The "Hurting Hates the 1980s" Thread

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As I've said, I generally dislike music from the 1980s, excepting, admittedly, hip-hop, which was terriffic in the 80s.

I do like The Police, Talking Heads, occasionally Devo (but they're more of a novelty for me), I think Men at Work are sort of ok, and once in a while I enjoy Metallica or pre-Sammy Van Halen. Minor Threat and Bad Brains are good but I'm generally not a fan of hardcore music. I can't stand The Clash, New Order, Joy Division, The Smiths, Madonna, synth-pop in general, new wave in general, and a lot of stuff that was good in the 70s went bad in the 80s (David Bowie, Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade, jazz in general, funk and soul in general). This is because most 80s recordings sound like crap, so even if the music itself is good, I can't stand listening to it.

Go ahead, open my ears, suggest some stuff I should check out and prove me wrong. If I haven't already tried it, I will try to.

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:40 (twenty-one years ago)

If you like Talking Head and 70s prog-rock, you'll like 80s King Crimson. Don't bother with the studio albums for the most part though, get 'Absent Lovers'.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:45 (twenty-one years ago)

That's worth a shot, I guess. I'm not a huge prog guy but I like a few Yes albums very much.

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:46 (twenty-one years ago)

The Clash, New Order, Joy Division, The Smiths...

Madonna?

― cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:48 (twenty-one years ago)

detroit techno

― bulbs (bulbs), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:53 (twenty-one years ago)

throbbing gristle

― LE CHUCK!™ (ex machina), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:54 (twenty-one years ago)

XTC - Black Sea, English Settlement, Skylarking. There are more but I'm not familiar with them, they might be great, too.

― W i l l (common_person), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:55 (twenty-one years ago)

mohnomishe.

― :| (....), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:57 (twenty-one years ago)

SLAYER

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Prince?

― whenuweremine (whenuweremine), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:59 (twenty-one years ago)

NAPALM DEAF

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Alex in NYC to thread?

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 01:00 (twenty-one years ago)

hunt for stuff that eschews standard 80s production values: Savage Republic, Flipper, Melvins, Beat Happening, etc.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 01:02 (twenty-one years ago)

KILLING JERK

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 01:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Miles Davis - Live Around the World. It's hot. And speaking of Ricky Wellman...

Chuck Brown & the Soul Searchers!

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 01:07 (twenty-one years ago)

English Beat Sepcial Beat Service
Squeeze Singles: 45s and Under
(those seem in line with your likes)
then maybe look into stuff like Thomas Dolby (the rest of his albums sound NOTHING like the singles, in a way that's almost shocking) and I don't know where you are on Elvis Costello, but he's very lovable. And Sonic Youth was arguably doing their best work in the 80s, and REM's Murmur sounds like a near total disconnect from whatever the last piece of crap they put out - it is arrestingly great, and organic, low level of production, no synth anything etc.

― leslie (leslie), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 01:14 (twenty-one years ago)

The Klezmatics - Jews and the Abstract Truth

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 01:18 (twenty-one years ago)

How can you generalize that David Bowie "went bad" in the 80s? That's just a complete cliche. Let's Dance (1983) for example, is a *great* record, and also prominently featured the guitar work of Stevie Ray Vaughn (Hendrix acolyte and all-around rockist hero).

It sounds to me like you've swallowed hook, line, and sinker the party line that "80s music was style over substance." You'd do well not to generalize so much and make blanket statements until you really listen to a lot of music from the time period, or at least think about the things you're saying and base your judgments on your own reasons rather than what supposed "conventional wisdom" tells you to believe (e.g. David Bowie was great in the 70s and shitty in the 80s). Granted, *you* may prefer 70s Bowie to 80s Bowie, but that doesn't mean 80s Bowie is bad for all of us, and, extrapoliting from that, that you prefer 70s music and not 80s music, and therefore 80s music is *just plain bad*.

― dingdong, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 01:34 (twenty-one years ago)

So I guess 'Hurting' isn't named after the Tears for Fears record?

― dave q, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 02:27 (twenty-one years ago)

SCARFACE OST! Not because you might like it, but because it might help you like most other '80s music; if you listen to it then all other pop from that era will sound like the J.B.s by comparison.

(Disclaimer: The Scarface OST is the best album of 1983)

― MC Transmaniacon (natepatrin), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 03:08 (twenty-one years ago)

damn, dave q beat me to the post i so wanted to make!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 03:39 (twenty-one years ago)

The Scarface OST is the best album of 1983

you havent heard mohnomishe.

― :| (....), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 04:42 (twenty-one years ago)

replacements, meat puppets, husker du? hall and fuckin oates? ruling out an entire decade's worth of music is so fucking ridiculous...

― drew, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 04:48 (twenty-one years ago)

to each their own, one's man's meat & another's poison, etc.

but the 80s is to me what the 60s is to others.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 04:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Men at Work?!

What about Ornette Coleman's Prime Time in the 1980s? I think they did some fantastic things - I like it a lot more than the 80s Prince tracks whose sounds they bite. Mind you, I really like King Sunny Ade's stuff of that era too, from what I know of it. Reich's Tehillim? Glenn Branca? Sonic Youth? Meredith Monk? I really hate Minor Threat but I'm curious about Bad Brains after hearing Dr Know's guitar work on The New Danger.

Oddly, I don't find 80s hip-hop all that interesting compared to more recent stuff but that's me. Basically, the intrinsic dated quality of pop from that era is much harder for me to get over with music that I didn't actually listen to/like at the time. Since I was 1-10 in the 80s that means I only really like the schlockiest mainstream rock, with a few exceptions.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 05:09 (twenty-one years ago)

(For the most part, I do agree with you though. The 80s sucked for making synths seem like a bad idea. . . but what do you think of Def Leppard? AC/DC?)

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 05:17 (twenty-one years ago)

BTW you know what's eerie? Jordan from My So-Called Life kinda had the same face as Sebastian Bach from Skid Row. . . I was puzzling over who he looked like when he was trying the "Everyone thinks we had sex even though we barely know each other; we might as well prove them right" line of reasoning tonight. . . OK, I'll go now.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 05:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually I like tons of things from the 80s; I'm just sick to death of the nostalgia craze. Five years ago I was clamouring for a new wave revival.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 05:55 (twenty-one years ago)

the reggae was G-G-G-GREAT in the 80s.

check out Mad Professor & the On-U Sound and Wackies lables

― JaXoN (JasonD), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 06:19 (twenty-one years ago)

James Blood Ulmer, Odyssey
Sonny Sharrock, Seize the Rainbow and Guitar
For '80s Miles, I'd go with We Want Miles and maybe Star People

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 06:31 (twenty-one years ago)

i really fuckin love 80's r'n'b. Hurting, man, i thought you were with me.

― bulbs (bulbs), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 06:35 (twenty-one years ago)

AEC and Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy, of course.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 06:39 (twenty-one years ago)

electro. post post punk uk pop. acieeed. hiphouse. industrial. HOUSE.

― bulbs (bulbs), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 06:43 (twenty-one years ago)

you havent heard mohnomishe.

I don't trust bands with asterisks in their names. Also: "Tony's Theme". Enough said.

― MC Transmaniacon (natepatrin), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 07:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Wait,

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 13:09 (twenty-one years ago)

The hell? Supposed to be:

Wait, isn't Sexual Healing from the early 80s?

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 13:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Tom Waits's classic period was 1983-5 though it doesn't really sound like it was recorded in the 80s to me.

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 13:27 (twenty-one years ago)

1985-87 i mean.

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 13:27 (twenty-one years ago)

throbbing gristle

They split halfway thru 1981

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 13:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Captain Beefheart: Doc at the Radar Station
Fred Frith: Gravity, Speechless
The Butthole Surfers: (pretty much any major release from the 80s)
Mikey Dread: "World War III" "Mental Slavery" (but lots of other good reggae from the early 80s)

Eddie Palmieri: Eddie Palmieri
Willie Rosario: Atazame el Fogon

― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 13:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow, am I late to this.

How old are you, Hurting? And if you hate the 80's so damn much, why are you named after Tears For Fears' best album?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 16:07 (twenty-one years ago)

1) In response to Alex, I am 25.

2) I am not named after a Tears for Fears album, but if it's that good, what I've heard is sorta ok so I'll check it out.

3) Sonic Youth's albums from the 1980s are certainly very good, so thanks for pointing that out. Some of the Tom Waits stuff I've heard from the 80s is pretty good too (i.e. Frank's Wild Years) but I generally prefer the Bone Machine-type stuff.

4) I really don't like Butthole Surfers, Hall and Oates, REM, 1980s Miles Davis (though admittedly I haven't listened to EVERYTHING), Ornette Coleman's Prime Time, Detroit techno, or the guitar work of Stevie Ray Vaughn (in re: the aforementioned Bowie album).

5) As someone mentioned stuff that eschews 80s production values, I'd say that's the right idea for me. Beat Happening is a band I've meant to check out more.

6) I don't think it's fair to say that I believe the 80s were about "style over substance," -- in fact I often find the 80s style is what gets in the way of the substance for me. Maybe that makes me shallow.

Thanks for the suggestions.

― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 3 November 2004 00:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Beat Happening makes me want to assault invalids.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 3 November 2004 02:19 (twenty-one years ago)

ist two sebadoh albums, "the freed man" and "weed forestin'". accoustic home recordings. the essence of lo-fi (recorded onto c90s it sounds like). hugely un-80s sounding (are 86/87?). sometimes very funny, sometimes touching. great stoner-folk, not boring lou-barlow rock. lovely melodies.

― Muffy, Wednesday, 3 November 2004 04:03 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

Sorry, still feel the same.

― Abbadabba Berman (Hurting), Tuesday, 6 December 2005 03:30 (twenty years ago)

More 80's recommendations:

Virgin Prunes "New Form Of Beauty" (now reissued)

The aforementioned mohnomishe and anything else by Zoviet France

Nurse With Wound's "Sylvie And Babs"

maybe some Camper Van Beethoven, the first 3 albums.

Lots of SWANS.

― sleeve (sleeve), Tuesday, 6 December 2005 04:17 (twenty years ago)

OK, now that I've read some of Hurting's jazz loves, I also recommend:

Biota/Mnemonists

HNAS (Hirsche Nicht Aufs Sofa)

Arthur Russell

80's era Sun City Girls - 1st, Grotto Of Miracles, Horse Cock Phepner, Torch Of The Mystics, and maybe some of those Eclipse reissues.

― sleeve (sleeve), Tuesday, 6 December 2005 05:12 (twenty years ago)

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