1980'S ROCK POLL ALBUMS/TRACKS VOTING THREAD. (Voting closes September 20) (all welcome to vote inc Lurkers)

contenderizer, i don't know why you insist that the appreciation of a work of art should only exist within the context of the individual, when actually art is received + appreciated by aggregate communities too. who you hear about to hear is a product of various systems of distribution (economic, taste, geographic, social) that bring them to your attention. it is not an inadequate way to appreciate an album by talking primarily about its reception in a community, and certainly not to pair that w/ other more personal impressionistic accounts. which is not to glorify the canon (which should + does sustain challenges to it constantly) but to say that what you hear in the first place is just as important as why you like it.

the Grauzone - Eisbar that was added to the spotify playlist is a horrid remix. The original one is not on Spotify. This is it in case youre not familiar with it:

http://youtu.be/cTuTc_liKS4

The funy thing about all this is that there's an extremely high chance of DN walking this poll. The fact we're all talking about it suggests it will runaway with it. The previous 80s poll results suggest the same as the only albums ahead of it were ineligible! I should just save these comments for the blurbs hahaha

But don't be put of discussing it, just discuss other albums and other things too! Really enjoying the chat so far.

contenderizer, i don't know why you insist that the appreciation of a work of art should only exist within the context of the individual, when actually art is received + appreciated by aggregate communities too.

i, uh ... do i do that? in part i was trying to say that sgt. pepper's is important to me because it was important to my family. when i was younger, especially in my teens and twenties, it seems to me that my taste was "intensely personal" (and, not coincidentally i suspect, it often reflected my antisocial tendencies). at this point in my life, i place more emphasis on the sharing and social use of music.

The main reason it was talked about for years was because of the album cover the packaging which is iconic but nothing changes the fact that sgt peppers,except for 3 amazing songs, is fucking boring.

Also anyone see the irony in Beatles discussion in the thread for a poll on probably the decade that had the least Beatles influence since they began?
The 90s had 13 year old kids into them, not so in the 80s. I did not know one person who did.

Of course i didn't know anyone who liked sonic youth or husker du nor had i heard of them myself hahaha

what did you like at the time then

Beatles were huge in the 80s, especially once the cds finally came out. And there is plenty of music from the era influenced by them, too.

well you have minimized the legitimacy of the observation that some ppl rate certain albums bc those are the albums they have been exposed to. something that seems self-evidently true in many cases and certainly worthy of note xxxp

btw, this seems the right place to say this - 80s is my least favorite decade of popular music

mookieproof early 80s i liked Madness and basically singles, it was a great time for pop music for me til about 1985. Later 80s we got a cd player and I was into U2,Springsteen ,Waterboys, Bon Jovi and Hysteria by Def Leppard. As ive said many times in the past I did not really get into music til Nevermind. 18 years old left school, had money to buy cds for first time. Great times. all the awesome 80s music I heard post nevermind.

The main reason it was talked about for years was because of the album cover the packaging which is iconic but nothing changes the fact that sgt peppers,except for 3 amazing songs, is fucking boring.

yeah see this is the thing where people just rewrite history to suit their tastes, hate this

btw, this seems the right place to say this - 80s is my least favorite decade of popular music

and your favorite?

i'm not sure

well you have minimized the legitimacy of the observation that some ppl rate certain albums bc those are the albums they have been exposed to. something that seems self-evidently true in many cases and certainly worthy of note xxxp

― Mordy, Sunday, September 2, 2012 6:07 PM (12 minutes ago)

oh, i see. i'm not minimizing the legitimacy of the observation, or at least not trying to do that. i'm minimizing the significance of the observation as a critique. "people only like that one cuz it's the most popular" = lame criticism, afaic.

yeah i mean the fact is that for most acts, there is one album that sold way more than any of the others. and often (but definitely not always) that album is also widely considered their best. sometimes that consensus is shared by the hardcore fans who've heard all their albums, sometimes it isn't. but imo you really gotta look at each career and each record and each fanbase on its own, these sweeping generalizations are just self-serving bullshit.

i can't even understand the idea that sonic youth have a best album. it all sounds the same + boring to me.

i kinda like teen age riot bc i think it's on a rock band game i've owned, but not even really

i think teen age riot would've been much improved by being edited down to a killer 2:50 track

It sounds pretty different from SYR3 though.

or even "Death to Our Friends"

daydream nation is like the joshua tree p much

a lot of the things i dislike about teen age riot i dislike about death to our friends

Mordy what do you think of Husker Du, Swans, Big Black ,Butthole Surfers, Dinosaur Jr?

mostly have not been a fan with exception of Big Black which i have not heard

the only songs on sgt pepper I don't dig are "when i'm 64" and "within you without you"

xp

what didn't you like about them?

you dont like the lofi indie sound that you got from non major label bands maybe?

could be! i don't like pavement either.

i find a bunch of this stuff kinda impersonal too. i feel like that might be the appeal?

I bet you hate Sebadoh and Guided By Voices too

yeah, not a fan. tell me what it all means!

I'm interested in seeing your ballot to find out. (dont post it here)

Do you like any 80s music not on a major label?

yeah, but nothing that fits this poll

well, a few things actually i think

Do you prefer your rock more polished than raw?

clearly not. look at my ballot.

I can't. I have no access to ballots. I'd need seandalai to sort that.

i think it's def something about "lo-fi" as as a genre, as opposed to low fidelity as just a feature of a recording

for a lotof the 80s bands they had to make do with what they could afford. No big budgets from major labels. Probably explains why bands who jumped to majors had such a difference in sound then. They could make the records they couldn't afford before. Whether they were better or not depends on the bands.

i think it's def something about "lo-fi" as as a genre, as opposed to low fidelity as just a feature of a recording

makes sense, i suppose, as most of the bands mentioned made some pretty slick recordings. related to lex's distaste for indie?

burn

difference is that i've heard most of the bands i'm casually dismissing

I think we can assume Lex will hate most of these bands even without hearing them

xp

most of the bands mentioned made some pretty slick recordings

SY definitely didn't in the 80s. Did HD, Dino Jr, or the Butthole Surfers make any recordings in the 80s that sound slick by today's standards?Children of God and The Burning World are kind of slick but earlier Swans definitely isn't.

A lot of Husker Du is astonishingly shitty-sounding, especially by contemporary standards.

the 2 warners albums were slick compared to the SST albums but not particularly slick really.

but i have no problem with the sound of the SST albums

If they were to be remastered they probably wouldn't sound like the albums I love