I was talking about this with a friend of mine a few weeks ago and whether or not you liked John Lennon, right after Lennon was shot, I mean right to the second, music immediately went down hill.
Christopher Cross was named best new artist, best song (Sailing) best album, by the Grammys (gee he went far after that didn`t he?), and at that same time REO Speedwagon was constantly constantly constantly being played non-stop and nobody could understand why because they sucked beyond belief, I remember. I was 17 years old at the time and you could tell something had changed for the worse, then it got even worse.. next year MTV came out in 1981 and we had "Video kiled the radio star" by the Buggles being played non-stop, then it got even worse with the Madonna music holocaust, and my theory is when Lennon was alive he was a bigmouth. He would not hesitate to call a band or a singer crap, and if you were a band in the `70`s back then, having a Beatle call you crap was the kiss of death so a lot of these bands really pushed themselves. When he was shut up all the idiots were set loose.
Yes there was a lot of crap in the `70`s, but not nearly as much as the `80`s. With the `80`s it was ALL bad. Bruce Springsteen becoming a superstar? WHAT? He was an absolute joke before MTV, one of those dudes who sang lame originals in a dive. I saw him once in 1979 and me and my friends got bored and left.
It even happened with the big names; The Rolling Stones put out "Tattoo you" in 1980 which pretty much was their last good album, and Paul McCartneys last big hit was in 1980 with "Coming up". Both of these guys after Lennon was wacked put out absolute crap there after. So, thank you Mark Chapman for destroying my radio.
Lennon was a bonafide pinko which is what his commie song "Imagine" is really about, but the guy was an absolute genius in music, wrote some incredible stuff and my theory is a lot of people looked up to him and were pushed by him conciously or subconciously.
When he was wacked that was all destroyed now we are back where we were before Lennon, back to "How much is that doggie in the window" type of banality.
The punk movement was about the only good thing to come out of the 80s IMO. The Ramones just about single handedly saved the American music scene if you ask me.
I walked out of an Aerosmith concert in the 80s because they were so frigging stoned they couldn't remember their own tunes. Now, you could like The Cramps or you could hate the Cramps but they never forgot their own stuff.
And the Dead Kennedys, now there was a breath of fresh air. And who can forget Black Flag? Or the Meat Puppets? Now bands like that made you want to go out and buy a guitar for Gods sake...
Oh well...these days we get Pink Floyd melodies in elevators. What a world, what a world....
L