The 1980s initially experienced a decline in music sales at the beginning of the decade. According to Starr and Waterman, "it has been clear that the recovery was due more to the spectacular success of a few recordings by superstar musicians - Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Whitney Houston, Phil Collins, Janet Jackson, and others" (Starr and Waterman pg. 450).
In 1980, Lionel Richie wrote a piece of music titled "Lady" for the musician and performer Kenny Rogers. "Lady" managed to makes it's way onto a myriad charts at the time including the pop, adult contemporary, country, and rhythm and blues charts. The appeal of the piece comes from "Roger's husky voice" (Starr and Waterman pg 458) delicately accompanied by a solo piano and additional orchestral layers. The song is sentimental, a throw back to pre-rock. If "Lady" is considered a throw-back to pre-rock, "Sweet Dream (Are Made of This)" "exemplifies one of the directions dance music took in the postdisco era" (Starr and Waterman pg. 458). The piece was performed by a group called "Eurythmics" that included singer Annie Lennox and keyboardist Dave Stewart. This piece is an example of new wave music which grew from the new wave and punk rock sounds of the 1970s. It uses digital loops, utilizing music technologies in a way that Lionel Richie and Kenny Rogers was hoping to avoid.
Tina Turner had a successful career as part of the duo, the "Ike and Tina Turner Revue" in the 1960s and 1970s. Tina Turner left her husband due to his abusive behavior in 1976 and began her own career. Her solo career started out rocky but was offered a recording contract in 1983. She released her first solo album titled "Private Dancer" in 1984. This album reached number three on the album charts, staying in the Top 40 for seventy-one weeks! She released a song titled "What's Love Got to Do with It" which reached number one on the pop charts and number two on the R&B charts. The song utilizes "an eight-bar instrumental introduction, an unusual thirteen-bar verse [...] comprising seven- and six-bar sections (A), an eight-bar chorus (B), another verse (A), [...] and finally another chorus" (Starr and Waterman pg. 460). Like Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams," this piece utilizes a synthesizer.
Advances in music technology began to infiltrate all genres. Even Heavy Metal bands were beginning to utilize the "techno" sounds of the 1980s. Van Halen released a song titled, "Jump" in 1984. the piece "was in some ways a remarkable departure from standard heavy metal practice" (Starr and Waterman pg. 460). The main instrument is played by synthesizer rather than the standard electric guitar of Heavy Metal music.
At the same time, Madonna released "Like a Virgin" in 1984. The piece reached number one on the pop charts and number nine on the R&B charts. The song was not written by Madonna, but by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. The message is similar to Tina Turner's in "What's Love Got to Do with It." However, unlike Turner's song, the form of "Like a Virigin" is much more straightforward. According to Starr and Waterman, "after a four-bar instrumental introduction that establishes the dance groove, there is an eight-bar verse, which we call A1, [...] a ten bar version of the verse with somewhat different harmonies, which we call A2, [....] and a chorus featuring the hook of the song, which we call B" (Starr and Waterman pg. 480). Synthesizers are an important part of this piece. Prince released "When Doves Cry" in the same year. It was a last-minute addition to his album, "Purple Rain." The song is almost 6 minutes long. While many pop songs like Madonna's "Like a Virgin" were the product of a team of people, Prince wrote, performed, and produced this entire piece himself. Despite the difference in creating the piece, both were popular pieces that brought fame and attention to their performers.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, hip hop became a popular genre of music. Run-D.M.C. pioneered a rock and hip-hop song titled "Walk This Way" which reached number four on the pop charts and number eight on the R&B charts. This song was a collaboration between Run-D.M.C. and Aerosmith and was a cover version of a song previously recorded by Aerosmith. After listening to a sample of the original song, we hear the turntable scratching and it quickly turns into a hip-hop song. This was the first rap song to be heavily rotated on MTV. In 1988, Public Enemy performed a song titled, "Night of the Living Baseheads." The lyrics tell a grim tale. The piece included "digital samples from no fewer than thirteen different recorded sources, among them an early twelve-inch rap single, several soul music records, a gospel music group, a glam rock record, and the sound of drums and air-raid sirens" (Starr and Waterman pg. 500). Music was beginning to include multiple sounds to create one song. Yet another song to combine sounds and genres is titled "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana in 1991. The song "is [a] combination of heavy metal instrumental textures and pop songwriting techniques" (Starr and Waterman pg. 518). This was the first alternative rock song to ever reach the Top 10 on the charts due to this influence of pop and other techniques that we are seeing in music from the 1990s.
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