Research: Music - 80's

My favourite era of music!
The 80's grew from punk into new genres of pop and rock music.


Pop music saw the likes of Huey Lewis and the News and the reinvention of Michael Jackson, and Madonna. Although they did have a major impact on music in the 80's my interest lies in the Rock scene.


I could sit here all day and write lists of bands that emerged from the 80's which I listen to day in day out. Queen, Bon Jovi, Quiet Riot, Skid Row, Ratt, Twisted Sister, Whitesnake, Van Halen, Lynch Mob, really, I could go on for quite some time! But i'll look into some of my favourites.


First off, I really admire the bands which came from an evolution of Punk.
Possibly my favourite band of all time, Mötley Crüe, came to power in the LA Heavy Metal Glam scene. They began by taking on the famous Sunset Strip in LA, playing sell out shows at clubs such as The Whisky A-Go Go and The House of Blues before they were even signed to a record label. Living on a shoe string budget, they were all about living wild and partying hard.

Motley Crue

As seen in the picture above, they took obvious influence from the punk scene. In Nikki Sixx's (bassist) autobiography, he describes how they based their image on his heros The New York Dolls (talked about in the previous post), and Mad Max. They, like the punk rock bands before them, were loud and aggressive, and are known for their troublesome antics, copious drug and alcohol abuse, getting sent to jail and womanising.
Although they are off drugs and alcohol abuse now, their live shows are still very much the rebellious Motley Crue which found them fame.
They enjoy theatrics and entertainment during their live shows, and have had strippers, dancers, circus performers, midgets, and much more on stage during their songs. In particular, many fans go to their huge live shows in anticipation to see Tommy Lee's drum solo. He tries his best each show to do something new and unique during his solo so you will never forget seeing it.

Tommy Lee's Roller-coaster Solo

Tommy Lee has flew over the crowd on a hanging platform, flown to the ceiling, spun around, you name it he's probably done it during a drum solo. One of my favourites is the roller-coaster (which I have seen him do!), where he goes upside down, round and round on a loop track while playing his solo. Lately he has developed this further, and even gets a lucky audience member to sit in a seat behind him whilst he does it. Maniac! As a drummer myself, he is without a doubt one of the greatest drummers of all time.

To add to the bands rebellious and shocking image, Tommy Lee also regularly hooks up 'Tommy Lee's Titty Cam' to the big screen behind him and films the audience and eggs the females to....well...im sure you can guess. I won't post pictures, after all this is supposed to be a uni project!

Another of my all time favourite bands are Guns N' Roses.

From the same place as Motley Crue, they found fame on the Sunset Strip in LA. Most of the band are actually good friends with Motley Crue (other than Axl Rose, who Vince Neil publicly knocked out after a show together).

In their early years, Guns 'N' Roses were very much a punk band. Their first, self published, album consisting of a few of their demo songs is very gritty and loud. They were not signed to a label to publish their music, so they created their own label called Uzi Suicide. This first album was provocatively called 'Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide'.

Guns N' Roses

After their initial success from their debut album 'Appetite for Destruction' which of their major hits comes from, they continued to take on the Rock scene with growing popularity.

They too had run-ins with the law, drugs, alcohol, women and the likes Motley Crue did. However, the original line-up (of which two actually existed) broke up when Axl Rose (vocalist) became too much to work with. The only album released since the departure of the rest of the band took Axl Rose 15 years to write, proving what a perfectionist he is. And after all that, it was terrible (in my personal opinion), and recieved mixed reviews. Compared with their debut album which gained 18xPlatinum certification, it managed only to squeeze a single platinum certificate, which is still note worthy, but was probably just from original die-hard fans buying the album and telling their friends not to buy it.