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uesbc wrote:

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ThisCharmingFan wrote:

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Azree33 wrote:

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TCF, you can spout off the obscure local/regional indie band lists all you want, but the FACT of the matter is that every teenaged boy between 1980 and 1984 wanted to be Eddie. And every teenaged boy with a sliver of talent between 1980 and 1984 learned the guitar and populated the rock landscape in every hard rock/metal/hair band between 1981 and 1992. I don't need to give you a list; just look at Billboard's archives for hard rock in the 1980's - there are hundreds.

You can save the college radio and indie-cred response that you're inevitably going to write anyway. Those bands are obscure to the vast majority of the music-listening and music-influenced public. You are dead wrong and I am not going to waste another word proving it.

Well, I was a teenage boy and so were my buds and none of us wanted to be evh. MOat of us laughed at him playing a synth. Not to mention being fronted by a transvestite. You are wrong and history shows it. Guess the mats, busker, pixies, rem, u2, etc were playing like evh. Metal Nd hard rock weren't the only music Out there anybody with taste and a brain wasn't listening to that crap. Slayer, Metallica, megadeath, anthrax lAugh at your assessment. Fuck, you can't tell us that gnr came a out because of evh. What is funny is your myopia. You do realize there are other countries besides ours? In 84 thru 90 folks were making U2 and rem the biggest bands in the world. Yeah, nobody had heard of the cure, dm, new order, etc. And you prove my point. I'm listing bands that are playing today...20-25 years later while all u can list is a short period. And none are regional, they are all on major labels. Just because you have limited knowledge and poor taste doesn't mean all of us did. Sorry, but iwas 14 in 80. How old were you? Saunders: good point. FOrgot blink was s cal.

The 80s are an interesting case for music, because there are two dominant, divergent genres at play.  On the one hand you had metal and, on the other, you had new wave.  When someone says the phrase "80s music", it could mean either.....or both (I guess).  Some new wave was on the radio, but more metal was on the radio.  This is not an indictment on new wave, but it was more work for the listener.  Conversely in the 90s, there was essentially only 1 genre:  grunge.  This made life much easier for music lovers.

Full disclosure.  I was 7 years old in 1980.  I was not a teenager yet, but I never wanted to be EVH.  Metal was the de facto music of my town, but I would buy Cure and Culture Club (yeah, I know) tapes at the store instead.  

Thanks for your response. Hopefully Az learns something.

I agree with much of what you wrote. The thing Az seems to be missing is that EVH was liked by many folks because of his technical skill and his solos. But, those type of fans/guitarists also liked and moved on to Vai/Satriani/Morse/etc. And, for many others, VH was kinda jokey. Remember, in 80 we still had Maiden, Priest, Ozzy/Randy with vital work to come. Not to mention that plenty of rockers still wanted to be The Who/Stones/Sabbath.

Let's also not forget that many rock teenager types drifted to punk. It was loud and aggressive and angry. Whereas VH and others weren't.

By the end of the 80s, the two biggest metal/hard rock bands to arrive where Jane's Addiction and GnR. Neither of which sound remotely like EVH. And during the hair metal years, you had bands like Sonic Youth, Soundgarden, Alice, Voivod, etc. slogging thru the wasteland and not getting radio airplay.

I didn't listen to any of that stuff (metallica/slayer/mega) till maybe 87/88 when i worked at Ovens on State St. and one of our 18 year old cooks listened to that stuff. All his friends that listened to metal didn't like poison, etc.  They all were smart kids that went to the alternative high school in Madtown (shabazz?).

Lastly, what many fail to do is examine the prism from which they view things. Assuming that Wisco and Wisco radio is representative of the country is not only wrong, but foolish. In 1988, Depeche mode would have been lucky to sell 10k seats in Milwaukee. That same year they sold out Rosebowl.

IMHO, the 80s split into two camps. The status quo vs. Alternative. Remember, at that time, alternative really just meant any other than the mainstream/Aor rock. So, you could easily find kids at a ska show and then the next night watching Die Kreuzen.