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Why are 80's vocal just so much more powerful than most modern pop
- Thread starter Benji
- Start date
Yeah, there was a massive production change from the 70s to the 80s.
It's also a reflection of society at the time.
Also, the 90s had some of the greatest vocalists in terms of power, range, and agility so it's not like the 80s is isolated in this.
Yup. not even a debate. This is the top 60 from 1985:
1 "Careless Whisper"Wham!
2 "Like a Virgin"Madonna
3 "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go"Wham!
4 "I Want to Know What Love Is"Foreigner
5 "I Feel for You"Chaka Khan
6 "Out of Touch"Hall & Oates
7 "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"Tears for Fears
8 "Money for Nothing"Dire Straits
9 "Crazy for You"Madonna
10 "Take on Me"a-ha
11 "Everytime You Go Away"Paul Young
12 "Easy Lover"Philip Bailey and Phil Collins
13 "Can't Fight This Feeling"REO Speedwagon
14 "We Built This City"Starship
15 "The Power of Love"Huey Lewis and the News
16 "Don't You (Forget About Me)"Simple Minds
17 "Cherish"Kool & the Gang
18 "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)"John Parr
19 "The Heat Is On"Glenn Frey
20 "We Are the World"USA for Africa
21 "Shout"Tears for Fears
22 "Part-Time Lover"Stevie Wonder
23 "Saving All My Love For You"Whitney Houston
24 "Heaven"Bryan Adams
25 "Everything She Wants"Wham!
26 "Cool It Now"New Edition
27 "Miami Vice Theme"Jan Hammer
28 "Loverboy"Billy Ocean
29 "Lovergirl"Teena Marie
30 "You Belong to the City"Glenn Frey
31 "Oh Sheila"Ready for the World
32 "Rhythm of the Night"DeBarge
33 "One More Night"Phil Collins
34 "Sea of Love"The Honeydrippers
35 "A View to a Kill"Duran Duran
36 "The Wild Boys"Duran Duran
37 "You're the Inspiration"Chicago
38 "Neutron Dance"The Pointer Sisters
39 "We Belong"Pat Benatar
40 "Nightshift"Commodores
41 "Things Can Only Get Better"Howard Jones
42 "All I Need"Jack Wagner
43 "Freeway of Love"Aretha Franklin
44 "Never Surrender"Corey Hart
45 "Sussudio"Phil Collins
46 "Strut"Sheena Easton
47 "You Give Good Love"Whitney Houston
48 "The Search Is Over"Survivor
49 "Missing You"Diana Ross
50 "Separate Lives"Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin
51 "Raspberry Beret"Prince and The Revolution
52 "Suddenly"Billy Ocean
53 "The Boys of Summer"Don Henley
54 "One Night in Bangkok"Murray Head
55 "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free"Sting
56 "Obsession"Animotion
57 "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)"Tina Turner
58 "Material Girl"Madonna
59 "Better Be Good to Me"Tina Turner
60 "Head over Heels"Tears for Fears
This was 2010:
1 "Tik Tok"Kesha
2 "Need You Now"Lady Antebellum
3 "Hey, Soul Sister"Train
4 "California Gurls"Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg
5 "OMG"Usher featuring will.i.am
6 "Airplanes"B.o.B featuring Hayley Williams
7 "Love the Way You Lie"Eminem featuring Rihanna
8 "Bad Romance"Lady Gaga
9 "Dynamite"Taio Cruz
10 "Break Your Heart"Taio Cruz featuring Ludacris
11 "Nothin' on You"B.o.B featuring Bruno Mars
12 "I Like It"Enrique Iglesias featuring Pitbull
13 "BedRock"Young Money featuring Lloyd
14 "In My Head"Jason Derulo
15 "Rude Boy"Rihanna
16 "Telephone"Lady Gaga featuring Beyoncé
17 "Teenage Dream"Katy Perry
18 "Just the Way You Are"Bruno Mars
19 "Cooler Than Me"Mike Posner
20 "Imma Be"The Black Eyed Peas
21 "Empire State of Mind"Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys
22 "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love"Usher featuring Pitbull
23 "Billionaire"Travie McCoy featuring Bruno Mars
24 "Not Afraid"Eminem
25 "Replay"Iyaz
26 "Sexy Bitch"David Guetta featuring Akon
27 "Breakeven"The Script
28 "Your Love Is My Drug"Kesha
29 "I Gotta Feeling"The Black Eyed Peas
30 "Fireflies"Owl City
31 "Say Aah"Trey Songz featuring Fabolous
32 "Find Your Love"Drake
33 "Alejandro"Lady Gaga
34 "Ridin' Solo"Jason Derulo
35 "Just a Dream"Nelly
36 "How Low"Ludacris
37 "Like a G6"Far East Movement featuring The Cataracs and Dev
38 "Carry Out"Timbaland featuring Justin Timberlake
39 "Haven't Met You Yet"Michael Bublé
40 "Club Can't Handle Me"Flo Rida featuring David Guetta
41 "Down"Jay Sean featuring Lil Wayne
42 "Bulletproof"La Roux
43 "Whatcha Say"Jason Derulo
44 "Baby"Justin Bieber featuring Ludacris
45 "Whataya Want from Me"Adam Lambert
46 "Mine"Taylor Swift
47 "Only Girl (In the World)"Rihanna
48 "Live Like We're Dying"Kris Allen
49 "Hard"Rihanna featuring Jeezy
50 "Young Forever"Jay-Z featuring Mr Hudson
51 "Blah Blah Blah"Kesha featuring 3OH!3
52 "Bottoms Up"Trey Songz featuring Nicki Minaj
53 "Do You Remember"Jay Sean featuring Sean Paul and Lil Jon
54 "All the Right Moves"OneRepublic
55 "According to You"Orianthi
56 "My Chick Bad"Ludacris featuring Nicki Minaj
57 "You Belong with Me"Taylor Swift
58 "Meet Me Halfway"The Black Eyed Peas
9 "Take It Off"Kesha
60 "Over"Drake
The quality drop is a very, very real thing. And you could do this for almost every decade in the 2000s.
edit: #29 is a personal favorite. I mean...holy shit. There's nobody out there like this anymore.
She's still young and has shit producers. If she spent her time working on her diction and whistle register instead of shit like 7 rings she could be a GOAT instead of another mediocre pop star. I always get so annoyed when she dives so low and can't pull it off. Why are you playing there, girl? Get a vocal coach, fix the straining at the top of your range, and embrace your diva not this spoilt child shit.
Even the rock bands back then had stronger vocals than a lot of pop artists and dedicated soloists today. Not a student of music, no idea why or what the influences are.
Jesus Christ. When it's laid out like that, wow, really noticeable.
Jesus Christ. When it's laid out like that, wow, really noticeable.
It's just a product of the time, scenes, society at large, the money involved.
As is usually the case music genres or scenes popping up are in either direct conflict/reaction to what came before it or are the natural evolution of it.
80s rock does nothing for me due to its bombasticity and overplaying, including the vocals. It's pomp. Too many ballads for my taste. However, the majority of people like that (and there's nothing wrong with that) and it's reflected in how revered 80s music is.
100℅. America crowned Madonna and fell in love with Cyndi Lauper but somehow never fully embraced Kate Bush even though she was doing stuff like:
and
This country should have been kneeling before her like Zod. Luckily I was a baby and share no responsibility in such a grave injustice.
It really is. Pick a year at random throughout the decade, you'll notice the same thing. EVERY year is this strong. The songs and artists making up the 2010 list just aren't on the same tier. Yes, there are niche genres and underground music that's pretty good in the modern era- but when you're speaking about hits, and what was POPULAR and getting regular airplay- the quality dive is massive and noticeable.
That's not what happened here. Legislation got passed in the mid 90s that caused a severe contraction in media ownership.
This had a cascade effect on who ended up getting record contracts and radio airplay. Drive across the country, and you'll notice the top 40 in New York isn't really different from the top 40 in LA, Miami, Denver, or Chicago.
This was NOT the way it was in the 1980s. Local Stations had a LOT more leeway to decide what ended up on the air, and that meant more discovery of local talent that potentially hit it big. It wasn't just pop either, happened for Hip Hop also.
The MC Hammer "Turn This Mutha Out" Video references this-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM9fxt-_4eY
the dude in the sailor suit at :50 rolls in, talks shit to Hammer because he's just not big in New York. Hammer says he'll make New York as big a market as he is everywhere else. ("I'm going to turn this mutha out!") You had to be HUGE to be dominant coast to coast in that era, and Hammer was bragging that he was the only one on that level.
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Music back than generally let the artist's vocals shine through and had more live instruments giving the sound a punchier feeling. Today, a lot of beats and sounds are made digitally and music is more democratized as well. Vocal talent isn't as important either, though you do still have great voices. A lot of it comes down to artists being able to put the right amount of production without overproducing or relying too heavily on tools to do the work instead of a musical ear
Yeah, I don't suspect the difference is actually necessarily down to talent. More the actual business has completely changed. Pre-2000s Vs post-2000s is night and day and a different set of talents are valued today compared to before these huge changesIt really is. Pick a year at random throughout the decade, you'll notice the same thing. EVERY year is this strong. The songs and artists making up the 2010 list just aren't on the same tier. Yes, there are niche genres and underground music that's pretty good in the modern era- but when you're speaking about hits, and what was POPULAR and getting regular airplay- the quality dive is massive and noticeable.
That's not what happened here. Legislation got passed in the mid 90s that caused a severe contraction in media ownership.
This had a cascade effect on who ended up getting record contracts and radio airplay.
This is mainly reflected in the hits, there was and always will be quality music. But what's in the public eye is very different
Exactly. Corporations hate risk, and a lot of your hit artists are heavily manufactured by the industry to appeal to the widest audience possible. This means that style and image are going to take precedence over vocal talent especially where autotune is a thing.
The 80s were full of men and women who could sing their asses off but were just downright GOOFY to look at. Rick Astley is probably the poster child for this.
100%
Looking at photos of bands from the 70s and 80s, most of them would not be given the time of day regarding image these days.
Though the 80s certainly had image as a major factor. But yeah, the talent still made it through and risks were still being taken to support that
Remember when a label would sign a band, then ride out failure after failure until they suddenly caught fire with their fifth album? Those were the days.
Not sure they were failures but they built a following album after album and improved their sound etc...
I mean their was PLENTY of one hit wonders in the 80's.
The existence of MTV and the music video encouraged this, but the one hit wonders were more exception than the rule. Getting a well produced music video in the first place generally didn't happen unless you already had some kind of following. Looking at the 85 list again, the vast majority of those artists had pretty long careers and multiple hits- far more so than the 2010 list. And some of the more notorious one hit wonders (A-Ha) actually had pretty long, successful careers. Just outside of the US.
Springsteen didn't catch on until his third, IIRC.
Oh, I agree, but I was commenting on them being failures. Springsteen wasn't a failure, he just wasn't mainstream.
Bands like Cure, Depeche Mode, Metallica, etc..
Didn't catch mainstream fire until their 5-6 albums. Pretty crazy to think of.
That's an amazing list for the '85 list. I only like one song from the other list. I can play that 85 list ALL DAY LONG. 80's and 90's are amazing. Things started dropping off for me since 2000.
Less risk, autotune, and the complete oversaturation of talent up till the late 90s just makes it sound dull. There are some bangers from the last decade, but they can't compare because of all that.
Probably why I love 80s music and my favorite genre through the years has been metal, metal has kept things vocally raw, real. Over-production can happen with some more mainstream stuff, but it still has an edge most modern music lacks.
The crazy part is that it was more or less a consistent thing. EVERY year was like this. We can't sleep on the 90s either- This was 1990.
1 "Hold On"Wilson Phillips
2 "It Must Have Been Love"Roxette
3 "Nothing Compares 2 U"Sinéad O'Connor
4 "Poison"Bell Biv DeVoe
5 "Vogue"Madonna
6 "Vision of Love"Mariah Carey
7 "Another Day in Paradise"Phil Collins
8 "Hold On"En Vogue
9 "Cradle of Love"Billy Idol
10 "Blaze of Glory"Jon Bon Jovi
11 "Do Me!"Bell Biv DeVoe
12 "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You"Michael Bolton
13 "Pump Up the Jam"Technotronic
14 "Opposites Attract"Paula Abdul and The Wild Pair
15 "Escapade"Janet Jackson
16 "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You"Heart
17 "Close to You"Maxi Priest
18 "Black Velvet"Alannah Myles
19 "Release Me"Wilson Phillips
20 "Don't Know Much"Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville
21 "All Around the World"Lisa Stansfield
22 "I Wanna Be Rich"Calloway
23 "Rub You the Right Way"Johnny Gill
24 "She Ain't Worth It"Glenn Medeiros and Bobby Brown
25 "If Wishes Came True"Sweet Sensation
26 "The Power"Snap!
27 "(Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection"Nelson
28 "Love Will Lead You Back"Taylor Dayne
29 "Don't Wanna Fall in Love"Jane Child
30 "Two to Make It Right"Seduction
31 "Sending All My Love"Linear
32 "Unskinny Bop"Poison
33 "Step by Step"New Kids on the Block
34 "Dangerous"Roxette
35 "We Didn't Start the Fire"Billy Joel
36 "I Don't Have the Heart"James Ingram
37 "Downtown Train"Rod Stewart
38 "Rhythm Nation"Janet Jackson
39 "I'll Be Your Everything"Tommy Page
40 "Roam"The B-52s
41 "Everything"Jody Watley
42 "Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)"Soul II Soul featuring Caron Wheeler
43 "Here and Now"Luther Vandross
44 "Alright"Janet Jackson
45 "Ice Ice Baby"Vanilla Ice
46 "Blame It on the Rain"Milli Vanilli
47 "Have You Seen Her"MC Hammer
48 "With Every Beat of My Heart"Taylor Dayne
49 "Come Back to Me"Janet Jackson
50 "No More Lies"Michel'le
51 "Praying for Time"George Michael
52 "How Can We Be Lovers"Michael Bolton
53 "Do You Remember"Phil Collins
54 "Ready or Not"After 7
55 "U Can't Touch This"MC Hammer
56 "I Wish It Would Rain Down"Phil Collins
57 "Just Between You and Me"Lou Gramm
58 "Something Happened on the Way to Heaven"Phil Collins
59 "Black Cat"Janet Jackson
60 "Can't Stop"After 7
61 "Janie's Got a Gun"Aerosmith
62 "The Humpty Dance"Digital Underground
63 "I'll Be Your Shelter"Taylor Dayne
64 "Free Fallin'"Tom Petty
Outside of the talent of the artists involved- look at how varied that list is. Michael Bolton. Tom Petty. Digital Underground. MC Hammer. Rod Stewart. The B-52s. Billy Joel. Sinead O'Connor. Poison. Wilson Phillips. Johnny Gill. Aerosmith. Mariah Carey. Luther Vandross.
That list hits basically every demographic from 8 to 80. Everyone was buying it. People don't understand how badly consolidation fucked over the kinds of music that got mainstream airplay. The 2010 list in comparison is super, SUPER narrow. If you're over 30, you're tuning that out.
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This is your cousin? I've been listening to his album over the past few weeks and it's simply amazing!
Let's not delude ourselves into think there's no talent in the music industry today and band management wasn't a thing decades ago.
Over the last 2 decades the scales have tilted in the wrong direction though. People like Phil Collins or Chris de Burgh would struggle to get noticed today. Their voices were not perfect but they had a unique tone that many people enjoyed.
Being able to sing and play an instrument doesn't carry much weight anymore. The industry has created a rod for its own back in this sense. There are amazingly talented artists out there who just can't get momentum because the barrier for entry has been raised so artificially high.
Over the last 2 decades the scales have tilted in the wrong direction though. People like Phil Collins or Chris de Burgh would struggle to get noticed today. Their voices were not perfect but they had a unique tone that many people enjoyed.
Being able to sing and play an instrument doesn't carry much weight anymore. The industry has created a rod for its own back in this sense. There are amazingly talented artists out there who just can't get momentum because the barrier for entry has been raised so artificially high.
Vocal talent is not something I care about when I listen to music, as long as the lyric delivery is competent and the singer is on-key. I care a lot more about the lyrics and the production.
With that said, it is true that many artists nowadays use auto tune and melodyne which means they don't have to work that hard for a perfect vocal as the 80 artists did. Don't wanna generalize though, artists like Adele and Lady Gaga have excellent powerhouse vocals.
With that said, it is true that many artists nowadays use auto tune and melodyne which means they don't have to work that hard for a perfect vocal as the 80 artists did. Don't wanna generalize though, artists like Adele and Lady Gaga have excellent powerhouse vocals.
Yeah, and it's the reason she got so hugely popular. What I'm trying to say is that plenty of modern pop artists are great singers too (Adele, Beyonce, Gaga, to name a few).
No one's disputing that. Great artists are still out there. In aggregate though, pop music since 2000 or so does not have the same kind of staying power as pop music in prior decades. The top 50-100 are less diverse genre wise, appeals to a smaller demographic, and the talent gap is pretty big. You should have dozens of artists over the past decade at Beyonce's skill level topping the charts- because that used to be the standard. It's not happening anymore.
I believe it's less about talent and more about trying to FIX art until it's no longer art. You track a verse, and it sounds great, but maybe there's slipups here and there. Nothing dreadful but you know, the human element. The artist being an artist. Well autotune takes that away and now it's a robot who sang the verse. Between that and just general mixing practices that have changed over the years, and everything produced sounds too clean and safe. Clean and safe are not powerful--at least not in terms of artistic expression.
There's a lot of what's old is better bias going on.
80's pop was terrible. 80's indie rock and the euro-pop style were pretty nice. I still have a spot in my heart for 80's hair bands though. I was an adolescent during the time so I kind of grew up with the top 40 shit of the era.
80's pop was terrible. 80's indie rock and the euro-pop style were pretty nice. I still have a spot in my heart for 80's hair bands though. I was an adolescent during the time so I kind of grew up with the top 40 shit of the era.
I think the difference is in how we should be referring to songs/artists/etc.
80s pop was great, but I hate practically all of it. One needs to remember to not ascribe quality through the lense of taste. Much like current music isn't worse, but it is extremely different in form and function
I hate stuff like this. This notion that things were better back whenever is just false. With each generation of music there is a ton of bad and then some good that bubbles up to the top. The current generation of pop music is no different.
You are aware that pop music peaked in the early 80's to 1984, right?
