#1980s pop

[60sgroove]

Ornella Muti as Princess Aura in Flash Gordon (1980)

[bitter69uk]

“Madonna’s first video, for her superb, drivingly lascivious disco hit “Burning Up”, did not make much of an impression. The platinum blonde girl kneeling and emoting in the middle of a midnight highway just seemed to be a band member’s floozie. In retrospect, the video, with its rapid, cryptic surrealism, prefigures Madonna’s signature themes and contains moments of eerie erotic poetry.”

/ From “Madonna II: Venus of the Radio Waves” by Camille Paglia, The Independent Sunday Review, 1991 /

“Don't put me off 'cause I'm on fire / And I can't quench my desire …”

/ From the lyrics to “Burning Up” by Madonna /

Released on this day (9 March 1983): double-sided single “Physical Attraction” / “Burning Up” by a hungry young up-and-coming pop starlet called Madonna. Of the two songs, I infinitely prefer the urgent, punky siren call of “Burning Up.” Like all her best tunes, the lyrics cast Madonna as the romantic aggressor / pursuer, wailing sentiments like “You're always closing your door / Well, that only makes me want you more” and – even better! - “Unlike the others, I'd do anything / I'm not the same, I have no shame / I'm on fire!” The haunting video directed by Steve Barron – with cat-on-a-hot-tin-roof Madonna writhing, flailing and thrashing around in a sexual frenzy on an abandoned stretch of road – cemented her provocative bad girl persona. (Fun fact: the guy in the video (Ken Compton) was Madonna’s then-boyfriend). Note that there are multiple mixes of “Burning Up” circulating. The only version you need is the one with biting nasty New Wave guitar. Portrait of Madonna by Gary Heery, 1983.

[unplugstar]

Gal Costa, 1980s | Ph by Antônio Guerreiro

[fleetshotter-minstrel]

Most famous hit - “Wood Beez” (1984).

[thesecretdiaryofa90sgirl]

Madonna, 80s

[destinylordoffreaks]

Part 4 of my Care Bears collection

Here we have my kenner Care Bears carrying case

it also has some guardians of the galaxy tums tums in it at the moment 🤷🏻‍♀️

And The certificate Authenticity for rainbow heart and care a lot bear

I’d like to have some 80s figures to add to my collection I just haven’t had the chance yet

[weneverlearn]

The Bangles debut album, All Over the Place, has remained an absolute favorite of mine since it first came out in 1984. Stayed a big fan, though never got to see them live until at City Winery (NYC) in 2014 around when the great early days comp, Ladies and Gentlemen... The Bangles, came out, and they focused on their more garagey early stuff. Great show!

(Though I still wonder how he hell I missed them at Cleveland Music Hall with Hoodoo Gurus opening in like 1986. The Bangles were pals with that great Aussie act, and sang backup on the Gurus' 1987 U.S. hit, "Good Times", and can be seen in the video).

The Bangles, 1984

At the top there is a good new catching up interview with singer/guitarist Susanna Hoffs, who just released her first novel. And in case you missed it, here's an interview I did with Bangles guitarist, Vicki Peterson, back in 2018. She recently played guitar with another early fave, the Dream Syndicate, on a European tour. If that would be a surprise to you, you'll get the connection in the interview.

And keep an eye out for the upcoming biography of the Bangles, on Hozac Books.

[silverolivia-upsidedown]

80's retro eliksni? Listen my brain is all cyberpunk BRRRRRR I can't help it right now lol

[thisaintascenereviews]

How Martin Johnson Beat The (Night) Game

Boys Like Girls released their self-titled debut album in 2006, and it was a smash hit of a record, at least depending on who you talk to. A few songs from that record were minor hits, such as “The Great Escape,” “Thunder,” and “My Hero/Heroine,” but the album was mainly big in the emo / scene subcultures. The band was huge at that time, and from 2006 – 2012, they were big in that world. Hell, their second album, 2009’s Love Drunk, included a feature from an up and coming artist by the name of Taylor Swift (who was well on her way to being the biggest artist of all time). Their self-titled debut is an underrated classic of that scene. It’s aged remarkably well, but in a nostalgic way. There’s a kind of fondness for their brand of cheese-laden, corny, and oddly endearing pop-rock, but that record is a masterclass of pop-rock songwriting. Unfortunately, they fell off by the early 2010s, and understandably so, since the emo subculture was starting to wane in popularity, and that type of pop-rock / pop-punk wasn’t very popular in the mainstream anymore, so the band went their separate ways. They never officially broke up, but they hadn’t released music in more than a decade. That changed in May of this year when the band released comeback single “Blood And Sugar,” and that song is an absolute pop-rock banger, showcasing the band’s ability to craft a fantastic and earworm hook that never leaves your head, unless the thing that’s replacing it is another hook from this band.

Another thing that made that song so good (and the other couple of singles they’ve dropped since) is frontman and principle songwriter Martin Johnson. Johnson has had a very fascinating career in music, because after being the frontman of a very popular band for a handful of years, he turned his talents to songwriting for many popular artists over the last decade, such as Ariana Grande, Avril Lavigne, Hannah Montana (yeah, he wrote a song for the Hannah Montana movie), Gavin DeGraw, Daughty, Jason Derulo, and many more, but in addition to that, he also had a solo project of his own – The Night Game. Releasing his self-titled debut album in 2018, The Night Game caught a lot of people by surprise because of how (and how well) the album emulated sounds and ideas of the 1980s. The lead single “The Outfield” is almost like a lost gem from the mid-80s with its new wave sound and larger than life hook. The rest of the album followed suit, and it reminded me of one of those albums that sounds like an unearthed gem from a bygone era. Johnson also released Dog Years in 2021, and I just found out about that record a few weeks prior to writing this piece, as I’ve been heavily listening to Boys Like Girls’ new singles, but I’ve also gotten heavily obsessed with The Night Game. There’s been a real love for 1980s nostalgia, especially music and movies for some reason, over the last decade or so, and Johnson tapped into that nostalgia for this project. I wanted to talk about both records in some capacity for a couple of reasons: one, they’re good and they’re worth hearing if you haven’t listened to them yet, and two, there’s something to be said about a frontman of a once-popular band making music that’s honestly kind of better than his original band. The Night Game is kind of what makes the new Boys Like Girls songs so good, because you can hear that 1980s influence on those new songs. The Night Game is to Martin Johnson like what Soul Punk was to Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump; when Fall Out Boy went on hiatus, Stump released a solo pop record, also weirdly encompassing a lot of ideas and sounds from the 1980s (but instead of going with new wave and alternative music, he went with Michael Jackson and Prince), and when Fall Out Boy got back together a couple of years later, you could hear the influence of Soul Punk on their new material, because they started to get very pop-friendly. Even on their newest album, you can still hear traces of it, especially with the band moving into an amalgamation of soul, rock, pop, R&B, and many other styles of music. It was almost shocking hearing Johnson with The Night Game, because certain people didn’t take him seriously with Boys Like Girls, and to an extent, I get it. They were a very teenage-oriented band with sappy and cheesy lyrics, but The Night Game is much more adult, both in terms of its sound and lyricism. Hell, Johnson himself sounds fantastic on these records, and his voice got a lot better within the handful of years since he released a record with Boys Like Girls. Not only did his voice get a lot better, I really wanted to highlight these records, because this is a great example of a project that really showcases a songwriter’s strengths. If you really enjoyed the pop songwriting of Boys Like Girls, you’ll like The Night Game, but a lot of these songs are genuinely great pop songs that have very slick and catchy hooks. Johnson knows his way around a hook that’ll get stuck in your head, and he’s only gotten better with time, as a lot of these hooks are razor sharp. Dog Years, his sophomore (and seemingly last) album from 2021, is a bit more varied, as it includes elements of R&B, pop, alternative, soul, and more styles than just 1980s new wave and alternative, but the hooks are very strong, nonetheless.

Martin Johnson isn’t quite a household name, but you know his work, whether it’s with Boys Like Girls or with The Night Game. I wanted to talk about these albums in a way that’s less of a review and more so in a way that’s merely promoting them, because these are great albums, and Johnson is a very good songwriter. I don’t have a lot of negatives to say, other than some of the lyrics on these albums aren’t great, but they aren’t bad by any means. A lot of the lyrics on these two albums are about relationships gone awry, but that’s nothing new for Johnson. Fans of 1980s alternative, pop, and rock should really check these out. If you remember Boys Like Girls being cringy, bad, or generic pop-rock, I’d recommend three things – listening to their debut again (and try to look at the record from the perspective of someone that would have loved it back then), listen to The Night Game’s records, and then listen to Boys Like Girls’ new songs, specifically in that order, because you can hear the improvement and the progression from those records to these new songs. These records are catchy, fun, and interesting, even if they aren’t the most innovative or introspective. I can still admire great and catchy songwriting, and that’s exactly what Martin is good at, so if Boys Like Girls drop an album this year, you bet I’m going to be listening to it.

[spilladabalia]

Peter Gabriel - Red Rain

[dandumbshitposts]

As Tears Go By (1988)

[queenofthedisneyverse]

To all my 80's people

I want to buy some 80's tech when I get older and here's the list I have so far;

Sony Walkman

Camcorder

cassette tapes

Madewell retroskept polaroid camera

Nintendo Gameboy

Nintendo NES

VHS player

Casio c-80 calculator

Macintosh plus

posters

Is there any more stuff I need?

[ricmac]

Loved this album as a boy. This doco takes me back.

[fleetshotter-minstrel]

“The Past has been bottled and labelled with Love…” (1981). 😽😾😺🙀

[astralbondpro]

You're a strange animal, that's what I know. But you're a strange animal, I've got to follow.