Was 1980s music that bad?

A couple days ago, NPR's All Songs Considered asked listeners to vote on which year had the best music. (The poll is here--you have to answer it to see overall results.) Unsurprisingly given NPR's demographic, the 1960s scored high, with top year 1969 figuring in 9 percent of all responses. More surprisingly, the 1990s also did quite well, with 1991 (grunge) and 1994 (alternative) both scoring 4 percent. There was also a little uptick in 1977--the year punk broke for the first time scored 4 percent. But the 1980s were a bleak wasteland, however, with all years scoring 1 percent or less except for 1987, which scored 2 percent. The ASC folks tried to convince listeners that the '80s had some bright spots, highlighting bands like The Replacements, Talking Heads, Minor Threat, and, um, Escape Club.

The number of albums in my record collection by year.

I had a hard time answering the question. Certain albums stick out--I know that the Beatles' White Album came out 1968, Who's Next was 1971, and Modest Mouse's The Moon and Antarctica was 2000. But a best year? Impossible to say.

So I decided to look at the empirical data. Because I'm a music nerd, I keep a running spreadsheet of every album I own (vinyl and CD), including the year they were originally released. (You fellow music nerds know exactly what I'm talking about--don't pretend otherwise.) First I scrubbed the data, making sure that things like greatest hits albums and movie soundtracks, where the release date was years or decades away from the actual recording dates, were not counted.

Then with Excel's useful COUNTIF function, I discovered that 1970 is my personal winner, with 30 albums. By decade, the '70s were tops with 216 albums, followed very closely by--gasp--the '80s with 195 albums. Next up were the '90s (156), the '00s (112 with only seven years and eight months gone), the '60s (94), the '50s (9), and the '40s (1--can you guess which album it was?).

So no, the '80s didn't suck. You just have to dig a little deeper.

[arcanium1]

Bear in mind that NPR's listener base is very heavily in the Smug Boomers demographic; they resent the 80s and much of its youth/popular culture because it wasn't focused on them.

[techman21]

80's was the best! You just have the wrong people taking the survey. 70's was the worst.

[gsmiller88]

Who the #&*! are The Replacements, Talking Heads, Minor Threat, and Escape Club?! I like 90s music pretty well as it's rather nostalgic, but every age group's favorite decade of music will vary.

[MattRosoff]

I don't know what kind of music you like, but tons of today's pop-punk and emo music owes the Replacements. Go to <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.songerize.com" target="_newWindow">http://www.songerize.com</a> and search for any of these songs:<br />I Will Dare<br />Unsatisfied<br />Answering Machine<br />Hold My Life<br />Swinging Party<br />Bastards of Young<br />Here Comes A Regular<br /><br />If you like, dig deeper. <br /><br />Talking Heads--you know them, even if you think you don't.

[The_Decider]

If you have to ask that question, you don't know enough about music.

[thund3rbox]

Huh?!? Who are these losers they gave the survey to? <br /><br />For starters, how about REM, Husker Du, Minutemen, Sonic Youth, Meat Puppets, Black Flag, Social Distortion, Bad Religion, Camper Van Beethoven, Replacements, X, Los Lobos.<br /><br />Keep going? Ok, Dinosaur Jr., The Smiths, The Cure, The Pixies, Mudhoney, Metallica (when they were good), Voivod, Dead Kennedys, Fear, MDC, Melvins, Faith No More...<br /><br />oh heck, just go here:<br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/36736-top-100-albums-of-the-1980s" target="_newWindow">http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/36736-top-100-albums-of-the-1980s</a>

[UITD]

From about 1989 forward - all music SUCKS. Period. Whatever the heck that crap is, including [c]RAP itself, sucks. 1980's music was absolutely the best. 70's wasnt so bad either.

[ozzymrjack]

hey you got it wrong! [c]RAP isnt real music at all!

[ozzymrjack]

they should have had diferent polls for diferent genres of music! but the best years where around the 60's [SABBATH!!]

[open-mind]

Yeah, the 80's were pretty bad. But not as bad as the 90's or 00's.

[MartinHennessy]

As a music journalist focused on the 1980s (and recordings by those artists since), I have to say that there is a bad stigma associated with 80s music. When mentioning the decade, people instantly associate Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Duran Duran, Wham! and a host of other pop artists that dominated the charts. Sure, there are the overplayed classics ("Tainted Love," "I Melt With You" and "I Ran") that get beat into your skull at most 'retro' radio stations... but come on! Thousands of albums were released at this time. There is a penchant for forgetting U2, The Clash and yes... Nine Inch Nails (Pretty Hate Machine debuted in 1989.) The amount of airplay a song received seems to have a way of brainwashing the masses and sadly, some of the best songs of the 80s will remain hidden gems.

[The_Decider]

Don;t forget all that horrible hair spray pop. Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Cinderella, Warrant, Motley Crue, etc, etc, etc. That stuff made Duran Duran and Flock of Seagulls seem like instant classics.<br /><br />I always wondered why Soft Cell didn't get more airplay. They had many great songs.

[daveturnley]

the '40s (1--can you guess which album it was?): I was going to guess Robert Johnson, but he died in 1938.<br /><br />The 60s had some incomprehensible breakthroughs (Beatles, Hendrix), but it's also overrated. The 70s are underrated (you always have to ignore the album charts, which almost always highlight the worst.) I understand why people hate the bombosity, but it's hard to deny Pink Floyd and Led Zep. And is there anything better than really good funk? Punk was nearly as revolutionary as the Beatles (yes, I'm comparing a movement to a band). It's hard to decide whether the 80s or 90s were worse. They had their moments, for sure, as Thund3erbox notes.<br /><br />But I have to say that the aughts have been pretty damn good. It's just more fractured, which is fine with me. Radiohead, Sigur Ros, Tom Waits, Gorillaz, M. Ward, Wilco, Godspeed, TV on the Radio, Niko Case. There's a strong vein of sincerity in music today, which is a great counter to the disaffection that runs throughout popular culture. And the psych movement is as strong now as it's ever been.

[plasticities]

Yes, it might take some searching, but there's plenty of good music in each decade. Saying things like "no good music has been made since 1989" is just ridiculous. Also, dismissing expansive genres of music (rap/hip-hop) is pretty close-minded.<br /><br />As for the 80's, I think they do go under appreciated. Daydream Nation, Rain Dogs, Doolittle, Remain In Light, Psychocandy, Murmur, and Closer, just to name a few, all measure up to some of the top albums in any other decade.

[The_Decider]

The crap that was on the charts was crap. There have been many great bands already named from the 80's, most of the didn't chart all that often, but it is all fantastic. <br /><br />Add: Circle Jerks, Bad Religion, Big Country, Slayer, Midnight Oil, Black Flag, Anthrax, Butthole Surfers, The Cure, The Damned, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Sepultura, Oingo Boingo, Suicidal Tendencies, I could go on all night. At best these bands had one or two minor 'hits' but were putting out first rate, compelling music.<br /><br />From about 75-76 on, most of the music that was "popular" was appallingly bad, especially in the 80's. That doesn't mean that the 80's sucked for music. There was some fantastic music that charted between 92-96, but when the Spice Girls showed up not too long after that, things went downhill and haven't really recovered. Not coincidently, the dumbing down of America started around this time.

[sadchild]

you said...<br /><br />'70s were tops with 216 albums, followed very closely by--gasp--the '80s with 195 albums. Next up were the '90s (156), the '00s (112 with only seven years and eight months gone), the '60s (94), the '50s (9), and the '40s (1--can you guess which album it was?).<br /><br />so in other words, you weren't alive in the 50s (1 album), very young in the 60s (94 albums), a teen something in the 70s (216), in your 20s in the 80s (195), in your 30s in the 90s (156), now you are in your 40s (112).<br /><br />let me make a wild prediction. your collection of 2010-2019 will be less than 2000-2009. and 2020-2029 will be less than 2010-2019.<br /><br />boy i should play the stock market!<br /><br />or maybe you're just a typical citizen who discovers music in his teens, listens to almost as much in his 20s, less in his 30s, etc etc. no revelation here, dude.

[MattRosoff]

Actually, I was born at the end of 1969, so you're a little off--I'm not even 40 yet! I was a little kid through the 1970s, and in high school in the 80s, so that should be my "top" level according to you. But it's not--I always liked music from a previous generation, don't ask me why. (No, I didn't have any older siblings who would have "gotten me into" 70s music...just discovered it through radio and friernds.) And based on current buying patterns and the artists I like, I might end up with more albums from this decade--my 30s--than I will for all of the 90s--my 20s.<br /><br />So no, don't play the stock market.