80s: Not Just a Decade

I never had much of a social life in my teens.  I found my salvation in music and whenever I felt lonely, the 80s tunes would keep me company.  Straight across the dial from WBLS to WLIR in New York City, I knew almost every song on the radio from Dolly Parton and Run DMC to The Cure and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. 

I remember the transition from Disco to Pop, the birth of Hip-Hop and the London underground revolution. I craved the alternative sound from the Sugarcubes, Depeche Mode, Erasure and Echo and the Bunnymen.  Rap battles between UTFO and Roxanne Shante engaged my attention.  I crooned to Stacy Lattisaw and Whitney Houston.  I she-bopped with Cindy Lauper and got happy with Bobby McFerrin.  Patti LaBelle gave me a new attitude while the Go-Go’s furnished the beat.

Radio starlets became video vixens for MTV (which really was music television). Michael Jackson and Madonna reigned as king and queen of Pop culture, and their subjects aspired to imitate all of their dance moves, vocal styles and changing get-ups.  Australia granted Rick Springfield and Men at Work. Ireland donated U2. Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder and DeBarge kept Motown alive. And artists worldwide left their egos at the door to record “We Are the World.”

Whew! It’s a lot of recollections, but yet another memory quite daunting leaves a bitter thud in my ear – the resounding wails as the lively, colorful 80s succumbed to the arrival of bleak 90s Grunge, which I hated. 

So here I am now, 18 years later, in a new century, longing for good, clean music, without strip-teasing videos attached.  I’m straining to find individuality and not the work of a team of stylists.  I’ve noticed American Idol’s search for talent has replaced the lip-synching entertainment of Solid Gold, American Bandstand and Soul Train. And, well, radio just doesn’t do it for me anymore.  But as long as I’ve got artists like Tina Turner, Bananarama, Bruce Springsteen, Pat Benatar, the Police, Culture Club and Siouxie and the Banshees in my MP3, VH1 Classics on my TV, and a CD burner on my PC, I’ll be content until the next decade comes along.