivalism (Mitski for example) don't feel oppositional in the way that the original cases of 80s revivalism did.

The 808 is pretty omnipotent. It's kick is so deep, I don't know if you can really get under it. I heard 'Brass Monkey' on an X station a couple days ago and was kinda admiring how much it still sounded like current pop.

If anything vaporwave shows that the fake nostalgia lens is creeping into the 90s. I think the purely 80s retro-manneristic stuff is over.

So much of what made early 2000s music terrible is still making music terrible right now, so I don't think there's nearly enough cultural distance for the quirks of the 00s to fossilize into charming nostalgic kitsch any time soon. Most of that stuff still doesn't sound "old" to me.

Besides maybe Nelly's "Hot in Here", which gave me a pang of mortal dread the other week when I suddenly remembered it

60s/70s have it beat. 50s seems to be the only post-wwII decade that has faded away imo.

― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Tuesday, September 13, 2016 6:52 AM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was going to say that 60s was fading, but then you've got Mad Men, Mark Ronson etc... Not the same 60s as the nineties portrayal of the 60s (the Beatles, flower power etc) but nevertheless.

LAte-90s/early 2000s seems to already be getting revived - Blink 182, Pokemon etc; pretty sure a nu-metal revival is right round the corner

It won't be a full 90s revival until some Fischerspooner-esque art-pop act start actively fetishising trashy euro dance stuff like 2Unlimited, which could definitely happen

2036

Besides maybe Nelly's "Hot in Here", which gave me a pang of mortal dread the other week when I suddenly remembered it

gtfo

One reason for this is that 90s stylistic trends were rarely specifically deemed off-limits in the way that 80s trends were, so they form more of the mulchy fabric of available source material that doesn't sound specific to a particular moment in history.

Also socially and politically there was this need to draw a very firm line under the 80s, one that probably started as early as 1987 in some areas, looking back at the emergence of rave it's like people were willing the 90s into being.

The current revival of 90s sounds in British urban pop/dance owes a lot to the second generation of rave - a lot of the people making or playing this music are working class kids whose parents went raving a lot and had kids at a young age. I've lost track of the number of times I've seen an artist talking about their mum listening to the Chemical Brothers or whoever when they were tiny. Some of them are young enough to have parents into UKG, and then there's the (still) central role of the Wild Bunch deep in a lot of this music's DNA. Actually a record like Blue Lines is illustrative because that in itself is an example of the artists embracing rather than rejecting their parents' music while updating and recontextualising it.

(If you want to talk about really fake or forced 90s nostalgia then the first Klaxons album is very nearly a decade old now)

It won't be a full 90s revival until some Fischerspooner-esque art-pop act start actively fetishising trashy euro dance stuff like 2Unlimited, which could definitely happen

isn't a lot of the EDM sounds of the last 10 years or something inspired by the 90s eurodance ?

Also socially and politically there was this need to draw a very firm line under the 80s, one that probably started as early as 1987 in some areas, looking back at the emergence of rave it's like people were willing the 90s into being.

Definitely. I was only 9 or 10 years old but I remember there being a lot of sloganeering about 'Into the 90s' and 'a new decade' - it felt like it was being talked up a huge huge deal, the idea of the 90s being gleamy and space-aged and funky and even cartoon characters being given skateboards and sunglasses because the future is dudey.

isn't a lot of the EDM sounds of the last 10 years or something inspired by the 90s eurodance ?

― AlXTC from Paris, Tuesday, September 13, 2016 2:33 PM (fifteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

A bit, maybe stuff like Martin Solveig where the lyrics are totally inane in a 'Feel real good/Dance all night' kind of way. That said I don't know if this is directly influenced by eurodance or if it's just tapping into a similar formula that gets mainstream crowds excited. I feel like EDM's closest predecessor is the Ibiza trance stuff that came later on, like ATB and Alice Deejay.

There's something unapologetically hedonistic and sex-fuelled about EDM, where the videos invariably feature models either perspiring in a dance studio or driving around in an open-top. It's hard to compare this to the likes of 2Unlimited, 24/7, Snap, Ace of Base, Reel 2 Reel, Culture Beat etc who seemed more pop and breaks-oriented, often featuring some sort of rapped section (or 'ragga toaster' as in the case of the Mad Stuntman), but still very much a product of Europe and all the naif trashy baggage that went with that.
It was totally naff, but I can just imagine someone coming along and picking up on the big riffy vamps ('Ready For This' is still pretty huge, right?) and really playing around with some of its nostalgic tropes because that stuff was pretty much everywhere between 1992 and 1997.

What exactly do you think 'I Like To Move It Move It' is about?

House prices in 1994 were quite reasonable.

The thing about the (ongoing) 80s revival is that it's not just reviving 'cool' music from the 80s; in fact it's all the un-eulogised little bits of that decade, pop fluff and AOR mainstays that were being remembered and recontextualised by hip contemporary artists. By that reckoning it won't be a grunge or Britpop revival that galvanises a 90s revival, rather people throwing elements of Bitty Mclean, Enigma, the Beautiful South, Shara Nelson, OMC, Simply Red and who knows what into the mix.

xp haha, I'm not saying Eurodance wasn't 'sexy'

Yes, this is precisely the reason why 80s revivalism has gotten incredibly silly.

90s trends have been revived and revisited over the last ten years already (abundant examples in club nights, music videos, chart hits, TV shows, fashion, gaming).

It's unlikely to manifest in any way deeper than it already has.

Like, I have no problem with people "reviving" what was so great about a decade, whether it had a sky-high level of popularity or whether it was buried and needed to be brought to light. It's when people start reviving shit that really should stay behind and be forgotten about that revivalism becomes a joke. The 1975 being absolute proof of this. The '90s revival as described above would be hell on Earth.

The world does not fucking need a Simply Red revival.

oh and during the recent euro football there was a big 90s revival with that song !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3l7fgvrEKM

They don't sound a bit like Simply Red.

god I hated these sounds back then... for most of the 90s, all the dance hits sounded exactly the same !

the electronic dabblings are closer to Flyte Time productions; they don't really attempt "soul."

I still have a soft spot for 'Freed From Desire'!

At this point I'd be quite affronted to be one of the few things left unrevived after like 16 years of 80s revival, although you're basically left with George Michael and Curiosity Killed The Cat by now.

Have orchestral hit samples been resurrected yet?

Vaporwave is much more a 90s revival thing than an 80s revival thing. It's also already five years old.

Agreed that the revolving revival-of-whatever-was-popular-twenty-years-ago thing has been fading a bit in the last ten years though. When did that start - the rock & roll revival of the late 70s? Trad jazz and novelty songs in the early 60s? Touring Antebellum nostalgia minstrel shows in the 1890s? Seems eternal.

Vaporwave doesn't strike me as 90s much. 80s sounds and aesthetics + a Windows 95 logo and Seinfeld doesn't make it particularly 90s to me. I've been hearing some filter house stuff being added in, so that's a little different. If they threw in jungle and breakbeat stuff then I'd be like, yeah, this is pretty 90s.

I still have a soft spot for 'Freed From Desire'!

it's a horrible song... but I liked it sung by crazy drunk irish supporters in Paris during the euro !

Like, I have no problem with people "reviving" what was so great about a decade, whether it had a sky-high level of popularity or whether it was buried and needed to be brought to light. It's when people start reviving shit that really should stay behind and be forgotten about that revivalism becomes a joke. The 1975 being absolute proof of this. The '90s revival as described above would be hell on Earth.

― the hair - it's lost its energy (Turrican), Tuesday, September 13, 2016 3:49 PM (twenty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The world does not fucking need a Simply Red revival.

― the hair - it's lost its energy (Turrican), Tuesday, September 13, 2016 3:50 PM (twenty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Unfortunately, that's not how it works. People get nostalgic for the sounds of their childhoods, so unless their parents or their older siblings were particularly trendy back in the day, it's going to be whatever was on the radio, the TV or in the general ether that gets plucked as ripe for revival. Like, no one really HATES Phil Collins these days, or at least not like they used to. In ten or fifteen years' time it won't be Devendra Banhart or Michael Mayer that get referenced in a mid-2000s revival, it'll be Keane and Fedde Le Grande. 'Freed From Desire' is horrible but in hindsight there are those who appreciate it for nostalgic reasons and because they fit into that wide cultural sphere that AIXTC mentions.

PC Music strikes me as being pretty 90s-centric. If anything, they're the ones doing the ironic Eurodance revival stuff.

Agreed that the revolving revival-of-whatever-was-popular-twenty-years-ago thing has been fading a bit in the last ten years though. When did that start - the rock & roll revival of the late 70s? Trad jazz and novelty songs in the early 60s? Touring Antebellum nostalgia minstrel shows in the 1890s? Seems eternal.

Various books/essays on this but as a one-stop-shop would suggest:

http://www.wonderingsound.com/feature/50s-60s-rock-revival-sha-na-na/

Also, just published today, for all of us:

http://www.theonion.com/blogpost/im-tired-these-punks-coming-through-my-neighborhoo-53933

xxxp PC Music is way too contemptuous of its sources, and people in general, so I don't think they're really going to be a vanguard of anything. Maybe the 80s was the last time there was really a mono-culture. I'm thinking of what sounds could be dug into to create a proper 90s revival, but I'm realizing a lot of what I listened to, even in the mid-90s, I discovered over the internet, and a lot of it from people in Europe (me being in the US). I doubt many people would even get a lot of it like they would 80s synth-pop and smooth jazz and R&B.

People get nostalgic for the sounds of their childhoods, so unless their parents or their older siblings were particularly trendy back in the day, it's going to be whatever was on the radio, the TV or in the general ether that gets plucked as ripe for revival.

I'm old enough to remember Curiosity Killed The Cat, Brother Beyond etc. being played on the radio, and I've never once found myself nostalgic for any of those acts.

Like, no one really HATES Phil Collins these days, or at least not like they used to.

Collins always had recognition and praise for his drumming. It was his solo stuff that people couldn't stand, and I hate 'Sussudio' and 'Another Day In Paradise' as much as ever, for what it's worth. Personally, I think there's a lot to dislike about the millionaire bald guy writing about homelessness from his yacht in Switzerland, taking a break to fax off his divorce papers. Just another day for you and me in paradise? Maybe for you, Philip.

In ten or fifteen years' time it won't be Devendra Banhart or Michael Mayer that get referenced in a mid-2000s revival, it'll be Keane and Fedde Le Grande.

If I were to draw up a list of people that I thought would be likely to get referenced in a mid-2000s revival, Devendra Banhart would be far from the first artist to spring to mind and I'd be surprised if he did have any influence in a mid-2000s revival since he was painfully easy to overlook at the time. It'll be Gorillaz, Amy Winehouse, Arctic Monkeys and, god forbid, Coldplay.

Like, no one really HATES Phil Collins these days, or at least not like they used to.

Collins was respected and liked in the American R&B community for years and his songs are still recurrents.

PC Music is way too contemptuous of its sources

been listening to this argument for two years now and still no idea why PC Music is a special case where playing with sounds and pictures gets labelled as "contempt" - I get it that lots of people don't like it, fair enough as with anything, but calling it "contempt" seems like a rationalization instead of an argument. As far as I can tell, AG Cook genuinely loves late 90s commercial pop a good deal more than, say, Mark Ronson loves 80s funk.

It was huge wasn't it? He barely had time to go away before r'n'b comps of Phil Collins covers started coming out.
And more recently all that yacht-rock/vaporwave/Haim stuff was tapping directly into patently uncool 80s AOR music that cool kids absolutely hated at the time.

xp

PC Music is tongue in cheek, post-modern, knowing, satirical and snotty; not sure about contemptuous.

If I were to draw up a list of people that I thought would be likely to get referenced in a mid-2000s revival, Devendra Banhart would be far from the first artist to spring to mind and I'd be surprised if he did have any influence in a mid-2000s revival since he was painfully easy to overlook at the time. It'll be Gorillaz, Amy Winehouse, Arctic Monkeys and, god forbid, Coldplay.

Don't know how you can revive Winehouse as she was already a retro act, but if Grease revivals are a thing then I guess that make sense in a way? Still, hard to work out what the lasting image of 2000s will be - look what a mess this summary is for a start - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000s_in_music

It's entirely possible to revive something that's already retro!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L4aR-Kr3xs

00s revival would have to include Animal Collective. Even people who didn't like them or never heard of them at the time would recognize the tech-y, yet naive neo-hippy aesthetic, and it's something you can both be nostalgic for, and embarrassed about

I feel like Grimes' Art Angels seems a bit ahead of the curve in sounding like a late 90's/ early 00's revival.

A hip reboot of XTC's Travels In Nihilon would be nicely ironic

00s revival would have to include Animal Collective. Even people who didn't like them or never heard of them at the time would recognize the tech-y, yet naive neo-hippy aesthetic, and it's something you can both be nostalgic for, and embarrassed about

― Dominique, Tuesday, September 13, 2016 4:28 PM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Personally, I would be fucking embghhngghhmmmmnghhghhhh nghghghnmmmngh!!!

https://janeymackenstreet.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/zippy.jpg

this thread = a ride inside a time/washing machine

I think the 80s revival will only makes sense once the production of David Frank gets a full reevaluation. I only recently realized his influence.

I currently see him as '80s chart competition for Prince, being the man behind Chaka Khan's "I Feel For You" AND Phil Collins Sussudio before bringing Chaka Khan onto a "Higher Love" with Steve Winwood, all while working that Yamaha gear to death -- as a member of The System.

And, of course, Scritti Politti seeking him out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JucUVFZmkn4

yeah that nice chunky, bass-driven sound with the fast but wet drums. you can't not like that

lots of people hate phil collins, you need to get off of hipster island, brah

We rode the storm, out on Hipster Island.

If you don't hate him for Genesis' "I Can't Dance" video then you are a disgusting savage.

When will 60s retro end? I think some things (styles, aesthetic sensibilities, sounds) are just turning out to be more enduring than many expected. The model of inevitable constant rapid turnover in popular music might just be flawed.

Like, no one really HATES Phil Collins these days, or at least not like they used to.

I will always hate Phil Collins.

you can't hurry love

"I'm interested in seeing what 00s retro looks like, because it seems completely devoid of defining characteristics."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE_bDNaYAr8

i'm ready for this again, by the way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv1_epNEK5s

soom t reminds me of mc kinky a little bit

https://youtu.be/R3i5OiHGK78

the 90's never really died in dance music. the sandstorm guy put this out last year. don't ask me why i was watching this on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voc0v2HITP4

always so much stuff like that on youtube. when i go digging for euro-beats. it'll never die.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo1aYpYpsfA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Doz5w2W-jAY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sAHiR0rkJg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU8qIUTR8A0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkNp56UZax4

2001: an ILM Odyssey

http://www.alexlaird.com/content/uploads/2012/06/Napster.jpg

china is bringing back the 90's too:

http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2015/09/23/diga-diga-doo-chinatown-roarin-night-swing-dance-vintage-fashion-and-burlesque-photos

Who was still using Napster in 2001? Hadn't all the cool kids moved onto AudioGalaxy by that point?

I dragged behind, finding AG in 02/02

I'm interested in seeing what 00s retro looks like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZmM-2gj5Gc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--Vaz9jW054

But really, my hope for a 2000s revival is just a bunch of bands that sound like Andrew W.K.

i'm waiting for a tribute album to the 1990s led zeppelin tribute album _encomium_