Let’s Talk About the Early 80s
So, maybe it’s the Covid, i dont know.. but i was thinking, there are a lot of different eras that get a lot of love.. The 60s are revered and studied.. the 70s with it’s gritty movies and disco.. the 80s as a whole, greed, excess, Miami Vice.. the 90s with grunge music.. But i feel like we never hear much about , or discuss much, the early 1980s.. it seems like until Michael Jackson came out with Thriller in 83, and the aforementioned Miami Vice hit the airwaves in 84, nothing too notable happened.. when i think of the early 80s, i think of Reagan getting elected, inaugurated and shot, and the Iranian hostages.. oh, and of course Lennon getting assasinated... Did anything else happen in 1980, 1981 and 1982? besides the premier of Magnum PI??
If there is anything associated with the early 80's where music and culture intertwined (as they usually do), off the top of my head, I'd say there are 3 seminal moments:
The official welcome of the Vietnam vets and the release of Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A.
The official welcome came about in 1982, marked by a parade. And while the Born in the U.S.A. track wasn't released as part of an album until 1984, the song was originally written in 1981, and sang by Bruce in concerts. This, to me, is what started our love affair with everything military.
Music officially comes out of the closet.
Another "official" moment, but following the pioneers of the 70's, like Village People, Sylvester, etc... music came out in the early 80's, with anthems like Diana Ross' I'm Coming Out and Michael Jackson's Why. Gay became mainstream, with acts like Depeche Mode, Erasure, Culture Club, topping the charts. And it wasn't like Village People when most of the U.S. didn't realize they were gay, or didn't want to talk about it or admit it.
Rap became mainstream.
The release of Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight missed the 80's by a few months, and it was considered a disco track, which was dying by then... but then Blondie released Rapture in 1981, which became the first song ever with rap lyrics to reach #1 . This was followed by After The Fire's cover of Der Kommissar in 1982. 4 years later, Madonna takes the Beasty Boys on tour as her opening act, Run DMC covers Aerosmith's Walk This Way, and like they said, the rest is history.