I appear to be against the 80s

Mid to late 80's? Detroit and Chicago techno and house might be a start?

to answer the question:
jane siberry - "the taxi ride"

Slovenian mentalists Laibach got me through 1986, a very bleak year.

N you must know all of these already.

What about Prince, N.?

Non-PE or non daisy age hip hop recommendations would be good too.

Zebedee - 'organic British indie' = Smiths, C86, Lloyd Cole, Housemartins etc.

Nipper - tell me more about Jam and Lewis.

There is no denial here. But all you have to do is listen to the Bananarama greatest hits comp to see how quickly the formula just DIES. It's like watching a comedian tell you the same joke over and over again.

I'd forgotten Bananarama! "Love In The First Degree" is one of the best SAW productions, LOADS better than Kylie. In fact let's be honest, Kylie was shit before 2001.

I am starting to think I have more of gap from 1984-1987 than the very end of the 80s.

MY POINT. ;-)

Has there ever ever ever been a better pop star name than STERLING VOID btw?

It's up there. None more glam except it was in an even more alien time and place.

Thanks to whoever reminded me of Rock Me Amadeus though.

JtN - is that complete? What workshy fops.

There's a soppy ad on telly at the moment that has The Style Council's 'You're the best thing' on it which reminded me how much I still love mid-80s white sock soul.

Also N should hear "Meeting In The Ladies Room" and "The Men All Pause" by Klymaxx.

And was "Don't Disturb This Groove" 80s or later?

Neneh Cherry is a good reminder, Tom. Jane Wiedlin I don't like (or at least not 'Rush Hour', which is the only solo thing of hers I know)

Was there any good country or folk infused rock in the 80s? Please don't suggest Bruce Hornsby & The Range.

To me they epitomise everything that was good about the 80's.

I sort of hate that Foreigner track too, if that helps.

Tom wrote interestingly about I Want To Know What Love Is here, for anyone who hasn't seen it.

Grapes of Wrath - "All the Things I Wasn't" is pretty organic and I bet you haven't heard it. I haven't either in maybe a decade but I remember liking it.

I’m surprised no-one’s mentioned the old favourites I Can’t Wait by Nu Shooz and Since Yesterday by Strawberry Switchblade yet. (unless they have and I’ve missed it).

Other David: who's mad?

Despite predating the emo trend, All The Things I Wasn't probably really is the most emo song ever - aside from the subject matter and slow tempo, the Grapes had that look about them, and the video featured a slowly turning set of rooms in a house where they moped about looking lonely, staring at the ceiling and playing records to themselves. It's great.

http://www.geocities.com/grapesnut/discs/singles/attiw-45.html

My sister saw the singer from TGOW do a solo show this year. She said he gets really upset when people ask for "All the Things I Wasn't", which is pretty emo in itself.

Bloody hell! Oz Crawl gets a guernsey!

Part of this is just that I was a teenager in the 80s and a lot of those records are too special/overplayed for me to want them on my computer. But partly I think that maybe the 80s are a bit rubbish

80s radio was pretty terrible overall. 80s underground music was thriving. early 80s new wave was pretty thrilling to young teenage me.

The kids of today should defend themselves against the 70s. Actually. I think we might skip a few generations. We need to go back deeper into our past to comparitively analyze the 10s.

Ragtime, tin pan alley, oh brother where art thou shit

I will rep for alt 80s music until I go blue in the face. 4AD alone is worth the price.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

see also, almost everything on this:

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/fca05a33b948d4974ad94f1303a085d4/197279.jpg

I was about to say I was suprised at who started this til I realised it was dastoor and not sick mouthy.

I wasn't at the age yet during the '80s when I cared about production values, so pop music just sounded like pop music to me. Later, I revolted against anything that sounded '80s (excepting things like Depeche Mode, The Cure, 4AD stuff, etc) with all its thin synth sounds, gated drums, sax solos, Linn drum fills, and so on.

Cut to now. I can't get enough of it. I probably embrace more Top 40 stuff these days than I did when it was new. I love the sound of it. I love the feel of it. I'm a sucker for any present-day band who tries to recreate it, and I'm not talking about the Joy Division clones. Bands like Superfamily, O'Spada, Alphabeat (well, their first album anyway), Montauk, DYNO...and a lot of other ones, but you get the idea.

I realize this puts me in the same bracket as people who went nuts over The Black Crowes in 1990 (the timing differential is exactly the same). Whereas the Stones and Zeppelin used to be dad rock, it's now granddad rock. Dadrock now is Daryl Hall & John Oates, INXS and Lisa Lisa. I'm not a dad, but I'm gladly embracing the rape and pillage of my youth.

thanks, johnny. not sure i'll like all those bands you mention, but i've never heard of them before, and now i'm going to check them out.

lately, i've been on a kick for big sounding music, rather than my more usual preference for lean, angular stuff. so i've been sampling bands like black mountain (who i've heard before, to be fair), main street gospel, and mount carmel. strange. anyway, for another thread, i suppose.

(bands you mention being the string-cite beginning with superfamily . . .)

Dadrock now is Daryl Hall & John Oates, INXS and Lisa Lisa

sadly true. but don't worry -- someday, not so far away, katy perry will be dadrock. well, maybe dadpop.

by the by, Montauk has already kind of abandoned their '80s fetishism in favor of a more modern-sounding dance thing and Alphabeat's second album kind of moves into the early '90s copping things like Ace of Base.

I should probably make a comp out of the particular bands/songs I'm talking about. That will be a fun project for the weekend.

The thing that first drew me to Superfamily was this song, which sounds like Daryl Hall singing for Prefab Sprout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22wn1MqkST0

another: this new band -- christian death -- sounds exactly like a blended version of early-to-mid 80s hair-bands/judas-priest. i dig their disc, too.

For me the 80s is all about big clear sparkling bright production - and the perfect example is "New Gold Dream" by Simple Minds.

But i also love that "we recorded this in a room with shag carpeting on the floor, walls and ceilng" sound. Hum, cant think of any specific examples though.

Here's the Montauk song I love the most.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-f_gSG9vgI

sorry: christian mistress. too many interchangeable doomy, death, s&m terms with these bands.

this new band -- christian death

You're playing dumb here, right?

Oh, haha. Ok. xp

Here's another one I neglected to mention above: "Only Do For Love" by Cache Cache. The production is exquisite, and it's written like '80s pop (chord choices and such).

http://www.myspace.com/cachecachemusic

Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (Manifesto Records, 1980)
Cramps - Songs The Lord Taught Us (IRS, 1980)
Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth (1980)
Glenn Branca - Lesson no. 1 EP (99Records, 1980)
Tony Allen - No Discrimination (1980)
Glenn Branca - The Ascension (Acute, 1981)
Au Pairs - Playing With a Different Sex (1981)
Jon Hassell - Fourth World, Vol. 2: Dream Theory in Malaya (Editions Eg Records, 1981)
Durutti Column - LC (Factory Records, 1981)
Wipers – Youth of America (Restless Records, USA, 1981)
Derek Bailey - Aida (Incus - 1981)
Antena - Camino del Sol (Crepuscule, 1982)
King Sunny Adé - Juju Music (Mango, 1982)
The Television Personalities - They Could Have Been Bigger Than The Beatles (Fire UK, UK, 1982)
Rain Parade - Emergency Third Rail Power Trip (Restless Records, USA, 1983)
Liquid Liquid - Optimo Ep (1983)
King Sunny Adé - Aura (Mango, 1984)
Arvo Pärt - Tabula Rasa (ECM, 1984)
Husker Du - Zen Arcade (Sst Records, 1984)
Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime (Sst Records, 1984)
Cocteau Twins - Treasure (4AD, 1984)
Jacobites - Robespierre's Velvet Basement (Glass, 1985)
Jesus And Mary Chain - Psychocandy (Reprise, 1985)
Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel - Nail (Thirsty Ear, 1985)
Beat Happening - Beat Happening (K. Records, 1985)
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs (Island, 1985)
Einsturzende Neubauten - Haus der Lüge (Thirsty Ear, 1985)
Eric B. & Rakim - Eric B. Is President / My Melody 12" (4th + B'Way, 1986)
The Feelies - The Good Earth (Coyote Records, 1986)
They Might Be Giants - They Might Be Giants (Bar/None, 1986)
H.N.A.S. - Im Schatten der Möhre (dom, 1987)
Kahondo Style - Green Tea & Crocodiles (nato, 1987)
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation (Sonic Youth Record, 1988)
Big Black - Songs About Fucking (Touch & Go Records, 1988)
Stone Roses - Stone Roses (1989)
Pixies - Doolittle (Elektra, 1989)

The 80s were an ace period, but most of the best stuff was 80-84 rather than 85-89. Early Depeche Mode, Japan, Human League, Duran Duran, ABC, Heaven 17, Yazoo, Ultravox, Howard Jones, Thomas Dolby, Thompson Twins, Dollar. So much great stuff!

Early Depeche Mode, Japan, Human League, Duran Duran, ABC, Heaven 17, Yazoo, Ultravox, Howard Jones, Thomas Dolby, Thompson Twins, Dollar. So much great stuff!

I like all these bands of course, but that's maybe the most homogeneous list I've ever seen used to make a case for anything.

It is homogenous on purpose. Because that genre more than anything else was what made the early 80s so great. I left out a lot of great names on purpose. :)

Well, that all has the "80's" badge stamped on it, true.