Living in the '80s

Decade's music leads fans astray

If rock 'n' roll had kicked the bucket sometime in 1971, it could have left the world while it was still beautiful, different and in one piece. But, even as its songs extolled the virtues of an early demise, rock lived on.

However, times got tough for rock in the '70s as corporations took control of the music, packaged it for mass consumption and made it downright boring. By the end of the decade, rock was on life-support, and hoped the '80s would bring it new life.

The decade of decadence provided just what was necessary to save the withering body of rock 'n' roll, but not without cost. Rock survived the '80s, but it's almost unrecognizable now -- thanks to a process of fragmentation similar to large-scale amputation, rock has lost its arms, its legs and its soul.

The '80s are to blame.

Although the major events of the '80s -- most importantly the rise of MTV --essentially saved a floundering music industry, nothing happened between the death of punk and birth of grunge that would have any long-term positive benefits for rock. The biggest product of '80s rock isn't Madonna, but rather a fragmented audience.

- Bill Kelly, associate professor of theatre and integrative arts

The fragmentation of rock can be traced to the '70s, when the record industry hit a tremendous slump, largely due to widespread conglomeration of record companies. The spunk present in the rock of the '50s and '60s was quashed by the early '70s, and a great deal of that decade's music was typified by a slick, over-produced, arena rock sound.

Bands such as Boston, Kiss and Kansas sailed to the top of the charts powered more by the promotional efforts of their record labels than the quality of their music. Such all-encompassing corporate control over music, however, narrowed the creative field for many artists, and fans soon grew discontented with rock.

"It had gotten very, very stagnant," said Ronald Bettig, associate professor of communications. "The industry went into a funk. We see the '80s as a reaction to that."

The record industry was desperate for a savior. Punk was much too anti-commercial and short-lived to fill that role. MTV, however, seemed perfect.

Facing the challenge of exciting a largely bored audience, the pure novelty of music television was just what the industry needed to make its music exciting again.

"The music industry, from roughly the early-to-mid '70s until about 1981, had lost money for the first time in history," Kelly said. "(MTV) kicked the industry back up again and brought video into the mix, for good or evil."

In its earliest days, MTV's video selection was a reflection of the stagnant, streamlined industry.

The network played only those videos that fit its supposed demographic, videos from mostly white bands that fit a standard rock format. MTV, it is known, wouldn't even play Michael Jackson videos, believing its audience didn't care to see black artists.

Slowly, however, the power of video made it clear to the industry that a wide variety of music could be profitable on television. Run-DMC could be played on the same network as Twisted Sister, just not back to back. Different music needed different shows, and MTV created shows such as Yo! MTV Raps to cater to specific segments of its audience.

Such shows made it easy for fans of specific genres to see only videos they wanted to see and ignore the rest. Rock would soon lose its open-minded fan base as rap fans found it harder and harder to relate to metal fans, and vice-versa.

"In some ways that fragmentation might have occurred as a result of MTV slicing up the market like that," Bettig said. "That can be traced back to the crisis of late '70s."

Just as rock fans found themselves splitting further apart, the artists themselves might have no longer envisioned rap, metal, R&B and other genres under the same general umbrella.

In the '60, artists took inspiration from artists they were competing against, Kelly said, and used that inspiration to create some of their own best work. Motown artists inspired the Beatles and the Beatles, in turn, inspired the Beach Boys.

"If you go back to the '60s, part of what happened was that Rolling Stones and Marvin Gaye and the Beatles and the Beach Boys paid very much close attention to one another," Kelly said. "They thought they were in it together."

The artists of the '60s, Kelly said, were interested in hearing what artists different from them were doing. Listening to a variety of sounds challenged these artists and made their own music better. It's something that stopped happening in the '80s.

Artists, like audiences, were uninterested in diversifying their sound in the '80s, and the idea of pop music met its end. Different genres created their own top 20 charts, further pulling the different forms of rock apart.

"If you pick up the last issue of Rolling Stone and look at the readers' poll, I'll defy anybody to know every record on the top 20," Kelly said. "I don't think that will ever change. You won't have a mainstream top 20 where you are familiar with every artist. That really starts in the '70s, but it's very, very from the '80s."

The music of the '80s brought much to the table -- big hair, synthesizers, music videos and a great deal more. But that decade may have just one lasting effect, and that effect is a negative one.

After the decade's events, fans of rock are more divided than ever and the music being produced today is, as a result, lacking uniqueness and diversity.

"I guess you could say the audience fragmented, but the industry consolidated," Bettig said. "With industry consolidation, you're not going to get any diversity."