Embedded Files
Women in the 1980s
Women in the 1980s
Expectations for women shifted in the 1970s onwards into the 1980. Traditonally gendered roles were ignored and female rolesmodels in music infleuenced other women, such as pop artists Madonna, Whitney Houston.Woemn were traeted more professionally within the workplace and were gaining resepct from their male peers. Madonna has had a profound influence on the music industry, fashion, feminism, and the concept of celebrity. She fearlessly embraced her sexuality and used it as a tool for empowerment, challenging traditional gender roles.
Introduction
Introduction
New Romantics
New Romantics
The 1980s, was a key decade where the use of technology revolutionised and synthesiser were being experimented hhhhto new and current genres. The 1980s was a decade for change, youths were inventing new genres of music such as 'The New Romantics'.The emergence of the New Romantics was closely linked to the British club scene, with the early movement being connected with a number of nightclubs in London and Birmingham, including Billy’s and The Blitz. The movement’s focus on innovative fashion and style led to an ever-changing image, while those involved in the scene rejected the label, making it notoriously difficult to define. Fashions were worn with the night out in mind, with dandyism and glamour as central components of this. Music such as 'Duran Duran' and 'Roxy Music' all incorporated glam features into their music whether it was through the clothing they wore or the music they produced.
https://museumofyouthculture.com/new-romantics/
Social Factors
Social Factors
Socially Margaret Thatcher was the prime minister and the rise of youth unemployment had risen, riots and protesting took place against parliment. Such widespread poverty, such intense patterns of hunger and homelessness, fostered a new form of social devastation: trafficking in illegal drugs. In the early 1980s, a new addictive product, “crack,” a rock-type of cocaine, was introduced into inner-city neighborhoods. Additoally within the 1980s,the crisis of AIDS disease appeared and created fear amongst the LGBTQ+ community. Approximately 39 million people are currently living with HIV, and tens of millions of people have died of AIDS-related causes since the beginning of the epidemic.
lyrical Analysis
lyrical Analysis
Racial discrimination in England
Racial discrimination in England
The song was born out of an attempt to encapsulate the life of a young person living in inner-city Britain, particularly the experiences of the black community, who were frustrated at the lack of opportunities afforded to them. Key members were guitarist Lynval Golding and vocalist Neville Staple both Jamaican-born and part of the Windrush generation that moved to the UK when they were children.
Immigration into the UK had increased throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, due to the independence of many former British colonies. The Empire Windrush was one ship that stopped off in Jamaica, allowing many residents to take advantage of their newly acquired British citizenship and re-settle in the UK. The same thing happened across Commonwealth countries in Asia and Africa - all of whom were invited to Britain to contribute to the post-war economy.
However, the increase in immigration saw the rise of the National Front, the right-wing party that opposed the influx of people from the Commonwealth. In 1977, the NF saw gains in the Greater London Council elections, causing protests and violent clashes. The Rock Against Racism campaign was founded in 1976 as a reaction to the increasing support for right wing causes and held their first gig in London's Victoria Park in April 1978.
https://www.radiox.co.uk/features/why-the-specials-recorded-ghost-town/
Protest Music
Protest Music
Like the 1960s, in the 1980s protest music was becoming more known. Within the 80s, the breakout of miner strikes and low wages. The strikes broke out as an attempt by miners to stop the National Coal Board (NCB) and the government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from shutting down collieries (mines). The Specials were an upcoming multi-racial band in the UK, who were formed in 1977 in Coventry. Ghost Town was a protest song released in 1981, a bitter commentary on Thatcher's England. Its despair-laden lyrics reflected the depressing time: a country in deep recession and the decimation of towns and cities like Coventry where The Specials hailed from.
Lyrics
Lyrics
"This town is coming like a ghost town/All the clubs have been closed down" The eerie flute and mournful voices create the atmosphere of a funeral march, as seen in their music video. Interpreting that they are mourning the loss of freedom in the city. Through their lyrics, they are describing what has been taken away from people. At the end the repeated lines "This town becoming like a ghost town" with the flute creating a deserted whistling sound, makes the setting seem emotionless and as well as the people within it.
Avalon
The hit song embarks on romanticization and according to ancient legend, Avalon was the magical ‘Island of the Blessed’ on which King Arthur’s sword Excaliber was forged, and from which the King recovered from his wounds after the Battle of Camlann. In keeping with this mythology, and as directed by Bryan Ferry, the artwork for ‘Avalon’ was inspired by both the fashion for Arthurian romance and the Pre-Raphaelite painting of the Victorian period.
As all the Roxy Music records had depicted iconic images of women on their covers, heavily stylized to propose scenarios of erotic glamour, the visual imagery of ‘Avalon’ looked to the folklore and mysticism of Celtic legend for its aesthetic sense of repose and resolution.
https://bryanferry.com/avalon-history-tab/#:~:text=According%20to%20ancient%20legend%2C%20Avalon,after%20the%20Battle%20of%20Camlann.
New Romantics
New Romantics
The title is a reference to the New Romantic cultural movement of the 1970s and 1980s; the new wave musical style of those decades influenced the song's synth-pop production and pulsating synthesizers. The lyrics are about reigniting one's hopes and energy after emotional hardships. Roxy Music is a glam progressive rock band formed in 1970 until the early 1980s. They are amongst the New Romantic movement in the 1980s. Many of their hits include, 'Love is the Drug', 'Avalon', and 'Dance Away'. The band created an image that is so preposterous and so cool. The slim suits, coats, and shirts look glamorous and futuristic.
Harmonic Analysis
Harmonic Analysis
The harmony in ’80s pop music often had a fusion flavor. Sus and slash chords were very much in vogue and it wasn’t uncommon for chart topping hits to feature complex chords and arrangements. Unlike today it was also commonplace for even the most mainstream of songs to feature a guitar, harmonica, synth or sax solo.
The chord progression I V vi IV, was commonly used in the 80s. It appeared in songs such as 'Don't Stop Believing' by Journey, Toto's 'Africa', A-ha's 'Take On Me, etc. It is known as the ultimate pop chord progression and its used in contemporary music today.
Guitar
Guitar
Various advances in technology led to the advent of more convenient digital effects processors, so the classic ’ 80s production values and guitar sounds are often drenched in chorus, compression, and ambiance. The decade was also synonymous with other advances in music production technology, such as the introduction of drum machines, and a range of great keyboard synthesizers.
Synthesizers
Synthesizers
Early synth-pop has been described as "eerie, sterile, and vaguely menacing", using droning electronics with little change in inflection. Common lyrical themes of synth-pop songs were isolation, urban anomie, and feelings of being emotionally cold and hollow. The Prophet-5, one of the first polyphonic synthesizers. It was widely used in 1980s synth-pop, along with the Roland Jupiter and Yamaha DX7. Synth-pop is defined by its primary use of synthesizers, drum machines and sequencers, sometim00es using them to replace all other instruments.
Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode is an English electronic music band formed in Basildon, Essex in 1980. Depeche Mode likes to compose in minor keys; if you’ve listened to any of their post-Speak and Spell albums then this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Much of their music is moody and bleak and minor keys naturally have that character.
Enjoy the Silence
Enjoy the Silence
The verse of one of Depeche Mode’s most well-known tracks, Enjoy the Silence, uses a similar minor chord trick. The chords are Cm | E♭m | A♭. The song is in the key of Cm, and diatonically the E♭ chord would be major, with a G♮ as the third. In the Enjoy the Silence verse the E♭ major chord is replaced with an E♭ minor chord, which instantly adds a darker, broodier sound that we often recognisable in Depeche Mode songs. The progression in numerals is Im | ♭IIIm | ♭VI and we’ll see the ♭IIIm chord appear in several of their other songs.
Depeche Mode’s chord progressions and melodies contribute to the psychological and emotional impact of their music. Identifying the specifics of these progressions helps to understand what provokes a common emotional response – and possibly how these can be incorporated into today’s music to evoke a similar response..
Kate Bush
Using synthesizers in the 1980s was most common, as musicians were able to apply different instruments to the synth. A popular song from the 1985 that incorpoaated the classic synth sound would be Kate Bush's 'Running up that Hill'. In C minor – the classic key of Beethoven angst – and a slightly unusual key for a pop song. There’s a driving drum beat from the beginning, which almost feels like a drone. Those glorious 80s synths (Fairlight CMIs) ring out short, descending phrases with a minor key feel. This is the song’s hook: B♭, G, C.
The song has two verses and the chorus, that is preceded by a pre-chorus section. At the climax of the song, you hear a bridge, before three repetitions of the chorus and an outro or coda section.
https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/music-theory/kate-bush-running-up-that-hill-analysis/
Instruments
Instruments
John Deacon
John Richard Deacon, the bassist of Queen, was born on August 19, 1951, in Leicester, UK. He has dedicated himself to music, specifically to playing the guitar, since his childhood. For most of Queen's career, he used a Fender Precision Bass, which underwent a number of cosmetic changes. Towards the end of the group's career, he used a custom bass designed by Roger Giffin. With the renaissance in post-punk British rock and pop, great U.K. bassists who came to the fore in the late 1970s continued to turn in exemplary Precision work in the 1980s, such as Bruce Thomas with Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Bruce Foxton with The Jam, Sting with The Police, Jean-Jacques Burnel with The Stranglers.
Bass
Bass
The bass guitar is an important instrument, as it performs two basic and vital functions within a band or group: Bass provides the rhythmic foundation, as well as providing the harmonic foundation. The bass guitar was easier to transport and, given that it uses magnetic pickups, easier to amplify to loud stage volumes without the risk of audio feedback, a common problem with the amplified double bass. By the 1970s and 1980s, the electric bass was used in most rock bands and jazz fusion groups.
Another One Bites The Dust
As far as '80s basslines go, it isn't much more iconic than John Deacon's fretwork in 'Another One Bites the Dust'. The song arrived in 1980 as the fourth single of five appearing on Queen's eighth studio album, 'The Game'.The combination of the pounding bass and Freddie Mercury's delivery of the violent lyrics provide the song with machismo, which undoubtedly contributed to its success. I find this song enjoyable to play for its simplicity which makes it a timeless piece of music.
https://www.wow-vinyl.com/thesingle.asp?c=2&d=76#:~:text=Another%20one%20bites%20the%20dust.%22,Michael%20Jackson%20changed%20their%20minds.
What Guitars were popular in the 1980s?
Superstrats dominated the look and feel of rock guitars in the '80s as several brands—among them Kramer and Jackson—developed and redesigned the Stratocaster look to suit the needs of extreme-rock players. Traditional designs such as the Les Paul and indeed the Strat took a beating at the hands of the superstrats, especially when the biggest name of the era, Eddie Van Halen, endorsed Kramer's offerings.
https://reverb.com/uk/news/the-most-unfashionable-guitar-of-the-80s#:~:text=Superstrats%20dominated%20the%20look%20and,needs%20of%20extreme%2Drock%20players.
Guitar
Guitar has always been a key instrument throughout the decades.The loud, amplified sound and sonic power of the electric guitar played through a guitar amp has played a key role in the development of blues and rock music, both as an accompaniment instrument (playing riffs and chords) and performing guitar solos, and in many rock subgenres, notably heavy metal music and punk rock.
The Superstrat 1980
Superstrats offered more frets, deeper cutaways, modified pickup layouts, high-performance vibrato systems, and bright graphic finishes. In many ways, they were the antithesis of a Les Paul Burst, and they came to define the mainstream rock guitar of the '80s. The usual features of the Super Strat may have changed, but the ethos has always remained the same – it’s about pushing the boundaries of what a guitar can be. With players demanding more than ever before, the next generation of Super Strats brings a whole new string of improvements to the industry.
https://blog.sweelee.com/lets-go-back-to-the-future-with-the-super-strat/#:~:text=The%20Guitars%20That%20Defined%20a,to%20create%20at%20the%20time.
Reflection
Reflection
What to do next time?
To work on next time with perform this song, would be to practise the end bass parts more than the beginning as I believe I know the start quite well. By nailing all the songs i will definitely know next performance what I am doing next and practice it with the others, so we don't feel nervous or unprepared.
But also thinking about what we can do in the amount of practice hours we have as well as realistically what we can get done in that time.
Sweet Child 'O' Mine By Guns 'n' Roses
Sweet Child 'O' Mine By Guns 'n' Roses
For our 1980s we chose to perform 'Sweet Child 'O'Mine by Guns n Roses. This is a 1980s rock anthem that was popular for moving rock n roll forward in the decade. With Slash's loud and amplified guitar solos and Axel Rose's high-pitched vocals, this song is known to everyone. Our attempt to perform this song was very difficult and it set us a challenge, within such little time that we limited ourselves to have. Learning the bass started off simple with repetitive structure chords, but as the song proceeded to the end I found the pattern began to get more difficult and I struggled to learn it quickly enough as well as to remember it confidently.
Ultimately, when it came to performing, it was not meant to be our best performance, but we still carried on until the end. With Ollie (Our Guitarist) taking on a big role, it was a lot of pressure on him to learn the many solos that Slash performs and I think Ollie did a really good job with what he had. We cut the song short, ending the song on a loud beat along with the energy of the song.
Toxic by Britney Spears
Toxic by Britney Spears
Britney Spear's 2000s hit, is a gripping song that her a famous entertainer. Our own creative cover of this song was really enjoyable to play along too. Our objective was to turn into a 1980s style song, which we definitely knew taht we wanted to do some kind rock. In the 80s using synthesizers and electronics was really key to the 80s styl and we lacked in both of those things, so we decided to turn the song into punk. I enjoy playing punk and the genre was popular in the 80s with The Clash, Misfits, and The Ramones etc.
The bass line is key, especially getting the pauses right with the drums it is important to nail those parts. For the opening, their is a distinctive synth at the beginning, and we have replaced it with the guitar making that sound instead. I think it was a smart clever choice to make and it sounds great and still resembles the original song.
Comparing the two songs, they both very different with their genres, as one is 2000s pop while the other is considered hard rock. Harmonically and the use of instrumentation Spears band encorporate electronics such as synthesizers and high pitched strings. Synthesisers were popuar in the 1980s and 1970s and have been developed in alter decades as well as being used o create an elecronic pop sound. Contrasting to Guns n Roses who in their song Sweet Child O Mine their key instrument is the guitar which is the body of the song, like in toixc the high pucthed strings is a signififianct riff to the song.
What to do next time?
Next time that we perform, me and our drummer Charlie need to be in line with each other and tight as the rhythm section. We can achieve this but giving one another facial cues will help each other know what is to come. But other than that I think its a really energetic song to perform and make it quick and fast pacing. As well as knowing the song confidentally
Influential Artists of the 1980s and composition
Influential Artists of the 1980s and composition
Who Has Madonna Infleuenced?
Madonna has had a profound influence on the music industry, fashion, feminism, and the concept of celebrity. She fearlessly embraced her sexuality and used it as a tool for empowerment, challenging traditional gender roles, her nickane became the 'Queen Of Pop'. Artists such as Jennifer Lopez, Beonce and Selena are inspired by Madonna's moevemnts and female empowerment of pop.
Madonna
Madonna
Madonna is a very popular entertainer and performer, who became famous in the 1980s.Her msuic and style was all about feminism and the power of women rejecting traditional needs.She achieved this through her bold looks he style of the 1980's were inspired by celebs like Madonna with tulle skirts over leggings, bustier tops, beaded necklaces, giant hair bows, fishnet gloves and many bangles, as well as giant earrings. Perhaps Madonna's most famous song, “Like a Virgin” came from her second studio LP of the same name in 1984.
Madonna recorded it in New York's Power Station after a demo was sent to her via Warner Bros. Records. Madonna’s melodic pop incorporated catchy choruses, and her lyrics concerned love, sex, and relationships—ranging from the breezy innocence of “True Blue” (1986) to the erotic fantasies of “Justify My Love” (1990) to the spirituality of later songs such as “Ray of Light” (1998).
Who Has Michael Jackson Inspired?
Chris Brown has cited Michael Jackson as his biggest inspiration of all time, stating "Michael Jackson is the reason why I do music and the reason I am an entertainer." Furthermore, Brown has stated, "Being able to see Michael Jackson's success, to be able to inspire the world as well as his talent and musical ability, his eye for detail – automatically inspires me to try to be better and try to be great. He was great, so I always want to make him proud"
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson rose to fame within The Jackson Five, which was a pop band composed o the members of the Jackson family. Michael was only a child when he was pushed into stardom to perfrom in front of many people.Once Michael joined as lead singer and performer of The Jackson 5, they were on the fast track to fame and fortune. Michael's voice, combined with his signature dance moves, entertained and thrilled audiences. Within Jackson's music videos he is see to dance and move differently, which can correlate with Elvis Presley's dancing moves that shocked the nation.
He achieved substantial solo success with his 1979 album Off the Wall, which marked the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration with producer Quincy Jones and spawned the hits “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough” and “Rock With You.” Those singles previewed the distinctive rock/soul fusion that Jackson would later explore more fully on his 1983 blockbuster album Thriller.
Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones
Comparison
Comparison
Instruments
Compared to Madonna, the instrumentation is similar as both of their genres are pop they both include synths and drumming machines especially in Jackons' hit 'Beat It' the drumming machine was a Rolan TR 808, which was a very popular machine at the time. In Madonna's first album 'Madonna'The album has an upbeat synthetic post-disco sound, using new technology of the time, including the LM-2 drum machine, Moog bass and Oberheim OB-X synthesizer.
Madonna and Michael Jackson
Madonna and Michael Jackson
Both artists spoke out about different matters but similarly spoke out about problems within society and used their platforms to spread awareness through their music. Jackson's hit 'Beat It' Though the word “beat” can connote an act of violence, the meaning behind the song, written entirely by Michael Jackson and co-produced with Quincy Jones, is actually centered around avoiding violence at all costs and pulling oneself away from a fight. Told from the perspective of a man who often finds himself in situations where he’s either the winner or loser, in the opening verses, Jackson is telling a young man, who has joined a gang and is still trying to prove himself, to stay away.
They told him, “Don’t you ever come around here”
“Don’t wanna see your face, you better disappear”
The fire’s in their eyes and their words are really clear
So beat it, just beat it."
As the song proceeds, it’s a battle of good versus evil, showcasing the pressure many men face to stand up for themselves (and fight) or be considered weak and how this can continue a vicious cycle of violence.
"They’re out to get you, better leave while you can
Don’t wanna be a boy, you wanna be a man
You wanna stay alive, better do what you can
So beat it, just beat it"
https://americansongwriter.com/the-meaning-behind-michael-jacksons-1983-classic-beat-it/
Madonna's music video for the song 'Express Yourself' released in 1989, the concept of the video was to portray Madonna as a glamorous lady and chained masochist, with muscular men acting as her workers.
'Come on, girls,
Do you believe in love?,
Cause I've got something to say about it,
And it goes something like this,
Don't go for second best, baby'
In many of Madonna's music videos, she portrays women as the hierarchy in contrast to men, as well as 'Material Girl' where she embodies Marilyn Monroe, who was a sexual icon but also loved by thousands. Her words reflect female positvityMadonna sang in a bright, girlish timbre, with lyrics about love and relationships.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse