80's Music

This Week's Forgotten Gem of the '80s - Iggy Pop's "Pumpin' for Jill"
On many occasions, the best new wave songs drew distinctly if also off-centeredly from artists directly involved in the original thrust of punk rock that helped launch the new form....

Here's Hoping XM-Sirius Merger Doesn't Continue Trend of Shrinking '80s Playlists
Having been a satisfied XM Radio subscriber for more than six years now, I've watched the merger process involving XM and former satellite radio rival Sirius with plenty of interest....

This Week's Forgotten Gem of the '80s - Hollywood Rose's "Reckless Life"
If you thought Guns N' Roses sounded ferociously out of control in 1987 (and the band certainly did, especially in comparison with most of its hard rock contemporaries), then you'll...

This Week's Forgotten Gem of the '80s - Altered Images' "I Could Be Happy"
For fans of this Scottish new wave band, this song would probably better be termed underappreciated than forgotten, but for the rest of us who either missed or only now...

MTV Finds Its Way Back to Music Online... Yawn
Forgive me if I'm not one of the throng of media observers patting MTV on its collective back for returning a semblance of focus to music through its recently launched...

This Week's Forgotten Gem of the '80s - Midge Ure's "If I Was"
Though far more of a pop music fixture in the U.K. than he was across the Pond, Midge Ure played a highly significant role in the development of '80s music....

For Now Anyway, It's Hard to Argue with the Human League's Reasons for Pressing On
Many times on this site I've questioned the motives behind the insistence of some '80s acts to continue touring and releasing music decades after their emergence. It's often struck me...

This Week's Forgotten Gem of the '80s - John Fogerty's "Rock and Roll Girls"
Usually when an artist produces music that riffs on his compositions of old, he might be accused of being a hack. But in rare cases, particularly that of Creedence Clearwater...

The Saxophone Gets a Bad Rap in '80s Music, Deserve It or Not
I'm not about to tell you that many '80s songs featuring the saxophone did not devolve into cheesy exercises in schmaltz and excess, but I do think - regardless of...

This Week's Forgotten Gem of the '80s - Joan Armatrading's "Drop the Pilot"
As an American kid growing up during the early '80s, the only real exposure I can remember having to British singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading was through syndicated reruns of the sitcom...