George Michael sang suggestively on "I Want Your Sex," the incendiary hit that ignited his 1987 album Faith. Besides the sensual implications, the lyrics could also describe the British performer's make-over from teen idol to mature pop talent with his solo debut. "I was trying to shake an image — a very glossy, bubblegum image," says Michael, recalling his early-Eighties career, when he and childhood pal Andrew Ridgeley sang together as the prefab dance duo Wham! After their split in 1985, Michael became intent on finding a fresh start as a solo artist. Guitar Town tells simple stories of people living in hard times, such as the cautionary "Good Ol' Boy (Gettin' Tough)." It also relates the autobiographical tale of a country singer rolling down the road, from "Guitar Town" to "Hillbilly Highway," trying to outrun the blues. "It's important to me to make sure the average person can understand what I'm trying to say," says Earle. "Songwriting at its best is very rarely poetry; it's usually narrative and practically journalism. It is a form of literature, but one you can consume while you're driving your car." I too am guilty of buying many of these very similar 80s cds. They are fun on a long drive or enjoying whilst doing chores when no one else is home. Shying away from his persona as a preening dandy who sang drivel like "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go," Michael cultivated a new approach that was seriously sexy. With torn jeans, perfectly coifed hair and stubble that would make Don Johnson envious, he became the leading progenitor of a style that all but redefined late-Eighties fashion.

80s (The Ultimate Collection) (2020, CD) - Discogs

The chorus in the opening song, "Burning Down the House," was inspired by a Parliament-Funkadelic show. "I heard these kids in the audience screaming, 'Burn down the house,'" says Frantz, "and I thought, 'Wow, that sounds like a song.' Licensed To Ill's crushed airplane is pretty funny, but we like the understated imagery on the 1989 follow-up. Jeremy Shatan took a panoramic photo of Ludlow Street in New York and while the real store was called Lee's Sportswear, the hip hop trio had made their own fictional "Paul's Boutique" sign. In his first outing as a producer, Costello captured the spirit of the Specials' frenetic live shows by re-creating a club environment in the studio. "It was a terrific atmosphere," says vocalist Neville Staples of the sessions at London's PW studios. "We just went in and played our show. It was all live in the studio." Initially, Reed gave each member of the band a bare-bones demo of the songs for The Blue Mask, with Reed singing and strumming an electric guitar. There were no rehearsals as such before the band went into the studio in October 1981. According to Robert Quine, "We'd just go in every day and do at least one, maybe two songs. We'd start to play and the arrangement would take shape."Designer Martyn Atkins came up with the idea of the loudspeaker in a public place as a way of reflecting the Mode's sixth album. The cover features the blaring speakers in the Peak District, while the inner sleeve shows the set-up in different locations. The first single from the album, Strangelove, features a close-up of the equipment with the catalogue number BONG 13 sprayed on it. On Power, Corruption & Lies— originally released by the British Factory Records in 1983 and reissued in this country on Qwest/Warner Bros. two years later — the band members produced themselves, upgrading from home-built synthesizers and sequencers to state-of-the-art models in the process. "We got the machines two weeks before we went into the studio, and we didn't really know how to work them," Morris says. and 90s music has been created to share my of music. Though much of it is British and from the 1980s or 1990s, that isn’t completely the case. Hip hop group Run-DMC made its debut in 1984 with its eponymous album. It was one of the earliest samples of the more aggressive hip-hop sound that would become predominant in the late 1980s and 1990s with the rise of gangster rap and other subgenres. Most hip hop at the time featured lighter material in both content and musical style. Run-DMC set the stage for the sound of hip hop throughout the 1980s.

Rolling Stone Best 1980s Albums - Rolling Stone

She's So Unusual was an appropriate title for Cyndi Lauper's 1983 debut record: From her electric-orange hair and colorful flea-market wardrobe to her squeaky, giddy voice, Lauper hardly appeared an odds-on bet to become one of pop's premier vocalists. Finding acclaim in more niche circles, slightly outside the mainstream, the English electronic group Depeche Mode have often been underrated for their achievements. However, Some Great Reward is a fantastic record that more than earns its place among the best 80s albums; with the single People Are People, it also finally saw them receive greater attention in the US. The single "Get Started. Start a Fire"— which opens with the lines "The Mona Lisa's sister doesn't smile/She tried to pose but only/For a while"— has an especially personal meaning for Parker. It relates to the album's cover, which depicts a modernist Mona Lisa sporting Parker's trademark shades. " I'm the Mona Lisa's sister, you know," says Parker. "And the record company is the Mona Lisa, or something like that. I was the sister who didn't get the painting done of herself." Through a convoluted string of events, "Red Red Wine"— written by Neil Diamond, covered by Tony Tribe and rediscovered by UB40 — became a Number One hit in 1988, four years after its first appearance on Labour of Love. The album also reentered the charts, doing better the second time around and outselling the band's then-current release, simply titled UB40."I think it's purely the fact that American radio is now prepared to play reggae, whereas before it wasn't," Campbell says of UB40's long-overdue recognition in the States.It wasn't until the release of her second album that Suzanne Vega achieved fame, scoring an unlikely Top Forty hit with "Luka," a song about child abuse. But the singer's 1985 debut album, Suzanne Vega, had already awakened listeners to a fresh new voice, reviving the folk-music genre after nearly two decades of dormancy. For Vega, who was then twenty-five years old, the album was cause for uncertainty and isolation as much as triumph. "I felt a little bit like a novelty act," she says of her auspicious introduction.

80s Compilation Albums [2023] - 80s and 90s music 10 Best 80s Compilation Albums [2023] - 80s and 90s music

The Specials opens with a cover of Robert "Dandy" Thompson's ska anthem "A Message to You Rudy," then dives into more manic numbers, like a gritty version of Rufus Thomas's "Do the Dog" and the band's own "Concrete Jungle." Though many have their gripes with the Morrissey of the 21st century, he was a unique frontman partially responsible for some of the best 80s albums. The Smiths were at their peak when they released the now-iconic The Queen Is Dead, with the whole band coming together as a unit, and a real balance being cemented between the fantastic guitar work of Johnny Marr and the Morrissey’s beautiful lyrics.

For many, Van Halen just wasn’t Van Halen without Diamond Dave. Eddie saw it differently. “We lost a frontman,” he said, “but we gained a singer.” And with Sammy Hagar on board, the band’s career arc continued upwards. 5150, the first ‘Van Hagar’ album, was also the band’s first US number one. It's the longest album I've ever done," says Young. "It's a real mouthful. When I listen to it, it's almost like listening to the radio — it keeps changing and going from one thing to another." Worlds apart from The Smiths, Tracy Chapman is one of the era’s most gifted songwriters, and she reshaped the music industry when she released her self-titled debut album. The simplicity of the arrangements and the powerful subject matter made Tracy Chapman one of the 80s’ most gorgeous folk-pop records. Chapman has gone onto to influence so many artists and shape so many styles, her inclusion on our list of best 80s albums is a no-brainer.