1981 - Music

[IrishCanadian25]

Well, it's official. Video HAS, in fact, killed the Radio Star. That's because MTV hit the airwaves, proving that Music could absolutely be visual and that the two entertainment mediums could mesh. MTV went along nicely until the late 90's when it trended away from music and music videos and began its journey to becoming a white trash reality TV station. Fuck Jersey Shore.

The record, album, and song of the year Grammy award winner in 1981 is...

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Too bad Christopher Cross couldn't sail far away enough. I think that Kris Kross could kick Chris Cross's ass.

A band named Generation X loses their lead singer to a solo career. Some guy names Billy Idol. Yeah, like THAT'LL pan out...

Progressive rock band "Yes" says "No" and breaks up. They would spend the next 2 decades changing their minds so much that they changed the name of their band to "Favre."

In other break up news, "Wings" splits up, leaving Paul McCartney still a fiflthy rich multi-millionaire getting more ass than a public toilet. "Wai, wha? I had a band? I thought that was the Beatles. WHADDAYA MEAN JOHN'S DEAD!?"

In other former Beatles news, Barbara Bach married Ringo Starr. Bach's friends have no clue who he is.

In Miami, Bob Marley dies of cancer, taking one of music's true enduring legends to that great big hot box in the sky.

The Violent Femmes are discovered, further proving that 1981 wasn't a year marked by great judgement.

Ultravox, Depeche Mode, and The Human League popularize Synth-pop in the UK.

Phil Collins releases Face Value, featuring the track "In The Air Tonight." The controversy that follows that song is well documented, but has been refuted by Phil, who stated "I wrote the song when I was going through a divorce and, DROWNING? What drowning? No, my ex-wife is fine. She's an avid boater. No, don't call her NOW."

Menudo became mainstream! Oh dear God...

Hit singles in the US include: Bette Davis Eyes, The Tide is High, 9 to 5, Jessie's Girl, Endless Love, and Private Eyes.

Hit singles in the UK include: Imagine, Making Your Mind Up, Tainted Love, One Day in Your Life, Don't You Want Me, and Under Pressure.

Some band named Metallica was formed, along with Asia, 10,000 Maniacs, Butthole Surfers, Queensrÿche, Slayer, Sonic Youth, Culture Club, Tears for Fears, Motley Crue, Pantera, Wham!, and Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, D.C. There was no relation between the last two. Totally random. I bet my right ear peircing on it.

 

[Mr. TM]

This summer I had a great talk with a co-worker of mine about this very year in music, specifically the first point that you made about MTV hitting the air. We had a dispute over which song came first, and he was actually right. I think MTV was one of the biggest changes for music ever, making the 80s style a lot different than I think it might have been if it was not for the medium of televised music. I don't know if it had a positive or negative effect, just a different effect.

 

[Ty Burna]

On the hip hop side of things, you had some of the legends of hip hop gain notoriety in 1981.

Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five brought the art of the turntable to the fore front with "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel". It was a 7 minute solo just showcasing Grandmaster Flash's awesome ability on the turntables and showed that the DJ is the backbone of hip hop. This allowed them to release their hip hop classic The Message the following year. I'll cover that when we get to 1982.

Afrikaa Bambaataa also had a hit single in 1981 with "Jazzy Sensations", which was actually a group at the time. It sampled Gwen Mcrae's "Funky Sensation" for the chorus. The song becoming sort of a launching pad for Afrikaa as he also had the single "Zulu Nation Throwdown" in 1981 as well. "Jazzy Sensations" has been sampled by various artists such as the Beastie Boys in the years following.

Sugarhill Gang also had a hit, two years following their most known single in "Rapper's Delight" in "Apache". This was a cover on the Incredible Bongo Band's single of the same name. Sugarhill Gang kept basically all the instrumentals including the bongo drums and rapped over the instrumental. They incorporated many Lone Ranger references in the song as well as referencing their own hit single "Rapper's Delight"

"Gigolo Rap" by Disco Daddy and Captain Rapp was the very first West Coast hip hop record (a couple years before Too $hort came out and 3 years before Ice-T started recording).

Finally, there was another hip hop classic that was created in 1981. It was by Funky Four and One and the name of the song was "That's The Joint". While known as a one hit wonder if you will, they did make history as the first hip hop group to ever perform on SNL, you know when SNL was still a big deal.

1981 was kind of a jumping off point for hip hop as it started to be seen as something different from disco. It of course started to grow immensely in the following years but 1981 was the year that it started to gain it's own identity and a cult following nationwide.