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Rock And Roll In The 1980's

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Rock and Roll in the 1980’s
Rock and roll started in the 1940’s, has influenced different decades’ music and evolved in different forms throughout years. For example, 1960’s rock was more blues-based; while in the 70’s, the hard rock has emerged. However, 1980’s was surely the greatest time of rock and roll. During this decade, while hard rock and heavy metal were still popular among musicians, their subgenres trash, and glam metal arose and influenced many teenagers to form bands that became successful later on. The eighties thrash and glam metal did not only influence music, but they also had a huge impact on fashion. However, this rock and roll scene was not all so glamorous and happy; during this decade, heroin became the most used drug …show more content…

In the early 1980's, President Reagan and Vice President Bush declared the war on drugs in America. Bush expressed that, addictive drugs sales had to stop because these drugs were "drowning" American citizens (Jordan Hanna). However, rock musicians continued doing drugs to have fun and to escape the reality. A drug that affected the most 1980’s were heroin and cocaine. Although heroin was more popular in the 1970’s, it was still the most popular and effective during 1980’s. Unlike heroin, cocaine was a new drug that Latin American drug makers began creating and distributing. Cocaine became drug users’ new favorite drug and different forms of Crack rose among the society (Jordan Hanna). During this time, so many rock and roll musicians like Slash, Duff McKagan, and Izzy Stradlin, and Steven Adler from Guns N’ Roses; Nikki Sixx from Motley Crue; Sebastian Bach from Skid Row were heroin and cocaine …show more content…

Society was facing with unemployment, riots, and the miners’ strike (Charlotte Gelipter). These social and political struggles gave birth to subgenres of heavy metal and hard rock, known as thrash and glam metal. While glam metal was more popular in this era, it died out in the 90’s, while trash metal continued to be rock and roll fans’ favorite. The 1980s saw well-known bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Guns N’ Roses, Bon Jovi etc., welcomed different sense of fashion and outrageous eye makeup. Unfortunately, this alluring rock and roll scene came with a dreadful cost. Drug abuse in the 1980s was worse than ever. Cocaine along with America’s ongoing war with heroin affected so many lives in the United States. Some of the greatest rock musicians died due to heroin overdose while some struggled for many years to overcome this

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Since the rise of hard rock/ heavy metal in the 1980s, many crimes and deaths have been blamed on the bands (or singers). The Parents Music Resource Center plastered Parental Advisory stickers everywhere, and bands defending their music and themselves from the overly protective parents. Hard Rock/ heavy metal is a scapegoat for those who look for a high murder/ suicide rate. In 2009, Metallica’s “Ronnie” was almost considered for a New Jersey man’s reason to kill his own mother and a young boy.

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What do you think of when someone brings up the 80s, classic sci-fi movies, ridiculous fashion trends, the introduction of modern video games? How about the peak of heavy metal bands? One can’t talk about 80s metal bands without mentioning Van Halen. The band’s amazing instrumentals, predominantly it's blindingly swift yet controlled guitar playing, helped reinvent heavy rock, and they still stand as examples for many modern rock musicians and bands.

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Towards the end of the 1970s attention shifted to “disco, punk, and mainstream rock,” but heavy metal made a comeback in the 1980s with the “british invasion” i.e. Iron Maiden and Motorhead. These groups inspired the resurgence of American heavy metal bands as well as international groups. This resurgence led to a more diverse fan base, now including more older people and women. During the 1980s, metal was played on the radio for the first time which increased sales and made the genre more popular. Next, Walser describes the demographic of heavy metal listeners: mostly white and young and male.

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The 1980s was another prominent moment in Rock and Roll, in America during the 80s MTV became an important tv station for broadcasting new music. MTV became an outlet for people and artists who went against the grain, also in addition most rock bands were now being signed to independent record labels. In the 1980s, the favored music was; heavy metal, glam metal and heavy rock. Glam metal bands that flourished in the 1980’s were; Cinderella, Queen, Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, Quiet Riot, AC/DC Ratt, Twisted Sister. Heavy metal was another genre of music that became extremely popular, some metal bands of this decade were; Judas Priest, Dio and Iron Maiden.

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When people look at the 1980’s, the question often times asked is, “what was even going on”. Known for its characteristically bright neons, crazy hair dos, and high school coming of age films, this decade definitely made a mark on history. Oftentimes stereotyped with these aspects, the reality of the decade was revolt against the social, financial, and political turmoil of the 1960’s and 70’s. Predating this decade, the United States of America had seen many conflicts in all aspects of life and culture. Beginning in the 1960’s, a new age of counterculture was on the rise.

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During the mid-80’s, in the rainy city of Seattle, a musical movement was born. The “Seattle Sound”, commonly called Grunge, is trademarked for its distorted guitars, heavy drumming, and flannel shirts. When you think grunge, you think basic, if not dirty, as many grunge musicians became known for having messy appearances and were repelled from any sort of dramatic stage presence. With the help of bands like Soundgarden and Nirvana, the popularity of grunge increased and from the late 80’s to the mid 90’s, it became the favored type of music to listen to. Regardless of the fact that most grunge bands broke up or faded away by the late 1990s, their influence still continues to affect rock music today.

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Glam Metal and Thrash Metal are both music genre that gave influence on each other. But, the agreement now is which genre gave the most important influence on each other or which one was more important in the 1980s. When you hear the term “Glam Metal” the first thing that should pop to your head are these following bands, New York Dolls, Aerosmith, KISS, Van Halen and lastly, Motley Crue, who was the first glam band to be signed to a record deal (Glam Metal). These bands were categorizing has glam because they were influenced to wear more dramatic hair, clothing and hair. KISS is the best example of Glam, at all performances, the band would wear over the top facial make up, leather clothing and wedge shoes.

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