Duran Duran, ABC, Scritti Politi, etc....

[TheBigGuy]

this list would include Depeche Mode, New Order perhaps, Bronski Beat, and other bands of the early to mid 80s....

...now that music from then is something that i keep on coming back to. What would you call it...new wave? dance pop?

Whatever it was it was a breath of fresh air. Pop music that passed throught the cleansing fire of punk, disco with maybe more of a rock content to it.

Just a great sound. I was listening to my old ABC and Duran Duran CDs in the car today and realize how good this stuff sounds compared to whats considered "alternative" today.

[catpower2000]

1. Scritti Politti and Bronski Beat OMG!

Wow, that was a fucking flashback.

Cat

[GOPisEvil]

2. No shit!!

All of a sudden it was 1984, and I was looking around for girls wearing their underwear outside their skirts. (Er, no, honey, you didn't look like Madonna.)

Edit - I dusted off some old INXS (SHABOOH SHOOBAH) and was amazed at how well that stuff holds up.

[ronnykmarshall]

30. Talk Talk!

I loved "It's My Life". Still one of my faves!

[Kolesar]

3. They called Duran Duran "new romantic" back then

It was all very synthesizer oriented, so it was also called "synth-pop". Flock of Seagulls and Heaven 17.

[TheBigGuy]

7. Culture Club was part of that too.

Although I always thought of Duran Duran as a bit more rock oriented.

[SiouxJ]

15. Adam Ant was the epitome of New Romanticism

Also Spandau Ballet, and Roxy Music. It was a cross between New Wave and Glam Rock. I never really thought of DD as part of it but I guess they did lean that way a little. Anyway, it was fun.

[jayfish]

28. How About Simple Minds,

The Call
Dexies Midnight Runners -SP?-
A-HA
Devo
Split Enz
Crowded House
The Smiths

Man, there are a lot more I just can't think of their names. Who is that band that sang "Don't You Want Me Baby" or the band that had the Bozios in it?

Jay

[dolo amber]

29. Those were

The Human League and Missing Persons, respectively. ;)

[jayfish]

31. Thanks -NT-

Jay

[TheBigGuy]

36. Human League...also did "The 'Lebanon"

...pretty good dance tune.

[TheBigGuy]

4. For US bands..how about Bananarama & Guadacanal Diary?

Things where sounding pretty damn good in 1984....

The Long Ryders where doing stuff too...sort of proto grunge/"no depression" type of stuff.

[wyldwolf]

23. Bananarama was British...

[kmla]

25. I used to have the biggest crush

on Siobhan from Bananarama.

Oh, hell - I had a crush on all three of them. They were just too damn cute!

Edited - shitty link to pic. Damn!

[Character Assassin]

5. New wave, New Romantics, Synth Pop, Post-Punk, Power Pop

Etc...

In honor of this, I just went out and downloaded some Missing Persons.

[supernova]

6. Oingo Boingo!!

College flashback. Too many houseparties to mention ... er and that one orgy.... :D

I saw REM in the little dive across the street from UNCG. LOL!

[TheBigGuy]

10. yeah,  yeah, that was the year of REM, too..

....Dont Go Back to Rockville....& waste another year.....

[LearnedHand]

11. LOVE Oingo...

LOVE REM! Also The Cure, The Church, Erasure, U2, etc.!

[Brewman_Jax]

8. Holy flashbacks, Batman!

How about Wang Chung, Pet Shop Boys, Art of Noise, New Order, and Depeche Mode to add to the list.

[TheBigGuy]

12. West End Girls.....loved that song...(& Ultravox)

working political rap into a new wave pop.

Ultravox was pretty good too..."White China" was a great fast song.

[kmla]

35. On a side note...

I once read that Wang Chung got their name from the sound of a perfectly tuned guitar. On the upstroke, it sounds like a "wang", and on the downstroke, a "chung". Their first album was title "Huang Chung" (it's true - I actually saw the album), but they changed it because everyone thought that they were Chinese in origin...

More useless information than you will ever need - I got it for ya...

[displacedvermoter]

9. Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark

Remember "Enola Gay"? Very synthesized band from my days in the UK. Also liked Howard Jones and Thompson Twins, a little bit later.

[LearnedHand]

14. Shakespeare's Sisters?

n/t

[displacedvermoter]

18. ???

n/t

[kmla]

13. When I was in the college radio biz...

back from 80-84, we used to call it "Power Pop". Stuff like The Police, Wall of Voodoo, New Order, Joe Jackson, Spandau Ballet, etc. Believe it or not, when we were playing that stuff, it was considered progressive. We always took pride in discovering the new acts months and sometimes years before commercial and mainstream stations thought they were playing a "new artist".

Oh, those were the days. I had a mullett (a curly permed one, no less), and could actually stay awake until 3:00 a.m. and not be tired for the next three days...

And I did a little of this, too! :beer:

[TheBigGuy]

21. i rarely heard stuff like that on mainstream radio.

the station that played alot of this was KQAK in San Francisco. Pretty rare otherwise on commerical radio.

[ronnykmarshall]

32. KQAK!!!

Oh my god! I loved that station. They were gone by the time I moved to SF in 1986, but my best friend had a couple of cassettes taped from that station. (how corny) We used to play them in the car and day dreamed about when we would move to SF. I hear "Walking On Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves and "Voices Carry" by Till Tuesday for the first time on that station.

[TheBigGuy]

37. They played all kinds of stuff...and had good DJs

....some of the DJs also did stand-up comedy.

[kmla]

39. Here in the midwest, we used to listen to WXRT out of Chicago

if we could. They used to play damn near everything. At the time, they were one of the last commericial stations that let the air personalities pick their own playlist. I'm not sure if they are still around or not...

[TheBigGuy]

16. "Is it......Love?"....."I Love a Man in Uniform"....

....some good stuff from Gang of Four. Not really a dance band, but some neat sounds.

[CanuckAmok]

33. We Live as We Dream, Alone...

oh, yeah!

Andy Gill has been an influence on so many musicians; Sting, Flea, Less Claypool, Dave Grohl, just to name a few.

He produced the most recent Killing Joke CD, too--it's amazing!

[wondering]

17. Very good music

I love that music.. must hav eover 100 mp3s just of the 80s

[soleft]

19. I'm seeing Duran Duran tonight

Ever hear of a magazine called CafeEighties? My girlfriend published her own magazine a few years ago which was dedicated to these bands. She actually tracked them down and interviewed a lot of them, including John Taylor of Duran Duran. She still copies of the magazine with Taylor and sells them from time to time on Ebay.

In fact, a Duranee who wanted a copy of the mag was able to get us tickets and we're going to go see Duran Duran tonight at Webster Hall.

[TheBigGuy]

26. no i havnt...sounds like I should have.

CafeEighties. A zine!

[qb]

20. Thompson Twins - Lies Lies Lies

Timeless, huh?

[wyldwolf]

22. My wife is seeing Duran Duran soon.

Seems the original line-up is back together.

[soleft]

24. Yeah, it's going to be me and thousands of "Duranees"

[mitchum]

27. Shit from England...

well, that's what we always called it called it (some exceptions: Joy Division, New Order, Bunnymen, Furs, Wah!Heat)

[Skittles]

41. Duran Duran

they were f***ing annoying

[a_random_joel]

34. I love that stuff

Duran, Depeche, Flock of Seagulls, New Order, the Cure, the Police, B-Movie, Berlin, Heaven 17, Falco, Eurythmics, Gary Numan, Haircut 100, Kajagoogoo, Love and Rockets, Psychedelic Furs, Simple Minds, Tears For Fears, Thomas Dolby...

Ahhh the good old days. I call it "alternative"; but now all this new post-grunge stuff is called "alternative".


I have heard it labeled as new wave, new romantic, techno-pop, synth pop, post-modern, progressive, alternative, post punk, Mod etc.

Depends on the band, really. Some definitely qualify as purely techno-pop like Depeche or New Order.

Some qualify as goth-light like the Cure or Siouxsie and the Banshees.

To me, it's all good.

[TheBigGuy]

38. anybody remember The Nails.

...they had a novelty song called 44 Lines about 88 Women or something like that....but the album that came off, Mood Swing had some real neat stuff on that...

...songs like 'Home of the Brave" , :"Juanita",. and others...

So did their follow up album...Darkness Becomes Uncivilzed.

I was hoping their stuff would be re-released so I can replace my cassette tape of them, but I guess not.

[kmla]

40. And they did a cover of "Let it all hang out", if memory serves me.

But then again, I could be wrong...