Welcome to WEEK 203 of 4T! (Video Episode #29) 1980s Second Tier Singles with Production that NAILED IT (1985-87) https://open.spotify.com/playlist/55SOZvgkK68ysVgCRhlS7M?si=mICY-Lg-Qz60EXRE3tOlNA Ahh 1980s production values. It all started out so well. Crisp, clean, tight, bouncy but slightly dark, and with awesome amalgams of styles and sounds. But after 1982-3 or so, we all know how out of control it got. The big, crashing snare. The overlayered instruments. The cheesy keyboard sounds. The MELODRAMA. It’s a perfect example of why every 10 years or so a new style comes along to clean the slate of excess – in this case grunge. But all of that is true only if we focus on the biggest
Music is as diverse as people.And yet it has a universal language – notation, rhythm, etc.What makes music so vibrant is BOTH the commonalities AND the differences.Yet that dichotomy is also what makes it hard for us to relate to music outside of our realm of experience or desire. We are drawn to what’s familiar, what we can identify with, what we can connect to, and what we desire.When we listen to a song we like, we focus on what we already know and/or what we’re looking for.We tend to dismiss the differences in favor of what feels right.When those differences do grab our attention, they can be jarring, intriguing, scary, exciting, off-putting, magnetic.But we know how to integrate them be
Sam Smith – “Stay with Me” Green Day – “Wake Me Up When September Ends” REM – “Nightswimming” Styx – “Too Much Time on My Hands” Judas Priest – “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” The Kinks – “Sunny Afternoon” Johnny Mathis – “Wonderful, Wonderful” Cole Porter – “Night and Day” (as performed by Bing Crosby)
This is the original. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBvYPbisxmQ What can you tell me about the other bands/songs?
Welcome to WEEK 202 of 4T! (Video Episode #28) The 1980s Force Factor (1982-86) … and the Unheralded FORCEs of Pop Electro Funk https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7yxeACYY1ErAEf9P1DFeJi?si=eTVqMTngSZ-T0FHCdFJnaw This week is a mega mix of five FORCE-ful artists and eight LPs (and even more on the Spotify playlist – see below), so let’s get to it. Pop electro-funk was HUGE in the 1980s, a real force (expect to see this word often) in the music world. And as far as I’m concerned it all started with Soulsonic Force, led by THEE HIP-HOP LEGEND, Afrika Bambaataa. “Planet Rock” sealed the deal for me as far as electro-infused hip-hop, and almost singlehandedly started the electro-funk movement.
Welcome to WEEK 201 of 4T! (Video Episode #27) Chic – “Le Freak” (1978/1986) Exceptions That Prove the Rule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Freak A few episodes ago, I talked about the musical coming of age – i.e. that point in your life when you start to consciously decide what music is “yours”, not your parents’ or siblings’ or peers’ or whatever the culture tells you it should be. Though I do think it happens to almost 100% of everyone, it’s not a rule. But if it were, like any rule, it’s the exceptions that prove it. This here song by Chic is one of those exceptions. I was almost 10 when “Le Freak” was released. And though by then I’d already gotten into the Beatles and Sean Cassid
