I think 1983 was the year the music died. Although I was at the peak of my record collecting years, I did not buy a single record from that year. I would eventually buy Mummer, but even that was a bit of a disappointment.
I've often said that 1982 was the last great year for Top 40 radio because 1983 started a trend where the same dozen or so superstars had the most added songs to radio week after week. After a brief enjoyable trend with new wave music, every song you heard for years after was by a superstar act: Michael Jackson, Prince, Whitney Houston, George Michael, Lionel Richie, Bryan Adams, Phil Collins, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Huey Lewis etc. There was no longer enough variety. I think all 7 singles released from Springsteen's "Born In The USA" album entered Billboard's Hot 100 within the top 40 because every station in the United States immediately put them in heavy rotation.
Personally love 1983. Big fan of the releases of Talking Heads, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Big Country, China Crisis, Genesis, Cocteau Twins, Gene Loves Jezebel, Tangerine Dream, Yes, The The, Killing Joke, The Chameleons, The Church, David Bowie, XTC, The Waterboys, A Flock Of Seagulls and the list goes on!
This was a big year for College Radio and I bought these records: XTC - Mummer REM - Murmer Husker Du - Everthing Falls Apart The Fall - Perverted By Language Elvis Costello & The Attactions - Punch The Clock Jonathan Richman - Jonathan Sings Daniel Johnston - Hi, How Are You Split Enz Conflicting Emorions The Go-Betweens - Before Hollywood Echo & The Bunnymen - Porcupine Tears For Fears - The Hurting New Order - Power, Corruption and Lies Bob Dylan - Infidels Kinks - State Of Confusion Neil Young - Trans Kate Bush - Kate Bush Brian Eno - Music For Films 2 Neil Young & The Shocking Pinks - Everybody's Rocking Dave Davies - Chosen People Genesis - Genesis Ale Chilton - Live In London Let's Active - Afoot The Stranglers - Feline So not that bad for me.....
As a big 70's fan, I have a significant drop-off in the 80's, but it picks right up again for me in the 90's. Many older artists who had gone astray in the 80's returned to form in the 90's, and at the same time, a lot of great new artists came on the scene. These were people of my own generation (I was born in '65) so I think I relate to them quite a bit. I haven't found many new 21st century artists who resonate with me, but there are some, and I keep looking for more, while many of the older artists are still producing great new music even now, which is all unexpected icing on the cake. I don't want to miss out on any of it.
Quite a few good albums flew by as you were scrolling. To start with, I was shocked to see The Chameleons "Script of the Bridge" album at number four! That's one of my favorite albums from 1983! I didn't think anyone was aware of it. "Murmur" by R.E.M. is also a great album. The The's "Soul Mining" album is very, very good, as is Oingo Boingo's "Good for Your Soul." "Texas Flood" by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble is great! "Japanese Whispers" by The Cure is very good. "Mummer" by XTC is great! I really like David Bowie's "Let's Dance" album! "Punch the Clock" by Elvis Costello wasn't "Get Happy!" or "Trust," but it was still pretty good. The Stranglers' "Feline" is a pretty solid album too. "Touch" by Eurythmics is great also. I really like "The Politics of Dancing" by Re-Flex. I also liked Sparks' "In Outer Space" album. The Raybeats "It's Only a Movie" came out in '83, as did the "Creatures of Leisure" album by Mental as Anything. Those are both good albums. "Where the Picnic Was" by Tictoc came out that year. Not a well-known album, but it sure is a good one! It's true that by 1983 Rock's engine was beginning to knock, but there was still a little more life left in the ol' girl. The Cramps were out there, Hoodoo Gurus first album would come out the following year, The Chesterfield Kings were recording, bands like Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark, The Saints, The Stranglers, XTC and more, still had some good music to come; we still had bands like The Smithereens, The Rave-Ups and The Godfathers waiting in the wings to release their first albums. Sure, a lot of people will read this and say: "Who?" or: "Who cares?!" But the point is that there was good music, really good music out there through the 80's, but you had to look under rocks to find it. And the surprising thing was that most were on major labels! The Chameleons: MCA; R.E.M. and The Cramps: I.R.S.; The The, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Stranglers and The Godfathers: Epic; Oingo Boingo and Mental as Anything: A&M; The Cure: Sire; XTC: Geffen; Eurythmics and Tictoc: RCA; Re-Flex and The Smithereens: Capitol; and Sparks: Atlantic. So, they WERE accessible, but you wouldn't have known to look for them because they weren't very heavily promoted; with the exception, of course, of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eurythmics. I think a lot of people were turned off by that whole synth sound that dominated this period, and a lot of it turned me off too. But I think it was all in how an artist used it. Being born in 1962 I certainly didn't grow up listening to anything resembling that sound, but some artists used it well.
1983 was a strong year for music. So many bands to mention and solo artists. I’m 65. By the year 1992 things really started sputtering out for me, but there is still good music being made today, just have to look for it.
Hey Larry when you first started looking the list I didn’t see much worth a damn either. So I investigated and this is what I came up with 😁 AC⚡️DC- Flick of The Switch Accept- Balls To The Wall Asia- Alpha Billy Idol- Rebel Yell Blue Oyster Cult- Revolution By Night Bryan Adams- Cuts Like A Knife Def Leppard- Pyromania Dio- Holy Diver Dokken- Breaking The Chains Fastway- s/t Genesis- s/t Heart- Passionworks Huey Lewis- Sports Iron Maiden- Piece of Mind John Mellencamp- Uh-Huh! Journey- Frontiers KISS- Lick It Up Krokus- Headhunter Lita Ford- Out For Blood Metallica- Kill Em’ All Motley Crue- Shout At The Devil Night Ranger- Midnight Madness Ozzy Osbourne- Bark At The Moon The Police- Synchronicity Queensryche- EP Quiet Riot- Metal Health Rainbow- Bent Out of Shape Ratt- EP Robert Plant- The Principle of Moments Rolling Stones- Undercover Shooting Star- Burning Triumph- Never Surrender Twisted Sister- You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll Y&T- Mean Streak Yes- 90125 Zebra- s/t ZZ Top- Eliminator So because I’m a few years younger than you (59) I have all these. Probably in the 80’s you had other things and life going on. 😁 I ran into that situation in the 90’s 😁
New Order, The Police, The Smiths, REM, Hüsker Dü, The Replacements. My favorite music was taking off in 1983. Except for the last Poluce album Thisis year I started to regularly buy music. 1983 was the high water mark for New Wave. Mainstream rock started to adapt to New Wave sound.
This is interesting Larry, 'cause I'm pretty sure I'm older than you (just turned 70). By the late '70s I was getting into jazz (via fusion), ambient, and minimalist stuff (Reich, Riley, Glass). With notable exceptions (e.g Pink Floyd, Zappa) I was pretty disaffected with mainstream rock in general, which by that point just seemed to be eating its own recycled tail. While in graduate school in '80-'81 I started to tune into some local FM channels, and got inundated with postpunk and indie label music (Cherry Red, Factory, 4AD labels). I didn't know how I felt about the stuff at first - of course I knew XTC, Elvis Costello, The Clash and others - but I gradually got hooked and went down an entirely new path in my listening. Among the '83 albums you show that I still like are those from The Chameleons, Echo and The Bunnymen, Virgina Astley, The Go-Betweens, Rain Parade, X, The Cure, The Waterboys. Aztec Camera, and Durutti Column.
Great year for metal. My S tier for 1983 Dio 'Holy Diver' Slayer 'Show No Mercy' Mercyful Fate 'Mellissa' Iron Maiden 'Piece of Mind' Metallica 'Kill Em All' Accept 'Balls To The Wall' and Ozzy Osbourne 'Bark At The Moon'
1983 - The year I got into new music. 😊😄 At least in a big way. That was the year I "discovered" FM radio, rock magazines, music videos, and the music charts. So, I'm very sentimental about that year. I have many albums that are favorites from 1983. Most of which I still listen to today.
I like 1983. Ironically, compared to you, it was the year I started to explore music more, i.e., getting away from mainstream radio. Some albums I like from 1983 are: Piece of Mind - Iron Maiden Flick of the Switch - AC/DC Holy Diver - Dio Balls to the Wall - Accept Show No Mercy - Slayer Kill Em All - Metallica War - U2 Under a Blood Red Sky - U2 Canterbury - Diamond Head Born Again - Black Sabbath Bark at the Moon - Ozzy Osbourne Lick It Up - Kiss Power Corruption and Lies - New Order Life’s a Riot with Spy vs Spy - Billy Bragg Japanese Whispers - The Cure Mama Africa - Peter Tosh Infidels - Bob Dylan Confrontation - Bob Marley Burning Farm - Shonen Knife Thunder and Lightning - Thin Lizzy Porcupine - Echo and the Bunnymen The Final Cut - Pink Floyd
Yeah, not my favourite year either as far as masterpieces go, but I think there's some depth. Here's my top 10 for '83. I'd recommend any of these. I love Talking Heads and have heard Speaking in Tongues, but can't remember how much I liked it. I'd imagine the Wipers album might be pretty good too, their 1981 album is fire. Only the first two on this list IMO are vital. 1 Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones 2 The Birthday Party - The Bad Seed/Mutiny! 3 Steve Hiett - Down By The Beach 4 The Fall - Perverted By Language 5 Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes 6 Sad Lovers & Giants - Feeding The Flame 7 REM - Murmur 8 Chameleons - Script of The Bridge 9 New Order - Power, Corruption and Lies 10 Metallica - Kill 'Em All
It was my second year at all for turning into music☺️I started the year before at the age of 12 by diving deep into The Beatles, so the next year would be much left to enjoy and to buy. In my personal experience the early 80s didn‘t distract my interest from The Beatles with other exiting releases that much.- In Germany, Austria and Switzerland were many artists highly productive: old rockers and the wild, creative youngsters (Neue Deutsche Welle / New German Wave). So when it comes to a little pause from my beloved Beatles sometimes, there were enough aspiring canditates from the German tongue instantly.- But I‘d like to suggest, that you might give Dylans Infidels a try. And if you should like it, you may check out the Bootleg Series Springtime In New York, which isr build around that period. Than I appreciate Yoko Ono It‘s Alright and John Lennon/Yoko Ono Milk And Honey. And Pipes Of Peace is one of my all time best loved McCartney albums😂, really. The Final Cut is an intimate, catchy experience on headphones. And finally I‘d like to send my greetings with Nena‘s international 1983 smash hit 99 Red Balloons from Germany to Canada. This never fails in giving my some positive spirits🙋🏻♂️
1983 was the year I started buying music. I recognize a lot of these albums, most of those only by band name. There are quite a few I've never heard of. In 1983, AC/DC was the lightest thing I listened to. Everything else was heavier. Most of the metal albums on that list I have, had, or have interest in. Alright, maybe Pyromania was the lightest. Oh, Shonen Knife are number 411! I didn't know about them then and probably would not have been interested. But now I enjoy their music, especially the albums from the last 25 years. It's strange to see Quiet Riot's Metal Health - an album that reached number one - way down below 500 and only a few albums higher than Virgin Steele, a great band who were still recording in a basement studio at the time.
There are a few albums from the 80s that are unsung masterworks: The The: Soul Mining, Modern English: After the Snow, XTC: Skylarking, Echo and the Bunnymen: Crocodiles and Porcupine, The Fixx: Phantoms. A few more. All great albums.
I did not buy any albums at the time (too young did not have a job yet) but many of them years later. A good singles year though. I nominate Sparks COOL PLACES as the best single of that year (that Jane from the GO GO's in that video is so fine!). The best album that year for me is REM's MURMUR. SYCHRONICITY by the POLICE maybe second with U2's war perhaps third. All three are consistently good. Oh yes, and I like half of PIPES OF PEACE by Macca.
For me the 80s was the era of the big band sellout, with Bowie, Yes, and so many other great artists pandering to the Top 10. I had to go underground, where there was some interesting stuff happening with new bands like The Cure, The Stranglers, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, and others. But I have to say, even they haven't aged well for me. I find myself going back to the Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll-1965-1975.
I think MTV had an effect on the kind of music that was coming out in 82 and 83. I did see some good stuff on MTV. They introduced me to Zebra and The Tubes
"New" music includes debut or sophomore (2nd releases) albums. I cannot remember any debut albums from 1983 that I bought in that year, as I was getting into trading Grateful Dead show cassette tapes which took up most of my time. I spent very little amount of money on records starting that year until the compact disc prices came down.
Being an old school rocker fan, I can agree that when the 1980s began, it seemed like music quickly changed overnight, from the seventies. So many great bands from that previous decade turned into lame ducks by the eighties. A perfect example was REO “ Cheesewagon. “ But in 1983, I managed to find some good, quality music that never received much airplay. And that Marillion album was one of them. In fact, I heavily prefer eighties music that flew under the radar, rather than a lot of radio junk that we were all subjected to. The eighties was a very mixed up decade for music, but there was always something for everyone’s taste.
Music/ antisocially was going under under ground. Pop? I do not guess what that wd be. Occasionally i bump into a car and a track or riff comes bouncing accross my add skull recalling a day or brief exposure to our Euro culture in audio sphere. At the heart of this video discuss is your open candor which gives us a treat inviting us along your ride.
The common theme appears to be that you just didn’t buy many albums from the artists you otherwise liked… which is understandable if money was tight. And perhaps you just personally lost interest or got burned out… which happens at some point to most of us. I see a lot of great albums on the list for 1983. The nice thing is that it’s so easy now to listen to many of these albums without having to buy them first. I highly recommend “Murmur” by R.E.M. if you’ve never heard it. There are some really beautiful songs mixed in with uptempo rockers. Side 1 (the first six songs) is particularly great… Radio Free Europe, Pilgrimage, Talk About the Passion, and Perfect Circle are real standouts. Side 2 is excellent too, with Standing Still, Shaking Through, and 9-9 being my favorites.
At the time, I was a very disappointed music fan. I was 16 years old, and had started buying music two years before when I got into The Beatles and other 60s bands including The Who and The Kinks. The next years I got into The Clash and The Jam. So the Jam broke up in 1982, Mick Jones left The Clash, The Who broke up in 1983. Dennis Wilson from The Beach Boys died, right after I got to see The Beach Boys. And overall, a lot of artists I liked were releasing weak albums or albums I eventually liked later but still they weren’t my favorites…Let’s Dance, Punch the Clock, Speaking in Tongues, Nick Lowe’s Abominable Showman, Subterranean Jungle, Hearts and Bones, Everybody’s Rockin’. People my age in high school liked stuff like Night Ranger, Def Leppard, Ozzy, Van Halen and AC DC. I had some younger friends who liked Duran Duran, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Depeche Mode, Culture Club and Einsturzende Neubauten. I kept looking for neo-psych mod and pop-punk bands so I wound up liking X, The Three O’Clock, Billy Bragg. Jonathan Richman, The Damned, New Order, R.E.M., The Psychedelic Furs, and the Violent Femmes. But I mainly was buying older music. I did get to see both The Kinks and The Beach Boys live about 3 times during the 1980s, glad for that.
The albums I like from this year were mainly the heavy metal ones with my favourites being Born Again, Holy Diver, Kill 'Em All and Show No Mercy you should check out Another Perfect Day it is pretty good in my opinion.
In 1983, I was 11 years old. For me, 1984 was the year that records replaced toys and comics, and I actually started to have some disposable income (read: income). The only "new" LP I actually bought in 1983 with my own money was Bob Marley & The Wailers: "Confrontation." IMHO, this is their worst studio album, with the possible exception of "Survival" (1979). "Uprising," which fell between these two (1980), is quite good, though. I did get "Synchronicity," "Sports," and "Let's Dance" for Christmas. I started getting into REM, Echo & The Bunnymen, and similar acts later on, though. So, I could now easily make a Top 10 List for 1983, but I think I would struggle to come up with a Top 25.
def leps 3rd..'pyromania' escaped me back in the day..had their first two..classics..but..yeh something was different as the 80's went on for rock music..alot took on 'new wave stylings which left alot of fans cold.
Hi Larry I lost my interest in new music in the eighties as well. Later, I discovered that there was some good music in the eighties. But I favour the sixties and seventies. Take care.
The side of me that’s a Beatles fan agrees more mainstream music started taking a downturn after ‘83 or ‘84. The side of me that loves metal thinks things carried on well until the early 90’s.
‘83 was a good year imo, but looking at it, it seems it is an era where the single was more in vogue than the album. The guitar had mainly been ditched for the keyboard, but those new wave bands created some great stuff (single wise) but not many classic albums
I think it can be found some good albums, certainly you know more than 15. Peter Gabriel "Plays Live" is a very good live rock album. I like the albums from ZZ Top, The Police, U2, John Cougar, Red Rider, Marillion, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Echo & The Bunnymen, Mike Oldfield, The Kinks, Sparks, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, OMD, David Bowie, Violent Femmes, R.E.M., The Waterboys, Iron Maiden, Van Morrison. Try 1984 Larry and then maybe you try 1983 even if you rate a lot of C tier. See you!!! PS: Don't forget 1965!!
It certainly wasn't a very good year. My top picks would be: Marshall Crenshaw: Field Day Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers: Jonathan Sings Paul Simon: Hearts & Bones UB40: Labour of Love Elvis Costello and the Attractions: Punch the Clock Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band: The Distance Cyndi Lauper: She's So Unusual
I'm not disagreeing that you aren't interested in many albums from 1983 and beyond, and I don't think you are suggesting that the music from 1983 was necessarily bad, but I feel like the order of songs that the Rate Your Music website uses makes 1983 seem worse than it was. There were a lot of quality albums: Violent Femmes self-titled, Genesis self-titled, Synchronicity by the Police, Touch by Eurythmics, She's So Unusual by Cyndi Lauper, Let's Dance by Bowie, Innocent Man by Billy Joel, and others. And of course, there were a lot of great singles too. 1983 was, for me, still a creatively ripe time because musicians were experimenting with electronic sounds and synthesizers. I think that there was more of a variety in the types of popular music compared to later music which became more homogenous. Interesting video!
Hey Larry! Strap in, I think the 90's may be the worst. I have 7 of the first 100 shown, 7 of the second 100, 5 of the third 100, 7 of the fourth 100, and 11 of the fifth 100. That makes 37 out of 500. It was a horrible year. Cheers!
Although it arguably had the worst track ever put out by BOC, "Let Go", I thought "Shooting Shark" and "Dragon Lady" were stellar, and I DID buy "The Revölution by Night" when it came out.
On the basis of that list, 1983 wasn't that great for music. Here are some albums I bought back then. Clarence Clemons - Rescue Bruce Cockburn - The Trouble with Normal (Can't you get kicked out of Canada for not having a Bruce Cockburn album?) Bob Dylan Infidels Cyndi Lauper -She's So Unusual Nils Lofgren - Wonderland Van Morrison - Inarticulate Speech of the Heart Randy Newman - Trouble in Paradise Graham Parker - The Real Macaw Lou Reed Legendary Hearts Jules Shear - Watchdog Paul Simon - Hearts and Bones Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues Richard Thompson - Hand of Kindness Pete Townshend - Scoop Translator - No Time Like Now U2 - War Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones X - More Fun in the First World Neil Young - Trans
That list is not a particularly good representation of 1983, IMHO. I'm curious how you feel about "Sparks In Outer Space", from 1983 (if memory serves). I think 1983 is a really good year for music; maybe more "pop" than rock. Like I said, there are only a handful of really good ones on that list you have there. Perhaps it was more of a "singles" (or 45s) year, but there were some really good albums too; although not necessarily listed on your sample. But I am curious about your thoughts on "Sparks In Outer Space", if any. I think it's a great album, one of my Sparks favorites.
1983 was kind of hit and miss with me. Some good things mixed with some pretty awful stuff. It would take too long to go into details. A lot of the hits in 1983 were releases from 1982.
Not a great time, music industry was going down an intense spiral and the contemporary sounds are just plain horrible. Some great underground prog happening, like Univers Zero and Skeleton Crew or whatever, but beyond that its mostly dreary bullshit (at least in Europe and the west)
Hey Larry. That RYM list sucks. Where was Thriller, Shapes, 90125, Let’s Dance etc on their list? I think that is why you couldn’t find anything. Their list sucks!
![[Bad] - YouTube ВСЁ? (победа VK и прощание с подписчиками)](/img/n.gif)
I think 1983 was the year the music died. Although I was at the peak of my record collecting years, I did not buy a single record from that year. I would eventually buy Mummer, but even that was a bit of a disappointment.
No the year that music died was 1997 and has never recovered
I've often said that 1982 was the last great year for Top 40 radio because 1983 started a trend where the same dozen or so superstars had the most added songs to radio week after week. After a brief enjoyable trend with new wave music, every song you heard for years after was by a superstar act: Michael Jackson, Prince, Whitney Houston, George Michael, Lionel Richie, Bryan Adams, Phil Collins, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Huey Lewis etc. There was no longer enough variety. I think all 7 singles released from Springsteen's "Born In The USA" album entered Billboard's Hot 100 within the top 40 because every station in the United States immediately put them in heavy rotation.
1983 was a great year for music.
Personally love 1983. Big fan of the releases of Talking Heads, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Big Country, China Crisis, Genesis, Cocteau Twins, Gene Loves Jezebel, Tangerine Dream, Yes, The The, Killing Joke, The Chameleons, The Church, David Bowie, XTC, The Waterboys, A Flock Of Seagulls and the list goes on!
This was a big year for College Radio and I bought these records:
XTC - Mummer
REM - Murmer
Husker Du - Everthing Falls Apart
The Fall - Perverted By Language
Elvis Costello & The Attactions - Punch The Clock
Jonathan Richman - Jonathan Sings
Daniel Johnston - Hi, How Are You
Split Enz Conflicting Emorions
The Go-Betweens - Before Hollywood
Echo & The Bunnymen - Porcupine
Tears For Fears - The Hurting
New Order - Power, Corruption and Lies
Bob Dylan - Infidels
Kinks - State Of Confusion
Neil Young - Trans
Kate Bush - Kate Bush
Brian Eno - Music For Films 2
Neil Young & The Shocking Pinks - Everybody's Rocking
Dave Davies - Chosen People
Genesis - Genesis
Ale Chilton - Live In London
Let's Active - Afoot
The Stranglers - Feline
So not that bad for me.....
As a big 70's fan, I have a significant drop-off in the 80's, but it picks right up again for me in the 90's. Many older artists who had gone astray in the 80's returned to form in the 90's, and at the same time, a lot of great new artists came on the scene. These were people of my own generation (I was born in '65) so I think I relate to them quite a bit. I haven't found many new 21st century artists who resonate with me, but there are some, and I keep looking for more, while many of the older artists are still producing great new music even now, which is all unexpected icing on the cake. I don't want to miss out on any of it.
These year-focused tier lists were fun, I'll miss 'em!
Quite a few good albums flew by as you were scrolling. To start with, I was shocked to see The Chameleons "Script of the Bridge" album at number four! That's one of my favorite albums from 1983! I didn't think anyone was aware of it. "Murmur" by R.E.M. is also a great album. The The's "Soul Mining" album is very, very good, as is Oingo Boingo's "Good for Your Soul." "Texas Flood" by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble is great! "Japanese Whispers" by The Cure is very good. "Mummer" by XTC is great! I really like David Bowie's "Let's Dance" album! "Punch the Clock" by Elvis Costello wasn't "Get Happy!" or "Trust," but it was still pretty good. The Stranglers' "Feline" is a pretty solid album too. "Touch" by Eurythmics is great also. I really like "The Politics of Dancing" by Re-Flex. I also liked Sparks' "In Outer Space" album. The Raybeats "It's Only a Movie" came out in '83, as did the "Creatures of Leisure" album by Mental as Anything. Those are both good albums. "Where the Picnic Was" by Tictoc came out that year. Not a well-known album, but it sure is a good one!
It's true that by 1983 Rock's engine was beginning to knock, but there was still a little more life left in the ol' girl. The Cramps were out there, Hoodoo Gurus first album would come out the following year, The Chesterfield Kings were recording, bands like Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark, The Saints, The Stranglers, XTC and more, still had some good music to come; we still had bands like The Smithereens, The Rave-Ups and The Godfathers waiting in the wings to release their first albums. Sure, a lot of people will read this and say: "Who?" or: "Who cares?!" But the point is that there was good music, really good music out there through the 80's, but you had to look under rocks to find it. And the surprising thing was that most were on major labels! The Chameleons: MCA; R.E.M. and The Cramps: I.R.S.; The The, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Stranglers and The Godfathers: Epic; Oingo Boingo and Mental as Anything: A&M; The Cure: Sire; XTC: Geffen; Eurythmics and Tictoc: RCA; Re-Flex and The Smithereens: Capitol; and Sparks: Atlantic. So, they WERE accessible, but you wouldn't have known to look for them because they weren't very heavily promoted; with the exception, of course, of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eurythmics. I think a lot of people were turned off by that whole synth sound that dominated this period, and a lot of it turned me off too. But I think it was all in how an artist used it. Being born in 1962 I certainly didn't grow up listening to anything resembling that sound, but some artists used it well.
1983 was a strong year for music. So many bands to mention and solo artists. I’m 65.
By the year 1992 things really started sputtering out for me, but there is still good music being made today, just have to look for it.
1983 was the year I started to really get into music. Every page you turned to had an album I owned. In 1993/94, I began to lose interest.
My Top 3 of 1983 Gold 🏅 - Murmur - R.E.M. Silver 🥈- Soul Mining The The Bronze 🥉- Script Of The Bridge - The Chameleons.
Hey Larry when you first started looking the list I didn’t see much worth a damn either. So I investigated and this is what I came up with 😁
AC⚡️DC- Flick of The Switch
Accept- Balls To The Wall
Asia- Alpha
Billy Idol- Rebel Yell
Blue Oyster Cult- Revolution By Night
Bryan Adams- Cuts Like A Knife
Def Leppard- Pyromania
Dio- Holy Diver
Dokken- Breaking The Chains
Fastway- s/t
Genesis- s/t
Heart- Passionworks
Huey Lewis- Sports
Iron Maiden- Piece of Mind
John Mellencamp- Uh-Huh!
Journey- Frontiers
KISS- Lick It Up
Krokus- Headhunter
Lita Ford- Out For Blood
Metallica- Kill Em’ All
Motley Crue- Shout At The Devil
Night Ranger- Midnight Madness
Ozzy Osbourne- Bark At The Moon
The Police- Synchronicity
Queensryche- EP
Quiet Riot- Metal Health
Rainbow- Bent Out of Shape
Ratt- EP
Robert Plant- The Principle of Moments
Rolling Stones- Undercover
Shooting Star- Burning
Triumph- Never Surrender
Twisted Sister- You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll
Y&T- Mean Streak
Yes- 90125
Zebra- s/t
ZZ Top- Eliminator
So because I’m a few years younger than you (59) I have all these. Probably in the 80’s you had other things and life going on. 😁
I ran into that situation in the 90’s 😁
What I love the most from 1983 are two singles (and non album tracks), New Order's "Blue Monday" and Kraftwerk's "Tour de France".
New Order, The Police, The Smiths, REM, Hüsker Dü, The Replacements. My favorite music was taking off in 1983. Except for the last Poluce album Thisis year I started to regularly buy music.
1983 was the high water mark for New Wave. Mainstream rock started to adapt to New Wave sound.
Yes, this was the start of a great run for “alternative” music. The Replacements, R.E.M., and Husker Du are the big three 80s bands in my world.
Absolutely right. 1983 was a great year for music.
This is interesting Larry, 'cause I'm pretty sure I'm older than you (just turned 70). By the late '70s I was getting into jazz (via fusion), ambient, and minimalist stuff (Reich, Riley, Glass). With notable exceptions (e.g Pink Floyd, Zappa) I was pretty disaffected with mainstream rock in general, which by that point just seemed to be eating its own recycled tail. While in graduate school in '80-'81 I started to tune into some local FM channels, and got inundated with postpunk and indie label music (Cherry Red, Factory, 4AD labels). I didn't know how I felt about the stuff at first - of course I knew XTC, Elvis Costello, The Clash and others - but I gradually got hooked and went down an entirely new path in my listening. Among the '83 albums you show that I still like are those from The Chameleons, Echo and The Bunnymen, Virgina Astley, The Go-Betweens, Rain Parade, X, The Cure, The Waterboys. Aztec Camera, and Durutti Column.
Great year for metal. My S tier for 1983 Dio 'Holy Diver' Slayer 'Show No Mercy' Mercyful Fate 'Mellissa' Iron Maiden 'Piece of Mind' Metallica 'Kill Em All' Accept 'Balls To The Wall' and Ozzy Osbourne 'Bark At The Moon'
1983 - The year I got into new music. 😊😄 At least in a big way. That was the year I "discovered" FM radio, rock magazines, music videos, and the music charts. So, I'm very sentimental about that year. I have many albums that are favorites from 1983. Most of which I still listen to today.
Charly Garcia is an artist i started listening to about a week ago and that is a brilliant album.
I like 1983. Ironically, compared to you, it was the year I started to explore music more, i.e., getting away from mainstream radio.
Some albums I like from 1983 are:
Piece of Mind - Iron Maiden
Flick of the Switch - AC/DC
Holy Diver - Dio
Balls to the Wall - Accept
Show No Mercy - Slayer
Kill Em All - Metallica
War - U2
Under a Blood Red Sky - U2
Canterbury - Diamond Head
Born Again - Black Sabbath
Bark at the Moon - Ozzy Osbourne
Lick It Up - Kiss
Power Corruption and Lies - New Order
Life’s a Riot with Spy vs Spy - Billy Bragg
Japanese Whispers - The Cure
Mama Africa - Peter Tosh
Infidels - Bob Dylan
Confrontation - Bob Marley
Burning Farm - Shonen Knife
Thunder and Lightning - Thin Lizzy
Porcupine - Echo and the Bunnymen
The Final Cut - Pink Floyd
Blue 💙 Monday by New Order is the top selling 12" single of all time.
Yeah, not my favourite year either as far as masterpieces go, but I think there's some depth. Here's my top 10 for '83. I'd recommend any of these. I love Talking Heads and have heard Speaking in Tongues, but can't remember how much I liked it. I'd imagine the Wipers album might be pretty good too, their 1981 album is fire. Only the first two on this list IMO are vital.
1 Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones
2 The Birthday Party - The Bad Seed/Mutiny!
3 Steve Hiett - Down By The Beach
4 The Fall - Perverted By Language
5 Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
6 Sad Lovers & Giants - Feeding The Flame
7 REM - Murmur
8 Chameleons - Script of The Bridge
9 New Order - Power, Corruption and Lies
10 Metallica - Kill 'Em All
It was my second year at all for turning into music☺️I started the year before at the age of 12 by diving deep into The Beatles, so the next year would be much left to enjoy and to buy. In my personal experience the early 80s didn‘t distract my interest from The Beatles with other exiting releases that much.- In Germany, Austria and Switzerland were many artists highly productive: old rockers and the wild, creative youngsters (Neue Deutsche Welle / New German Wave). So when it comes to a little pause from my beloved Beatles sometimes, there were enough aspiring canditates from the German tongue instantly.- But I‘d like to suggest, that you might give Dylans Infidels a try. And if you should like it, you may check out the Bootleg Series Springtime In New York, which isr build around that period. Than I appreciate Yoko Ono It‘s Alright and John Lennon/Yoko Ono Milk And Honey. And Pipes Of Peace is one of my all time best loved McCartney albums😂, really. The Final Cut is an intimate, catchy experience on headphones. And finally I‘d like to send my greetings with Nena‘s international 1983 smash hit 99 Red Balloons from Germany to Canada. This never fails in giving my some positive spirits🙋🏻♂️
some very good punk and hardcore that year. and reggae too!
1983 was the year I started buying music. I recognize a lot of these albums, most of those only by band name. There are quite a few I've never heard of. In 1983, AC/DC was the lightest thing I listened to. Everything else was heavier. Most of the metal albums on that list I have, had, or have interest in.
Alright, maybe Pyromania was the lightest.
Oh, Shonen Knife are number 411! I didn't know about them then and probably would not have been interested. But now I enjoy their music, especially the albums from the last 25 years.
It's strange to see Quiet Riot's Metal Health - an album that reached number one - way down below 500 and only a few albums higher than Virgin Steele, a great band who were still recording in a basement studio at the time.
There are a few albums from the 80s that are unsung masterworks: The The: Soul Mining, Modern English: After the Snow, XTC: Skylarking, Echo and the Bunnymen: Crocodiles and Porcupine, The Fixx: Phantoms. A few more. All great albums.
I did not buy any albums at the time (too young did not have a job yet) but many of them years later. A good singles year though. I nominate Sparks COOL PLACES as the best single of that year (that Jane from the GO GO's in that video is so fine!). The best album that year for me is REM's MURMUR. SYCHRONICITY by the POLICE maybe second with U2's war perhaps third. All three are consistently good. Oh yes, and I like half of PIPES OF PEACE by Macca.
By the time you got to number 700 on Rate Your Music's 1983 list, I think they showed my full Top 20 of 1983, even Bananarama were on there. 😊
For me the 80s was the era of the big band sellout, with Bowie, Yes, and so many other great artists pandering to the Top 10. I had to go underground, where there was some interesting stuff happening with new bands like The Cure, The Stranglers, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, and others. But I have to say, even they haven't aged well for me. I find myself going back to the Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll-1965-1975.
Violent femes and Rain parade both great albums in 1983.
For me 1983 was a great year.
Swans are amazing. If I had the ability to do patreon i would request them
I think MTV had an effect on the kind of music that was coming out in 82 and 83. I did see some good stuff on MTV. They introduced me to Zebra and The Tubes
"New" music includes debut or sophomore (2nd releases) albums. I cannot remember any debut albums from 1983 that I bought in that year, as I was getting into trading Grateful Dead show cassette tapes which took up most of my time. I spent very little amount of money on records starting that year until the compact disc prices came down.
Being an old school rocker fan, I can agree that when the 1980s began, it seemed like music quickly changed overnight, from the seventies. So many great bands from that previous decade turned into lame ducks by the eighties. A perfect example was REO “ Cheesewagon. “ But in 1983, I managed to find some good, quality music that never received much airplay. And that Marillion album was one of them. In fact, I heavily prefer eighties music that flew under the radar, rather than a lot of radio junk that we were all subjected to. The eighties was a very mixed up decade for music, but there was always something for everyone’s taste.
Music/ antisocially was going under under ground. Pop? I do not guess what that wd be. Occasionally i bump into a car and a track or riff comes bouncing accross my add skull recalling a day or brief exposure to our Euro culture in audio sphere. At the heart of this video discuss is your open candor which gives us a treat inviting us along your ride.
The common theme appears to be that you just didn’t buy many albums from the artists you otherwise liked… which is understandable if money was tight. And perhaps you just personally lost interest or got burned out… which happens at some point to most of us. I see a lot of great albums on the list for 1983. The nice thing is that it’s so easy now to listen to many of these albums without having to buy them first. I highly recommend “Murmur” by R.E.M. if you’ve never heard it. There are some really beautiful songs mixed in with uptempo rockers. Side 1 (the first six songs) is particularly great… Radio Free Europe, Pilgrimage, Talk About the Passion, and Perfect Circle are real standouts. Side 2 is excellent too, with Standing Still, Shaking Through, and 9-9 being my favorites.
At the time, I was a very disappointed music fan. I was 16 years old, and had started buying music two years before when I got into The Beatles and other 60s bands including The Who and The Kinks. The next years I got into The Clash and The Jam.
So the Jam broke up in 1982, Mick Jones left The Clash, The Who broke up in 1983. Dennis Wilson from The Beach Boys died, right after I got to see The Beach Boys. And overall, a lot of artists I liked were releasing weak albums or albums I eventually liked later but still they weren’t my favorites…Let’s Dance, Punch the Clock, Speaking in Tongues, Nick Lowe’s Abominable Showman, Subterranean Jungle, Hearts and Bones, Everybody’s Rockin’.
People my age in high school liked stuff like Night Ranger, Def Leppard, Ozzy, Van Halen and AC DC. I had some younger friends who liked Duran Duran, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Depeche Mode, Culture Club and Einsturzende Neubauten.
I kept looking for neo-psych mod and pop-punk bands so I wound up liking X, The Three O’Clock, Billy Bragg. Jonathan Richman, The Damned, New Order, R.E.M., The Psychedelic Furs, and the Violent Femmes. But I mainly was buying older music. I did get to see both The Kinks and The Beach Boys live about 3 times during the 1980s, glad for that.
The albums I like from this year were mainly the heavy metal ones with my favourites being Born Again, Holy Diver, Kill 'Em All and Show No Mercy you should check out Another Perfect Day it is pretty good in my opinion.
In 1983, I was 11 years old. For me, 1984 was the year that records replaced toys and comics, and I actually started to have some disposable income (read: income). The only "new" LP I actually bought in 1983 with my own money was Bob Marley & The Wailers: "Confrontation." IMHO, this is their worst studio album, with the possible exception of "Survival" (1979). "Uprising," which fell between these two (1980), is quite good, though. I did get "Synchronicity," "Sports," and "Let's Dance" for Christmas. I started getting into REM, Echo & The Bunnymen, and similar acts later on, though. So, I could now easily make a Top 10 List for 1983, but I think I would struggle to come up with a Top 25.
Synchronicity by The Police still holds up. A very large section of albums being bought during 1983 were by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie.
def leps 3rd..'pyromania' escaped me back in the day..had their first two..classics..but..yeh something was different as the 80's went on for rock music..alot took on 'new wave stylings which left alot of fans cold.
You ask "What happened to rock music in the 1980s". MTV!
Hi Larry
I lost my interest in new music in the eighties as well. Later, I discovered that there was some good music in the eighties.
But I favour the sixties and seventies.
Take care.
You would probably enjoy REM Murmur if you like the Velvet Underground.
The side of me that’s a Beatles fan agrees more mainstream music started taking a downturn after ‘83 or ‘84.
The side of me that loves metal thinks things carried on well until the early 90’s.
I own lots of these.
‘83 was a good year imo, but looking at it, it seems it is an era where the single was more in vogue than the album. The guitar had mainly been ditched for the keyboard, but those new wave bands created some great stuff (single wise) but not many classic albums
I think it can be found some good albums, certainly you know more than 15. Peter Gabriel "Plays Live" is a very good live rock album. I like the albums from ZZ Top, The Police, U2, John Cougar, Red Rider, Marillion, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Echo & The Bunnymen, Mike Oldfield, The Kinks, Sparks, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, OMD, David Bowie, Violent Femmes, R.E.M., The Waterboys, Iron Maiden, Van Morrison. Try 1984 Larry and then maybe you try 1983 even if you rate a lot of C tier. See you!!! PS: Don't forget 1965!!
I think you should still do one, even if, it's just a short video to show that you lost interest in music
👍🏻
1. Synchronicity 2. Speaking in Tongues 3. Texas Flood. Other good ones, Vangelis: Antarctica, Marianne Faithfull: A Child's Adventure.
It certainly wasn't a very good year. My top picks would be:
Marshall Crenshaw: Field Day
Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers: Jonathan Sings
Paul Simon: Hearts & Bones
UB40: Labour of Love
Elvis Costello and the Attractions: Punch the Clock
Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band: The Distance
Cyndi Lauper: She's So Unusual
I'm not disagreeing that you aren't interested in many albums from 1983 and beyond, and I don't think you are suggesting that the music from 1983 was necessarily bad, but I feel like the order of songs that the Rate Your Music website uses makes 1983 seem worse than it was. There were a lot of quality albums: Violent Femmes self-titled, Genesis self-titled, Synchronicity by the Police, Touch by Eurythmics, She's So Unusual by Cyndi Lauper, Let's Dance by Bowie, Innocent Man by Billy Joel, and others. And of course, there were a lot of great singles too. 1983 was, for me, still a creatively ripe time because musicians were experimenting with electronic sounds and synthesizers. I think that there was more of a variety in the types of popular music compared to later music which became more homogenous. Interesting video!
1983 was a pretty good year for music in my opinion. Murmur - R.E.M. is my favourite 👍xxx.
Hey Larry! Strap in, I think the 90's may be the worst. I have 7 of the first 100 shown, 7 of the second 100, 5 of the third 100, 7 of the fourth 100, and 11 of the fifth 100. That makes 37 out of 500. It was a horrible year. Cheers!
Although it arguably had the worst track ever put out by BOC, "Let Go", I thought "Shooting Shark" and "Dragon Lady" were stellar, and I DID buy "The Revölution by Night" when it came out.
On the basis of that list, 1983 wasn't that great for music. Here are some albums I bought back then.
Clarence Clemons - Rescue
Bruce Cockburn - The Trouble with Normal (Can't you get kicked out of Canada for not having a Bruce Cockburn album?)
Bob Dylan Infidels
Cyndi Lauper -She's So Unusual
Nils Lofgren - Wonderland
Van Morrison - Inarticulate Speech of the Heart
Randy Newman - Trouble in Paradise
Graham Parker - The Real Macaw
Lou Reed Legendary Hearts
Jules Shear - Watchdog
Paul Simon - Hearts and Bones
Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues
Richard Thompson - Hand of Kindness
Pete Townshend - Scoop
Translator - No Time Like Now
U2 - War
Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones
X - More Fun in the First World
Neil Young - Trans
Do you enjoy what you’ve heard from Dio tho?
It's good but I would never buy his music.
That list is not a particularly good representation of 1983, IMHO. I'm curious how you feel about "Sparks In Outer Space", from 1983 (if memory serves). I think 1983 is a really good year for music; maybe more "pop" than rock. Like I said, there are only a handful of really good ones on that list you have there. Perhaps it was more of a "singles" (or 45s) year, but there were some really good albums too; although not necessarily listed on your sample. But I am curious about your thoughts on "Sparks In Outer Space", if any. I think it's a great album, one of my Sparks favorites.
I mention it in the video.
interesting, Larry - it seems to be quite an average/weak year for albums
I must agree, 83 was a horrible Year
1983 was kind of hit and miss with me. Some good things mixed with some pretty awful stuff.
It would take too long to go into details. A lot of the hits in 1983 were releases from 1982.
There was a lot of bad music out there Larry and I didn't buy any of it,I was returning to the sixties by this time. Bob
Not a great time, music industry was going down an intense spiral and the contemporary sounds are just plain horrible. Some great underground prog happening, like Univers Zero and Skeleton Crew or whatever, but beyond that its mostly dreary bullshit (at least in Europe and the west)
Hey Larry. That RYM list sucks. Where was Thriller, Shapes, 90125, Let’s Dance etc on their list? I think that is why you couldn’t find anything. Their list sucks!
Thriller came out in 1982, Dave.
@ I’ll let you off😜
Now I can sleep! :D