Free Republic

A call for freedom of expression, the 1982 hit was written in protest to club security.With its propulsive opening and declarative lyrics, Men Without Hat’s “The Safety Dance” remains an undeniable hit. A club floor-filler with an anti-establishment bent. The “man” in this case? Club bouncers who had no time for New Wave’s misfits. In 1982, the pop music landscape was changing. Disco was on its way out, and New Wave had sprung up to take its place. This was by no means a smooth translation, and along with a new style of music came a new subculture and style...

The late 1970s was a brilliant time for music. Whilst new wave and post-punk were in their heyday, a strange sub-genre of rock ‘n’ roll was also starting to come together: power pop. With The Replacements and The Cars cutting their teeth during this period, another band broke through in 1979 and set the standard for everyone else who followed, The Knack. Their debut album, Get the Knack, is a cult classic, boasting their most famous song, ‘My Sharona’. A catchy and dynamic piece, you can hear the origins of parts of Weezer’s sound within it, and the material is...

The Police’s debut album, Outlandos D’Amour, boasts an enviable reputation. Widely regarded as one of New Wave’s key records, it’s racked up multi-platinum sales since its release, and is rightly cited as the disc which set the band on the road to superstardom.

The infamous and often-exaggerated cliche with the Police is that they rarely agreed on anything, despite their obvious musical chemistry. Fittingly, the band's memories of their first classic-trio show differ wildly — singer-bassist Sting seems to consider it a vital, enlightening moment, but guitarist Andy Summers looks back with disgust. Technically, it wasn’t the first Police three-piece. The "fake punk" group debuted live in March 1977, with Sting joined by co-founding drummer Stewart Copeland and Corsican guitarist Henry Padovani. (They even released an obscure single, "Fall Out," that May.) However, the trio briefly expanded into a quartet later that summer,...

In 1985, English singer-songwriter Kate Bush released a song called “Running Up That Hill.” It did pretty well — reaching No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. But 37 years after its release, the tune — featured in last week’s episode of Netflix’s “Stranger Things” — bumped Harry Styles’ “As It Was” to No. 2 on the US Billboard Top 10. The unexpected success also makes her both the oldest and the youngest woman to have a self-written No. 1 in the United Kingdom, Billboard reported.

On July 8, 1981, the Go-Go's released their debut album, "Beauty and the Beat." To call the LP a watershed musical moment release would be underselling the album's influence. Musically, the quintet's mix of nervy pop, gritty punk, rock, and girl-group harmonic gleam was a revelation. The five members — vocalist Belinda Carlisle, guitarists Charlotte Caffey and Jane Wiedlin, bassist Kathy Valentine, and drummer Gina Schock — were cool and confident onstage. These were talented women making music their way, following their own unique path — and showing legions of fans that they too could carve out space for themselves...

“The most recent fad to catch on with kids in our big cities and metropolitan areas is rapping,” the Blondie singer explained to the audience on the network variety show “Solid Gold,” in 1981. After mentioning some of the genre’s rising stars from the Bronx — the Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash, the Funky 4 + 1 — Harry introduced her band’s latest rap-inspired video. “Using our new single, ‘Rapture,’” Harry said, in a professorial tone, “Blondie and some of our friends put together a number to show you what rapping in the street scene is like.”

mash the link

U.K. band Madness have had several lives in their more than 40 years together, from ska superstars on their 1979 debut, One Step Beyond, to top 10 success with 1982's smash "Our House," to breaking up in 1986, reuniting in 1992 and continuing on the last two decades as a successful touring band. All of those eras are covered on the new U.S. only compilation, Our House: The Very Best Of Madness. The 12-song collection goes from the band's first hit, "The Prince" to 2019's "Bullingdon Boys," which the band's Graham "Suggs" McPherson calls a sort of protest song. I...

A band that was a two hit wonder. Best sax in music.

In this installment, Alexandra Patsavas, a Hollywood music supervisor for shows like Grey's Anatomy and Mad Men, argues on behalf of Wall of Voodoo. Fans of MTV in its earliest days might remember "Mexican Radio," which became an underground hit in 1983 for being one of the first music videos played in heavy rotation. Read Patsavas in her own words below, and hear the radio version at the audio link. One of the great '80s bands, Wall of Voodoo, came out of the punk/alternative scene in Los Angeles in the [late '70s]. Stan Ridgway founded Wall of Voodoo. His company...

For much of the 1990s and certainly the ’00s, it looked very much like Adam Ant’s career had hit the skids. Manners & Physique, from 1990, and ’95s Wonderful albums were hardly disasters, but in comparison to the huge success that he'd enjoyed prior to that, they were largely ignored. Ant was down and apparently out. There wouldn’t be another album until 2013. A brush with the law and a spell in psychiatric care after throwing a car alternator through the window of a London bar was the biggest media splash that he made in the first decade of the...

Are you sure you want your MTV? On its 35th birthday, a quick glimpse at the network shows it’s hardly what it once was. While change isn’t always easy... it’s not always needed either. What started as a network dedicated to airing music videos and sharing insight on the topic has transformed into a smorgasbord of reality shows that teens who listen to Justin Bieber are glued to. It’s a far cry from the station’s days of “120 Minutes” and “Daria” and Kurt Loder staring into your soul telling you what you needed to know at the top of every...

One of the benefits of living in New York City-a place which often feels like it was expressly designed to discourage your presence-is the seemingly endless opportunities to see amazing, live music acts. Just within the past decade I’ve had the chance to watch the New York Festival Orchestra perform a remarkable tribute to the victims of the 2011 Japanese earthquake, meet the Bangles at the Highline Ballroom, see a remarkable chamber orchestra at Lincoln Center, and attend concerts by groups and individual artists like Hello Seahorse, They Might Be Giants, Dramarama, Stevie Wonder, Los Lobos, Big Daddy Kane, Bad...

Duran Duran - Greatest Hits / Best Of / Compilation (Album 1998 HD)

The Police greatest hits full album 2015 - the best of The Police HD/HQ The Police Playlist : https://goo.gl/y6E6z2 00.00 Every Breath You Take 04.14 Roxanne 07.29 Message in a Bottle 12.18 Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic 16.39 Don't Stand So Close to Me 20.42 De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da 24.50 Can't Stand Losing You 27.48 Wrapped Around Your Finger 33.02 King of Pain 42.16 So Lonely 47.06 Walking On The Moon 52.08 Next To You 55.00 Hole In My Life 59.49 Fall Out 1.01.52 Spirits In The Material World 1.01.51 Can'T Stand Losing You...

Debbie Harry of Blondie [1st crossover new wave to hip-hop artist with “Rapture”-remember!]

If you remember guys like Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman and Rick Wright playing keyboard devices the size of refrigerators, you’ll love that Moog, the pioneering synth company, has gone back to making some of those monsters. Behold this glorious synthesizer porn.

This clip is (rather obviously) from the UK in the early 80s, but it is eerie just how much of it applies to the U.S. in 2011.

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Pee-wee Herman hopes to take his act back on the road for a new big-screen adventure. Paul Reubens told an audience at the Comic-Con fan convention Thursday that he's working with Hollywood comedy powerhouse Judd Apatow to produce a new movie. Reubens appeared in character as Pee-wee, with his bow-tie and gray suit. He played the oddball man-child on television and in two feature films, including Tim Burton's 1985 comedy "Pee-wee's Big Adventure." Reubens says Apatow felt strongly that the new film should return the character to his life on the road in the first movie