The era of the 80’s has to be one of the most prolific times in music history that encompasses so many different types of genre’s and styles. Not to mention the bright and colourful outfits that go along with it that we’ve all come to love at fancy dress parties, right? So with the image of your great aunt embarrassing herself at your cousins wedding on the dance floor wearing a bright pink tutu, lets take a look at why it has a special place in all of our hearts.
First of all, music is a language that we all can understand and speak on so many different levels. So why has the 80’s been remembered so fondly by young and old alike? Lets take a look at the quality of the music. I know, I know, Justin Bieber has over a billion views on youtube, but can it compare to the musicality of Stevie Wonder or Dire Straights? We hear songs nowadays that have been “ripped off” from past songs, (but lets not get into that). What I am trying to say is that music from the 80’s is still having a massive impact on songwriting today.
Blurred Lines by Pharell and Robin Thicke was one of the biggest hit songs of 2013, but the duo took a massive hit in the lawsuit that was paid out to the Gaye family at around $7.4 million, but lets not… okay lets get into it.
There are definitely some similar influences in the song, and as Pharell argued, thats all they were. There are a million different percussion loops the producer could have used but why did he choose that particular loop. Its simple, the influence of the musicality in that era has been like no other. They had a formula that worked, and it worked very well. Motown took the music world by storm and most of that music was recorded by a single band with so many different artists. They had a formula. I wonder whether that formula has ever been recreated since the 80’s that is so obviously evident in modern music? I could talk for hours about snare sounds and don’t even get me started on the Trevor Horn productions.
I recently heard an MJ song with some synth lines that hadn’t made it into the final production and it sounded like an angel singing in my ears. The level of professionalism and musicality in that recording are out of this world. I would even go as far to say the musicians themselves made MJ look average, okay I take that back but it was that good. So why the 80’s? In short, they were just that good. They didn’t have any shortcuts to take with a quick youtube lesson here and a quick edit there. They had to work at their craft, and in doing so created some of the greatest music the world has ever heard.