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Originally Posted by Cantankerous
rap in the 80s was like the greatest thing. NWA and public enemy were fucking genius.
not discounting grandmaster flash.
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I'd mention Eric B and Rakim and Boogie Down Productions as two other leading lights of the era.
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Originally Posted by k-krack
the eighties were terrible for "mainstream"...
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I have to disagree about the mainstream thing. Think of people like Tears for Fears and Heaven 17 - they may not be to everyone's taste, but they (especially TFF) managed to combine being genuinely mainstream with writing songs about a variety of things ie not just about boy/girl stuff. That hasn't happened since. Heaven 17 were very political (lefties - not my politics, but hey ho).
And, now, you see, I have to say this: Duran Duran, during their 2nd and 3rd LP's, whether you like them or not, filled a very important role insomuch as they were the first pop band to genuinely come close to matching the Beatles for popularity. That gave pop music a kind of legitimacy.
Aside from pop, there was also the after-effects of punk. Also, we saw for the first time the breakdown of clear stylistic delineations as bands started to mix rap and rock, dance and rock, pop and punk and just about everything else.
That said, there was some right shite too of course, I won't try to deny it.