1983: the year it all went wrong?

xpost OR WHOEVER IT WAS! ach.

1983 had 'into battle with the art of noise'

RUN DMC

It seems I'm trying to only post pedantries on this thread.

Tell you what I didn't get in 1983, right: The Smiths. Dour, retrograde, boringly conservative, Red Guitars meets Orange Juice. Just couldn't see what the fuss was about. It actually took the Francois Kevorkian remix of "This Charming Man" to show me I was wrong. Very, very wrong.

Well, that's two singles in, so it's not exactly after the bus had left.

Nothing wrong with establishing the truth, as opposed to the terrible wrongs involved in establishing soulful, passionate and honest 1983 band the Truth who certainly gave pop a blandness washout with their stirring "Confusion (Hits Us Every Time)" followed by the uplifting, honest, passionate and soulful "A Step In The Right Direction."

Dennis Greaves was the New Messiah and it's all our fault that we didn't adhere to his cocktail-crushing teachings.

am i the only one who likes gary byrd's 'the crown'? it's ridic pompous/self-righteous and often cheesy and stilted lyrically but still glorious - esp. the chorus and when stevie chimes in. i'd put it up there with 'stand on the word' in a way.

xpost no very true exactly. Been sold the second comin' so much I got a headache.

Hmm, that could make a good opening line. Apart from the headache bit. ANYWAY!!!

Yeah, the Truth. Nice t-shirt with the 12" but then mass exodus!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NFZ0su_Jzj4
but you want a version over 7 mins (think the 12" clocks in at just over 10)

Perhaps I ought to start a 1983 singles freebie poll - the "Baby Jane" beach ball slugs it out with the Annabel Lamb video.

xpost to Mark G re The Smiths: But in 1983, two singles was a whole lifetime! No, Orange Juice felt like my fellow travellers: from pasty-faced lovesick fey boys not getting any sex in 1980-81, to shiny new pop party boys with nice new haircuts getting plenty of sex in 1982-3. So the last thing I wanted to do was put my cardigan back on and retreat back to the bedsit...

Yeah, right there with you on that one.

I think I decided when I heard a feature on Radio 1, they were testing guitars out in some instrument expo, and they handed Johnny Marr a sitar/guitar, and he played the riff from "Charming Man" totally unselfconsciouly, because he wanted to know what it would sound like on *this*.

At this point I decided, whatever, JMarr was the cool dude.

xpost to d: Baby Jane was the Adidas t-shirt, but there are some things you don't do even for a decent quality t-shirt and putting Rod at no 1 was one of them. "Don't blame me I didn't buy it" badges to the fore!

Reposting this to Popular in how many years time...

was thrilled to find the vocal version of Shirley Lites 'Heat You Up (Melt You Down)' on itunes plus the other week. not a hit obv but superb italo.

The 1983 Disconet Top Tune Medley (1983) Part 1
The 1983 Disconet Top Tune Medley (1983) Part 2

1983 was an ace year. Stuff didn't really go wrong until 1986-87, as a result of a combination of digital synths, rap, house, hair metal and Stock/Aitken/Waterman. Pop music has never fully recovered since and become as good again as it was before the mid 80s.

If there's music outside of house, rap, hair metal, and SAW, I don't want to know about it.

I don't understand why the article uses ABC's 'Beauty Stab' as an example. It wasn't "challenging"...it was bland and unmemorable. And I really tried to like it because it has Alan Spenner (of late-era Roxy Music--see "Manifesto" and "Stronger through the Years"!) on bass.

Quoting Roddy Frame in a 1983 interview is kind of interesting as his next album might well have been used as an example in the article.

CDRGO! 700MB 1983 : Eve-Eve-Everybody Get On Board Board B-B-B-Board

I fucking LOVED 1983!

But it kinda sucked in the UK.

MM is right -- 1983 was good. Other records people are forgetting: Trio, Was (Not Was), James Blood Ulmer.

B-52's, Waitresses.

I fucking LOVED 1983!

But it kinda sucked in the UK.

-- Mackro Mackro, Friday, March 7, 2008 9:55 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

aye, thatcher winning a second term sucked ass.

luckily someone invented transatlantic transport prior to that date, though, so we got to enjoy a fair amount of american records.

That Circle Jerks album is pretty shit, really.

You = dead to me. Sure, it's no Group Sex, but "Coup D'etat", "When The Shit Hits The Fan" and "Under The Gun" and "Jerks On 45" are all fucking fantastic.

Thatcher and the Falkland war obviously sucked, but UK music was fantastic in the UK in 1983. Acts such as Howard Jones, Paul Young and Thompson Twins are very underrated.

1985 Was When It All Started To Turn To Shit

You = dead to me. Sure, it's no Group Sex, but "Coup D'etat", "When The Shit Hits The Fan" and "Under The Gun" and "Jerks On 45" are all fucking fantastic.

this is the year that I was born

http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/890/41pggvyc68laa240sv4.jpg

dearest Mackro,

can you please make or send me that cdr go?

I think the article was covering a narrow segment of UK music - basically smash hits / daytime radio one. And it was spot on.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, in 1983, most weeks I had to listen to a Saturday afternoon radio one show by Adrian Juste. I did feel that pop charts had become safe. Obviously having to listen to Adrian Juste would make anyone bitter about music (and, their own existence)..

But the article is right, the "mainstream" was mainly terrible. And there were fewer mavericks stirring things up. You weren't going to hear 9/10ths of what has been listed in this thread as good (even the popular ones). Billy Mackenzie wasn't going to be on top of the pops either.

In general, yes, 1983 was the beginning of the downslide. The suits had taken over the asylum by then.

But the strange this is when you look at the Peel Festive 50 from that year, you almost shut up, don't you?

I listened to Radio Lux for most of 1983 and I loved the mainstream UK pop. I still see it as one of the best years ever for mainstream hitlist pop.

The UK Top 50 of 1983 Poll

Curiously, I spent most of 1983 listening to Radio Luxembourg too, and discovered a lot of great music through it which never got played on Radio One. What was that dreadful "What a wally!" record sung by that shrill girl? I can still hear it in my head to this day.

1983 was the year I stopped sitting around listening to the radio and actively bought records, inspired by hearing "Genetic Engineering" and "Doot-doot" played on the Futurist chart (Thursday nights, IIRC). But whilst the start of the year was good, by the autumn it was definitely in decline, and the likes of Howard Jones and Nik Kershaw coming into the scene was a final nail in the coffin, and around that time I discovered the Peel show and never looked back. But 1983 was a turnaround year musically for me and will always hold a place in my heart, for that spring was truly wonderful.

this is the year that I was born

also the year Bob Stanley was born I'd wager. either that or he's the most gullible journalist currently working. that Guardian article is a perfect storm of revisionist history.

bob stanley was 19 in 1983 -- about the age you grow out of blind fandom, maybe.

I can remember a time, shortly after Wham hit big in the UK, when chart pop seemed to lose it's weirdness and sense of otherness for a while, everyone seemed to be scared to appear uncool, I think? And things seemed less fun and less inventive and less thrilling in some way. Obviously it didn't stay like that but it seemed to be like that for a while.

I can't remembert if this was in '83 or not, but it was some time around then. I still hate Wham because of this (and because of george michael's horrible smarmy voice as well)

By definition anything on this list that was really good/odd wasn't played nearly as much as the obv. big hits:

http://www.spiritofradio.ca/Charts.asp#1983

OK it's not totally awful, but there were so many better hardcore/punk albums released that year than that record!

Completely true, but again -- it only let me put up three covers.

But whilst the start of the year was good, by the autumn it was definitely in decline, and the likes of Howard Jones and Nik Kershaw coming into the scene was a final nail in the coffin

Your loss. Both were brilliant!
(Kershaw didn't have any sizeable hits until 1984 though)

The most important point made in the article is the public school comment by Kevin Rowland. That was precisely when and where everything that is wrong with both British pop and British politics today began.

It's arguable that 1983 is when the sort of people who'd previously have ignored pop altogether began listening to it in the UK (and, yes, I am thinking of a certain current political leader who'd have done O-levels that year at Eton): Jones/Kershaw/T Twins invented a sort of "light pop" to appeal to people who in a different political universe would still have listened to light classical. Then Hucknall turned it into a perverse kind of minor artform that could be vaguely admired, dispassionately.

Was about time then. The entire idea of music as rebellion against older generations was pathetic from the very beginning.

Ulmer didn't actually go anywhere near the charts, did he? (Hope I'm wrong!)

I can remember a time, shortly after Wham hit big in the UK, when chart pop seemed to lose it's weirdness and sense of otherness for a while, everyone seemed to be scared to appear uncool, I think? And things seemed less fun and less inventive and less thrilling in some way.

I would say you are thinking of 1986-87, when everyone started having mullets. And not inventive mullets with personality, like Mike Score, Limahl and even Howard Jones had. No, just the same boring standard mullet, looking alike on everyone.

1986 was about the year I stopped loving chart music. (I was 13)

The most important point made in the article is the public school comment by Kevin Rowland. That was precisely when and where everything that is wrong with both British pop and British politics today began.

It's arguable that 1983 is when the sort of people who'd previously have ignored pop altogether began listening to it in the UK (and, yes, I am thinking of a certain current political leader who'd have done O-levels that year at Eton): Jones/Kershaw/T Twins invented a sort of "light pop" to appeal to people who in a different political universe would still have listened to light classical. Then Hucknall turned it into a perverse kind of minor artform that could be vaguely admired, dispassionately.

-- February Callendar, Saturday, March 8, 2008 10:10 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

is what rowland said verifiable, though? was there really a social sea-change in the music business in the early 80s? i wouldn't have thought so.

any thoughts on the 'jam generation', RC?

There was a sea-change in politics and business in the 90s. When the generations who grew up listening to rock would actually start getting the top jobs. And that is why you suddenly had pop/rock fans among the people in power. Not because anything actually happened to the music.

10.00pm Now That's What I Call 1983

Denise Van Outen presents a nostalgic trip through the musical highlights of 1983. Heaven 17, Howard Jones, Nick Heywood, Paul Young, Ali Campbell, Kajagoogoo, Nik Kershaw and Tony Hadley perform their greatest hits in the studio, and there is a glance at the year's big events, including the release of Michael Jackson's Thriller video, the arrival of the compact disc and the advent of morning television.

Wow, quite some cultural diversity on that line-up!