MetaFilter posts tagged with 1980s and music

Behind the Mask - Michael Jackson's rarest recording?

0bvious — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:40:57 -0800

Michael Jackson penned and recorded lots of songs, many of which remain unreleased. Perhaps the most infamous, and rarest recording, is his version of Behind the Mask. Legend has it that upon hearing Yellow Magic Orchestra's original track, somewhen around 1979, Quincy Jones fell in love with the track, and he and Michael worked together on their own version. Jackson wrote new lyrics for it - adding to those of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Chris Mosdell - and eventually recorded it during his Off The Wall sessions. For unknown reasons the track never made the final cut of, arguably, Jones' and Jackson's greatest work. Not long afterwards Greg Phillinganes, Jackson's keyboard player, released his own version of the song, which was later taken up and re-recorded by Eric Clapton for his 1986, Phil Collins produced album, August. The track has since been recorded/remixed by Human League, Senor Coconut, Orbital and others. Does an original Jones/Jackson recording of the song even exist? Perhaps, as the world continues to mourn the star's sad death, someone will finally allow us a listen.

Nothing worse than bad sax.

miss lynnster — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:13:51 -0800

A handy rating guide to 1980s saxophone solos -- "I realized about 5 years ago that at some point in the 80s, lots of the popular music started incorporating saxophone solos into their songs. Some of them are fine, but most of them are ridiculous to have in the songs. I have attempted to separate the quality and appropriateness of the solos from what I think of the song as a whole..."

No Need to Atone for Your Synths

jonp72 — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 11:59:03 -0800

Not all groups with synthesizers in the 1970s and 1980s were lame Top 40 acts with keytars. Some groups of the era used synths for spastic keyboard bleeps, herky-jerky tempos, and angst-ridden aggression in a style now classified by record collector geeks as synthpunk, minimal synth, or minimal wave. Several famous New Wave acts dabbled in the style before providing soundtracks for Molly Ringwald movies (OMD, Electricty) or singing about waitresses in cocktail bars (the Human League, Being Boiled), but vintage videos from synth punk acts all over the world can be found all over YouTube. New York City Suicide, Ghost Rider Suicide, Frankie Teardrop Dark Day, Arp's Carpet Los Angeles Catholic Discipline, Underground Babylon The Screamers, Vertigo The Screamers, 122 Hours of Fear Nervous Gender, Miscarriage San Francisco The Units, Unit Training Film: Warm Moving Bodies Tulsa, Oklahoma Los Reactors, It's A Wonderful Life Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Billy Synth & the Turnups, I'm So Sick of It South Florida Futurisk, Meteoright Futurisk, Army Now France Metal Urbain, Panik Australia The Primitive Calculators, I Can't Stop It The United Kingdom The Normal, T.V.O.D. Fad Gadget, Collapsing New People Spain Aviador Dro, La TV Es Nutritiva Los Iniciados, Marca de Anubis Japan P-Model, ArtMania P-Model, Health Angel

Will I Make It Through The 80s?

The Whelk — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:14:00 -0800

Hey, what ever happened to Julie Brown? ( not that one) She was a hit in Earth Girls Are Easy with her number, Cause I'm a Blonde. She had another hit with the Dr. Demento staple The Homecoming Queens' Got a Gun! Then she faded into the cultural-artifact twilight ... She kept up the songs, expressing her taste in men, fighting women, and wondering if she'll make it through the decade. Julie appeared in a few good TV shows and some bad movies. (She was even on Werid Al!) MTV gave her an odd, short-lived show, Just Say Julie! She continued music parodies with Medusa: Dare To Truth, a giddy parody of Madonna's documentary. Nowadays, she's mostly at home, working on a web-based comeback. She even has a blog.

For my sugar spun sister

sien — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:19:40 -0800

The Stone Roses are set to reform. It's almost 20 years since they released their extremely fine album creatively titled The Stone Roses. The band that was a big part of the Madchester movement have been bumping into each other at Manchester United games and no doubt seeing the money that the footballers are making decided it was time to regroup. The rumours are not certain, but some say it is 75 percent likely and media reports everywhere indicates it is probably happening. What's next, a guru Josh remix? Oh, Got one

Like, OMIGOD!

carsonb — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:34:51 -0800

80smusicvids.com - Like totally bodacious collection of over 1000 music videos from like the raddest decade. Choice. Bonus, dude! Retro video games like flashacized.

cum on feel the noiz

spish — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 14:30:57 -0800

Kevin DuBrow dead at 52. The lead singer of the 80's metal band Quiet Riot found dead at 52 in Las Vegas. Break out your leather and studs...and hockey masks?

Welcome to Night Flight

Methylviolet — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 15:37:15 -0800

Night Flight aired Friday and Saturday nights on the USA Network from 1981-1988 in the heady early days of cable. It was one of the first places to see shorts old and new, music documentaries, and conceptual, artistically-intended music videos -- not to mention MST3K-style parody, general weirdness, and 420-addled wonderfulness.

But is it jazz?

klangklangston — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 13:32:14 -0800

Jazz '71-'89 Dave Douglas posed the challenge: “Is there a writer who can take on the project of an unbiased overview of music since the end of the Vietnam War?” The Bad Plus answered (though not unbiased). The Guardian and NY Times weighed in. Suck it, haters. And ultimately, Behearer used a wiki to answer the call.

The Coolest Train Wreck You'll See This Summer

peewinkle — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 11:37:28 -0800

"Once Were Kings" Some call them 1980's pop icons, others the Kings of Heavy Metal. Regardless, Van Halen has announced a 2007 tour with David Lee Roth. But without Michael Anthony, will it be worth paying to see? While Dave's current fan base is huge, others feel he has not aged gracefully. Well, it could be worse.....(youtube, ytmnd, and bad 80's haircuts warning)

metal fashionistas

madamjujujive — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 20:28:51 -0800

Top 10 most ridiculous black metal pics of all time - 2005 edition. This is a follow-up to the original 2004 list. NSFW (via Buzz)

Punk Rock Scrapbook

planetkyoto — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 07:05:20 -0800

Punk Rock Scrapbook. J Neo Marvin carried an instamatic camera to a lot of gigs way back when, and he has posted them on his band's website. The Clash, X, The Ramones and more.

BarneyFifesBullet — Tue, 27 Nov 2001 12:16:17 -0800

Take the 1980s Music Quiz (via Net Buzz). Guess the song and artist of each. Hint: No two songs are by the same artist, and all were produced between 1980-1989. 222 lines from 222 songs from 222 different artists. This is quality time-wasting.