Taking Sides : 70s vs 80s

The 80s, because I'm alla bout that fake shit.

wait, is ANYONE going to say seventies? well i might, it's very close, but rap wins over jazz, funk, and soul, and synthpop and eighties brit-rock win over punk and metal and country rock. oh, and my birth certainly wins over a decade without me.

Mike Watt told the kids of today to defend themselves against the 70s, and it looks like they listened.

Very close, but I'll say 70s. These days, when I listen to music that's new to me from the 70s, I usually like it more than stuff new to me from the 80s. I like 70s R&B better than 80s R&B. Then you got your Krautrock. Also, I like disco more than most hip-hop until around 1986. Yup, 70s it is.

I think I'd have to say the 80s, because Mozart didn't really hit his stride until then. The Marriage of Figaro was 1786. I think his most haunting work was in the 90s, but that's outside the range of this question. 80s it is.

Sean rools.

Eighties. More gloss.

The most exciting music for me is the kind I have yet to hear, and the 70s hold more mystery for me, if only because I wasn't paying attention to music at the time. I feel like I have the 80s pretty well covered - the only areas I feel like investigating in more detail are hip hop and disco from about 1980 to 1984, and top 40 music from around 1984. Whereas from where I stand, the 70s look like a bottomless pit of weirdness and shamelessness in infinite varieties, that I can't even begin to know with any depth... and that's thrilling. So 70s it is.

BTW, Chuck Eddy fans (and everyone else, really) should look for Phil Dellio and Scott Woods' book, I Wanna Be Sedated - it's freakin' hilarious, and sometimes oddly touching, and explores such 70s phenomena as double live albums, K-Tel records and Abba.

70's hands down. Glam, punk, and disco!

Eighties Fan.

Mmm, 70s for a lot of stuff (Kraftwerk, Chic, Patti Smith, Blondie, soundstracks of my favorite series on tellie) and just being a child and hearing stuff freely.

Still: 80s...House Music, clinches it all.

Tthe 80s are better. More hair.

70's: Krautrock, Classic Rock, Devo, Beach Boys...

80's: Power Metal Ballads, Bangles, The Final Countdown, lots of pop

4-4! It's a draw...no extra time, no golden goal, no penalty shoot outs.

Generalising, o'course: 70s bands had a wider musical palette and greater, more extravagant, unrestrained creativity than 80s bands. 80s saw homogenisation of music (new genres, eg. rap, excepted). Thus, 70s highs were higher, lows were lower.

How was the music in the 80s any more homogenic than music in the 70s? Or any other era for that matter?

I'll take my decade from the middle of the pile: '75-'85 it is for me! :-)

i think i'd have to go with the 70s.

the beach boys in their most peculiar and possibly most satisfying decade, david bowie when he was good, al green before jesus took him from us, disco and the proto-disco of philly international, broooooooce when he was still rockin', abba, stooges, dolls, james brown at his funkiest, p-funk, roxy, t. rex, big star, led zep, cheap trick, the two elvises: both at their most extreme, stevie wonder, waits when he was a boozehound, etc.

the 80s suffer because i lived through them and therefore can recall with first-hand experience all of the crap. sure, i know about the crap from the 70s, but i didn't have to live with it.

More hair, Jeff? How d'you work that one out? More hair products, maybe.

I lived through the seventies, Fred, so I can testify: there was some really awful crap there, too. Free-jam wankerama. Double albums that shouldn't have even been singles. Disco. Just the fact that the 70s gave birth to Starland Vocal Band's "Afternoon Delight" should be enough to condemn them, if we're only look at the chaff. Seriously, I'd say it's really a split decision, because you can certainly find enough great stuff in either decade to make a fairly good collection. You just have to work to find it.

Search : disco, double albums, "Afternoon Delight"

Destroy : free-jam wankerama

Ally, re. "homogenic": I said generalising so, umm, in GENERAL, 80s had far more top-down record company (or band) instigated narrowing of "formulas for success", bands signed specifically to be "the new [someone]". Eg. Virgin sign Roxx Gang, Atlantic sign D'Molls, MCA sign Pretty Boy Floyd, each "the new Poison" (all flop). In 70s, less of that. Eg. Blue Oyster Cult are successful band, no clones appear. (And in 80s, BOC reign in, ie. homogenise, their own sound in ill-fated attempt to get back on radio.) I hear more extremes in 70s music, more refinement in 80s. Much more second guessing (of public tastes) in 80s music; a narrowing of purpose. Ergo earlier comment, 70s both better and worse than 80s. Which doesn't preclude liking more 80s than 70s music. (Still vague, so dunno. Also contingent on definitions of homogenic, 70s, 80s. Also tedious.)

Other eras: not relevant to question. Though, yeah, 50s rock'n'roll, 50s crooners, 30s blues, all sound more "homogenized" (as musical genres) than an amorphous category of "80s music".

The Seventies, hands down and for mostly the very reasons Fred Solinger stated. (I'd also throw in Zappa and The Odd Couple, but that's just me).

Matter of fact, I'd take the Seventies over the Sixties too. Partly because all the bad shit associated with the Seventies -- crap clothes, double- and triple-albums of pseudo-cosmic wank, Ronald Reagan -- were all born in the Sixties (though they grew up in the Seventies). Plus the Seventies had all the sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll and fun that the Sixties did but without getting drafted to go to Vietnam and without all the hippie bullshit.

Lets see... The 70s Mainstream: Kansas, ELP, Kiss, Journey, Styx The 80s Mainstream: Madonna, U2, REM, Springsteen, Michael Jackson The 70s Underground: Roxy Music, Devo, Kraftwerk, Sex Pistols The 80s Underground: Cure, Sonic Youth, Sinead O'Connor Well, if it wasn't for the 70s underground, this wouldn't even be close.

The 80s were the worst decade ever, what can you say about an era where Bret Easton Ellis is the only dignified survivor? I could go on and on, but two words will suffice - "Live Aid"

70s. I hated the 80s.

More stuff I hate in the 80s, but also more I love, so it wins. Could just be that that's when my musical tastes were formed.

For pop music, definitely the 70's. I lived through both decades, for what that's worth, though my listening habits were pretty different. I was happier in the 70's, overall, so it could be nostalgia. There is much more mainstream pop from the 70's that I really like than from the 80's, especially Soul and R&B songs, and also (something I'm just realizing I like quite a bit) country rock and some country crossover things.

Also, something that is seriously overlooked is how much good salsa was put out in the 70's. I am only now beginning to listen to this music, but there's some great stuff there: Louie Ramirez, Willie Colon, Ruben Blades, Cheo Feliciano, etc.

Brett Easton Ellis is dignified?

The 70's of course. The only good bands from the 80's were either from Minnesota or pseudo-gay stuff from England. How's that for sweeping generalization?

Psuedo-gay English people are fantastic. Did you see the way those people dressed? That was style and if I had my way we'd dress like that every day around my hometown. Especially Adam Ant.

Pseudo-gay 70s vs. pseudo gay 80s? The Sweet vs. Adam & the Ants? I don't know, I love it all. Pseudo-gay 90s have been a bit of a letdown, though.

There was a pseudo-gay 90s? The Sweet are clearly better, coz they were more bubblegum. Mook 70s vs. Mook 80s? 70s win for Kiss & Sabbath. Power Pop 70s vs. 80s? 70s for the Raspberries.

Brett Anderson, circa '93 or something: "I am a bisexual who's never had a homosexual experience." Bwahahahahahahaha!

Has anyone seen the VH-1 thing about "the 80s"? some rilly good clips with irritating commentary over the top (tho some good stuff from Boy George) -- punk DIY ethic applied to keyboards = new wave, Tom Waits comes in and says that keybs are antithesis of rock; is refuted via the magic of the editing suite by ANDY TAYLOR; synth sound "goes mainstream" a la Madonna and Depeche Mode (ok..) -- but i almost hurled my "good fist" thru the TV (ha) when i realized the narrative that was being set up was too much gloss --> reassertion of "real rock" which apprently means R E fucking M!! leads to grunge, leads to who knows where. any mention of what happened to all those keyboards, or of simultaneous strands of music and thought (gasp!) utterly comstocked out of the picture. gack. it was enough to put me off guitar-rock for GOOD as the epitome of reactionary authenticism. thanks VH1.

Yeah, me and Ramon were watching that yesterday and he's all like, "This is the best show ever" when all they were doing was showing Adam Ant poncing around and the Human League and New Order, he was singing along and so very happy. Then REM came into the picture. Then grunge. He was horrified. I wanted to smash the tv. So we put on MuchMusic, which had on a show called MuchGoesIbiza, which was so weird because while it started off with that awful Vengaboys song about Ibiza, it then turned into Rock DJ and Incubus. I didn't understand what that had to do with Ibiza, such a potential for fantastic stupidity gone so horribly wrong.

But yeah, that VH1 show was like propeganda for dad rock. Ramon got all mad, he's like all, "They wanna talk about disco and new wave being short lived fads! Look at grunge! It was like 3 years! And who sounds like that now besides fucking Staind! This is the most objectionable show ever!" And quite frankly, I agreed with him. So we turned off the Ibiza show and watched David Letterman instead. And why was Shannen Doherty hosting that '80s show?!?!?!

Because, uh, she was alive then? I think.

So was I! Why am I not on the show? I'm better looking than Shannen Doherty plus I was never in Mallrats.

That Ibiza show was horrible, it was all about this guy walking around rubbing lotion on not very attractive naked foreign hippie chicks, what the hell?

Ibiza is I think how you pronounce "kegger" in french.

I LOVED THE EIGHTIES!!! We had some of the coolest people. Kate Bush, Cyndi Lauper, (I still think she's better than Madonna) Madonna, Micheal Jackson (went solo & hit big with Thriller), U2, Siouxsie & The Banshees, the Cure, ABC, RunDMC, Jodie Watley, Janet Jackson, New Edition, Metallica (they've softened up over the years), DIO, Queensryche, Sade, Iron Maiden, Wham, Prince, Dexy's Midnight Runners, El DeBarge, A-Ha, Danzig, Billy Idol, Babyface, MC Hammer, (don't be fake, you know you loved him) the Bangles, the Clash, Duran Duran, Tears For Fears, Gloria Estafan, Anita Baker, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, New Order, Tina Turner (she came back strong) The Cluture Club... I could go on for days. Not only were the 80's better music wise, but don't let us get on television of the 70's & 80's. The Brady Bunch VS Married With Children... Not a chance in hell. We 80's had MTV the 70's had the Lawrence Welk Show. Let me stop before I really begin to laugh my ass off.

The '80s win because the '80s had Poison.

How about an answer from someone too young to remember either decade (born 1984 or later)? I wonder if the 80s sound different now if you were not there.

ha I was born in 78 and my recollection of the 80s is tenuous at the very best

OK Josh, so which decade do you prefer?

I'm curious about the ideas behind decades, the media-image of what a decade becomes, I guess, usurping what people's actual experiences were. The 80s as I lived it are crystal-clear in my mind, and now that the 80s are emerging as a pop culture trend, its interesting to compare the contemporary version of the 80s with my memories of the "real thing." Though my memories of the 70s are fuzzier (turned ten in 1979) something similar happened there. So someone who has almost no true memories of the 70s or 80s would approach both on equal footing, evaluating each solely on the basis of the media they come into contact with. And it seems like that could lead to soemthing interesting.

My last attempt to revive this thread...

mark, I still haven't broken through the 80s to find lots and lots good about them. so even though I actually know some about some music made in the 80s and like it, I still have the awful dominant pop culture stereotypes about the 80s (which make me despites them) hanging over my head, and a big hole in terms of non-dominant things that I know about. I still own less stuff from the 80s than any full decade since the 40s.

I can't help but think this might be typical for listeners with a certain kind of history: people who grew up on classic rock who haven't taken the time to load up on postpunk, hardcore, alternative, etc. from the 80s.

so the 70s I meant to say, except that it seems kind of by default. I don't have any great love for them, I mean. I just happen to like more records from that time.

a lot of those records are jazz records, which I barely know anything about in the 80s. but I notice that it's only in the 90s and 57-67 that I start caring more about the time period, and that makes sense to me, because I mostly prefer (have always preferred) contemporary rock and pop, and jazz after bop hit.

I was born in '84!! This renders me objective to judging either decade, but as an unfortunate by-product my record collection isn't fat enough to do so. ie I enjoy krautrock and disco, but they're both under-represented in my collection.

I've noticed for the 70's people mention mostly genres: "70's hands down. Glam, punk, and disco!", while the 80's are more revered for specific artists: "'80s win because the '80s had Poison"

This is why I immediately want to pick the 80's. The favorites really jump out. Stepping back and really examining the facts, tho, the "objectivity" only makes it harder to judge. I can't pick between Sly and Prince!

Results: inconclusive (but if you forced me I'd say 80's damnit)

'70s win -- everything that was popular in the '80s was around in the '70s too in some form (maybe the technology was a little different and the techniques less refined, but the ideas were there all the same).

Yes, but the 80s refined and perfected the failed experiments of the 70s.
70s == Captain and Tenille whereas 80s == Duran Duran. Same idea, but much more robust implimentation. (Simon LeBon is Tenille in this example.)

"Muskrat Love" vs. "Union of the Snake"

somewhere a cobra belches after a hearty meal of freshly swallowed muskrat.

The 70s were better in every way. Even classical music was better.

And I was burnt out on Open Up and Say. . . Ahh! within a couple wks of taping it when I was 10.

I'm gonna say '70s, if only because I'm kinda getting tired of the '80s stuff. But I think all it would take is a CSN or Grand Funk album to make me run back to the Me Decade.

Hard to choose. I think I go for the 80s, because of the 80-84 period. But then again, 87-90 was one of the worst periods ever for music. So hard to choose.

Generally, I think the best eras for music so far have been:
63-67 (Merseybeat/beat followed by the summer of 67 and a lot of great psychedelic pop)
72-76 (Golden age of prog and "pomp pop")
81-84 (New Romantics, Synthpop)
94-97 (Britpop)

Custos takes a very selective view of the mainstream 70s also. 70s AOR was better than 80s AOR anyway.

(Springsteen = 80s?)

Does New Rom synth really beat Yes/Genesis prog for you, Geir?

(Though if 70s AOR really was the entire mainstream, the 70s would quite possibly still win.)

I grew up with that stuff, remember. Prog may have been great, but other than prog (and some new wave) I am not too much of a 70s fan.

Custos takes a very selective view of the mainstream 70s also.
Just based on what I was exposed to as a kid.
I had to do research to find out that all the cool stuff from the 70s happened behind the scenes. And yes, I realize that alot of 80s mainstream was crap too, but it was MY crap. I grew up on that.
Nearly everybodies taste in music has an anchor in whatever they were listening to when they were 15.
It matters not if it was crud, they'll love it anyway.
Hence, why I love the 80s.

1970's!!! and you may wholesale destroy everything conjured up in the 80's AKA "The decade of Cockfarming" (credits for Cockfarmer paid to those due)

WOW! Cockfarmer is the best word ever!

70's and 80's? unseparable.