The eighties were filled with two things: hairspray and hearts on sleeves. There
were other, less pleasant things (Reagan, a Cold War, inappropriately
bulky technology), but what else stands out so dramatically when
revisiting some of the most topical pop culture from the decade? The
hairstyles alone reached unprecedented heights, it seemed like blow
dryers were actually just growth rays in disguise (thankfully drying
technology has since been revised to where hair size can be optionally
non-cosmic). And, while superficiality was at an all time high, so were
the flaring emotions toiling beneath all the polka dots and neon-colored
fabrics. In film, John Hughes presented the quintessential
glimpse into the psyche of a typical teenager, awkwardness and hopeless
romanticism and all. In [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
there were countless outlets for all that suppressed angst and despair.
Many acts generously shared their own personal misery with their gloomy
followers in need of something to relate to.
These are the top 10 gloomy acts from the eighties:
10. Depeche Mode
While this band fits the description of “forlorn post-punk band,” it
does so with a little too much studio gimmickry over instrumental
prowess. There is little separating the frequent robotic sound of this
band from the most discardable New Order tracks. Not enough
humanity rises to the surface of these
computer-beat-and-synthesizer-enthusiasts’ songs in spite of frequent
tortured lyrical content. More than any other member, the
bassist actually gets his hands dirty, guiding the computer to the dance
floor with some fat slapping, but elsewhere it’s just robots doing most
of the work.
9.Soft Cell
Consisting of only two members, singer Marc Almond and
multi-instrumentalist David Ball, the material Soft Cell created is
pretty impressive, and at the same time a little [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. The
unsettling harmonies of bass, synth (making for a spooky church organ
on “Tainted Love”), and all sorts of conventional jazz instruments were
an oddly great compliment to the lyrical content (STD’s, isolation,
sexual confrontation)- Almond’s sexuality presented another audible
dimension to the idea of non-acceptance. With Soft Cell, post-punk managed to find common ground with Broadway.
8. Bauhaus
This iconic post-punk band was gothic in every sense of the term: sonically, lyrically, and ideologically. “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” sums up the band’s concept, performed in a scene from the eighties vampire film The Hunger
(Bauhaus appears in the credits as “Disco Band”); Peter Murphy has
habit of performing vocal duties for this song upside down at live
shows, no heed paid to the blood rushing to his head. Chord
progressions are often nefariously arranged in the more conventional
songs, while every now and again some avante-garde guitar playing might
come to purposefully imitate hospital equipment. Perched above
these disconcerting sounds like a gargoyle in lieu of a front man,
Murphy howls evocative phrases like “hypodermic” and “undead” in a
deadpan vocal style straight out of an old late night monster movie.
7. Joy Division
This band makes the list in lieu of New Order (which is really just the
same band with a relatively more cheerful singer) for its exceptional
gloominess: it doesn’t get much gloomier than having the lead singer’s
suicide provide the reason for disbanding. Ian Curtis had a signature moan that just reeked of untreated clinical depression. The
band was very minimalistic and raw-sounding, much in the way of the
earliest kind of post-punk, often pairing a snare drum and chugging
bassline beneath a simple guitar riff and calling it danceable. When
New Order was born, a lot of that rudimentary instrumentation was
replaced by programmed computer beats and overriding synth, to the point
where the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] any ostensible human touch. This was not for the better. The
magic in the former was that Ian Curtis left his wounds open for public
amusement, like he was performing for the benefit of medical students- providing an authenticity that cannot be artificially replicated to the same effect.
6. Oingo Boingo
There was a lot of tongue-and-cheek material in the eighties. This band, led by Danny Elfman of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] soundtrack fame, made a wild contribution while pushing boundaries. “Little
Girls,” one of the cheekiest songs from the band’s quasi-significant
catalogue, attempts to hide lyrical content about pedophilia behind a
tone of great levity. Elfman’s lyrics are actually disturbingly
dark in several instances, involving animal slaughter and subhuman
desires, but seem only less so with the carnival funhouse sound effects
and melodramatic melodic structures. The darkest melodic parts
appear in the tone-shifting bridges, but really can’t seem to shake that
cartooniness that would later infect the score of Nightmare before Christmas.
5. Tears for Fears
This band was a sort of hit machine, mixing a penchant for swollen
love-sick-themed songs like “Head over Heels,” which suggest a new-wavy
Beatles in the attention to melodic craft with darker hemispheres of
sound and subject matter. “Shout” presents an ominous grey cloud of
synth and percussion while desperate chants [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
and “Mad World” discusses alienation and the sweet release of death
over a deep-cutting melody that enhances the morbid atmosphere of dark
contemplations and self-loathing. While this band may revel in
pretentious studio tricks, it certainly doesn’t hide behind them- just
listen to their live album or arguable most popular album Songs from the Big Chair which unashamedly fuses a live segment to the end of “Head over Heels.”
4. The Church
Really the darkest thing about this band is the post-punk imagery and
superficial motifs it adorns itself with: the apathetic vocals, the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], album titles like “Séance,” etc. Instrumentally,
for the most part, this band is very buoyant in a psychedelic kind of
way, much akin to R.E.M. and the Smiths and their heavy Byrds influence. Jangly
guitars and cloistering choruses spell the period’s poppiest material,
but the disaffected vocalist and occasional discordant flourishes do a
good job of keeping the sunshine on a leash.
3. Echo and the Bunnymen
This band has such a full sound and is truly the sum of its parts, the result of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. While
acts like Depeche Mode used computers and samples as cloaking devices,
this band crafted rich post-punk that was less stripped down than its
contemporaries and not lacking in the way of emotional release. Listen
to the song “Cutter,” which is propelled by an entirely manmade
backbeat and bass stomp that prods the momentum forth- bones
overstretched by grandiose orchestral arrangements and delinquent guitar
jabs. “Killing Moon” is another example of great
instrumentation and precise, yet slightly melted song structure, odd
twists, and melodic skewing provided by cleverly manipulated strings. The vocals, detached and sullen as they are, aren’t so much so that they are devoid of tonality.
2. The Smiths
While Morrissey’s lyrics often reveal dissent, and frequent narcissism,
this band really was pit against many of the concurrent synth-heavy UK
New Wavers that seemed to be birthed more often than Mormon children in
Utah. In fact, every aspect of what they did defied popular
conventions to the point where their virtuosity was practically
antagonistic. The head songwriting team for this extremely
dynamic group was Morrissey and jangle-heavy guitarist Johnny Marr.
Bassist Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce helped to ensure the momentum
of each song allowed not a single moments’ rest. Marr’s busy,
nuanced guitar arrangements fit so much material and fervor into each
song, providing a level of emotional tension Morrissey seemed incapable
of matching. Morrissey’s voice often sounded [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
or at least very complacent, the attitude of a privileged, educated
class able to afford the luxury of petty dissatisfaction as well as the
freedom to be aware of his surroundings. His neurosis, as such,
stemmed as much from laziness (“Heaven Knows I’m Miserable”) as cruel
world practices like animal cruelty (“Meat is Murder”) and crimes
against humanity (“Suffer Little Children”). That said,
Morrissey’s enjoyability is strictly limited to his involvement with the
Smiths; his solo material lacks everything that made his
self-involvement forgivable.
1. The Cure
You can’t pout properly without the help of Robert Smith, the so-called
“poster child of gloom and doom.” Any Goth traditionalist will point to Pornography or Seventeen Seconds,
with signature tracks like “A Hundred Years” (opening line: “it doesn’t
matter if we all die”) or “Hanging Garden” for a good fix of bleakness. Those
tribal drums and guitar atmospherics carry the mood perfectly, while
Smith’s echoing, hopeless lyrics make the perfect icing. The
difference between the Cure and a lot of transient post-punk bands of
the day was that the Cure, which consisted almost entirely of Robert
Smith’s [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and countless short-lived “spotters”, wasn’t afraid to explore new territory while in the search for its own voice. The
Cure as a result has crafted a unique and timeless sound. Such a sound-
notably the lush, warbling strings- has transcended and resisted
genre-pigeonholing, surviving the eighties well and consistently up to
2008 when they released their latest album 4:13 Dream.
source:.toptenz.net
were other, less pleasant things (Reagan, a Cold War, inappropriately
bulky technology), but what else stands out so dramatically when
revisiting some of the most topical pop culture from the decade? The
hairstyles alone reached unprecedented heights, it seemed like blow
dryers were actually just growth rays in disguise (thankfully drying
technology has since been revised to where hair size can be optionally
non-cosmic). And, while superficiality was at an all time high, so were
the flaring emotions toiling beneath all the polka dots and neon-colored
fabrics. In film, John Hughes presented the quintessential
glimpse into the psyche of a typical teenager, awkwardness and hopeless
romanticism and all. In [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
there were countless outlets for all that suppressed angst and despair.
Many acts generously shared their own personal misery with their gloomy
followers in need of something to relate to.
These are the top 10 gloomy acts from the eighties:
10. Depeche Mode
While this band fits the description of “forlorn post-punk band,” it
does so with a little too much studio gimmickry over instrumental
prowess. There is little separating the frequent robotic sound of this
band from the most discardable New Order tracks. Not enough
humanity rises to the surface of these
computer-beat-and-synthesizer-enthusiasts’ songs in spite of frequent
tortured lyrical content. More than any other member, the
bassist actually gets his hands dirty, guiding the computer to the dance
floor with some fat slapping, but elsewhere it’s just robots doing most
of the work.
9.Soft Cell
Consisting of only two members, singer Marc Almond and
multi-instrumentalist David Ball, the material Soft Cell created is
pretty impressive, and at the same time a little [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. The
unsettling harmonies of bass, synth (making for a spooky church organ
on “Tainted Love”), and all sorts of conventional jazz instruments were
an oddly great compliment to the lyrical content (STD’s, isolation,
sexual confrontation)- Almond’s sexuality presented another audible
dimension to the idea of non-acceptance. With Soft Cell, post-punk managed to find common ground with Broadway.
8. Bauhaus
This iconic post-punk band was gothic in every sense of the term: sonically, lyrically, and ideologically. “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” sums up the band’s concept, performed in a scene from the eighties vampire film The Hunger
(Bauhaus appears in the credits as “Disco Band”); Peter Murphy has
habit of performing vocal duties for this song upside down at live
shows, no heed paid to the blood rushing to his head. Chord
progressions are often nefariously arranged in the more conventional
songs, while every now and again some avante-garde guitar playing might
come to purposefully imitate hospital equipment. Perched above
these disconcerting sounds like a gargoyle in lieu of a front man,
Murphy howls evocative phrases like “hypodermic” and “undead” in a
deadpan vocal style straight out of an old late night monster movie.
7. Joy Division
This band makes the list in lieu of New Order (which is really just the
same band with a relatively more cheerful singer) for its exceptional
gloominess: it doesn’t get much gloomier than having the lead singer’s
suicide provide the reason for disbanding. Ian Curtis had a signature moan that just reeked of untreated clinical depression. The
band was very minimalistic and raw-sounding, much in the way of the
earliest kind of post-punk, often pairing a snare drum and chugging
bassline beneath a simple guitar riff and calling it danceable. When
New Order was born, a lot of that rudimentary instrumentation was
replaced by programmed computer beats and overriding synth, to the point
where the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] any ostensible human touch. This was not for the better. The
magic in the former was that Ian Curtis left his wounds open for public
amusement, like he was performing for the benefit of medical students- providing an authenticity that cannot be artificially replicated to the same effect.
6. Oingo Boingo
There was a lot of tongue-and-cheek material in the eighties. This band, led by Danny Elfman of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] soundtrack fame, made a wild contribution while pushing boundaries. “Little
Girls,” one of the cheekiest songs from the band’s quasi-significant
catalogue, attempts to hide lyrical content about pedophilia behind a
tone of great levity. Elfman’s lyrics are actually disturbingly
dark in several instances, involving animal slaughter and subhuman
desires, but seem only less so with the carnival funhouse sound effects
and melodramatic melodic structures. The darkest melodic parts
appear in the tone-shifting bridges, but really can’t seem to shake that
cartooniness that would later infect the score of Nightmare before Christmas.
5. Tears for Fears
This band was a sort of hit machine, mixing a penchant for swollen
love-sick-themed songs like “Head over Heels,” which suggest a new-wavy
Beatles in the attention to melodic craft with darker hemispheres of
sound and subject matter. “Shout” presents an ominous grey cloud of
synth and percussion while desperate chants [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
and “Mad World” discusses alienation and the sweet release of death
over a deep-cutting melody that enhances the morbid atmosphere of dark
contemplations and self-loathing. While this band may revel in
pretentious studio tricks, it certainly doesn’t hide behind them- just
listen to their live album or arguable most popular album Songs from the Big Chair which unashamedly fuses a live segment to the end of “Head over Heels.”
4. The Church
Really the darkest thing about this band is the post-punk imagery and
superficial motifs it adorns itself with: the apathetic vocals, the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], album titles like “Séance,” etc. Instrumentally,
for the most part, this band is very buoyant in a psychedelic kind of
way, much akin to R.E.M. and the Smiths and their heavy Byrds influence. Jangly
guitars and cloistering choruses spell the period’s poppiest material,
but the disaffected vocalist and occasional discordant flourishes do a
good job of keeping the sunshine on a leash.
3. Echo and the Bunnymen
This band has such a full sound and is truly the sum of its parts, the result of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. While
acts like Depeche Mode used computers and samples as cloaking devices,
this band crafted rich post-punk that was less stripped down than its
contemporaries and not lacking in the way of emotional release. Listen
to the song “Cutter,” which is propelled by an entirely manmade
backbeat and bass stomp that prods the momentum forth- bones
overstretched by grandiose orchestral arrangements and delinquent guitar
jabs. “Killing Moon” is another example of great
instrumentation and precise, yet slightly melted song structure, odd
twists, and melodic skewing provided by cleverly manipulated strings. The vocals, detached and sullen as they are, aren’t so much so that they are devoid of tonality.
2. The Smiths
While Morrissey’s lyrics often reveal dissent, and frequent narcissism,
this band really was pit against many of the concurrent synth-heavy UK
New Wavers that seemed to be birthed more often than Mormon children in
Utah. In fact, every aspect of what they did defied popular
conventions to the point where their virtuosity was practically
antagonistic. The head songwriting team for this extremely
dynamic group was Morrissey and jangle-heavy guitarist Johnny Marr.
Bassist Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce helped to ensure the momentum
of each song allowed not a single moments’ rest. Marr’s busy,
nuanced guitar arrangements fit so much material and fervor into each
song, providing a level of emotional tension Morrissey seemed incapable
of matching. Morrissey’s voice often sounded [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
or at least very complacent, the attitude of a privileged, educated
class able to afford the luxury of petty dissatisfaction as well as the
freedom to be aware of his surroundings. His neurosis, as such,
stemmed as much from laziness (“Heaven Knows I’m Miserable”) as cruel
world practices like animal cruelty (“Meat is Murder”) and crimes
against humanity (“Suffer Little Children”). That said,
Morrissey’s enjoyability is strictly limited to his involvement with the
Smiths; his solo material lacks everything that made his
self-involvement forgivable.
1. The Cure
You can’t pout properly without the help of Robert Smith, the so-called
“poster child of gloom and doom.” Any Goth traditionalist will point to Pornography or Seventeen Seconds,
with signature tracks like “A Hundred Years” (opening line: “it doesn’t
matter if we all die”) or “Hanging Garden” for a good fix of bleakness. Those
tribal drums and guitar atmospherics carry the mood perfectly, while
Smith’s echoing, hopeless lyrics make the perfect icing. The
difference between the Cure and a lot of transient post-punk bands of
the day was that the Cure, which consisted almost entirely of Robert
Smith’s [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and countless short-lived “spotters”, wasn’t afraid to explore new territory while in the search for its own voice. The
Cure as a result has crafted a unique and timeless sound. Such a sound-
notably the lush, warbling strings- has transcended and resisted
genre-pigeonholing, surviving the eighties well and consistently up to
2008 when they released their latest album 4:13 Dream.
source:.toptenz.net
