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THE 1980s

THE 1980s. DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY, MTV, AND THE POPULAR MAINSTREAM. The 1980s and the Music Business. 1979 saw an 11 percent drop in annual sales nationwide.

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THE 1980s

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  1. THE 1980s DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY, MTV, AND THE POPULAR MAINSTREAM

  2. The 1980s and the Music Business • 1979 saw an 11 percent drop in annual sales nationwide. • Profits from the sale of recorded music hit rock bottom in 1982 ($4.6 billion), down half a billion from the peak year of 1978 ($5.1 billion). • Record companies relied on a small number of multiplatinum artists to create profits in the 1980s. • The recovery of the recording industry was due to the success of a few recordings by superstar musicians such as Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Whitney Houston, Phil Collins, and Janet Jackson.

  3. The Crash of the Early 1980s • Onset of a national recession • Competition from new forms of entertainment • The decline of disco • Illegal copying (“pirating”) of commercial recordings by consumers with cassette tape decks • In 1984, sales of prerecorded cassettes surpassed those of vinyl discs.

  4. New Technologies of the 1980s • Digital sound recording and five-inch compact discs (CDs) • The first CDs went on sale in 1983, and CD sales surpassed those of vinyl discs by 1988. • New devices for producing and manipulating sound • Drum machines • Sequencers • Samplers • MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)

  5. Digital Technology and Popular Music • During the 1980s, new technology became central to the production, promotion, and consumption of popular music. • Analog recording • Digital recording • Digital-to-analog converter (DAC) • Synthesizers—devices that enable musicians to create or “synthesize” musical sounds

  6. Kenny Rogers (b. 1938) • Born in Texas • Veteran of folk pop groups such as the New Christy Minstrels and the First Edition • Star of made-for-TV movies such as The Gambler and Coward of the County • Winner of the Country Music Association’s award for Male Vocalist of the Year (1979) • From 1977 to 1984, he sold an estimated $250 million worth of records, including a total of six gold and twelve platinum albums.

  7. “Lady” (1980), Performed by Kenny Rogers • Appeared on Kenny Rogers’s Greatest Hits • The tenth bestselling single of the entire decade • The bestselling country album of the 1980s • One of very few singles during the decade to appear on all of the major Billboard charts • Written and produced by Lionel Richie • African American singer and songwriter • Superstar of the 1980s • Former member of the R&B vocal group the Commodores

  8. Listening: “Lady” • Sentimental song that has much in common with popular songs of the nineteenth century • Verse-chorus structure • Uses the image of a knight in shining armor to profess the singer’s deep and undying love • The production of the song is simple, foregrounding Rogers’s sincere delivery of the lyrics. • The texture of the musical accompaniment is delicate. • As the chorus arrives, the whole rhythm section joins in, supporting the emotional climax of the song.

  9. “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” • Written and performed by Eurythmics (1983) • Eurythmics consisted of a core of only two musicians • Singer Annie Lennox (b. 1954 in Scotland) • Keyboardist and technical whiz Dave Stewart (b. 1952 in England)

  10. “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” • Its popularity in the United States was boosted by a music video shown on MTV • Commercial new wave music of the early 1980s • An outgrowth of the 1970s new wave/punk scene promoted by major record labels • “Synth-pop”

  11. Listening: “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” • Built around a hypnotic digital loop, a repeated pattern established abruptly at the beginning of the record • Annie Lennox’s singing • R&B- and soul-influenced melismatic style • Flat, deadpan tone on the verses • The verses consist of two four-line blocks of text, sung by Lennox in overdubbed harmonies. • The singer seems to be expressing an unsettling combination of cynicism, sensuality, and hope for the future.

  12. “What’s Love Got to Do with It” • Performed by Tina Turner; written by Terry Britten and Graham Lyle (1984) • Tina Turner (b. Annie Mae Bullock, 1939, in Tennessee) • Made her recording debut in 1960 as a member of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue • Eventually left her husband in 1976 to start her own career • In 1983, she was offered a contract by Capitol Records. • Her first album with Capitol was Private Dancer (1984). • Reached Number Three on the album charts • Stayed in the Top 40 for seventy-one weeks • Spawned five hit singles • Eventually sold over eleven million copies

  13. “What’s Love Got to Do with It” • Crossover hit (Number One pop and Number Two R&B in 1984) • Stayed on the charts for twenty-eight weeks • Earned Grammy awards in 1984 for Best Female Pop Vocalist, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year

  14. Listening Analysis: “What’s Love Got to Do with It” • The lyrics set up an ambivalent relationship between sexual attraction and cynicism about romantic love. • Fairly constant tempo • Instrumental arrangement • Rich, continuous texture, dominated by flute- and string-like synthesizer sounds in the verses • Bouncy, reggae-like groove established by the electric bass and guitars on the chorus

  15. “Jump” • Performed by Van Halen, written by Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, Michael Anthony, and David Lee Roth (1984) • Heavy metal • Pioneered in the late 1960s and early 1970s by bands such as Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple • Went into a period of relative decline during the late 1970s • Came back with a vengeance during the 1980s

  16. “Jump” • “Jump” was, in some ways, a remarkable departure from standard heavy metal practice. • Its main instrumental melody was played on a synthesizer rather than an electric guitar—an important symbolic and aesthetic issue for hardcore metal fans.

  17. “Jump” • The success of the single was boosted by its corresponding music video • Shot in home-movie style • Featured the athletic prowess and oddball sense of humor of David Lee Roth—at that time Van Halen’s lead singer

  18. Listening: “Jump” • The text is a casual come-on to a girl from a guy leaning against a jukebox. • “Jump” opens with a synthesized power chord. • Thick textures and a strong pulse played on keyboards, bass, and drums propel us through the first two verses of the song. • The guitar solo is followed by a longer synthesizer solo, which develops an elaborate melodic improvisation that closely parallels the style of Van Halen’s guitar playing. • Eddie Van Halen is widely recognized as a primary innovator in electric guitar performance.

  19. “Sledgehammer” • Written and performed by Peter Gabriel (1986) • Peter Gabriel (b. 1950 in England) • Achieved celebrity as a member of the art rock group Genesis • After leaving Genesis in 1976, Gabriel released four solo albums, all of them titled Peter Gabriel.

  20. “Sledgehammer” • Features a horn section led by the trumpet player Wayne Jackson, who had played on many of the biggest soul music hits of the 1960s • The lyrics are packed with double-entendre references to sledgehammers, big dippers, steam trains, the female “fruitcake” and the male “honeybee”; they are G-rated variants of the sexual metaphors that have long been a part of the blues tradition.

  21. Listening: “Sledgehammer” • Constructed with twelve-bar and eight-bar sections • Opens with a digital keyboard sample of a Japanese flute called the shakuhachi • The funk-influenced groove is introduced by the horn section, backed by synthesizers. • After eight bars, the horns drop out and the rhythm takes four measures to establish the groove. • Following the introduction, Peter Gabriel sings two verses (beginning with the lines You could have a steam train and You could have a big dipper), each of which is twelve bars in length.

  22. Listening: “Sledgehammer” • Gabriel evokes the blues form but does not strictly observe the a-a-b lyric form of the classic blues. • He does not use traditional blues harmonies: • Stays on the tonic chord for a full eight measures • Moves to a related chord (the relative minor) for two bars • Returns to the tonic for the last two bars • After two twelve-bar verses, there is an eight-bar chorus (I want to be your sledgehammer).

  23. “Sledgehammer” • The success of the song was due in large part to the ambitious and highly creative music video and its heavy rotation on MTV.

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