Back in Love with the '80's

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Fubbly Bubbly

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Back in love with the '80s
(Filed: 15/07/2004)

As Morrissey and the Cure lead a new pop invasion of America, Andrew Perry explains why the underdogs are now on top

America and Britain are in the grip of an '80s pop revival, but the artists at the centre of this timewarp are not those who hobnobbed with models on yachts and made outrageously high-budget videos.

Rather, they are the outcasts from the '80s champagne party, the glum-faced "alternative" brigade who never sold millions of records in their day, but whose fanbase was always furiously partisan, and whose influence has never faded.

This week, the Cure's latest album sits at number seven in America's album charts. Also riding high is Morrissey, the former Smiths crooner, whose You Are the Quarry has reportedly sold 250,000 copies over there. Both have fared well over here, too, especially Morrissey, after his successful curatorship of this year's Meltdown Festival.

On the back of these unlikely triumphs, US trade magazine Billboard has declared a "new British invasion", the first since the '80s, when Jesus Jones and Duran Duran - the bands that the Cure and the Smiths were effectively an alternative to - conquered America with their flashy, synthetic sound.

In the early '90s, the concept of any kind of '80s revival was a joke. Pop culture had reached a ludicrous pitch of hyper-acceleration. The classic rock music of the '60s and '70s had all been re-issued on CD, re-appraised by documentaries on MTV and VH-1 and endlessly regurgitated by the young bands of the day.

With that lucrative nostalgia machine in overdrive, it seemed that even the bands that nobody in their right mind would want to be reminded of would soon be dragged out of cold storage for another consumer frenzy. There was an easy-listening revival. The bottom of the barrel - ie '80s pop - was fast approaching.

With terrifying inevitability, package tours featuring the likes of Howard Jones, ABC and the Thompson Twins soon roamed the nation. Soft Cell and Duran Duran reformed to unforeseeable acclaim.

Most shockingly, Spandau Ballet's Tony Hadley and Go West's Peter Cox were salvaged from oblivion's ante-chambers by the reality TV series Reborn in the USA.

After all that, it perhaps should come as no surprise that Morrissey and the Cure are now receiving their second allocation of 15 minutes. Particularly in America, mainstream rock is a pretty dark place these days, its dominant mood the tortured angst of Marilyn Manson, Slipknot and so-called "emo" bands such as Weezer - artists whose grim vision would have been inconceivable without Morrissey and the Smiths' trailblazing misery. Hence their rekindled popularity.

In both cases, though, this feels like the closest they have ever been to the mainstream. Though each has sold millions of records worldwide, they have done so by defining themselves against the status quo, by fulfilling that nebulous criterion of being "alternative".

As a spotty, misunderstood youth in the '80s, I hated Simon Le Bon, Hadley and all that shower. Why couldn't I have been a teenager during the reign of Elvis, Dylan, Lennon, Jagger or Rotten? I wanted my money back.

However, I worshipped Morrissey and the walking hair-and-make-up catastrophe that was the Cure's Robert Smith. I rejoiced when their singles grazed the charts at number 27, a feat achieved because fans like me would all rush out and buy them on the day of release. I would then be crestfallen the following week when they plummeted back out of the Top 75.

The whole appeal was in their outsider-ness, and there is something deeply odd about them, 20 years on, finally reaching the peak of success, sweeping into the winner's enclosure. What next - the Jarvis Cocker revival, anyone?




http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2004/07/15/bm80s15.xml
 
Re: Always have been,ALWAYS WILL BE.

Always been an 80's fan and always will be. The music of today(sans morrissey and a few others) sucks big time. Kroq,for all their so called "brilliance" by listeners,needs to listen to the fans for once,and go back to playing it. Im sick of listening to shitty linkin park and other bands,They are not depeche,the cure,the smiths,Aha,the replacements,men at work,psychedelic furs,plimsouls,etc.

The 80's IMHO was the greatest decade of music ever..........Fuyck all these new stations playing "corporate rock",that sucks,and they know it.
 
Re: Always have been,ALWAYS WILL BE.

> Always been an 80's fan and always will be. The music of today(sans
> morrissey and a few others) sucks big time. Kroq,for all their so called
> "brilliance" by listeners,needs to listen to the fans for
> once,and go back to playing it. Im sick of listening to shitty linkin park
> and other bands,They are not depeche,the cure,the smiths,Aha,the
> replacements,men at work,psychedelic furs,plimsouls,etc.

> The 80's IMHO was the greatest decade of music ever..........Fuyck all
> these new stations playing "corporate rock",that sucks,and they
> know it.

Pimpy baby, I agree totally! I also loved Siouxsie & The Banshees, Bauhaus and I will always love the gorgeous Nick Cave (not just because he is Australian)but because I have loved Boys Next Door, Birthday Party and Nick Cave solo!
The 80's were an era where music (and lyrics) really mattered - not like today where everything is pre-fab crap!!!Just because time is marching on doesn't mean we have to change our alliances!!!
 
Re: Always have been,ALWAYS WILL BE.

I agree. Im a big bauhaus/peter murphy fan,yet how come I never f***in hear any of his/their shit on the radio????? because these stations are more interested in playing ugly ass ashley(no talent havin)simpson who looks like she got beat in the face with a bag of moose dicks,than play actual GOOD music. Who the f***ity fack fack told this ugly skeezer she could sing,had talent and that anyone wanted to see her ugly ass on tv??????

I dont recall that poll going around??? the only reason she's on f***in tv is the fact that her sisters a hottie. We all know from the looks of ashley who got the looks in the family????? eek!!!!! I thought I was lookin at the back of a donkeys ass while it was taking a shit,then I realized "nope,it's ashley simpson".
 
Re: Always have been,ALWAYS WILL BE.

LOL!!!!! THAT WAS JUST SO f***ING FUNNY OMG LOL!!!!!
 
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