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1980s in music

January 26, 2023

This article includes an overview of the famous events and trends in popular music in the 1980s.

1970s . 1980s in music . 1990s
Other topics: Anthropology . Comics . Fashion . Science and technology . Sociology . video games
For music from a year in the 1980s, go to 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89

The 1980s saw the emergence of electronic dance music and new wave, also known as Modern Rock. As disco fell out of fashion in the decade's early years,[1] genres such as post-disco, Italo disco, Euro disco, and dance-pop became more popular. Rock music continued to enjoy a wide audience.[2] Soft rock,[3] glam metal, thrash metal, shred guitar characterized by heavy distortion, pinch harmonics, and whammy bar abuse became very popular.[4] Adult contemporary,[5] quiet storm,[6] and smooth jazz gained popularity. In the late 1980s, glam metal became the largest, most commercially successful brand of music worldwide.[7]

The 1980s are commonly remembered for a great increase in the use of digital recording, associated with the usage of synthesizers, with synth-pop music and other electronic genres featuring non-traditional instruments increasing in popularity. Also during this decade, several major electronic genres were developed, including electro, techno, house, freestyle, and Eurodance, rising in prominence during the 1990s and beyond. Throughout the decade, R&B, hip hop, and urban genres were becoming commonplace, particularly in the inner-city areas of large, metropolitan cities; rap was especially successful in the latter part of the decade,[8] with the advent of the golden age of hip hop. These urban genres—particularly rap and hip hop—would continue their rise in popularity through the 1990s and 2000s.

A 2010 survey conducted by the digital broadcaster Music Choice, which polled over 11,000 European participants, revealed that the 1980s was the most favoured tune decade of the last 40 years.[9]

Notable artists include Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Madonna, George Michael (as well as Wham!), Prince and The Police.

Economics

 
Olivia Newton-John's song "Physical" spent the most number of weeks during the 1980s in number one.

Reflecting on changes in the music industry during the 1980s, Robert Christgau later wrote in Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s (1990):

The '80s were above all a time of international corporatization, as one major after another gave it up to media moguls in Europe and Japan. By 1990, only two of the six dominant American record companies were headquartered in the U.S. Bizzers acted locally while thinking globally in re audiences/markets (will it sell in Germany? Australia? Venezuela? Indonesia now that we've sunk the pirates? the U.S.S.R.?) and artists/suppliers (world music was a concept whose geoeconomic time had come). After a feisty start, independent labels accepted farm-team status that could lead to killings with the bigs. Cross-promotional hookah became the rule—the soundtrack album, the sponsored tour, the golden-oldie commercial, the T-shirt franchise, the video as song ad and pay-for-play programming and commodity fetish. Record executives became fewer impresarios than arbitragers, speculating in abstract bundles of rights whose physical characteristics meant little or nothing to them. Rock was mere music no longer. It was reconceived as intellectual property, as a form of capital itself.[10]

Commercial stardom, as measured by music recording sales certifications, replaced artistry as an indication of a musician's significance, according to Christgau. "When art is intellectual property, image and aura subsume aesthetic substance, whatever exactly that is", he explained. "When art is the capital, sales interface with aesthetic quality—Thriller's numbers are part of its experience."[10]

North America

See also: Music history of the United States in the 1980s

Pop

The 1980s saw the reinvention of Michael Jackson, and the worldwide superstardom of Prince, Madonna and Whitney Houston, who were all among the most successful musicians during this time.

 
Michael Jackson is one of the most successful pop music artists in history and has been nicknamed the "King of Pop".

Michael Jackson, along with Prince, was the first African American artist to have his music videos in heavy rotation on MTV, with "Beat It", and "Billie Jean". (Donna Summer placed the first two videos by an African American female artist, with "She Works Hard for the Money" and "Unconditional Love", both in 1983.) Jackson's Thriller (1982) is the best-selling album of all time, selling 25 million copies during the decade. The album had sold over 65 million copies. His other album, 1987's Bad, has the honour of being the first album in history to have five number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Its accompanying world tour also made history by being the highest-grossing tour by a solo artist in the 1980s, as well as the highest-grossing at the time. In addition to being the biggest selling artist of the decade, Jackson had nine number-one singles – more than any other activities during the decade – and spent the longest time at number one (27 weeks) in the 1980s. He won numerous awards, including "Artist of the Decade" and "Artist of the Century", and was arguably the biggest star of the 1980s.[11]

 
Whitney Houston, nicknamed ''The Voice'', is one of the biggest selling music artists of all time, with over 200 million records sold worldwide.

Whitney Houston was one of the most successful artists of the decade. Her eponymous debut studio album was the best-selling debut album by a solo artist at the time, and her sophomore album Whitney is the first female album to debut at No. 1 in the Billboard 200. She also became the first and only artist to earn seven consecutive number-one songs on the Billboard Hot 100, from "Saving All My Love for You" in 1985 to "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" in 1988. Her crossover appeal on the popular music charts as well as her prominence on MTV influenced generations of African American artists.[12]

Madonna was the best-selling female pop music artist of the decade. Her third studio release, True Blue, became the best-selling female album of the 1980s. Other Madonna albums from the decade include Like a Virgin, one of the best selling albums of all-time, and Like a Prayer ("As close to art as pop music gets," said Rolling Stone). Madonna made music videos a marketing tool and was among the first to make them an art form. Her songs topped several charts, such as: "Like a Virgin", "Papa Don't Preach", "La Isla Bonita" and "Like a Prayer". Madonna was named artist of the decade by several magazines and awards.

Paula Abdul hit it big in 1988. With her debut album Forever Your Girl, she was the first female to have four number-one singles from a debut album (only The Jackson 5 had done the same with their debut). She had five top ten hits from the album.

By 1980, the disco genre, largely dependent on orchestras, was replaced by a lighter synthpop production, which subsequently fuelled dance music.

 
Madonna has influenced various other artists and has often been referred to as the "Queen of Pop".[13]

In the latter half of the 1980s, teen pop experienced its first wave, with bands and artists including Exposé, Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, New Edition, Stacey Q, The Bangles, New Kids on the Block, Laura Branigan, Boy George and others becoming teen idols.

Prominent American urban pop acts of the 1980s include Tina Turner, Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson, Donna Summer, Whitney Houston and Diana Ross. African American artists like Lionel Richie and Prince became some of the decade's biggest stars. Their hit albums included 1999, Purple Rain, and Sign o' the Times by Prince and Lionel Richie, Can't Slow Down, and Dancing on the Ceiling by Richie.

 
Recording artist Prince was one of the most influential musicians of the decade. His 1984 Purple Rain album was certified Diamond by the RIAA.

Prince was one of the decade's most prolific artists, not just by being the top-charting artist in the US and worldwide. He was responsible for artists such as Vanity 6, for whom he wrote the dance chart-topping "Nasty Girl"; Morris Day and The Time, for whom he wrote the top 20 "Jungle Love"; Sheila E., for whom he wrote the top ten songs "The Glamorous Life" and number 11 "A Love Bizarre"; and Wendy & Lisa and Apollonia 6. He wrote "I Feel for You" for Chaka Khan, which won him a Grammy for best R&B song; "Sugar Walls" for Sheena Easton; and as well as doing a duet with "U Got the Look", he wrote "Manic Monday", a number two pop hit for The Bangles. Artists that covered his music included Tom Jones, who brought his version of the song "Kiss" into the top 40 for the second time in the decade. Melissa Morgan brought her cover of "Do Me, Baby" to the top of the R&B charts in 1986. Other notable artists that covered Prince during the 1980s were The Pointer Sisters and Cyndi Lauper.[14] He also won an Academy Award for the song "Purple Rain". In 1989, Irish singer Sinead O'Connor would record a cover of his song "Nothing Compares 2 U", which would become the biggest song of the year worldwide in the new decade to follow. Prince had four number-one singles and 14 top ten hits on the Hot 100 Chart.

Lionel Richie teamed with Diana Ross to record one of the decade's biggest hits "Endless Love", which topped the Billboard charts for nine weeks. Other songs by Richie, such as "All Night Long" and "Hello" also topped the charts, and he would have a total of five number one hits and thirteen top ten singles. Diana Ross brought "Upside Down" to the top spot in 1980; she would have two number-one singles, and eight top ten hits in the decade. Tina Turner topped the charts with "What's Love Got to Do with It" and scored a total of six top ten singles. Donna Summer's "She Works Hard for the Money" was a continuation of the feminist movement started in the 70s and a rallying cry for those who worked hard and wanted to be treated fairly. She would have five top ten singles in the decade.

 
Bruce Springsteen was one of the best-selling music artists of the decade.

Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A., AC/DC's Back in Black, Def Leppard's Hysteria, and Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet were some of the decade's biggest-selling albums on the Billboard Top 200 chart.

 
George Michael was the most successful British pop artist of the 1980s. His debut solo album Faith (1987) is one of the best selling albums of all time, with sales of over 25 million copies.

During the mid-1980s American pop singer Cyndi Lauper was considered[by whom?] the "Voice of the MTV Generation of '80s" and so different visual style that made the world for teens. Her first two albums She's So Unusual (1984) and True Colors (1986) were critically and commercially successful, spawning the hits, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", "Time After Time", "She Bop", "All Through the Night", "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough", "True Colors" and "Change of Heart".

Several British artists made the successful transition to pop during the 1980s and saw great commercial success, such as David Bowie, Phil Collins, John Lennon, Billy Ocean, Sheena Easton and Paul McCartney. Many British pop bands also dominated the American charts in the early 1980s. Many of them became popular due to their constant exposure on MTV, these bands included The Human League, Culture Club, Duran Duran, and Wham!. Between the four, they have had 9 U.S. number ones with hits like "Don't You Want Me", "Karma Chameleon", "The Reflex" and "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go". In the later part of the decade, Rick Astley, George Michael as a solo artist, Terence Trent D'Arby, and Fine Young Cannibals all found chart success.

At the beginning of the 1980s, Australian artists like Olivia Newton-John, Men at Work, Air Supply and AC/DC all had chart success, later in the decade INXS scored hits. Olivia Newton-John's hit "Physical" would top the Hot 100 for 10 weeks and be the decade's biggest hit in the US; she would have six top ten singles during the 80s.

American artists such as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Phil Collins, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Kool & the Gang, The Pointer Sisters, Billy Joel, Hall & Oates, Prince, Kenny Rogers and John Mellencamp, then known as John Cougar, ruled the charts throughout the decade in the US.[15] Jackson, Houston, Prince, Madonna, Joel and Springsteen along with U2, Dire Straits, Phil Collins, The Police, Queen, The Rolling Stones and Eurythmics achieved tremendous success worldwide.[16]

Rock

In the 1980s, rock music was more precisely defined and split up into multiple subgenres.

Hard rock and heavy/glam metal

 
Metallica in concert, 2003

Beginning in 1983 and peaking in success in 1986-1990, the decade saw the resurgence of hard rock music and the emergence of its glam metal subgenre. Bands such as AC/DC, Queen, Def Leppard, Kiss, Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, Quiet Riot, Scorpions, Europe, Ratt, Twisted Sister, Poison, Dokken, Whitesnake, and Cinderella were among the most popular acts of the decade. The 1980s saw the emergence of wildly popular hard rock band Guns N' Roses and the successful comebacks of Aerosmith and Alice Cooper in the late 1980s. The success of hard rock act Van Halen spanned throughout the entire decade, first with singer David Lee Roth and later with Sammy Hagar. Queen, which had expanded its music to experimental and crossover genres in the early 1980s, returned to guitar-driven hard rock with The Miracle in 1989. Additionally, a few women managed to achieve stardom in the 1980s hard rock scene: Pat Benatar and Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart, who had been around since the mid 1970s, are prime examples of female success in hard rock, and so are both ex-Runaways Joan Jett and Lita Ford.

 
Duff McKagan and Slash of Guns N' Roses

The arena rock trend of the 1970s continued in the 1980s with bands like Styx, Rush, Journey, Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, ZZ Top, and Aerosmith.

Traditionally associated (and often confused) with hard rock, heavy metal was also extremely popular throughout the decade, with Ozzy Osbourne achieving success during his solo career; bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Dio were also widely popular British acts. Speed metal pioneer Motörhead maintained its popularity through the releases of several albums. Underground scenes produced an array of more extreme, aggressive Metal subgenres: thrash metal broke into the mainstream with bands such as Metallica, Slayer, Exodus, Anthrax, and Megadeth. By the late 1980s, Metallica would achieve mainstream success and would become one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Other styles like death metal and black metal would remain a subcultural phenomena.

The decade also saw the emergence of a string of guitar virtuosi: Eddie Van Halen, George Lynch, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Randy Rhoads, Jason Becker and Yngwie Malmsteen achieved international recognition for their skills. While considerably less numerous, bass guitar virtuosi also gained momentum in the 1980s: Geddy Lee (of Rush), Billy Sheehan (of David Lee Roth and Mr. Big fame), Cliff Burton (of Metallica) and alternative/funk metal bassist Les Claypool (of Primus fame) became famous during that period. Iron Maiden founder and bassist Steve Harris has also been praised numerous times for his galloping style of bass playing.

Both hard rock and heavy metal were extremely popular live genres and bands toured extensively around the globe.

Alternative rock

 
One of the first alternative rock bands, R.E.M. relied on college radio airplay, constant touring, and a grassroots fanbase to break into the musical mainstream.

By 1984, a majority of groups signed to independent record labels were mining from a variety of rock and particularly 1960s rock influences. This represented a sharp break from the futuristic, hyper-rational post-punk years.[17]

Throughout the 1980s, alternative rock was mainly an underground phenomenon. While on occasion a song would become a commercial hit or albums would receive critical praise in mainstream publications like Rolling Stone, alternative rock in the 1980s was primarily relegated to independent record labels, fanzines and college radio stations. Alternative bands built underground followings by touring constantly and regularly releasing low-budget albums. In the case of the United States, new bands would form in the wake of previous bands, which created an extensive underground circuit in America, filled with different scenes in various parts of the country.[18] Although American alternative artists of the 1980s never generated spectacular album sales, they exerted a considerable influence on later alternative musicians and laid the groundwork for their success.[19]

 
The Bangles performing at The House of Blues in Cleveland

Early American alternative bands such as R.E.M., The Hits, The Feelies, and Violent Femmes combined punk influences with folk music and mainstream music influences. R.E.M. was the most immediately successful; its debut album, Murmur (1983), entered the Top 40 and spawned a number of jangle pop followers.[18] Alternative and indie pop movements sprang up in other parts of the world, from the Paisley Underground of Los Angeles (The Bangles, Rain Parade) to Scotland (Aztec Camera, Orange Juice), Australia (The Church, The Triffids), and New Zealand's Dunedin sound (The Clean, The Chills).

American indie record labels SST Records, Twin/Tone Records, Touch and Go Records, and Dischord Records presided over the shift from the hardcore punk that then dominated the American underground scene to the more diverse styles of alternative rock that were emerging.[20] Minnesota bands Hüsker Dü and The Replacements were indicative of this shift. Both started as punk rock bands, but soon diversified their sounds and became more melodic.[18]

By the late 1980s, the American alternative scene was dominated by styles ranging from quirky alternative pop (They Might Be Giants and Camper Van Beethoven), to noise rock (Big Black, Swans) to industrial rock (Ministry, Nine Inch Nails) and to early Grunge (Mudhoney, Nirvana). These sounds were in turn followed by the advent of Boston's the Pixies and Los Angeles' Jane's Addiction.[18]

American alternative rock bands of the 1980s included Hüsker Dü, The Replacements, Minutemen, R.E.M., Dinosaur Jr., Pixies, and Sonic Youth which were popular long before the Grunge movement of the early 1990s.

New singers and songwriters included Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Mark Heard, Lucinda Williams, Patti Smith, Rickie Lee Jones, Terence Trent D'Arby, Stevie Nicks, Suzanne Vega, Cheryl Wheeler and Warren Zevon. Rock and even punk rock artists such as Peter Case, Phil Collins and Paul Westerberg transitioned to careers as solo singers.

In the late 1980s, the term was applied to a group of predominantly female U.S. artists, beginning with Suzanne Vega whose first album sold unexpectedly well, followed by the likes of Tracy Chapman, Nanci Griffith, k.d. lang and Tori Amos, who found success first in the United Kingdom, then in her home market.

Other trends

 
George Thorogood and Jim Suhler performing

Various older rock bands made a comeback. Bands originating from the early to mid-1960s such as The Beach Boys and The Kinks had hits with "Kokomo", "Come Dancing" and "Do It Again". Bands with popularity in the mid-1970s such as the Steve Miller Band and Steely Dan also had hits with "Abracadabra" and "Hey Nineteen". Singer and songwriter Bruce Springsteen released his blockbuster album Born in the U.S.A., which produced a record-tying 7 hit singles. Stevie Ray Vaughan and George Thorogood sparked a revival of Atomic blues and Blues rock. Massively successful hard rock band Led Zeppelin disbanded after drummer John Bonham's 1980 death, while contemporaries AC/DC continued to have success after the death of former frontman Bon Scott. Country rock saw a decline after Lynyrd Skynyrd's 1977 plane crash and 1980 disbanding of the genre's most successful band, the Eagles. The Grateful Dead had their biggest hit in band history with "Touch of Grey". The Who managed to provide the hit songs "You Better You Bet" and "Eminence Front" before burning out after the death of their drummer Keith Moon.

Hardcore punk flourished throughout the early to mid-1980s, with bands leading the genre such as Black Flag, Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Suicidal Tendencies, D.O.A., and Dead Kennedys amongst others. It began to wane in the latter half of the decade, with the New York hardcore scene dominating the genre. However, it experiences a jumpstart in the late 1980s with emerging bands such as Operation Ivy and Green Day that would define not just the so-called "East Bay" sound but impact the next decade's punk and alternative sound. Some of which is still around today.

The 1980s proved a difficult time for many 1960s-70s veterans, many of them unable or unwilling to adapt to current trends. Music icons such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and The Rolling Stones released albums that were often poor quality and critically panned as they attempted to grapple with the changing times. MTV in particular was a problem for many artists, as it put a premium on youthfulness, good looks, and showmanship. Artists who became strongly associated with disco music also fell from grace and were often banned from radio play.

Contemporary R&B

See also: Contemporary R&B

Contemporary R&B originated in the 1980s, when musicians started adding disco-like beats, high-tech production, and elements of hip hop, soul and funk to rhythm and blues, making it more danceable and modern.[21] The top mainstream R&B artists of 1980s included Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Prince, Jermaine Jackson, James Ingram, The S.O.S. Band, Stevie Wonder, Kool & the Gang, Jeffrey Osborne, Smokey Robinson, Rick James, Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, Earth, Wind & Fire, New Edition, Evelyn King, Marvin Gaye, The Jets, DeBarge, Midnight Star, Club Nouveau, Stephanie Mills, Jody Watley, Rockwell, Rene and Angela, and Freddie Jackson.[22]

In the mid-1980s, many of the recordings by artists Luther Vandross, Freddie Jackson, Sade, Anita Baker, Teddy Pendergrass, Peabo Bryson and others became widely heard on the new quiet storm radio format.[22] The term had originated with Smokey Robinson's 1975 album A Quiet Storm. Quiet storm has been described as "R&B's answer to soft rock and adult contemporary—while it was primarily intended for black audiences, quiet storm had the same understated dynamics, relaxed tempos and rhythms, and romantic sentiment."[23]

Tina Turner made a huge comeback during the mid-1980s, while Donna Summer, Diana Ross, The Pointer Sisters and Irene Cara had success on the pop charts first half of the decade. Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson and Jody Watley had it in the second half of the decade. Irene Cara's Flashdance... What a Feeling was the number one song worldwide in 1983, and for the decade of the 80s.[24] Richard J. Ripani wrote that Janet Jackson's third studio album Control (1986) was "important to the development of R&B for several reasons", as she and her producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, "crafted a new sound that fuses the rhythmic elements of funk and disco, along with heavy doses of synthesizers, percussion, sound effects, and a rap music sensibility."[22] Ripani wrote that "the success of Control led to the incorporation of stylistic traits of rap over the next few years, and Janet Jackson was to continue to be one of the leaders in that development."[22] That same year, Teddy Riley began producing R&B recordings that included hip hop influences. This combination of R&B style and hip hop rhythms was termed new jack swing, and was applied to artists such as Bobby Brown, Keith Sweat, Guy, Today, Wreckx-n-Effect, Big Daddy Kane, Kool Moe Dee, Heavy D & the Boyz, Tammy Lucas, Nayobe, Abstrac, Deja, Starpoint, and Bell Biv DeVoe.[25]

Michael Jackson remained a prominent figure in the genre in the late 1980s, following the release of his album Bad (1987) which sold 6 million copies in the US in the 80s, and went on to sell more than 30 million copies worldwide.[26] Janet Jackson's 1989 album Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 continued the development of contemporary R&B into the 1990s, as the album's title track "Rhythm Nation" made "use of elements from across the R&B spectrum, including use of a sample loop, triplet swing, rapped vocal parts and blues notes."[22] The release of Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 became the only album in history to produce number one hits on the Billboard Charts Hot 100 in three separate calendar years—"Miss You Much" in 1989, "Escapade" and "Black Cat" in 1990, and "Love Will Never Do (Without You)" in 1991—and the only album in the history of the Hot 100 to have seven top 5 hit singles.

Hip hop

 
Beastie Boys in concert, 1992

Encompassing graffiti art, break dancing, rap music, and fashion, hip-hop became the dominant cultural movement of the African American communities in the 1980s. The Hip hop musical genre had a strong influence on pop music in the late 1980s which continues to the present day.

During the 1980s, the hip hop genre started embracing the creation of rhythm by using the human body, via the vocal percussion technique of beatboxing. Pioneers such as Africa Bambaataa, DJ Kool Herc, Melle Mel, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Whodini, Sugarhill Gang, Doug E. Fresh,[27] Biz Markie and Buffy from the Fat Boys made beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using their mouth, lips, tongue, voice, and other body parts. "Human Beatbox" artists would also sing or imitate turntablism scratching or other instrument sounds.

The 1980s also saw many artists make social statements through hip hop. In 1982, Melle Mel and Duke Bootee recorded "The Message" (officially credited to Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five),[28] a song that foreshadowed the socially conscious statements of Run-DMC's "It's Like That" and Public Enemy's "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos".[29]

Popular hip hop artists of the 1980s include Kurtis Blow, Run D.M.C., Beastie Boys, NWA, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Eric B. & Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Boogie Down Productions, Kid N Play, MC Lyte, EPMD, Salt N Pepa, and Ice-T, Schooly D, Slick Rick, Kool Moe Dee, Whodini, MC Hammer, among others.

Electronic music

In the 1980s, dance music records made using only electronic instruments became increasingly popular, largely influenced by the electronic music of Kraftwerk and 1970s disco music. Such music was originally born of and popularized via regional nightclub scenes in the 1980s, and became the predominant type of music played in discothèques as well as the rave scene.

House music is a style of electronic dance music which originated in Chicago, Illinois, in the early 1980s.[30] House music was strongly influenced by elements of soul- and funk-infused varieties of disco. Club play from pioneering DJs like Ron Hardy and Lil Louis, local dance music record shops, and the popular Hot Mix 5 shows on radio station WBMX-FM helped popularize house music in Chicago and among visiting DJs & producers from Detroit. Trax Records and DJ International Records, local labels with wider distribution, helped popularize house music outside of Chicago. It eventually reached Europe before becoming infused in mainstream pop & dance music worldwide during the 1990s.

It has been widely cited that the initial blueprint for techno was developed during the mid-1980s in Detroit, Michigan, by Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May (the so-called "Belleville Three"), and Eddie Fowlkes, all of whom attended school together at Belleville High, near Detroit.[31][32][33][34] Though initially conceived as party music that was played on daily mixed radio programs and played at parties given by cliquish, Detroit high school clubs, it has grown to be a global phenomenon.

Country music

 
Kenny Rogers, 2004

As the 1980s dawned, pop-influenced country music was the dominant style, through such acts as Kenny Rogers, Ronnie Milsap, T.G. Sheppard, Eddie Rabbitt, Crystal Gayle, Anne Murray and Dolly Parton. The 1980 movie Urban Cowboy, a romantic comedy starring John Travolta and Debra Winger, spawned a successful soundtrack album featuring pop-styled country songs, including "Lookin' for Love" by Johnny Lee, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by the Charlie Daniels Band, "Could I Have This Dance" by Murray and "Love the World Away" by Rogers. The songs, and the movie itself, resulted in an early 1980s boom in pop-style country music, and the era is sometimes known as the "Urban Cowboy Movement".

By the mid-1980s, country music audiences were beginning to tire of country-pop. Although some pop-country artists continued to record and release successful songs and albums, the genre, in general, was beginning to suffer. By 1985, a New York Times article declared country music "dead". However, by this time, several newcomers were working behind the scenes to reverse this perception.

The year 1986 brought forth several new artists who performed in traditional country styles, such as honky-tonk. This sparked the "new traditionalist" movement, or return to traditional country music. The most successful of these artists included Randy Travis, Dwight Yoakam, Ricky Van Shelton and Holly Dunn. Also, artists like Kathy Mattea and Keith Whitley, both of whom had been performing for a few years prior, had their first major hits during 1986; Mattea was more folk-styled, while Whitley was pure honky-tonk. But the new traditionalist movement had already taken hold as early as 1981 when newcomers such as Ricky Skaggs and George Strait had their first big hits. Reba McEntire had her first big hit in 1980 followed by 15 other number one hit singles during the decade. Also, songwriter–guitarist and Chet Atkins protégée Steve Wariner also emerged as a popular act starting in the early 1980s. Another boom period for newcomers with new traditionalist styles was 1989, when artists such as Clint Black, Garth Brooks, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Lorrie Morgan and Travis Tritt had their first big hits. It was Whitley who was seen as being one of the torchbearers of the new traditionalist movement, thanks to his pure honky-tonk style in the vein of Lefty Frizzell and others, and his star power was set to rise into the 1990s; however, Whitley was a known heavy drinker, and it was alcohol poisoning that ended his life in May 1989, just weeks after a song about triumph over personal demons – "I'm No Stranger to the Rain"—became a huge country hit. In keeping with the neotraditionalist movement, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris teamed up to release 1987's Platinum-selling Trio album. Composed mostly of traditional songs set to acoustic arrangements, the album won a Grammy in 1988 for best country collaboration.

Vocal duos were also popular because of their harmonies, most notably The Bellamy Brothers and The Judds. Several of the Bellamy Brothers' songs included double-entendre' laden hooks, on songs such as "Do You Love as Good As You Look". The Judds, a mother-and-daughter duo, combined elements of contemporary pop and traditional country music on songs such as "Why Not Me" and "Grandpa (Tell Me 'Bout the Good Ol' Days)".

Country music groups and bands continued to rise in popularity during the 1980s. The most successful of the lot was Alabama, a Fort Payne-based band that blended traditional and pop-country sounds with southern rock. Their concerts regularly sold out, while their single releases regularly reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Their mellow love ballad side would be most prominent in songs like "Feels So Right," "When We Make Love," "There's No Way" and "If I Had You," while their southern rock influences and Southern pride were most evident on songs like "Tennessee River," "Dixieland Delight" and "Song Of the South." In 1989, Alabama was named the Artist of the Decade by the Academy of Country Music. By the end of the 1980s, the group had sold more than 24 million albums in the United States.

Ranking just behind Alabama in popularity, as far as groups were concerned, were The Oak Ridge Boys and The Statler Brothers, both four-part harmony groups with the gospel and country-pop stylings. The Oak Ridge Boys found their biggest successes with songs like "Elvira," "Bobbie Sue" and "American Made." The Statlers began the decade with tenor singer Lew DeWitt, but health issues forced his retirement, and he'd be succeeded by Jimmy Fortune; with Fortune, the Statlers had three No. 1 hits, the biggest of which was "Elizabeth." The popularity of those three groups sparked a boom in new groups and bands, and by the end of the 1980s, fans were listening to such acts as Restless Heart and Exile, the latter which previously enjoyed success with the pop hit "Kiss You All Over".

Despite the prevailing pop-country sound, enduring acts from the 1970s and earlier continued to enjoy great success with fans. George Jones, one of the longest-running acts of the time, recorded several successful singles, including the critically acclaimed "He Stopped Loving Her Today". Conway Twitty continued to have a series of No. 1 hits, with 1986's "Desperado Love" becoming his 40th chart-topper on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, a record that stood for nearly 20 years. The movie Coal Miner's Daughter profiled the life of Loretta Lynn (with Sissy Spacek in the lead role), while Willie Nelson also had a series of acting credits. Dolly Parton had much success in the 1980s, with several leading movie roles, two No. 1 album and 13 number one hits, and having many successful tours; she also teamed up with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt in 1987 for the multi-platinum Trio album. Others who had been around for a while and continued to have great success were Eddy Arnold, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Ray Price, Hank Williams Jr. and Tammy Wynette.

In 1981, Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline, two artists who died in the 1960s (both in plane crashes), re-emerged in the spotlight when producer Bob Ferguson electronically created the "duet" "Have You Ever Been Lonely (Have You Ever Been Blue)." Neither Reeves nor Cline recorded together during their lifetimes but both recorded some of the same songs, and it was the style of "Have You Ever Been Lonely" that was the most conducive to a duet. The song was a top-5 success on the country chart in early 1982, and even got minor pop airplay.

In addition to newcomer Whitley, top classic country and influential performers who died during the decade included Red Sovine, Whitey Ford, Marty Robbins, Merle Travis, Ernest Tubb, Wynn Stewart and Tex Williams. Although not directly associated with country music, Roy Orbison, a popular performer with many country music fans and whose styles wound up being influential with many newcomers, died in 1988.

Europe

See also: Music of the United Kingdom (1980s) and Neue Deutsche Welle

Rock

Post-punk

 
Sinéad O'Connor rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra.
 
The Police, regarded by Rolling Stone as "possibly the biggest band in the world", November 1983.[35]

Some of the most successful post-punk bands at the beginning of the decade, such as Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Psychedelic Furs, also continued their success during the 1980s. Members of Bauhaus and Joy Division explored new stylistic territory as Love and Rockets and New Order respectively.[36]

The second generation of British post-punk bands that broke through in the early 1980s, including the Smiths, the Jesus and Mary Chain, the Cure, the Fall, the Pop Group, the Mekons, Echo and the Bunnymen and Teardrop Explodes, tended to move away from dark sonic landscapes.[36]

Even though the Police's first hit song "Roxanne" was written by Sting in 1978 (reaching number 12 in the UK Charts that year), the song continued to grow in popularity in the 1980s along with the band. Even though The Police had their roots in post-punk, their eventual success (four consecutive UK number one studio albums) and mega-stardom came from being able to pack the biggest stadium rock venues such as Wembley, the Oakland Coliseum and the Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro. Aside from U2, they are the only other band with post-punk origins to go on and achieve the kind of global success they did. Ireland's U2 incorporated elements of religious imagery together with political commentary into their often anthemic music, and by the late 1980s had become one of the biggest bands in the world.[37]

Although many post-punk bands continued to record and perform, it declined as a movement in the mid-1980s as acts disbanded or moved off to explore other musical areas, but it has continued to influence the development of rock music and has been seen as a major element in the creation of the alternative rock movement.[38]

New wave music

 
Dire Straits on stage, 1985
 
Controversial dance-pop band Frankie Goes to Hollywood, 1985

The arrival of MTV in 1981 would usher in new wave's most successful era. British artists, unlike many of their American counterparts, had learned how to use the music video early on.[39][40] Several British acts signed to independent labels were able to outmarket and outsell American artists that were signed with major labels. Journalists labelled this phenomenon a "Second British Invasion".[40][41]

In autumn 1982, "I Ran (So Far Away)" by A Flock of Seagulls entered the Billboard Top Ten, arguably the first successful song that owed almost everything to video.[40] They would be followed by bands like Duran Duran whose glossy videos would come to symbolize the power of MTV.[40] Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" gently poked fun at MTV which had helped make them international rock stars.[42] In 1983, 30% of the record sales were from British acts. 18 of the top 40 and 6 of the top 10 singles on July 18 were by British artists. Overall record sales would rise by 10% from 1982.[40][43] Newsweek magazine featured Annie Lennox and Boy George on the cover of one of its issues while Rolling Stone Magazine would release an England Swings issue.[40] In April 1984 40 of the top 100 singles were from British acts while 8 of the top 10 singles in a May 1985 survey were of British origin.[44] Veteran music journalist Simon Reynolds theorized that similar to the first British Invasion the use of black American influences by the British acts helped to spur success.[40] Commentators in the mainstream media credited MTV and the British acts with bringing colour and energy to back to pop music while rock journalists were generally hostile to the phenomenon because they felt it represented image over content.[40] MTV continued its heavy rotation of videos by new wave-oriented acts until 1987 when it changed to a heavy metal and rock dominated format.[45]

New Romantics
 
Duran Duran on stage, 2005

New Romanticism emerged as part of the new wave music movement in London's nightclub including Billy's and The Blitz Club towards the end of the 1970s. Influenced by David Bowie and Roxy Music, it developed glam rock fashions, gaining its name from the frilly fop shirts of early Romanticism. New Romantic music often made extensive use of synthesisers. Pioneers included Visage and Ultravox and among the commercially most successful acts associated with the movement were Culture Club, Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran.[46] By about 1983, the original movement had dissolved, with surviving acts dropping most of the fashion elements to pursue mainstream careers. Other New Romantic artists included Classix Nouveaux, A Flock of Seagulls, Gary Numan, Japan, Landscape, Thompson Twins, Soft Cell, ABC, the Teardrop Explodes, Yazoo and Talk Talk.

Gothic rock

 
The Cure on stage, 2008

Gothic rock music developed out of the post-punk scene in the later 1970s. Notable early gothic rock bands include Bauhaus (whose "Bela Lugosi's Dead" is often cited as the first goth record), Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, The Sisters of Mercy, and Fields of the Nephilim.[47] Gothic rock gave rise to a broader goth subculture that included clubs, various fashion trends and numerous publications that grew in popularity in the 1980s, gaining notoriety by being associated by several moral panics over suicide and Satanism.[48]

Heavy metal

In the early 1980s, the new wave of British heavy metal broke into the mainstream, as albums by Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Saxon and Motörhead, reached the British top 10. In 1981, Motörhead became the first of this new breed of metal bands to top the UK charts with No Sleep 'til Hammersmith. After a string of UK top 10 albums, Whitesnake's 1987 self-titled album was their most commercially successful, with hits, "Here I Go Again" and "Is This Love", earning them a nomination for the Brit Award for Best British Group.[49] Many metal artists, including Def Leppard, benefited from the exposure they received on ATV and became the inspiration for American glam metal.[50] However, as the subgenre fragmented, much of the creative impetus shifted towards America and continental Europe (particularly Germany and Scandinavia), which produced most of the major new subgenres of metal, which were then taken up by British acts. These included thrash metal and death metal, both developed in the UK; black metal and power metal, both developed in continental Europe, but influenced by the British band Venom; and doom, which was developed in the US, but which soon were adopted by many bands from England, including Pagan Altar and Witchfinder General.[51]

Pop

 
David Bowie saw commercial success during the early 1980s.
 
Phil Collins performing in 1981

Phil Collins had three UK number-one singles in the 80s, seven US number-one singles, another with Genesis, and when his work with Genesis, his work with other artists, as well as his solo career is totalled, Collins had more top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the 1980s than any other artist.[52] His former Genesis colleague, Peter Gabriel, also had a very successful solo career, which included a US number-one single and three top ten UK hits (including a duet with Kate Bush). Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford also enjoyed the several UK and US hits with his project Mike + The Mechanics, which included a US number-one single. David Bowie saw much greater commercial success in the 1980s than he had in the previous decade, scoring four UK number one singles, including "Let's Dance" which proved to be his biggest ever hit. He had a total of ten UK top ten hits during the decade, two in collaboration with other artists.

Boy George and his band Culture Club had great success in both the UK and US charts with major hits like "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", "Time (Clock of the Heart)" and "Karma Chameleon". As well as Boy George having his own UK number one with his cover of Bread's "Everything I Own", he is considered a major icon of this era. Liverpool band Frankie Goes to Hollywood's initially controversial dance-pop gave them three consecutive UK number ones in 1984, until they faded away in the mid-1980s.[53] Dead or Alive, also from Liverpool, was another popular dance-pop band in the mid-1980s. It was fronted by lead singer Pete Burns. Probably the most successful British pop band of the era were the duo Wham! with an unusual mix of disco, soul, ballads and even rap, who had eleven top ten hits in the UK, six of them number ones, between 1982 and 1986.[53] George Michael released his debut solo album, Faith in 1987, and would go on to have seven UK number one singles. The 1985 concert Live Aid held at Wembley Stadium would see some of the biggest British artists of the era perform, with Queen widely regarded as stealing the show.[54][55]

Bonnie Tyler had major hits with "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "Holding Out for a Hero", while Robert Palmer's had two iconic music videos for "Addicted to Love" and "Simply Irresistible". The Bee Gees 1987 single "You Win Again" reached number one, making them first group to score a UK #1 hit in each of three decades: the 1960s, '70s, and '80s.[56] Other British artists who achieved success in the pop charts in the 80s included Paul McCartney, Elton John, Culture Club, Kim Wilde, The Fixx, Joe Cocker, Rod Stewart, Kate Bush, Billy Idol, Paul Young, Elvis Costello, Simple Minds, Billy Ocean, Tears for Fears, UB40, Rick Astley, Madness and Sade.

In 1988, Irish singer Enya achieved a breakthrough in her career with the album Watermark which sold over eleven million copies worldwide and helped launch Enya's successful career as a leading new-age, Celtic, World singer. Dutch band Tambourine received some notoriety in The Netherlands and Belgium toward the end of the decade.

Synthpop

Main article: Synth-pop
 
A-ha in concert, 2005

Synthpop emerged from new wave, producing a form of pop music that followed electronic rock pioneers in the 1970s like Kraftwerk, Jean Michel Jarre, and Tangerine Dream, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. The sounds of synthesizers came to dominate the pop music of the early 1980s as well as replacing disco in dance clubs in Europe.

Other successful synthpop artists of this era included Pet Shop Boys, Alphaville, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, New Order, Gary Numan, The Human League, Thomas Dolby, Howard Jones, Yazoo, Art of Noise, Heaven 17, A Flock of Seagulls, OMD, Japan, Thompson Twins, Visage, Ultravox, Kajagoogoo, Eurythmics, a-ha, Telex, Real Life, Erasure, Camouflage, London Boys, Modern Talking, Bananarama, Yellow Magic Orchestra.

Latin America

Pop

 
Lucia Mendez in 1980, she opened herself to a wider audience of the pop music genre. By way of introduction from Gabriel, Méndez would collaborate with Camilo Sesto, who was also a contributor to the theme song of the production Colorina.

The 1980s gave rise to the teenage groups Menudo, Timbiriche, and Los Chicos, as well as emerging teenage stars such as Luis Miguel, Sasha Sökol and Lucero.[57] By 1988, however, the aforementioned Luis Miguel would transform into an adult superstar at age 18 with the hit La Incondicional (1989). Not too far behind was former Los Chicos' member Chayanne as he became a leading pop star by the end of the decade, with his 1987 hit Fiesta en America. As young stars begin to rise in Latin music, veterans such as Julio Iglesias, José José, Juan Gabriel, and José Luis Rodríguez El Puma continue their dominance in Latin music. 1985 saw the worldwide breakthrough success of "Conga" by Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine. Argentine-Venezuelan singer Ricardo Montaner joins those veterans with his 1988 hit Tan Enamorado. After the slow decline of Fania All-Stars, the new romantic genre of salsa Romantica would rise beginning in 1984. Younger salseros such as Frankie Ruiz, Luis Enrique, and Eddie Santiago would take advantage of this new genre rising salsa to new heights. Tejano Music starts to give little rise after Mazz crosses over to Mexico after their albums Una Noche Juntos and No Te Olvidare win Grammys.

In 1989, Juan Luis Guerra scores a major Merengue hit with Ojala que llueva cafe. In the 1980s, the regional music scene in both Mexico and the Mexican American community in the United States was dominated by grupera. This style of Mexican music combines cumbia, norteño, and rock music.[58] The lyrics are rooted with romantic themes including heartbroken songs. Several notable grupera ensembles include Los Caminantes, Los Yonic's, Los Bukis, and Los Temerarios.[59]

In 1985 Sheena Easton and Luis Miguel wins the Grammy Award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Performance for "Me Gustas Tal Como Eres". Eugenia León, representing Mexico, wins the 14th Annual OTI Festival [es] with her song "El Fandango Aquí".[60] in 1986 Vikki Carr wins the Grammy Award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Performance for Simplemente Mujer.

Rock

The Rock en Español movement began around the 1980s. Until the mid-80s the rock scene of most Spanish American countries was not connected, and it was rare for a rock band to gain acclaim and popularity outside its home country.

Argentina, which had the largest national rock scene and music industry, became the birthplace of several influential rock acts. Soda Stereo from Buenos Aires is often acclaimed as the most influential rock band of the 80s alongside the solo careers of Charly García, Luis Alberto Spinetta and the new star Fito Páez from Rosario. Soda Stereo was among the first bands to successfully tour across most of Latin America. Argentina developed also during the 80s a ska rock and punk rock scene. The punk movement, which was pioneered by Los Violadores, led to the rise of the Buenos Aires Hardcore around 1990.

In Chile, that was ruled by a military dictatorship all over the 80s, Nueva canción protest songs from the 60s and 70s maintained their popularity despite severe censorship. The progressive/folk-rock band Los Jaivas made a Latin American trademark album with Alturas de Macchu Picchu [sic] based on Pablo Neruda's homonymous poem. The rock band Los Prisioneros were successful in combining the protest song atmosphere of the 80s with newer trends in rock including punk, ska, new wave and techno. In the late 1980s, new bands such as Los Tres and La Ley would start to set the trends for the next decade.

In Brazil, even though the 1960s witnessed the phenomenon of Jovem Guarda and the 1970s saw the appearance of many prolific artists, like Raul Seixas, and bands like Os Mutantes, Brazilian rock's explosion began in 1981 with the first expressions of the Brazilian new wave, later renamed the New Jovem Guarda by the media. The alterations of the English new wave movement, with its surprising variety of styles, arrived in Brazil through groups and personalities such as Blitz, Camisa de Vênus, Barão Vermelho, Kid Abelha, Paralamas do Sucesso, Ritchie [pt], Lulu Santos, Rádio Táxi, Marina Lima, Engenheiros do Hawaii, RPM, Graffiti, Ultraje a Rigor, Legião Urbana, Ira!, Titãs, Capital Inicial, Nenhum de Nós, Biquini Cavadão, Lobão & Os Ronaldos, Léo Jaime, and innumerous others. In January 1985, the Rock in Rio festival took place in Rio de Janeiro, which brought together over one million people to the Cidade do Rock during the 10 days of the event, and is to this day the country's biggest and most influential festival.[61] It represents a milestone in freedom of expression, as in that same year the country saw the end of the dictatorship,[62][63] and it is also responsible for establishing Brazil as a venue for international artists - as, so far, foreign attractions had been rarities.[62][64]

 
Maldita Vecindad in concert

In Mexico, the Rock music scene at the time first saw a heavy lack of opportunity as musical acts could not make a solid living from playing alone. Other key factors were that of economic and political instability. Many consider this decade as the lost decade. The government would not allow racy themed content on television and the airwaves, music festivals were not allowed. The music that dominated Mexico and much of Latin America during this era were mostly teen flavored acts like Menudo, Timbiriche, Flans and others.

Rock acts could not land any recording deal because record label executives were much more interested in selling listeners a colourful, hip and trendy image to the general public ranging from youngsters to middle-aged adults.

With the strong impact of Argentine and Spanish rock bands by the mid-1980s, the local scene would begin to develop acts that would generate an identity of its own. Among these were bands like El Tri, Maldita Vecindad, Los Amantes de Lola and Caifanes.

Salsa

The salsa music had developed in the 1960s and '70s by Puerto Rican and Cuban immigrants to the New York City area but did not enter into mainstream popularity in Latin America until the late 1980s. The salsa music became together with cumbia the two most popular dance music but did not penetrate other countries outside the Caribbean as cumbia did.

 
A "Mi Gente" mural of Héctor Lavoe in his hometown of Ponce, Puerto Rico

The 1980s was a time of diversification, as popular salsa evolved into sweet and smooth salsa romantica, with lyrics dwelling on love and romance, and its more explicit cousin, salsa erotica. Salsa Romantica can be traced back to Noches Calientes, a 1984 album by singer José Alberto "El Canario" with producer Louie Ramirez. A wave of romantic singers found a wide audience among Latinos in both New York and Puerto Rico.[65] The 1980s also saw salsa expand to Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Europe and Japan, and diversify into many new styles.

In the 1980s some performers experimented with combining elements of salsa with hip hop music, while the producer and pianist Sergio George helped to revive salsa's commercial success. He created a sound based on prominent trombones and a rootsy, mambo-inspired style. He worked with the Japanese salsa band Orquesta de la Luz, and developed a studio orchestra that included Tito Nieves, Celia Cruz, José Alberto, La India, Tito Puente and Luis Enrique. The Colombian singer Joe Arroyo first rose to fame in the 1970s but became a renowned exponent of Colombian salsa in the 1980s. Arroyo worked for many years with the Colombian arranger Fruko and his band Los Tesos.[66]

Merengue

Merengue music would hit its golden years during the 1980s starting in the late 70s with acts such as Wilfrido Vargas, Johnny Ventura, and Fernando Villalona. Their orchestras would also churn future solo acts such as Eddy Herrera and Rubby Perez. By the end of the decade, La Coco Band would reinvent merengue with a more comedic style.

Oceania

 
AC/DC performing

Australian rock band INXS achieved international success during the decade with a series of hit recordings, including the albums Listen Like Thieves (1985), Kick (1987), and the singles "Original Sin" (1984), "Need You Tonight" (1987), "Devil Inside" (1988) and "New Sensation" (1987).[67][68][69][70]

Kylie Minogue first single, "Locomotion" became a huge hit in Minogue's native Australia, spending seven weeks at number one on the Australian singles chart. The single eventually became the highest-selling Australian single of the decade. Throughout Europe and Asia the song also performed well on the music charts, reaching number one in Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Israel, Japan, and South Africa.

The Australian rock band Men at Work achieved break-out success in 1981, and went on to have several hits on the international charts.

 
Michael Hutchence singing during an INXS concert, early 1980s

The Church, Real Life, Opus and Midnight Oil also had some notable hits on the international charts.

Rick Springfield was well known in the early 1980s, and had several hits.

In 1980, New Zealand rock band Split Enz released their album True Colours, which became an international success. After the band broke up in 1984, Neil Finn, the younger brother of Tim Finn who had become Split Enz's de facto frontman after his departure in 1983, went on to form Crowded House in New Zealand in 1985. In 1986 Crowded House released their successful self-titled debut album, which went to number one in Australia and number three in New Zealand, as well as reaching the top ten in Canada and top 20 in the United States. It spawned the song "Don't Dream It's Over", which hit number one in New Zealand and Canada, number two in the United States and number eight in Australia, and has since become a pop/rock anthem in Australasia. Crowded House's follow up album Temple of Low Men, released in 1988, did not achieve the same success as their debut, but was still popular in the band's homelands of New Zealand and Australia...

The New Zealand band, Mi-Sex, had success with its hit single, "Computer Games"

Other regional bands of note were The Swingers, Coconut Rough, The Crocodiles and Peking Man.

Asia

Main articles: J-pop, Indian pop, C-pop, and K-pop
See also: Synthpop, Electro (music), House music, and Techno

In Japan, bands such as Shonen Knife, Boredoms, The Star Club, X Japan, Dead End and The Stalin began in the Japanese rock bands and Visual kei emerged in the 1980s with bands such as X Japan, Buck Tick and D'erlanger. Japanese noise rock emerged in the 1980s with bands such as Melt-Banana, Zeni Geva and Guitar Wolf in the Japanese's indies scene.

City pop, an adult-oriented genre with western influences of disco, funk, soft rock, and R&B also became popular with the Japanese tech boom. Popular artists in the genre were Anri and Tatsuro Yamashita. Most songs were about love or living in the city. The genre was barely known outside of Japan. However, city pop has been getting increasingly popular in the west with Internet-borne microgenre vaporwave. On May 3, 2019, Light in the Attic, an independent record label, released Pacific Breeze: Japanese City Pop, AOR, and Boogie 1976-1986. It was a compilation album that showcased what city pop is and its style.

Japanese hardcore emerged with bands such as The Star Club and GISM and Japanese idol group Onyanko Club began as Idol group in the teen fans and youth fans.

Besides, Hong Kong saw a rapid growth in pop music, both in terms of variety and popularity. Big stars such as Leslie Cheung, Anita Mui, Danny Chan, Alan Tam and Beyond were icons of the decade. The 1980s is still regarded as the most successful period in Hong Kong music history.

The Jets, a Tongan-American band, had several hits on the international charts in the late 1980s.

See also

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Sources

Further reading

  • Hill, Dave (1986). Designer Boys and Material Girls: Manufacturing the 80s Pop Dream. Poole, Eng.: Blandford Press. ISBN 0-7137-1857-9

January 26, 2023
1980s, music, this, article, includes, overview, famous, events, trends, popular, music, 1980s, 1970s, 1990sother, topics, anthropology, comics, fashion, science, technology, sociology, video, gamesfor, music, from, year, 1980s, 89this, article, multiple, issu. This article includes an overview of the famous events and trends in popular music in the 1980s 1970s 1980s in music 1990sOther topics Anthropology Comics Fashion Science and technology Sociology video gamesFor music from a year in the 1980s go to 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89This article has multiple issues Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page Learn how and when to remove these template messages This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources 1980s in music news newspapers books scholar JSTOR October 2008 Learn how and when to remove this template message This article possibly contains original research Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations Statements consisting only of original research should be removed January 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message Learn how and when to remove this template message The 1980s saw the emergence of electronic dance music and new wave also known as Modern Rock As disco fell out of fashion in the decade s early years 1 genres such as post disco Italo disco Euro disco and dance pop became more popular Rock music continued to enjoy a wide audience 2 Soft rock 3 glam metal thrash metal shred guitar characterized by heavy distortion pinch harmonics and whammy bar abuse became very popular 4 Adult contemporary 5 quiet storm 6 and smooth jazz gained popularity In the late 1980s glam metal became the largest most commercially successful brand of music worldwide 7 The 1980s are commonly remembered for a great increase in the use of digital recording associated with the usage of synthesizers with synth pop music and other electronic genres featuring non traditional instruments increasing in popularity Also during this decade several major electronic genres were developed including electro techno house freestyle and Eurodance rising in prominence during the 1990s and beyond Throughout the decade R amp B hip hop and urban genres were becoming commonplace particularly in the inner city areas of large metropolitan cities rap was especially successful in the latter part of the decade 8 with the advent of the golden age of hip hop These urban genres particularly rap and hip hop would continue their rise in popularity through the 1990s and 2000s A 2010 survey conducted by the digital broadcaster Music Choice which polled over 11 000 European participants revealed that the 1980s was the most favoured tune decade of the last 40 years 9 Notable artists include Whitney Houston Michael Jackson Madonna George Michael as well as Wham Prince and The Police Contents 1 Economics 2 North America 2 1 Pop 2 2 Rock 2 2 1 Hard rock and heavy glam metal 2 2 2 Alternative rock 2 2 3 Other trends 2 3 Contemporary R amp B 2 4 Hip hop 2 5 Electronic music 2 6 Country music 3 Europe 3 1 Rock 3 1 1 Post punk 3 1 2 New wave music 3 1 2 1 New Romantics 3 1 3 Gothic rock 3 1 4 Heavy metal 3 2 Pop 3 2 1 Synthpop 4 Latin America 4 1 Pop 4 2 Rock 4 3 Salsa 4 4 Merengue 5 Oceania 6 Asia 7 See also 8 References 9 Sources 10 Further readingEconomics Edit Olivia Newton John s song Physical spent the most number of weeks during the 1980s in number one Reflecting on changes in the music industry during the 1980s Robert Christgau later wrote in Christgau s Record Guide The 80s 1990 The 80s were above all a time of international corporatization as one major after another gave it up to media moguls in Europe and Japan By 1990 only two of the six dominant American record companies were headquartered in the U S Bizzers acted locally while thinking globally in re audiences markets will it sell in Germany Australia Venezuela Indonesia now that we ve sunk the pirates the U S S R and artists suppliers world music was a concept whose geoeconomic time had come After a feisty start independent labels accepted farm team status that could lead to killings with the bigs Cross promotional hookah became the rule the soundtrack album the sponsored tour the golden oldie commercial the T shirt franchise the video as song ad and pay for play programming and commodity fetish Record executives became fewer impresarios than arbitragers speculating in abstract bundles of rights whose physical characteristics meant little or nothing to them Rock was mere music no longer It was reconceived as intellectual property as a form of capital itself 10 Commercial stardom as measured by music recording sales certifications replaced artistry as an indication of a musician s significance according to Christgau When art is intellectual property image and aura subsume aesthetic substance whatever exactly that is he explained When art is the capital sales interface with aesthetic quality Thriller s numbers are part of its experience 10 North America EditSee also Music history of the United States in the 1980s Pop Edit The 1980s saw the reinvention of Michael Jackson and the worldwide superstardom of Prince Madonna and Whitney Houston who were all among the most successful musicians during this time Michael Jackson is one of the most successful pop music artists in history and has been nicknamed the King of Pop Michael Jackson along with Prince was the first African American artist to have his music videos in heavy rotation on MTV with Beat It and Billie Jean Donna Summer placed the first two videos by an African American female artist with She Works Hard for the Money and Unconditional Love both in 1983 Jackson s Thriller 1982 is the best selling album of all time selling 25 million copies during the decade The album had sold over 65 million copies His other album 1987 s Bad has the honour of being the first album in history to have five number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 Its accompanying world tour also made history by being the highest grossing tour by a solo artist in the 1980s as well as the highest grossing at the time In addition to being the biggest selling artist of the decade Jackson had nine number one singles more than any other activities during the decade and spent the longest time at number one 27 weeks in the 1980s He won numerous awards including Artist of the Decade and Artist of the Century and was arguably the biggest star of the 1980s 11 Whitney Houston nicknamed The Voice is one of the biggest selling music artists of all time with over 200 million records sold worldwide Whitney Houston was one of the most successful artists of the decade Her eponymous debut studio album was the best selling debut album by a solo artist at the time and her sophomore album Whitney is the first female album to debut at No 1 in the Billboard 200 She also became the first and only artist to earn seven consecutive number one songs on the Billboard Hot 100 from Saving All My Love for You in 1985 to Where Do Broken Hearts Go in 1988 Her crossover appeal on the popular music charts as well as her prominence on MTV influenced generations of African American artists 12 Madonna was the best selling female pop music artist of the decade Her third studio release True Blue became the best selling female album of the 1980s Other Madonna albums from the decade include Like a Virgin one of the best selling albums of all time and Like a Prayer As close to art as pop music gets said Rolling Stone Madonna made music videos a marketing tool and was among the first to make them an art form Her songs topped several charts such as Like a Virgin Papa Don t Preach La Isla Bonita and Like a Prayer Madonna was named artist of the decade by several magazines and awards Paula Abdul hit it big in 1988 With her debut album Forever Your Girl she was the first female to have four number one singles from a debut album only The Jackson 5 had done the same with their debut She had five top ten hits from the album By 1980 the disco genre largely dependent on orchestras was replaced by a lighter synthpop production which subsequently fuelled dance music Madonna has influenced various other artists and has often been referred to as the Queen of Pop 13 In the latter half of the 1980s teen pop experienced its first wave with bands and artists including Expose Debbie Gibson Tiffany New Edition Stacey Q The Bangles New Kids on the Block Laura Branigan Boy George and others becoming teen idols Prominent American urban pop acts of the 1980s include Tina Turner Lionel Richie Michael Jackson Donna Summer Whitney Houston and Diana Ross African American artists like Lionel Richie and Prince became some of the decade s biggest stars Their hit albums included 1999 Purple Rain and Sign o the Times by Prince and Lionel Richie Can t Slow Down and Dancing on the Ceiling by Richie Recording artist Prince was one of the most influential musicians of the decade His 1984 Purple Rain album was certified Diamond by the RIAA Prince was one of the decade s most prolific artists not just by being the top charting artist in the US and worldwide He was responsible for artists such as Vanity 6 for whom he wrote the dance chart topping Nasty Girl Morris Day and The Time for whom he wrote the top 20 Jungle Love Sheila E for whom he wrote the top ten songs The Glamorous Life and number 11 A Love Bizarre and Wendy amp Lisa and Apollonia 6 He wrote I Feel for You for Chaka Khan which won him a Grammy for best R amp B song Sugar Walls for Sheena Easton and as well as doing a duet with U Got the Look he wrote Manic Monday a number two pop hit for The Bangles Artists that covered his music included Tom Jones who brought his version of the song Kiss into the top 40 for the second time in the decade Melissa Morgan brought her cover of Do Me Baby to the top of the R amp B charts in 1986 Other notable artists that covered Prince during the 1980s were The Pointer Sisters and Cyndi Lauper 14 He also won an Academy Award for the song Purple Rain In 1989 Irish singer Sinead O Connor would record a cover of his song Nothing Compares 2 U which would become the biggest song of the year worldwide in the new decade to follow Prince had four number one singles and 14 top ten hits on the Hot 100 Chart Lionel Richie teamed with Diana Ross to record one of the decade s biggest hits Endless Love which topped the Billboard charts for nine weeks Other songs by Richie such as All Night Long and Hello also topped the charts and he would have a total of five number one hits and thirteen top ten singles Diana Ross brought Upside Down to the top spot in 1980 she would have two number one singles and eight top ten hits in the decade Tina Turner topped the charts with What s Love Got to Do with It and scored a total of six top ten singles Donna Summer s She Works Hard for the Money was a continuation of the feminist movement started in the 70s and a rallying cry for those who worked hard and wanted to be treated fairly She would have five top ten singles in the decade Bruce Springsteen was one of the best selling music artists of the decade Bruce Springsteen s Born in the U S A AC DC s Back in Black Def Leppard s Hysteria and Bon Jovi s Slippery When Wet were some of the decade s biggest selling albums on the Billboard Top 200 chart George Michael was the most successful British pop artist of the 1980s His debut solo album Faith 1987 is one of the best selling albums of all time with sales of over 25 million copies During the mid 1980s American pop singer Cyndi Lauper was considered by whom the Voice of the MTV Generation of 80s and so different visual style that made the world for teens Her first two albums She s So Unusual 1984 and True Colors 1986 were critically and commercially successful spawning the hits Girls Just Want to Have Fun Time After Time She Bop All Through the Night The Goonies R Good Enough True Colors and Change of Heart Several British artists made the successful transition to pop during the 1980s and saw great commercial success such as David Bowie Phil Collins John Lennon Billy Ocean Sheena Easton and Paul McCartney Many British pop bands also dominated the American charts in the early 1980s Many of them became popular due to their constant exposure on MTV these bands included The Human League Culture Club Duran Duran and Wham Between the four they have had 9 U S number ones with hits like Don t You Want Me Karma Chameleon The Reflex and Wake Me Up Before You Go Go In the later part of the decade Rick Astley George Michael as a solo artist Terence Trent D Arby and Fine Young Cannibals all found chart success At the beginning of the 1980s Australian artists like Olivia Newton John Men at Work Air Supply and AC DC all had chart success later in the decade INXS scored hits Olivia Newton John s hit Physical would top the Hot 100 for 10 weeks and be the decade s biggest hit in the US she would have six top ten singles during the 80s American artists such as Michael Jackson Whitney Houston Phil Collins Madonna Bruce Springsteen Kool amp the Gang The Pointer Sisters Billy Joel Hall amp Oates Prince Kenny Rogers and John Mellencamp then known as John Cougar ruled the charts throughout the decade in the US 15 Jackson Houston Prince Madonna Joel and Springsteen along with U2 Dire Straits Phil Collins The Police Queen The Rolling Stones and Eurythmics achieved tremendous success worldwide 16 Rock Edit In the 1980s rock music was more precisely defined and split up into multiple subgenres Hard rock and heavy glam metal Edit This section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed January 2017 Learn how and when to remove this template message Metallica in concert 2003 Beginning in 1983 and peaking in success in 1986 1990 the decade saw the resurgence of hard rock music and the emergence of its glam metal subgenre Bands such as AC DC Queen Def Leppard Kiss Motley Crue Bon Jovi Quiet Riot Scorpions Europe Ratt Twisted Sister Poison Dokken Whitesnake and Cinderella were among the most popular acts of the decade The 1980s saw the emergence of wildly popular hard rock band Guns N Roses and the successful comebacks of Aerosmith and Alice Cooper in the late 1980s The success of hard rock act Van Halen spanned throughout the entire decade first with singer David Lee Roth and later with Sammy Hagar Queen which had expanded its music to experimental and crossover genres in the early 1980s returned to guitar driven hard rock with The Miracle in 1989 Additionally a few women managed to achieve stardom in the 1980s hard rock scene Pat Benatar and Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart who had been around since the mid 1970s are prime examples of female success in hard rock and so are both ex Runaways Joan Jett and Lita Ford Duff McKagan and Slash of Guns N Roses The arena rock trend of the 1970s continued in the 1980s with bands like Styx Rush Journey Foreigner REO Speedwagon ZZ Top and Aerosmith Traditionally associated and often confused with hard rock heavy metal was also extremely popular throughout the decade with Ozzy Osbourne achieving success during his solo career bands like Iron Maiden Judas Priest and Dio were also widely popular British acts Speed metal pioneer Motorhead maintained its popularity through the releases of several albums Underground scenes produced an array of more extreme aggressive Metal subgenres thrash metal broke into the mainstream with bands such as Metallica Slayer Exodus Anthrax and Megadeth By the late 1980s Metallica would achieve mainstream success and would become one of the best selling music artists of all time Other styles like death metal and black metal would remain a subcultural phenomena The decade also saw the emergence of a string of guitar virtuosi Eddie Van Halen George Lynch Joe Satriani Steve Vai Randy Rhoads Jason Becker and Yngwie Malmsteen achieved international recognition for their skills While considerably less numerous bass guitar virtuosi also gained momentum in the 1980s Geddy Lee of Rush Billy Sheehan of David Lee Roth and Mr Big fame Cliff Burton of Metallica and alternative funk metal bassist Les Claypool of Primus fame became famous during that period Iron Maiden founder and bassist Steve Harris has also been praised numerous times for his galloping style of bass playing Both hard rock and heavy metal were extremely popular live genres and bands toured extensively around the globe Alternative rock Edit One of the first alternative rock bands R E M relied on college radio airplay constant touring and a grassroots fanbase to break into the musical mainstream By 1984 a majority of groups signed to independent record labels were mining from a variety of rock and particularly 1960s rock influences This represented a sharp break from the futuristic hyper rational post punk years 17 Throughout the 1980s alternative rock was mainly an underground phenomenon While on occasion a song would become a commercial hit or albums would receive critical praise in mainstream publications like Rolling Stone alternative rock in the 1980s was primarily relegated to independent record labels fanzines and college radio stations Alternative bands built underground followings by touring constantly and regularly releasing low budget albums In the case of the United States new bands would form in the wake of previous bands which created an extensive underground circuit in America filled with different scenes in various parts of the country 18 Although American alternative artists of the 1980s never generated spectacular album sales they exerted a considerable influence on later alternative musicians and laid the groundwork for their success 19 The Bangles performing at The House of Blues in Cleveland Early American alternative bands such as R E M The Hits The Feelies and Violent Femmes combined punk influences with folk music and mainstream music influences R E M was the most immediately successful its debut album Murmur 1983 entered the Top 40 and spawned a number of jangle pop followers 18 Alternative and indie pop movements sprang up in other parts of the world from the Paisley Underground of Los Angeles The Bangles Rain Parade to Scotland Aztec Camera Orange Juice Australia The Church The Triffids and New Zealand s Dunedin sound The Clean The Chills American indie record labels SST Records Twin Tone Records Touch and Go Records and Dischord Records presided over the shift from the hardcore punk that then dominated the American underground scene to the more diverse styles of alternative rock that were emerging 20 Minnesota bands Husker Du and The Replacements were indicative of this shift Both started as punk rock bands but soon diversified their sounds and became more melodic 18 Nine Inch Nails By the late 1980s the American alternative scene was dominated by styles ranging from quirky alternative pop They Might Be Giants and Camper Van Beethoven to noise rock Big Black Swans to industrial rock Ministry Nine Inch Nails and to early Grunge Mudhoney Nirvana These sounds were in turn followed by the advent of Boston s the Pixies and Los Angeles Jane s Addiction 18 American alternative rock bands of the 1980s included Husker Du The Replacements Minutemen R E M Dinosaur Jr Pixies and Sonic Youth which were popular long before the Grunge movement of the early 1990s New singers and songwriters included Michael Jackson Bruce Springsteen Tom Petty Mark Heard Lucinda Williams Patti Smith Rickie Lee Jones Terence Trent D Arby Stevie Nicks Suzanne Vega Cheryl Wheeler and Warren Zevon Rock and even punk rock artists such as Peter Case Phil Collins and Paul Westerberg transitioned to careers as solo singers In the late 1980s the term was applied to a group of predominantly female U S artists beginning with Suzanne Vega whose first album sold unexpectedly well followed by the likes of Tracy Chapman Nanci Griffith k d lang and Tori Amos who found success first in the United Kingdom then in her home market Other trends Edit George Thorogood and Jim Suhler performing Journey Various older rock bands made a comeback Bands originating from the early to mid 1960s such as The Beach Boys and The Kinks had hits with Kokomo Come Dancing and Do It Again Bands with popularity in the mid 1970s such as the Steve Miller Band and Steely Dan also had hits with Abracadabra and Hey Nineteen Singer and songwriter Bruce Springsteen released his blockbuster album Born in the U S A which produced a record tying 7 hit singles Stevie Ray Vaughan and George Thorogood sparked a revival of Atomic blues and Blues rock Massively successful hard rock band Led Zeppelin disbanded after drummer John Bonham s 1980 death while contemporaries AC DC continued to have success after the death of former frontman Bon Scott Country rock saw a decline after Lynyrd Skynyrd s 1977 plane crash and 1980 disbanding of the genre s most successful band the Eagles The Grateful Dead had their biggest hit in band history with Touch of Grey The Who managed to provide the hit songs You Better You Bet and Eminence Front before burning out after the death of their drummer Keith Moon Hardcore punk flourished throughout the early to mid 1980s with bands leading the genre such as Black Flag Bad Brains Minor Threat Suicidal Tendencies D O A and Dead Kennedys amongst others It began to wane in the latter half of the decade with the New York hardcore scene dominating the genre However it experiences a jumpstart in the late 1980s with emerging bands such as Operation Ivy and Green Day that would define not just the so called East Bay sound but impact the next decade s punk and alternative sound Some of which is still around today The 1980s proved a difficult time for many 1960s 70s veterans many of them unable or unwilling to adapt to current trends Music icons such as Bob Dylan Neil Young and The Rolling Stones released albums that were often poor quality and critically panned as they attempted to grapple with the changing times MTV in particular was a problem for many artists as it put a premium on youthfulness good looks and showmanship Artists who became strongly associated with disco music also fell from grace and were often banned from radio play Contemporary R amp B Edit See also Contemporary R amp B Janet Jackson Contemporary R amp B originated in the 1980s when musicians started adding disco like beats high tech production and elements of hip hop soul and funk to rhythm and blues making it more danceable and modern 21 The top mainstream R amp B artists of 1980s included Michael Jackson Whitney Houston Prince Jermaine Jackson James Ingram The S O S Band Stevie Wonder Kool amp the Gang Jeffrey Osborne Smokey Robinson Rick James Diana Ross Lionel Richie Earth Wind amp Fire New Edition Evelyn King Marvin Gaye The Jets DeBarge Midnight Star Club Nouveau Stephanie Mills Jody Watley Rockwell Rene and Angela and Freddie Jackson 22 In the mid 1980s many of the recordings by artists Luther Vandross Freddie Jackson Sade Anita Baker Teddy Pendergrass Peabo Bryson and others became widely heard on the new quiet storm radio format 22 The term had originated with Smokey Robinson s 1975 album A Quiet Storm Quiet storm has been described as R amp B s answer to soft rock and adult contemporary while it was primarily intended for black audiences quiet storm had the same understated dynamics relaxed tempos and rhythms and romantic sentiment 23 Donna Summer Tina Turner made a huge comeback during the mid 1980s while Donna Summer Diana Ross The Pointer Sisters and Irene Cara had success on the pop charts first half of the decade Whitney Houston Janet Jackson and Jody Watley had it in the second half of the decade Irene Cara s Flashdance What a Feeling was the number one song worldwide in 1983 and for the decade of the 80s 24 Richard J Ripani wrote that Janet Jackson s third studio album Control 1986 was important to the development of R amp B for several reasons as she and her producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis crafted a new sound that fuses the rhythmic elements of funk and disco along with heavy doses of synthesizers percussion sound effects and a rap music sensibility 22 Ripani wrote that the success of Control led to the incorporation of stylistic traits of rap over the next few years and Janet Jackson was to continue to be one of the leaders in that development 22 That same year Teddy Riley began producing R amp B recordings that included hip hop influences This combination of R amp B style and hip hop rhythms was termed new jack swing and was applied to artists such as Bobby Brown Keith Sweat Guy Today Wreckx n Effect Big Daddy Kane Kool Moe Dee Heavy D amp the Boyz Tammy Lucas Nayobe Abstrac Deja Starpoint and Bell Biv DeVoe 25 Michael Jackson remained a prominent figure in the genre in the late 1980s following the release of his album Bad 1987 which sold 6 million copies in the US in the 80s and went on to sell more than 30 million copies worldwide 26 Janet Jackson s 1989 album Janet Jackson s Rhythm Nation 1814 continued the development of contemporary R amp B into the 1990s as the album s title track Rhythm Nation made use of elements from across the R amp B spectrum including use of a sample loop triplet swing rapped vocal parts and blues notes 22 The release of Janet Jackson s Rhythm Nation 1814 became the only album in history to produce number one hits on the Billboard Charts Hot 100 in three separate calendar years Miss You Much in 1989 Escapade and Black Cat in 1990 and Love Will Never Do Without You in 1991 and the only album in the history of the Hot 100 to have seven top 5 hit singles Hip hop Edit Beastie Boys in concert 1992 Encompassing graffiti art break dancing rap music and fashion hip hop became the dominant cultural movement of the African American communities in the 1980s The Hip hop musical genre had a strong influence on pop music in the late 1980s which continues to the present day Afrika Bambaataa During the 1980s the hip hop genre started embracing the creation of rhythm by using the human body via the vocal percussion technique of beatboxing Pioneers such as Africa Bambaataa DJ Kool Herc Melle Mel Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five Whodini Sugarhill Gang Doug E Fresh 27 Biz Markie and Buffy from the Fat Boys made beats rhythm and musical sounds using their mouth lips tongue voice and other body parts Human Beatbox artists would also sing or imitate turntablism scratching or other instrument sounds The 1980s also saw many artists make social statements through hip hop In 1982 Melle Mel and Duke Bootee recorded The Message officially credited to Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five 28 a song that foreshadowed the socially conscious statements of Run DMC s It s Like That and Public Enemy s Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos 29 Popular hip hop artists of the 1980s include Kurtis Blow Run D M C Beastie Boys NWA LL Cool J Public Enemy Eric B amp Rakim Big Daddy Kane Boogie Down Productions Kid N Play MC Lyte EPMD Salt N Pepa and Ice T Schooly D Slick Rick Kool Moe Dee Whodini MC Hammer among others Electronic music Edit Model 500 In the 1980s dance music records made using only electronic instruments became increasingly popular largely influenced by the electronic music of Kraftwerk and 1970s disco music Such music was originally born of and popularized via regional nightclub scenes in the 1980s and became the predominant type of music played in discotheques as well as the rave scene House music is a style of electronic dance music which originated in Chicago Illinois in the early 1980s 30 House music was strongly influenced by elements of soul and funk infused varieties of disco Club play from pioneering DJs like Ron Hardy and Lil Louis local dance music record shops and the popular Hot Mix 5 shows on radio station WBMX FM helped popularize house music in Chicago and among visiting DJs amp producers from Detroit Trax Records and DJ International Records local labels with wider distribution helped popularize house music outside of Chicago It eventually reached Europe before becoming infused in mainstream pop amp dance music worldwide during the 1990s It has been widely cited that the initial blueprint for techno was developed during the mid 1980s in Detroit Michigan by Juan Atkins Kevin Saunderson Derrick May the so called Belleville Three and Eddie Fowlkes all of whom attended school together at Belleville High near Detroit 31 32 33 34 Though initially conceived as party music that was played on daily mixed radio programs and played at parties given by cliquish Detroit high school clubs it has grown to be a global phenomenon Country music Edit Kenny Rogers 2004 As the 1980s dawned pop influenced country music was the dominant style through such acts as Kenny Rogers Ronnie Milsap T G Sheppard Eddie Rabbitt Crystal Gayle Anne Murray and Dolly Parton The 1980 movie Urban Cowboy a romantic comedy starring John Travolta and Debra Winger spawned a successful soundtrack album featuring pop styled country songs including Lookin for Love by Johnny Lee The Devil Went Down to Georgia by the Charlie Daniels Band Could I Have This Dance by Murray and Love the World Away by Rogers The songs and the movie itself resulted in an early 1980s boom in pop style country music and the era is sometimes known as the Urban Cowboy Movement Randy Travis By the mid 1980s country music audiences were beginning to tire of country pop Although some pop country artists continued to record and release successful songs and albums the genre in general was beginning to suffer By 1985 a New York Times article declared country music dead However by this time several newcomers were working behind the scenes to reverse this perception The year 1986 brought forth several new artists who performed in traditional country styles such as honky tonk This sparked the new traditionalist movement or return to traditional country music The most successful of these artists included Randy Travis Dwight Yoakam Ricky Van Shelton and Holly Dunn Also artists like Kathy Mattea and Keith Whitley both of whom had been performing for a few years prior had their first major hits during 1986 Mattea was more folk styled while Whitley was pure honky tonk But the new traditionalist movement had already taken hold as early as 1981 when newcomers such as Ricky Skaggs and George Strait had their first big hits Reba McEntire had her first big hit in 1980 followed by 15 other number one hit singles during the decade Also songwriter guitarist and Chet Atkins protegee Steve Wariner also emerged as a popular act starting in the early 1980s Another boom period for newcomers with new traditionalist styles was 1989 when artists such as Clint Black Garth Brooks Mary Chapin Carpenter Lorrie Morgan and Travis Tritt had their first big hits It was Whitley who was seen as being one of the torchbearers of the new traditionalist movement thanks to his pure honky tonk style in the vein of Lefty Frizzell and others and his star power was set to rise into the 1990s however Whitley was a known heavy drinker and it was alcohol poisoning that ended his life in May 1989 just weeks after a song about triumph over personal demons I m No Stranger to the Rain became a huge country hit In keeping with the neotraditionalist movement Dolly Parton Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris teamed up to release 1987 s Platinum selling Trio album Composed mostly of traditional songs set to acoustic arrangements the album won a Grammy in 1988 for best country collaboration Reba McEntire Vocal duos were also popular because of their harmonies most notably The Bellamy Brothers and The Judds Several of the Bellamy Brothers songs included double entendre laden hooks on songs such as Do You Love as Good As You Look The Judds a mother and daughter duo combined elements of contemporary pop and traditional country music on songs such as Why Not Me and Grandpa Tell Me Bout the Good Ol Days Dolly Parton Country music groups and bands continued to rise in popularity during the 1980s The most successful of the lot was Alabama a Fort Payne based band that blended traditional and pop country sounds with southern rock Their concerts regularly sold out while their single releases regularly reached No 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart Their mellow love ballad side would be most prominent in songs like Feels So Right When We Make Love There s No Way and If I Had You while their southern rock influences and Southern pride were most evident on songs like Tennessee River Dixieland Delight and Song Of the South In 1989 Alabama was named the Artist of the Decade by the Academy of Country Music By the end of the 1980s the group had sold more than 24 million albums in the United States Ranking just behind Alabama in popularity as far as groups were concerned were The Oak Ridge Boys and The Statler Brothers both four part harmony groups with the gospel and country pop stylings The Oak Ridge Boys found their biggest successes with songs like Elvira Bobbie Sue and American Made The Statlers began the decade with tenor singer Lew DeWitt but health issues forced his retirement and he d be succeeded by Jimmy Fortune with Fortune the Statlers had three No 1 hits the biggest of which was Elizabeth The popularity of those three groups sparked a boom in new groups and bands and by the end of the 1980s fans were listening to such acts as Restless Heart and Exile the latter which previously enjoyed success with the pop hit Kiss You All Over Despite the prevailing pop country sound enduring acts from the 1970s and earlier continued to enjoy great success with fans George Jones one of the longest running acts of the time recorded several successful singles including the critically acclaimed He Stopped Loving Her Today Conway Twitty continued to have a series of No 1 hits with 1986 s Desperado Love becoming his 40th chart topper on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart a record that stood for nearly 20 years The movie Coal Miner s Daughter profiled the life of Loretta Lynn with Sissy Spacek in the lead role while Willie Nelson also had a series of acting credits Dolly Parton had much success in the 1980s with several leading movie roles two No 1 album and 13 number one hits and having many successful tours she also teamed up with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt in 1987 for the multi platinum Trio album Others who had been around for a while and continued to have great success were Eddy Arnold Johnny Cash Merle Haggard Waylon Jennings Ray Price Hank Williams Jr and Tammy Wynette In 1981 Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline two artists who died in the 1960s both in plane crashes re emerged in the spotlight when producer Bob Ferguson electronically created the duet Have You Ever Been Lonely Have You Ever Been Blue Neither Reeves nor Cline recorded together during their lifetimes but both recorded some of the same songs and it was the style of Have You Ever Been Lonely that was the most conducive to a duet The song was a top 5 success on the country chart in early 1982 and even got minor pop airplay In addition to newcomer Whitley top classic country and influential performers who died during the decade included Red Sovine Whitey Ford Marty Robbins Merle Travis Ernest Tubb Wynn Stewart and Tex Williams Although not directly associated with country music Roy Orbison a popular performer with many country music fans and whose styles wound up being influential with many newcomers died in 1988 Europe EditSee also Music of the United Kingdom 1980s and Neue Deutsche Welle Rock Edit Post punk Edit Sinead O Connor rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra The Police regarded by Rolling Stone as possibly the biggest band in the world November 1983 35 Some of the most successful post punk bands at the beginning of the decade such as Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Psychedelic Furs also continued their success during the 1980s Members of Bauhaus and Joy Division explored new stylistic territory as Love and Rockets and New Order respectively 36 The second generation of British post punk bands that broke through in the early 1980s including the Smiths the Jesus and Mary Chain the Cure the Fall the Pop Group the Mekons Echo and the Bunnymen and Teardrop Explodes tended to move away from dark sonic landscapes 36 Even though the Police s first hit song Roxanne was written by Sting in 1978 reaching number 12 in the UK Charts that year the song continued to grow in popularity in the 1980s along with the band Even though The Police had their roots in post punk their eventual success four consecutive UK number one studio albums and mega stardom came from being able to pack the biggest stadium rock venues such as Wembley the Oakland Coliseum and the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro Aside from U2 they are the only other band with post punk origins to go on and achieve the kind of global success they did Ireland s U2 incorporated elements of religious imagery together with political commentary into their often anthemic music and by the late 1980s had become one of the biggest bands in the world 37 Although many post punk bands continued to record and perform it declined as a movement in the mid 1980s as acts disbanded or moved off to explore other musical areas but it has continued to influence the development of rock music and has been seen as a major element in the creation of the alternative rock movement 38 New wave music Edit Dire Straits on stage 1985 Controversial dance pop band Frankie Goes to Hollywood 1985 The arrival of MTV in 1981 would usher in new wave s most successful era British artists unlike many of their American counterparts had learned how to use the music video early on 39 40 Several British acts signed to independent labels were able to outmarket and outsell American artists that were signed with major labels Journalists labelled this phenomenon a Second British Invasion 40 41 In autumn 1982 I Ran So Far Away by A Flock of Seagulls entered the Billboard Top Ten arguably the first successful song that owed almost everything to video 40 They would be followed by bands like Duran Duran whose glossy videos would come to symbolize the power of MTV 40 Dire Straits Money for Nothing gently poked fun at MTV which had helped make them international rock stars 42 In 1983 30 of the record sales were from British acts 18 of the top 40 and 6 of the top 10 singles on July 18 were by British artists Overall record sales would rise by 10 from 1982 40 43 Newsweek magazine featured Annie Lennox and Boy George on the cover of one of its issues while Rolling Stone Magazine would release an England Swings issue 40 In April 1984 40 of the top 100 singles were from British acts while 8 of the top 10 singles in a May 1985 survey were of British origin 44 Veteran music journalist Simon Reynolds theorized that similar to the first British Invasion the use of black American influences by the British acts helped to spur success 40 Commentators in the mainstream media credited MTV and the British acts with bringing colour and energy to back to pop music while rock journalists were generally hostile to the phenomenon because they felt it represented image over content 40 MTV continued its heavy rotation of videos by new wave oriented acts until 1987 when it changed to a heavy metal and rock dominated format 45 New Romantics Edit Duran Duran on stage 2005 Julio Iglesias at the Eurovision Song Contest 1970 New Romanticism emerged as part of the new wave music movement in London s nightclub including Billy s and The Blitz Club towards the end of the 1970s Influenced by David Bowie and Roxy Music it developed glam rock fashions gaining its name from the frilly fop shirts of early Romanticism New Romantic music often made extensive use of synthesisers Pioneers included Visage and Ultravox and among the commercially most successful acts associated with the movement were Culture Club Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran 46 By about 1983 the original movement had dissolved with surviving acts dropping most of the fashion elements to pursue mainstream careers Other New Romantic artists included Classix Nouveaux A Flock of Seagulls Gary Numan Japan Landscape Thompson Twins Soft Cell ABC the Teardrop Explodes Yazoo and Talk Talk Gothic rock Edit The Cure on stage 2008 Gothic rock music developed out of the post punk scene in the later 1970s Notable early gothic rock bands include Bauhaus whose Bela Lugosi s Dead is often cited as the first goth record Siouxsie and the Banshees The Cure The Sisters of Mercy and Fields of the Nephilim 47 Gothic rock gave rise to a broader goth subculture that included clubs various fashion trends and numerous publications that grew in popularity in the 1980s gaining notoriety by being associated by several moral panics over suicide and Satanism 48 Heavy metal Edit Iron Maiden pioneers of the new wave of British heavy metal Ozzy Osbourne In the early 1980s the new wave of British heavy metal broke into the mainstream as albums by Judas Priest Iron Maiden Saxon and Motorhead reached the British top 10 In 1981 Motorhead became the first of this new breed of metal bands to top the UK charts with No Sleep til Hammersmith After a string of UK top 10 albums Whitesnake s 1987 self titled album was their most commercially successful with hits Here I Go Again and Is This Love earning them a nomination for the Brit Award for Best British Group 49 Many metal artists including Def Leppard benefited from the exposure they received on ATV and became the inspiration for American glam metal 50 However as the subgenre fragmented much of the creative impetus shifted towards America and continental Europe particularly Germany and Scandinavia which produced most of the major new subgenres of metal which were then taken up by British acts These included thrash metal and death metal both developed in the UK black metal and power metal both developed in continental Europe but influenced by the British band Venom and doom which was developed in the US but which soon were adopted by many bands from England including Pagan Altar and Witchfinder General 51 Pop Edit Sheena Easton David Bowie saw commercial success during the early 1980s Phil Collins performing in 1981 Phil Collins had three UK number one singles in the 80s seven US number one singles another with Genesis and when his work with Genesis his work with other artists as well as his solo career is totalled Collins had more top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the 1980s than any other artist 52 His former Genesis colleague Peter Gabriel also had a very successful solo career which included a US number one single and three top ten UK hits including a duet with Kate Bush Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford also enjoyed the several UK and US hits with his project Mike The Mechanics which included a US number one single David Bowie saw much greater commercial success in the 1980s than he had in the previous decade scoring four UK number one singles including Let s Dance which proved to be his biggest ever hit He had a total of ten UK top ten hits during the decade two in collaboration with other artists Boy George and his band Culture Club had great success in both the UK and US charts with major hits like Do You Really Want to Hurt Me Time Clock of the Heart and Karma Chameleon As well as Boy George having his own UK number one with his cover of Bread s Everything I Own he is considered a major icon of this era Liverpool band Frankie Goes to Hollywood s initially controversial dance pop gave them three consecutive UK number ones in 1984 until they faded away in the mid 1980s 53 Dead or Alive also from Liverpool was another popular dance pop band in the mid 1980s It was fronted by lead singer Pete Burns Probably the most successful British pop band of the era were the duo Wham with an unusual mix of disco soul ballads and even rap who had eleven top ten hits in the UK six of them number ones between 1982 and 1986 53 George Michael released his debut solo album Faith in 1987 and would go on to have seven UK number one singles The 1985 concert Live Aid held at Wembley Stadium would see some of the biggest British artists of the era perform with Queen widely regarded as stealing the show 54 55 Bonnie Tyler had major hits with Total Eclipse of the Heart and Holding Out for a Hero while Robert Palmer s had two iconic music videos for Addicted to Love and Simply Irresistible The Bee Gees 1987 single You Win Again reached number one making them first group to score a UK 1 hit in each of three decades the 1960s 70s and 80s 56 Other British artists who achieved success in the pop charts in the 80s included Paul McCartney Elton John Culture Club Kim Wilde The Fixx Joe Cocker Rod Stewart Kate Bush Billy Idol Paul Young Elvis Costello Simple Minds Billy Ocean Tears for Fears UB40 Rick Astley Madness and Sade In 1988 Irish singer Enya achieved a breakthrough in her career with the album Watermark which sold over eleven million copies worldwide and helped launch Enya s successful career as a leading new age Celtic World singer Dutch band Tambourine received some notoriety in The Netherlands and Belgium toward the end of the decade Synthpop Edit Main article Synth pop Pet Shop Boys A ha in concert 2005 Synthpop emerged from new wave producing a form of pop music that followed electronic rock pioneers in the 1970s like Kraftwerk Jean Michel Jarre and Tangerine Dream in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument The sounds of synthesizers came to dominate the pop music of the early 1980s as well as replacing disco in dance clubs in Europe Other successful synthpop artists of this era included Pet Shop Boys Alphaville Soft Cell Depeche Mode New Order Gary Numan The Human League Thomas Dolby Howard Jones Yazoo Art of Noise Heaven 17 A Flock of Seagulls OMD Japan Thompson Twins Visage Ultravox Kajagoogoo Eurythmics a ha Telex Real Life Erasure Camouflage London Boys Modern Talking Bananarama Yellow Magic Orchestra Latin America EditThis section needs expansion You can help by adding to it March 2013 Pop Edit Marco Antonio Solis Lucia Mendez in 1980 she opened herself to a wider audience of the pop music genre By way of introduction from Gabriel Mendez would collaborate with Camilo Sesto who was also a contributor to the theme song of the production Colorina The 1980s gave rise to the teenage groups Menudo Timbiriche and Los Chicos as well as emerging teenage stars such as Luis Miguel Sasha Sokol and Lucero 57 By 1988 however the aforementioned Luis Miguel would transform into an adult superstar at age 18 with the hit La Incondicional 1989 Not too far behind was former Los Chicos member Chayanne as he became a leading pop star by the end of the decade with his 1987 hit Fiesta en America As young stars begin to rise in Latin music veterans such as Julio Iglesias Jose Jose Juan Gabriel and Jose Luis Rodriguez El Puma continue their dominance in Latin music 1985 saw the worldwide breakthrough success of Conga by Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine Argentine Venezuelan singer Ricardo Montaner joins those veterans with his 1988 hit Tan Enamorado After the slow decline of Fania All Stars the new romantic genre of salsa Romantica would rise beginning in 1984 Younger salseros such as Frankie Ruiz Luis Enrique and Eddie Santiago would take advantage of this new genre rising salsa to new heights Tejano Music starts to give little rise after Mazz crosses over to Mexico after their albums Una Noche Juntos and No Te Olvidare win Grammys In 1989 Juan Luis Guerra scores a major Merengue hit with Ojala que llueva cafe In the 1980s the regional music scene in both Mexico and the Mexican American community in the United States was dominated by grupera This style of Mexican music combines cumbia norteno and rock music 58 The lyrics are rooted with romantic themes including heartbroken songs Several notable grupera ensembles include Los Caminantes Los Yonic s Los Bukis and Los Temerarios 59 In 1985 Sheena Easton and Luis Miguel wins the Grammy Award for Best Mexican Mexican American Performance for Me Gustas Tal Como Eres Eugenia Leon representing Mexico wins the 14th Annual OTI Festival es with her song El Fandango Aqui 60 in 1986 Vikki Carr wins the Grammy Award for Best Mexican Mexican American Performance for Simplemente Mujer Rock Edit The Rock en Espanol movement began around the 1980s Until the mid 80s the rock scene of most Spanish American countries was not connected and it was rare for a rock band to gain acclaim and popularity outside its home country Facundo Cabral Argentina which had the largest national rock scene and music industry became the birthplace of several influential rock acts Soda Stereo from Buenos Aires is often acclaimed as the most influential rock band of the 80s alongside the solo careers of Charly Garcia Luis Alberto Spinetta and the new star Fito Paez from Rosario Soda Stereo was among the first bands to successfully tour across most of Latin America Argentina developed also during the 80s a ska rock and punk rock scene The punk movement which was pioneered by Los Violadores led to the rise of the Buenos Aires Hardcore around 1990 Los Jaivas In Chile that was ruled by a military dictatorship all over the 80s Nueva cancion protest songs from the 60s and 70s maintained their popularity despite severe censorship The progressive folk rock band Los Jaivas made a Latin American trademark album with Alturas de Macchu Picchu sic based on Pablo Neruda s homonymous poem The rock band Los Prisioneros were successful in combining the protest song atmosphere of the 80s with newer trends in rock including punk ska new wave and techno In the late 1980s new bands such as Los Tres and La Ley would start to set the trends for the next decade In Brazil even though the 1960s witnessed the phenomenon of Jovem Guarda and the 1970s saw the appearance of many prolific artists like Raul Seixas and bands like Os Mutantes Brazilian rock s explosion began in 1981 with the first expressions of the Brazilian new wave later renamed the New Jovem Guarda by the media The alterations of the English new wave movement with its surprising variety of styles arrived in Brazil through groups and personalities such as Blitz Camisa de Venus Barao Vermelho Kid Abelha Paralamas do Sucesso Ritchie pt Lulu Santos Radio Taxi Marina Lima Engenheiros do Hawaii RPM Graffiti Ultraje a Rigor Legiao Urbana Ira Titas Capital Inicial Nenhum de Nos Biquini Cavadao Lobao amp Os Ronaldos Leo Jaime and innumerous others In January 1985 the Rock in Rio festival took place in Rio de Janeiro which brought together over one million people to the Cidade do Rock during the 10 days of the event and is to this day the country s biggest and most influential festival 61 It represents a milestone in freedom of expression as in that same year the country saw the end of the dictatorship 62 63 and it is also responsible for establishing Brazil as a venue for international artists as so far foreign attractions had been rarities 62 64 Maldita Vecindad in concert In Mexico the Rock music scene at the time first saw a heavy lack of opportunity as musical acts could not make a solid living from playing alone Other key factors were that of economic and political instability Many consider this decade as the lost decade The government would not allow racy themed content on television and the airwaves music festivals were not allowed The music that dominated Mexico and much of Latin America during this era were mostly teen flavored acts like Menudo Timbiriche Flans and others Rock acts could not land any recording deal because record label executives were much more interested in selling listeners a colourful hip and trendy image to the general public ranging from youngsters to middle aged adults With the strong impact of Argentine and Spanish rock bands by the mid 1980s the local scene would begin to develop acts that would generate an identity of its own Among these were bands like El Tri Maldita Vecindad Los Amantes de Lola and Caifanes Salsa Edit The salsa music had developed in the 1960s and 70s by Puerto Rican and Cuban immigrants to the New York City area but did not enter into mainstream popularity in Latin America until the late 1980s The salsa music became together with cumbia the two most popular dance music but did not penetrate other countries outside the Caribbean as cumbia did A Mi Gente mural of Hector Lavoe in his hometown of Ponce Puerto Rico The 1980s was a time of diversification as popular salsa evolved into sweet and smooth salsa romantica with lyrics dwelling on love and romance and its more explicit cousin salsa erotica Salsa Romantica can be traced back to Noches Calientes a 1984 album by singer Jose Alberto El Canario with producer Louie Ramirez A wave of romantic singers found a wide audience among Latinos in both New York and Puerto Rico 65 The 1980s also saw salsa expand to Mexico Argentina Peru Europe and Japan and diversify into many new styles In the 1980s some performers experimented with combining elements of salsa with hip hop music while the producer and pianist Sergio George helped to revive salsa s commercial success He created a sound based on prominent trombones and a rootsy mambo inspired style He worked with the Japanese salsa band Orquesta de la Luz and developed a studio orchestra that included Tito Nieves Celia Cruz Jose Alberto La India Tito Puente and Luis Enrique The Colombian singer Joe Arroyo first rose to fame in the 1970s but became a renowned exponent of Colombian salsa in the 1980s Arroyo worked for many years with the Colombian arranger Fruko and his band Los Tesos 66 Merengue Edit Merengue music would hit its golden years during the 1980s starting in the late 70s with acts such as Wilfrido Vargas Johnny Ventura and Fernando Villalona Their orchestras would also churn future solo acts such as Eddy Herrera and Rubby Perez By the end of the decade La Coco Band would reinvent merengue with a more comedic style Oceania Edit AC DC performing Australian rock band INXS achieved international success during the decade with a series of hit recordings including the albums Listen Like Thieves 1985 Kick 1987 and the singles Original Sin 1984 Need You Tonight 1987 Devil Inside 1988 and New Sensation 1987 67 68 69 70 Kylie Minogue first single Locomotion became a huge hit in Minogue s native Australia spending seven weeks at number one on the Australian singles chart The single eventually became the highest selling Australian single of the decade Throughout Europe and Asia the song also performed well on the music charts reaching number one in Belgium Finland Ireland Israel Japan and South Africa The Australian rock band Men at Work achieved break out success in 1981 and went on to have several hits on the international charts Michael Hutchence singing during an INXS concert early 1980s The Church Real Life Opus and Midnight Oil also had some notable hits on the international charts Rick Springfield was well known in the early 1980s and had several hits In 1980 New Zealand rock band Split Enz released their album True Colours which became an international success After the band broke up in 1984 Neil Finn the younger brother of Tim Finn who had become Split Enz s de facto frontman after his departure in 1983 went on to form Crowded House in New Zealand in 1985 In 1986 Crowded House released their successful self titled debut album which went to number one in Australia and number three in New Zealand as well as reaching the top ten in Canada and top 20 in the United States It spawned the song Don t Dream It s Over which hit number one in New Zealand and Canada number two in the United States and number eight in Australia and has since become a pop rock anthem in Australasia Crowded House s follow up album Temple of Low Men released in 1988 did not achieve the same success as their debut but was still popular in the band s homelands of New Zealand and Australia The New Zealand band Mi Sex had success with its hit single Computer Games Other regional bands of note were The Swingers Coconut Rough The Crocodiles and Peking Man Asia EditMain articles J pop Indian pop C pop and K pop See also Synthpop Electro music House music and Techno This section needs expansion You can help by adding to it September 2011 In Japan bands such as Shonen Knife Boredoms The Star Club X Japan Dead End and The Stalin began in the Japanese rock bands and Visual kei emerged in the 1980s with bands such as X Japan Buck Tick and D erlanger Japanese noise rock emerged in the 1980s with bands such as Melt Banana Zeni Geva and Guitar Wolf in the Japanese s indies scene City pop an adult oriented genre with western influences of disco funk soft rock and R amp B also became popular with the Japanese tech boom Popular artists in the genre were Anri and Tatsuro Yamashita Most songs were about love or living in the city The genre was barely known outside of Japan However city pop has been getting increasingly popular in the west with Internet borne microgenre vaporwave On May 3 2019 Light in the Attic an independent record label released Pacific Breeze Japanese City Pop AOR and Boogie 1976 1986 It was a compilation album that showcased what city pop is and its style Japanese hardcore emerged with bands such as The Star Club and GISM and Japanese idol group Onyanko Club began as Idol group in the teen fans and youth fans Besides Hong Kong saw a rapid growth in pop music both in terms of variety and popularity Big stars such as Leslie Cheung Anita Mui Danny Chan Alan Tam and Beyond were icons of the decade The 1980s is still regarded as the most successful period in Hong Kong music history The Jets a Tongan American band had several hits on the international charts in the late 1980s See also Edit 1980s portal Music portal1970s in music 1990s in music 1960s in musicReferences Edit Henderson Alex Disco AllMusic Archived from the original on 25 October 2010 New Wave Music Genre Overview AllMusic Soft Rock Music Genre Overview AllMusic Pop Metal Music Genre Overview AllMusic Adult Contemporary Music Genre Overview AllMusic Henderson Alex Quiet Storm AllMusic Archived from the original on 25 October 2010 Whatever Happened To The B Listers of Hair Metal September 26 2010 Collins Glenn 1988 08 29 Rap Music Brash And Swaggering Enters Mainstream The New York Times 1980s voted most popular decade of music Music News 7 March 2010 Retrieved 9 January 2021 a b Christgau Robert 1990 CG 80s Decade robertchristgau com Retrieved April 12 2019 Anderson Kyle July 20 2009 Michael Jackson s Thriller Set To Become Top Selling Album Of All Time MTV MTV Network Archived from the original on 9 January 2010 Retrieved December 29 2009 Whitney Houston s life death and musical legacy France 24 12 February 2012 Archived from the original on 2012 02 13 Retrieved June 18 2021 Moran Caitlin April 22 2008 Madonna more clout than the Beatles all by herself and wearing heels The Times Archived from the original on August 5 2020 Retrieved April 17 2013 she has been referred to habitually as the Queen of Pop since the mid Eighties Doyle Patrick 2020 04 14 15 Great Prince Songs That Were Hits for Other Artists Rolling Stone Who ruled the 80 s The 200 biggest artists of the decade in the USA RateYourMusic Harwin Steve 13 September 2019 Who were the most successful artists of each decade Tsort Reynolds p 392 93 a b c d Erlewine Stephen Thomas American Alternative Rock Post Punk Allmusic Retrieved May 20 2006 Azerrad Michael 2001 Our Band Could be Your Life Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981 1991 Little Brown pp 3 5 ISBN 9780316063791 Reynolds p 390 Gazzah Miriam 2008 Rhythms and Rhymes of Life music and Identification Processes of Dutch Moroccan Youth Amsterdam University Press p 98 ISBN 978 90 8964 062 8 a b c d e Ripani Richard J 2006 The New Blue Music Changes in Rhythm amp Blues 1950 1999 Univ Press of Mississippi pp 130 155 186 188 ISBN 1 57806 862 2 Bogdanov Vladimir Chris Woodstra Stephen Thomas Erlewine 2003 The New Blue Music Changes in Rhythm amp Blues 1950 1999 Hal Leonard pp xi 114 ISBN 978 0 87930 744 8 Songs from the 1980s tsort info J D Considine After a great 1990 Bell Biv DeVoe to ring in the new year FINAL Edition 28 Dec 1990 The Baltimore Sun Web 1 Apr 2010 Savage Mark 2008 08 29 Pop Superstars turn 50 BBC News Archived from the original on 24 November 2008 Retrieved 2008 11 25 Hip Hop Pioneer Doug E Fresh amp Soca Sensation Machel Montano To Host 26th Int l Reggae amp World Music Awards IRAWMA Jamaicans com Archived from the original on 12 May 2011 Retrieved 2011 04 14 Grandmaster Flash 2009 02 23 Grandmaster Flash Interview Prefixmag com Archived from the original on 14 May 2011 Retrieved 2011 04 14 Rose 1994 pp 53 55 Fikentscher Kai July August 2000 Youth s sonic forces The club DJ a brief history of a cultural icon UNESCO Courier UNESCO 45 Brewster 2006 340 359 Cosgrove 1988a Sicko 1999 Reynolds 1999 12 40 Anglomania The Second British Invasion Rolling Stone Retrieved 29 April 2019 a b V Bogdanov C Woodstra and S T Erlewine All Music Guide to Rock the Definitive Guide to Rock Pop and Soul Milwaukee WI Backbeat Books 3rd edn 2002 ISBN 0 87930 653 X pp 1337 8 F W Hoffmann and H Ferstler Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound Volume 1 New York NY CRC Press 2nd edn 2004 ISBN 0 415 93835 X p 1135 D Hesmondhaigh Indie the institutional political and aesthetics of a popular music genre in Cultural Studies 13 2002 p 46 St James encyclopedia of Pop Culture dead link a b c d e f g h Rip It Up and Start Again Postpunk 1978 1984 by Simon Reynolds Pages 340 342 343 Wichita Eagle Search Results nl newsbank com M Haig Brand Royalty How the World s Top 100 Brands Thrive amp Survive Kogan Page Publishers 2006 p 54 OUP retrieved 2007 11 05 PDF Archived from the original PDF on March 8 2012 UK acts disappear from US charts BBC News http news bbc co uk 1 hi entertainment 1946331 stm retrieved 01 07 09 Holden Stephen June 15 1988 The Pop Life The New York Times via NYTimes com Rimmer Dave New Romantics The Look 2003 Omnibus Press ISBN 0 7119 9396 3 R Shuker Popular music the key concepts Routledge 2005 p 128 L M E Goodlad and M Bibby eds Goth Undead Subculture Duke University Press 2007 Whitesnake BRITS Profile BRIT Awards Ltd I Christe Sound of the Beast The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal London HarperCollins 2003 ISBN 0 380 81127 8 p 79 D Weinstein Heavy Metal The Music and its Culture Cambridge MA Da Capo 2000 ISBN 0 306 80970 2 p 21 Anderson John 7 January 1990 Pop Notes Newsday a b P Gambaccini T Rice and J Rice British Hit Singles 6th edn 1985 pp 338 9 Queen win greatest live gig poll BBC News 9 November 2005 Flashback Queen Steal the Show at Live Aid Archived 2017 10 29 at the Wayback Machine Rolling Stone Retrieved 4 April 2013 You Win Again by Bee Gees Songfacts www songfacts com Alejandra Avalos es madrina delujo en plaza de las estrellas enelbrasero com November 4 2014 Archived from the original on September 11 2017 Retrieved September 11 2017 Stavans llan 2014 Latin music musicians genres and themes Santa Barbara California ABC CLIO p 547 ISBN 978 0 313 34396 4 Retrieved October 30 2014 Pineda Ricardo 12 February 2014 Melodia para dos baladas gruperos corazones rotos y cubas pintaditas Vice in Spanish Retrieved 8 August 2019 Garcia Sebastian September 23 1985 La representante de Mexico Eugenia Leon ganadora del XVI Festival de la OTI Mexico s Representative Eugenia Leon Winner of the 16th OTI Festival El Pais in Spanish Seville Retrieved May 31 2018 10 maiores festivais de musica do mundo Volto Segunda in Portuguese March 5 2016 Retrieved February 13 2017 a b Pinheiro Matheus May 20 2011 Rockologia Rock in Rio e o fim da Ditadura Militar Musica Pave in Portuguese Retrieved February 13 2017 Rock in Rio No dia que cai Ditadura Barao Vermelho faz show historico Sidney Rezende in Portuguese December 11 2010 Retrieved February 13 2017 Rock in Rio Todo mundo junto Superinteressante in Portuguese October 31 2004 Retrieved February 13 2017 Manuel Popular Music of the Non Western World pg 49 Steward pgs 493 497 Kent David 1993 Australian Chart Book 1970 1992 St Ives Sydney Australian Chart Book ISBN 0 646 11917 6 Note Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting until ARIA created their own charts in mid 1988 INXS discography Australian Charts Portal Archived from the original on 2014 03 02 Retrieved 2008 11 16 INXS gt Charts amp Awards gt Billboard singles Allmusic Retrieved 2008 03 06 Artist Chart History INXS Albums Billboard com Retrieved 2008 03 06 Sources EditRose Tricia 1994 Black Noise Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America Middletown Connecticut Wesleyan University Press ISBN 978 0 8195 6275 3 Further reading EditHill Dave 1986 Designer Boys and Material Girls Manufacturing the 80s Pop Dream Poole Eng Blandford Press ISBN 0 7137 1857 9 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title 1980s in music amp oldid 1125203846, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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