People love to argue about which decade the best for music was. Some people say the 70s, some people say the 80s, and still, others claim that all decades are equal.
Online music trivia questions can be used to spark a debate among your friends. The following five reasons highlight why the 80s were better than today’s music.
It had better dancing.
Everyone knows that dancing is a huge part of music. There’s nothing more fun than busting out some moves, feeling the rhythm, and tapping your foot along to the beat. But did you know that 80s music had better dancing? It’s true. The songs were more danceable, and so people danced more.
In today’s pop culture world, it seems like everybody is busy doing something else besides listening to good music and getting down on the dance floor. Maybe it’s because we have so many distractions like social media or video games or smartphones, who knows? But one thing’s for sure: if you want to get your groove back in 2019, then turn off all those screens (or at least set them aside for a few minutes) and go find yourself some 80s hits.
There were more genres.
If you’re used to listening to today’s music, it’s easy to feel like there isn’t a lot of variety in the current offerings. But if you compare 1980s music with today’s, you’ll notice that there were more genres and subgenres than ever before. There were new sounds being made every day, and they weren’t just copycats of something else. You could find something new every time you turned on your radio or boombox (if you had one). With so much diversity, listeners could pick up something new without feeling overwhelmed by it all at once.
The music was written and recorded by humans, not computers.
The computer revolution is one of the most significant advancements in human history. It has changed our lives, our work, and how we communicate with one another. But when it comes to music, computers have had a negative effect, and it’s not just because they make for lousy backing tracks for karaoke nights. Here are five ways that 80s music was better than todays:
- Music was written by humans and recorded by humans. Today most songs are made with software like Logic or Pro Tools, which use virtual instruments instead of real ones (like a Wurlitzer electric piano or drums). These programs can make decent sounds if you know how to use them properly, but there’s something about hearing an actual person play a real instrument that makes your heart beat faster and puts chills down your spine (especially if they’re playing something as cool as an ARP Odyssey synthesizer).
- Music was played on real instruments too. It wasn’t just the musicians using digital equipment who were contributing their own talents to making some of the best albums ever recorded; many times those same people would be performing these songs live onstage with other musicians who also played traditional instruments such as keyboard synthesizers from Moog Music (which were first introduced in 1965), bass guitars made specifically for fretless fingerboards so everyone could get funky no matter how hard it may seem at first glance when trying out this unique kind of instrument for themselves.
Every genre had its own superstars.
In the 1980s, there were a plethora of famous pop stars. The Beatles and Elvis Presley were still huge while Michael Jackson was starting his rise to superstardom. But as well-known as they were, they didn’t have anything on the likes of Prince or Madonna, who have had more #1 hits than any other artist and continue to perform in high demand today.
There is also more variety in 80s music than today’s music. While we may have some artists who are considered “pop” these days, that genre has been expanded upon greatly since the 80s with hip-hop and rap being added into what makes up pop music now (and those genres both had their start in the late 70s). While we still listen to artists like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé today because they’re great singers, their style is very different from what you’d hear from Cyndi Lauper or Tina Turner back then.
The lyrics were meaningful.
I’m going to take you back in time: the 1980s. It was an era that saw some of the best music to ever be written and recorded, but it also had a different feel from today’s modern music. Today, most songs are about sex, partying, money and drugs (the four M’s). It seems that there is one theme across all genres that has taken over today’s mainstream culture. But back then? Not so much…
In fact, 80s music has more meaning than what you’ll find on current charts. There were many artists who wrote meaningful lyrics about real issues such as racism and war; they also wrote about social issues like drug use and AIDS awareness. The majority of songs didn’t focus on those topics though, they focused mainly on love and heartache instead.
So there you have it, the five reasons why 80s music was better than today’s. I hope this article has given you a new appreciation for the songs of yesteryear, and maybe even inspired you to listen to some old-school jams next time you’re in a car with friends. If so, please let me know, I’d love to hear them.