Greatest (non 80s) songs

[Vincent Hanna]

[ArtieRollins]

Even though some of the music is not the kind I listen to daily it still bring a lot of great memories from a time when MTV acutally played music videos rather than just another "reality" show with spoiled rich teenagers sleeping around and complaining about how awful life is.

DJ Bobo - Love Is All Around (1994)

Paradisio - Bailando (1997)

Alanis Morissette - Thank You (1998)

Donna Lewis - I Love You Always Forever (1996)

Seal - Kiss From A Rose (1995)

 

[viceystyle]

Hey I remember all these 90s songs! True, it's not what I listen to daily or often, but it's not anywhere near as bad as the crap that's mainstream nowadays, and it is from a time when television and music still had some dignity and quality.  

[Detective_Crockett]

Now, I'm also very partial to music from the 1950's era, I love this song in particular:

 

I do like many music from that era, like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Little Richard, The Chordette's etc...anyone you name, I'll probably love it.

 

So much better than the music that my generation listens to nowadays, not music at all I would barely call it, hell, the only song I think I like from my generation is Uptown Funk.

Edited March 8, 2015 by Detective_Crockett

[ArtieRollins]

After just watching the sequel to one of my favorite 90s comedies Dumb & Dumber,  my main problem with Dumb & Dumber To (2014)  was not the poor comedy or the cheap laughs thrown at you too often, the problem for me was how it never felt like it had any atmosphere at all.

Where the original made a great use of instrumentals of both old classic's and new songs as almost like it was an best of album, the new one didn't have any remarkeble or memorable moments at all, and afterwards I couldn't remember any of the tunes used in it.

Pete Droge - If You Don't Love Me

Todd Rundgren - Can We Still Be Friends

The Primitives - Crash

The Sons - Too Much of a Good Thing

Crash Test Dummies - Mmm mmm mmm

Edited March 14, 2015 by ArtieRollins

[ArtieRollins]

Time for some great old 70s prog classics:

Camel - Chord Change (1976)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVmxow0Wbw8

One of many beauties done by Andrew Latimer and his Camel.

The magic starts around 01:55 into Chord Change and I could picture myself on a boat/yacht in the bay area of Miami together with a certain lady friend, a cold beer enjoying the scenery of the skyline at night time.

Caravan - Winter Wine (1971)

Genesis - Firth of Fith (1973)

Yes - Turn of the Century (1977)

King Crimson - Exiles (1973)

 

[Jerry B.]

Stunning track from jazz funk genius Ramsey Lewis. From 1976 album Salongo, co-written and produced by EW&F brain Maurice White (can you hear that?), this incredible piece of music used to make a 15 y.o. boy crazy. Yeah guys - believe it or not - teenangers didn't listen to shit back then.

 

 

[viceystyle]

Well, I was a 90s kid, and it was the anti-thesis of the 80s. The grungy sound was in, their aim was to wipe out the superficiality they deemed the 80s to be. (Little did they know that the superficiality would come back about a decade later, a million times worse than they could have ever imagined) but this was the stuff my friends and niche in high school were listening to, it was dark, and angsty, and I do have to admit, I was an angsty teen. These are the artists teens related to back then, plain clothes, dark nail polish, all about substance and nothing about image (only the pop stars of the time were about image, and my friends all thought they were uncool garbage) And looking back on it now, this really was so much better than the crap teens have now, this was really the last era, before the crap took over. I feel sorry for kids now seeing all the garbage that clogs the airways now, both on radio and t.v.

 

 

[viceystyle]

Okay so the above is what my friends and I liked and felt was our music, and our vibe, that defined us as both individuals and as a generation. Now let me show you a few examples of the stuff back then that we hated and called garbage, (all the pop and R&B of that era). Now here we are in 2015, and even these singers that sounded so bad to us back then and were put down by all us angsty teens are a still a million times better than any of the pop stars today. The teeny-boppers back then were the likes of Backstreet Boys, N Sync, Spice Girls, Britney Spears, etc and man did we think they were awful. But we had no way of knowing that it could and would get a lot worse in the future. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ArtieRollins]

I was a bit too young to remember most of the whole grunge/alternative generation x explosion that knocked Michael Jackson off the top of the charts and declared the 80s "officially dead", but I would probably take most of the music I found horrible back then anyday over what goes on in the world of music as of today.

Still I do have some great memories of the so called "Brit-pop" that was meant as englands answer to the grunge movement and even though I never could stand the Gallagher brothers, they were a part of an era that did produce some brilliant albums and for all the "hatred" towards american music and style, they probably got what they deserved in the end when they were getting beaten on their own turf by girl power and The Spice Girls.

Some of my favorite hits to be released from the Cool Britain Part 4: (1994-1997):

The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony (1997)

Spice Girls - 2 Become 1 (1996)

Oasis - Champagne Supernova (1995)

The Prodigy - Breathe (1996)

Blur - Country House (1995)

Edited March 17, 2015 by ArtieRollins

[viceystyle]

I'm too young to remember Kurt Cobain and Nirvana and how they paved the way. By the time I was in middle school, grunge was mainstream, and it was now called alternative and post-grunge, but it's clear it was the same movement that had started in the early 90s. By that time, there was no trace of the 80s left. I do have a special place in my heart for that music as it resonated a lot with how I felt. They were making truthful statements about society, and I admired how they despised superficiality and it was all about the deep meaning and not the image. That's why we hated rap and the pop of the era, it represented everything grunge was fighting against. We didn't know that pop could get even worse. I'd take the Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls any day over Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Pharrell and the hordes of other crap that's rampant now. During high school, I would catch some 80s songs on a radio station that played classics. I liked the way it sounded, very different from the music of my generation, and a lot lighter in tone, even though some songs like In the Air Tonight, to name one, had quite a lot of depth. It wasn't until senior year and then my first couple of years of college that I started really discovering the 80s though. I realized how much better 80s pop was from 90s pop, and for the first time in my life, I started actually listening to pop, but it was all 80s pop of course. I had had no idea that pop could be that good, because in high school pop equaled crap. So I started really being interested in the 80s era that had such great music. Then the era I grew up in came to an end. It was around the year 2004/2005. Mainstream music tanked completely. And since then, it's all been downhill. 

[viceystyle]

So here's some more from my era. I had such a crush on some of these guys (I remember when boys at my school had hairstyles like theirs too). Rob Thomas from Matchbox 20, Brett Scallions from Fuel, Jason Wade from Lifehouse. I thought they were the cutest things ever, and they were nice guys who made meaningful music, I felt I could really relate to them and so did many other kids. They didn't care about looks, and it made them even more attractive. Now everything is degrading to women and it's seen as cool. Girls read crap like Twilight, t.v. is clogged with all these terrible shows and kids look up to pop stars a million times more superficial and fake as the pop stars we used to make fun of. It makes me appreciate that at least I grew up in a era that still had a soul. 

 

 

[Beach_Vice]

About a year old now. I just think this is awesome for some reason. The real song starts 30 seconds in. Kinda has a "walking on the moon" atmosphere to it at the end. Love it. I'd love to hear it on a vintage stereo.

 

Edited March 18, 2015 by Beach_Vice

[viceystyle]

This one isn't exactly grungy, but it fit our good music criteria middle/high school. I remember going to the mall and hearing this song playing all the time. 

 

[ArtieRollins]

I miss the time when some of the Norwegian radio stations would late at night play a special show which included some beautiful dreamy trance music instead of the crappy pop "music" that sadly seems to go on 24/7 these days.

This one was one of my favorites, a great way to end the day and dream away with.

 

[Jerry B.]

That's what boys and girls used to dance to in the late 70s. Take a tune from Rod-God Temperton, gather round the best players and arrangers of that time, and let Master Quincy blend everything together. Pure gold, pop music at its best.

 

Ladies and genleman: Rufus & Chaka Khan

 

 

 

[BlueAir]

True pioneers of music!Es lebe Kraftwerk!!

 

 

[ArtieRollins]

The fall of the grunge/alternative rock era would soon go on to be replaced by a very successful new "genre" known as angsty/angry girl rock that which whould became even more of a commerical hit than its predecessors between 1995-1998 and included artists such as Alanis Morissette, PJ. Harvey, Garbage, Elastica, No Doubt, Fiona Apple, The Cranberries, Meredith Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Hole, Anouk, Skunk Anansie and Natalie Imbruglia.

Hole - Awful (1998)

Alanis Morissette - Ironic (1995)

Sheryl Crow - If It Makes You Happy (1996)

Skunk Anansie - Hedonism (1997) 

Garbage - I Think I'm Paranoid (1998)

[Jerry B.]

The common line in the whole "evolution" of pop music since the end of the 80s is: everything became simpler and simpler and simpler, dull, heartless, more violent and direct but - most of all - less musical. Period.

 

And  the many "revivals" or so-called "comebacks" of the old genres just replicates their exterior without catching their essence. 99% of this poor music is lifless from a musical standpoint. It can please you, it can seduce you and it can sell as well. But there's very little music in it.

 

Take Stevie Wonder and Jamiroquai: same "sound" (that's not even true, but let's pretend it is), but there's the difference between life and death. Or take the classic Madonna records and compare them to whatever we have today, her present records included. Just a couple of easy examples, but you got the picture.

 

I know my view is not shared with many, but don't get me wrong: I'm not saying the music of today is bad. I'm saying it's much less musical than ever. And that's a fact.

[BlueAir]

Artie,ViceStyle,

 

    I think we were born around the same time (me 1993).I too come to realize music now is really not my flavor.I like the Spice Girls,N'Sync,Backstreet Boys,and early Britney Spears.The late '90s to me seemed pretty cool.I used to hate rap but now come to liking early rap and '90s rap.Back then rap seemed to actually have a purpose like telling about the hard life on the street and crime.Now it is about money,weed,swag.1990's-early 2000's R&B and club/dance music was top notch too.Here's a couple of my picks

 

 

Edited April 25, 2015 by BlueAir

[Kavinsky]

Hmm what about Moby, as him

 

 

Amon Tobin

 

 

and the Gorrilaz have kind of kept the technobeat around and popular, and I remember him and the properlerheads being pretty much the only shows in town back in the 1990's when it came to techno beats that were more than a beat set on repeat. like it is now most of the time when it comes to mainstream music

 

 

with exceptions of course, atlhough I think that good techno typically has to make good use of the guitar mixed in with the electro sounds, not unlike the music of the half life series here. as it grounds it it seems.

Edited April 26, 2015 by Kavinsky

[ArtieRollins]

For those who are interested, on may the 20th, Amazon.uk will release the first three albums remastered along with a fourth CD full of rarities, b-sides, live cuts, unreleased etc from the influential but sadly very shortlived John Foxx/Ultravox! 1976-1978 era: Ultravox! / The Island Years / 4CD box.

I had often "ignored" their second release Ha!-Ha!-Ha! (1977), not because it was not good but maybe because the punk sound/attitude was not working for me at the time, and I was still very hung up with the more 80s/pop dominated Midge Ure version. But over the years as I began listening to Ha!-Ha!-Ha! (1977) more often, I have come to think of it as their finest hour, well or ("half-hour" as it clocks in around 30-32 minutes).  

"We were trying to increase bass frequencies for the synths, subsonic zooms - we wanted to work like sonic terrorists - to make the audience sick." - John Foxx

They really went all the way with this one as a band, creative and blending in a great mix of agressive punk sounds/lyrics of desperation/anger along with what would probably be one of their most important pieces in the stunningly album closer, Hiroshima Mon Amour. A Song which more or less showcased their musical direction from being seen as just one of the many glam/punk Roxy Music, Eno/Bowie "wannabes" to end up as one of the most influential bands to come out of the 70s glam/punk era.

 

Edited April 26, 2016 by ArtieRollins

[summer84]

One of Elton Johns best songs is "I'm still standing" (1983) But this one is truly good too. (2001)

 

 

[Tony D.]

I graduated H.S. in 1960, and I was learning to play the guitar, from a jazz musician.....so I was listening to songs from the 40's, 50's & onward.

   I liked Elvis, Beatles, every rock & roll & pop song on the top 40 list that was played on the radio. Everything was played but being a musician, myself, I liked quality which boiled down to many classic Frank Sinatra hits. Barbra Streisand & Ella Fitzgerald along with Louis Armstrong & Whitney Houston have to be included. Too many to list......I'll think about some examples & post them, later.

[summer84]