What music are you listening to?

[SolarLiner]

This hidden gem from Above & beyond's last album:

 

[K_Jameson]

 

[Matias Saibene]

If you have a time machine, take me to the 80's, people say that there was good music.:hotcool:

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Well, there's Aerosmith... If not for their videos I think MTV would have gone all reality TV much sooner.

As far as really good examples of rock music, the 80's is pretty slim pickin's.

 

[mojoey]

Well, there's Aerosmith... If not for their videos I think MTV would have gone all reality TV much sooner.

As far as really good examples of rock music, the 80's is pretty slim pickin's.

Maiden. That is all.

 

[Urwumpe]

Maiden. That is all.

Sorry...no. Judas Priest. Accept. Warlock. Hell, even Metallica made their best music in the 80s (Master of Puppets). Scorpions -Rock you like a Hurricane was from 1984 after all. You can of course say that Motörheads Overkill album was from 1979 and thus not 80s (RIP "Philthy Animal" Taylor, who deceased a few days ago). And don't forget Spinal Tap - how good must the rock music of the 80s have been, if this was just the parody of it?

But I would then also include Bon Jovi... well, it had been hard times. Also Gun N'Roses also started in the 80s. Or Mötley Crüe.

I would say, the 80s really shaped rock music. It is really hard to claim that there had been only few examples of good rock music in the 80s. Many 2000s bands are just good in playing a 80s rock band.

 

[K_Jameson]

Maiden. That is all.

Are you kidding?

---------- Post added at 12:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:27 PM ----------

But I would then also include Bon Jovi... well, it had been hard times. Also Gun N'Roses also started in the 80s. Or Mötley Crüe.

Yeah.
I also include Marillion, for the new-prog movement. From 1982 to 1987 they did four fantastic albums in a row.

I would say, the 80s really shaped rock music.

Best era for rock was indubitably the seventies. Many years of that decade are literally full of seminal albums. But 80s productions was exceptionally good, by far better than today, and we have plenty of fantastic albums and groups, altough perhaps not "original" or "influential" as in the previous decade. The grunge movement, though in turn important and influential, has ruined the pleasure of the great and refined productions and has deemed the upbeat tone of the 80s rock as obsolete. Unfortunately.

 

[Urwumpe]

Best era for rock was indubitably the seventies.

Not sure there. The 70s had a lot of great rock music, but IMHO, it had been the 80s, when rock became fast - not just fast by more beats per minute, but also fast by shorter song structures and straighter . Just compare a 70s guitar riff to an 80s guitar riff. Also Metal music elements like modern double bass did not appear before the 1980s.

The 70s had been more like finding out what rock is, while the 80s had been mastering it. And then came the 90s and rock got its midlife crisis.

 

[K_Jameson]

rock became fast - not just fast by more beats per minute, but also fast by shorter song structures and straighter

This is a limit more than an advantage, IMHO, because it imposed the standard structure verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-chorus that, at last, became prevedible and boring. 70's compositions were longer, freer, less standardized, more imaginative. Where 80's product was in advantage was in the production qualities. Technology level has increased and many album have benefited of it, improving their sound impact. The downside was that many albums, in live performances, never have the same impact as in studio.

---------- Post added at 01:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:21 PM ----------

Also Metal music elements like modern double bass did not appear before the 1980s.

But is generally accepted that metal take origins from early Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath works.

I would ask a question. Here in Italy, the perception of the German music market is that Rock has more consideration there than in other countries. It is true?
In Italy, not only metal (that is "at home" in Germany) but the rock as a whole is a little overshadowed in the present day. You cited Bon Jovi and is a perfect example: here in Italy that group has very, very little consideration (even in his "golden years") and is somewhat derided, but in Germany has ever a larger success, even with frankly mediocre albums as the last three or four.

 

[Urwumpe]

This is a limit more than an advantage, IMHO, because it imposed the standard structure verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-chorus that, at last, became prevedible and boring. 70's compositions were longer, freer, less standardized, more imaginative.

Yes, but thats not really a sign of a good rock song. Neither one of the qualities, nor all of them in combination. Stairway to Heaven is nearly a too long song (And still largely follows the standard structure), and quite many Deep Purple songs had been a disastrous ego war between Blackmore and Lord.

I don't think that progressive rock really deserves being called progressive. Like it had been said: "Perfection is not reached, when there is nothing left to be added, but when there is nothing left to be left away".

You could complain of course about boring song structures - but I am not sure, if that is that simple, because without a clear structure, a song does also not work. Like a good book or movie, a song also needs a clear structure and pace to work. There are only few longer songs IMHO, that have been written with a clear concept in mind. And the best longer songs are IMHO not written in the 1970s - take for example Gamma Rays "Rebellion in Dreamland", which is also faster paced than 70s rock songs. On the other hand, you have Dream Theaters "Pull me under", which is the longest justification for an awesome drum intro.

Also, what has to be said about long rock songs had been said with Manowars "Achilles, Agony and Ecstasy in Eight Parts".

But is generally accepted that metal take origins from early Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath works.

Yes, origins. But then, it travelled a LONG distance from that. Even Rainbow, which was still in the 1970s, had only little in common what Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath called rock. And Motörhead was rather citing what was before Led Zeppelin and Sabbath. Also Krautrock was also a phenomena in the 1970s, that was nearly unknown in Germany and rediscovered in the 2010s.

I would ask a question. Here in Italy, the perception of the German music market is that Rock has more consideration there than in other countries. It is true?

Can't really estimate this as German native. We have a pretty large music scene in general, and it is pretty diverse as well. We have traditionally a large metal scene here, we have a strong rock music tradition in Germany (Ton Steine Scherben as early example).

But I am not sure, if that is special or just because of the scale of the German music market.

In Italy, not only metal (that is "at home" in Germany) but the rock as a whole is a little overshadowed in the present day. You cited Bon Jovi and is a perfect example: here in Italy that group has very, very little consideration (even in his "golden years") and is somewhat derided, but in Germany has ever a larger success, even with frankly mediocre albums as the last three or four.

Well, we are largely americanized so its no surprise that the US 1980s left some dent in western Germany - and that did also not stop in the east.

 

[K_Jameson]

Stairway to Heaven is nearly a too long song

If we want talk about unnecessary long LedZep songs, we must talk about Achilles Last Stand, IMHO.

I don't think that progressive rock really deserves being called progressive.

The progressive is so named because it shows the "progress" of the rock and its capability to be expanded in both musical and lyrical complexity, even with contaminations from classical genres. To be not only entertainment but art, or culture. It was really a "progress" from the previous years. 80's rock, although more bombastic and catchy, or just for this, shows in many ways an involution in these characteristics: to be more commercial, the things must be straightened, codified, simplified and ultimately trivialized (not ever, but often). 80' was widely regarded as decadent years, the decade of the "commercialization of the music", and not in a positive light. A very severe statement, sure.

And to be honest, 80's was mainly the "pop" decade. Most of the more brilliant pop songs and groups comes from these years. Anyway, rock of eighties (and beginning of nineties) still rules today, especially if compared with the dramatic downfall of quality of the subsequent years and the desolation of the current mainstream panorama. I'm still a huge 80's fan. Simply I think that artistically, 70's albums are often stronger, original and more influential for the subsequent generations.

 

[Urwumpe]

Simply I think that artistically, 70's albums are often stronger, original and more influential for the subsequent generations.

Yeah, and my opinion there is, that the real artistic value was stronger in the period between 1978 and 1992. Maybe not always as experimental, but also much more conscious in the use of the new technologies. Like Depeche Modes use of sampling on "Stripped", which sure was not the invention of sampling in music, but one of the most impressive uses of it.

Especially if you consider that, a lot of what had been called pop music in the 1980s, would today count as rock music already.

 

[Andy44]

I saw Accept in the 80s in Philadelphia open for Dio and they were awful. One of the worst sounding metal bands I've ever seen. Worse, they were boring. Despite the high volume my friends and I actually got sleepy and had to go walk around the concourse before the Dio set started. They also had one of the worst album covers in rock history.

Speaking of Dio, anyone who says there wasn't much good music in the 80s is wrong, period.

 

[Urwumpe]

They also had one of the worst album covers in rock history.

Likely the worst. :lol:

But actually, the Wolf Hoffmann guitar sound is still cited often by modern Metal bands. "Balls to the Wall" isn't really their biggest legacy, I would rather put "Restless and Wild" there.

 

[Andy44]

Maiden. That is all.

Up the irons!

Speaking of Dio, anyone who says there wasn't much good music in the 80s is wrong, period.

My 2 favorite 80s metal albums are Iron Maiden's Powerslave and Dio's Holy Diver:

 

[Urwumpe]

If you caught yourself singing this under the shower...

 

[Andy44]

That was fun, are we doing songs about nuclear stuff? This is one of my favorites:

 

[Urwumpe]

About all this stressful hating and shouting, all these self-declared warriors and crusaders... every little thing gonna be alright.

 

[Urwumpe]

Stumbled over this, not my usual music, but great:

The last word in German gangster rap: I have police. #Ichhabpolizei

Yes, its satire and its bordering on NSFW. And its epic. And it even gives Kanye West some good return.

 

[Graham2001]

Something that I pull out when feeling a bit down.

Gary Numan - Dark

Course of Empire - The Information

​