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Posted on 02/25/2005 2:26:21 PM PST by t_skoz
'80s refrain restrained
Bands like Duran Duran are selling lots of tickets but few albums. Nikki Sixx, bassist for the famously fast-living glam-rock outfit Motley Crüe, believes that even 24 years after their debut, his band still has a certain timeless aspect. "If you want to drop the tailgate, get some beer and go to a strip club, that's the Crüe,'' he said the other day before a rehearsal for the band's new tour. Yet Sixx's band, which just released a two-disc career anthology including 1987's "Girls, Girls, Girls'' and 1989's "Dr. Feelgood,'' is returning at a particularly apt moment. The music of the 1980s has re-entered the zeitgeist in a gigantic way. What began more than a decade ago with '80s nightclubs spread soon after through "flashback'' lunch hours across the radio dial. On television, the hits of that decade now fill the soundtracks of countless popular series, like "The O.C.,'' which chose a cover of the OMD hit "If You Leave'' for a decisive scene last season. And VH1, of course, has built a franchise on '80s exhumations, with "Big '80s'' and the wildly popular "I Love the '80s.'' All together, it's proof that the synthesizer-powered pop songs and hair-sprayed headbangers of that era still have a strange hold on the thirtysomething demographic so desirable to advertisers. The recording industry was slow to act, but over the past year and a half it has belatedly started trying to cash in on it all. Performers lost in the pop wilderness for a generation suddenly decided to get in touch with their old, often estranged mates and get the band back together in the name of art, commerce or both.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
Touring is where the money is, and any merchandise you sell on tour is YOURS, the record company doesn't give you a meager cut of that money.
This is an excerpt. Click the link for the rest of the article, it's pretty good. Go to http://www.bugmenot.com and enter the URL if you're forced to register (as I was) to read it.
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I watch those VH1 80's shows every chance I get.
me too! hehehe I still love Rainbow and the Scorpions!
The popular music of the 80's was arguably the worst in history. It was glam rock, pop icon, Madonna and Cyndi Lauper hell. The only things that saved us from the 80's was grunge, a resurgence of 60's and 70's blues rock. Popular music is much more diverse now than in the shallow music hell of the 80's.
Billy Squire's "Rock Me Tonight" for example. They don't make em like that anymore.
If you've ever seen it you'll know what I'm talking about:/
Yeah, the videos were ok. And you are referring to an artist that was not in the genre's that I mentioned either. There were some great artists in the 80's, but the popular stuff sucked. I mean there was Van Halen, Billy Squire. Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen were still around, as well as Bob Seger, but the stuff in the mainstream was crap.
BTW Squire was pretty good but that one video was the worst ever. My kids saw it on VH1 once & 'bout died laughing.
And what was with the song "Stronly Stroke Me"? I mean come on Billy, how desperate can you be? HEHE
I wasn't about to get burned again like I was with E John.
Beavis and Butthead had fine commentary on music videos, especially the 80's videos.
"These guys are pretty cool - even though they're sixty."
Oh, you are a cruel, crual man to bring that up!
At least someone remembers!
one of my favorites is when they are watching a Samantha Fox video.
"She's one of those grubby girls"
If only I could forget!
I remember, too. Shattered my illusion that Squier was cool.
BTW, I was just coping my old vinyl "Don't Say No" Squier album onto CD. Coinky-dinky.
*sigh*
I miss the '80s.
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