80's music Archives - VINTROCK STUDIOS™

I watched a recent episode of Professor of Rock about Rick Astley and his biggest hit, Never Going To Give You Up. One commenter on that episode said that, to them, this song is a disco song. And that got me thinking: did disco foreshadow mainstream pop and New Wave of the 1980’s? Did disco actually die, or did it simply evolve like other music genres? It’s an idea worth exploring.

The Rise of Disco

Disco evolved from mainstream pop music in the 1970’s. The songs generally featured an increased use of horns and strings, as well as synths. The objective for most songs was for them to be danceable. In some cases, songs came with a new dance. The Hustle by Van McCoy was one popular example of it. Disco essentially went mainstream when the movie Saturday Night Fever came out in 1977, and with it one of the best selling soundtracks and albums of all time. It put disco firmly in the middle of western culture.

There was, of course, a host of other music genre followers that hated, even reviled, disco. I have to admit at the time that I was one, although to a limited degree. The music was catchy, it was usually upbeat and uptempo, and it wasn’t filled with “messages” or “lessons”. The songs were about dancing, partying, and just generally having fun. But the use of orchestral instruments and synths, coupled with a degree of over-production, put off listeners of rock and country. It spawned fashion styles that some derided, even viciously mocked.

Disco Replaced by 1980’s Pop, Rock, and New Wave

As the 1970’s rolled into its final years, bands began to release albums mocking disco. ELO’s 1979 album Discovery was meant as a bit of a response (with the name including “disco”), as one example. By this time, disco was now mainstream, and was getting a bit “worn” and “tired” for some listeners.

While some claim that Rick Dee’s 1976 novelty song, Disco Duck, was when disco jumped the shark, the music form would continue for years beyond it. There were disco, and disco-like, songs released right up until 1982. Many of the core aesthetics of disco would carry on into 1980’s New Wave and pop, using similar production philosophies, and featuring synths and, at times, orchestral instruments.

All Music Is An Evolutionary Form

All music styles are an evolution of some older style. At it’s core, all modern music calls the blues as it’s core foundation. Blues gave rise to jazz and folk music. Those were remixed back with the blues, and each other, to spawn Big Band, country (first called race music, then hillbilly music, followed by country & western), pop, and rock ‘n roll (later just rock). While new genres can have a distinct sound and feel, ultimately, you find a lot with the basic 12-bar blues structure somewhere at its core.

In the same way that gospel and folk (evolutionary descendants of blues) foreshadowed country, disco could be seen as the natural ancestor of mainstream 1980’s music. Again, they share some similar sounds and a similar feel. The difference can be more use of political or social messages, or exploring deeper topics around breakup, loss, or failure. Not all New Wave songs were uptempo, cheerful dance numbers.

Even 80’s Music Would Decline

In the same way that disco gave way to mainstream 80’s music, other forms would supplant the 80’s. The new forms didn’t, of course, conveniently start in 1990. By 1988 and 1989, you could already see a shift. Rap was becoming more prominent. The early sounds that would become garage rock and grunge could be heard. The music of the late 1980’s was different from the early and mid-1980’s. You could feel a shift in 1987 and 1988. The same happened in the late 1970’s, where some songs that sound quintessentially 80’s came out in 1978 and 1979. Genesis’s “Follow You Follow Me” (1978) and “Misunderstanding” (1979), as well as some of Pat Benetar’s first hits are from the period.

So, was disco foreshadowing mainstream music of the 1980’s? Did a form sometimes thought of as a niche (you’d never know it listening to the radio in the late 1970’s) presage what was coming? Based on a cursory look, that would seem to be the case. Performers and songwriters may have been influenced, even if only indirectly, by the sound that was prevalent on the airwaves, in movies and television, and in school dances. The fingerprints of disco can be seen all over many, many hits of the 1980’s.

Rick Beato recently released a video talking about some of the landmark albums that were released in 1978. He admits that the list is incomplete, but it features albums with songs that would come define a new era in music, what generally call “80’s music”.

Releases vs. Calendars

Music styles and genres don’t generally stick to formal calendar boundaries. Music is released when the artists and/or labels figure it’s ready. As such, there isn’t a clear delineation on a calendar when some “era” of music begins. But being who we are as humans, we will often describe something based on the decade we associate it with.

What we think of as “50’s music” didn’t really get started until 1954/1955, and lasted until around 1963/1964. There is “60’s music”, which didn’t get going until 1964 and transformed into “70’s music” closer to 1974. The disco era sort-of started in the mid-to-late 1970’s and by the early 1980’s it was pretty much gone. But in both these cases, there was overlap, there was a transition. There wasn’t a hard bright line that delineated these eras, and certainly not any that line up conveniently on decade boundaries.

A Defining Decade Personally

I turned 16 in 1980, so the 1980’s defined a lot for me personally. I finished high school, then university, and had my first full-time job. It was the decade that I moved out on my own. It was when I bought my first new car. We had the Winter Olympics in Calgary, and the Flames made two trips to the Stanley Cup final, winning in 1989. My brother and I attended Game 1 of the 1986 Cup finals, which was the only game the Flames won in that series.

Music has always been a big part of my life, if only as the ‘soundtrack’ to it. I spent 4 years at the University of Calgary with headphones on or nearby. My knock-off of a Walkman was eventually replaced by a real Sony Walkman for my last year of university, and it or a small boombox were ever-present from 1986 onward. I was always playing music somewhere: around the apartment, in the car, when coding. During university, most of that music was typical 80’s music: Billy Joel, Genesis, The Police, and a host of others. I also listened to a lot of ELO, and they became one of my favourite bands, along with The Moody Blues.

1978 Was A Watershed Year

When you listen to Rick’s list, you get the first or new albums from some quintessential 80’s music acts: Dire Straits, Billy Joel, The Police, Kate Bush, AC/DC, Van Halen, Bob Seger, Devo, Rush, Peter Gabriel. More would come in 1979 with acts that had debut or new albums such as Pat Benetar and Genesis. These groups and others began to transform the sound of popular music, and genres like New Wave would find their footing.

1978 was definitely a watershed year. It is, I would argue, the beginning of what we think of as “80’s music” in western culture.