The 1980s: Digital Technology, MTV, and the Popular Mainstream

2. The 1980s: Digital Technology, MTV,
and the Popular Mainstream
• 1980s- recession in the record industry
• MTV- Music Television- changed the way the
music industry operated, rapidly becoming the
preferred method for launching a new act or
promoting the latest release
• Corporate consolidation

3. Digital Technology and Popular Music
• Analog recording- transforms
the energy of sound waves
into either physical imprints
(pre-1925 recordings) or
electronic waveforms that
closely follow (and can be
used to reproduce) the shape
of the sound waves
themselves
• Digital recording- samples the
sound waves and breaks them
down into a stream of
numbers (0s and 1s)
• Synthesizers- devices that
allow musicians to create or
“synthesize” musical sounds;
began to appear on rock
records in the 1970s

4. Digital Technology and Popular Music
• 1980s- completely digital synthesizers
– Yamaha DX-7- capable of playing dozens of “voices” at the same time
– Digital samplers- capable of storing both prerecorded and synthesized sounds
– Digital sequencers- devices that record musical data rather than musical
sound and allow the creation of repeated sound sequences (loops), the
manipulation of rhythmic grooves, and the transmission of recorded data from
one program or device to another
– Drum machines- ubiquitous on 1980s dance music and rap recordings; rely on
“drum pads” that can be struck and activated by the performer, which act as a
trigger to produce sampled sounds
• Digital technology: 128-voice textures, sophisticated synthesizer sounds
that exist nowhere in nature, sample and manipulate any sound source
• Legal dilemmas with widespread digital sampling
– American intellectual property laws- difficult to claim ownership of a groove,
style, or sound, the things that are most distinctive about popular music

5. The Pop Mainstream of the 1980s:
Some Representative Hits
• “Lady,” written by Lionel Ritchie, performed by
Kenny Rogers (released 1980)
– Kenny Rogers (b. 1938)- Texas-born veteran of folk
pop groups and one of the main beneficiaries of
country pop’s increasing mainstream appeal
– Song appeared on Kenny Roger’s Greatest Hits, and
was the tenth bestselling single of the entire decade
– Lionel Ritchie (b. 1949)- African American singer and
songwriter whose career overarched conventional
genre boundaries; former member of vocal R&B group
the Commodores

6. The Pop Mainstream of the 1980s:
Some Representative Hits
• “What’s Love Got to Do With It,”
written by Terry Britten and
Graham Lye, performed by Tina
Turner (released 1984)
– Tina Turner (b. 1939)- had been
in the limelight for over 20 years
when she recorded this song;
recording debut took place in
1960 as a member of the Ike
and Tina Turner Revue
– Lyrics- ambivalent relationship
between overwhelming sexual
attraction described in the
verses and the singer’s cynicism
about romantic love
– Carefully constructed
arrangement- 8-bar intro,
unusual 13-bar verse, 8-bar
chorus, another verse, another
chorus; concludes with three
repetitions of the chorus

7. The Pop Mainstream of the 1980s:
Some Representative Hits
• “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” written and
performed by Eurythmics (released 1983)
– Exemplifies one of the directions dance music took in the
post-disco era
– Heavy reliance on electronically synthesized sounds,
sequenced loops, cool emotional tone
• Booming, steady pulse on drum machine
– Eurythmics- consisted of a core of only two musicians:
• Annie Lennox (b. 1954)- singer
• Dave Stewart (b. 1952)- keyboardist and technical whiz
– Synth-pop- first type of popular music explicitly defined by
its use of electronic sound synthesis

8. The Pop Mainstream of the 1980s:
Some Representative Hits
• “Jump,” written by Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van
Halen, Michael Anthony, and David Lee Roth,
performed by Van Halen (released 1984)
– Heavy metal- pioneered in the late 1960s and early
1970s- resurgence in the 1980s
– Metal albums from bands like Van Halen, Bon Jovi,
Mötley Crue, Def Leppard
– From the album 1984
– Departure from standard heavy metal practice- main
instrumental melody played on a synthesizer rather
than an electric guitar

9. Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer”
• “Sledgehammer,” written and
performed by Peter Gabriel
(released 1986)
– Peter Gabriel (b. 1950)- first
achieved celebrity as a member
of the art rock group Genesis;
album So reflected indebtedness
to black music, particularly R&B
and the soul music of the 1960s
– Features a horn section led by
trumpet player Wayne Jackson,
who had played on many of the
biggest soul music hits of the
1960s
– Formal building blocks- twelve-
bar and eight-bar sections
– Success in part due to massive
exposure on MTV- video was eye-
catching, witty, technically
innovative work that pushed the
frontiers of the medium

10. A Tale of Three Albums
• Thriller (Michael Jackson, 1982)
– Michael Jackson (1958-2009)
• Worked with veteran producer Quincy Jones
to create an album that achieved boundary-
crossing popularity
• African American pop music that was aimed
squarely at the mainstream center of the
market
• Age was not the only basis on segmentation of
the audience; subtext of fragmentation was a
tendency toward increasing resegregation
along racial lines of the various audiences for
pop
• Thriller represented an effort to find ways to
mediate among the various genres of early
1980s pop music
• Thriller- much consists of up-tempo,
synthesizer and bass-driven, danceable
music that occupies a (probably
conscious) middle ground between the
heavy funk of an artist like George Clinton
and the brighter but still beat-obsessed
sound that characterized many new wave
bands (e.g., Blondie)

11. A Tale of Three Albums
• Born in the U.S.A. (Bruce Springsteen, 1984)
– Bruce Springsteen (b. 1949)- throughout the 1970s forged a progressively more
successful career in pop music while continuing to cast both his music and his
personal image in the light of the rebellious rock ‘n’ rollers of the 1950s and the
socially conscious folk rockers of the 1960s
– Songs reflected his working-class origins and sympathies, relating the stories of still
young but aging men and women with dead-end jobs looking for romance and
excitement in the face of repeated disappointments in an America that seems to
have no pieces of the American dream left
– Performed with E Street Band- music characterized by strong, roots-rock sound
emphasizing the connection to 1950s and 1960s music
• Emphasis predominantly on traditional rock ensemble of guitars, bass drums, keyboard
instruments used occasionally and prominently
– Born in the U.S.A. dominated by up-tempo, rocking songs, with Springsteen
shouting away in full voice and grand style and the band playing full tilt behind him
– Concept album:- series of musical snapshots of working-class Americans who face
economic and personal difficulties, and who sense the better times of their lives
slipping into the past

12. A Tale of Three Albums
• Graceland (Paul Simon, 1986)
– Paul Simon- interest in music that was not indigenous to the United
States manifested in songs long before Graceland
– Considerable portion of Graceland recorded in South Africa- album
became a focus of political attention for fans, skeptics, and its creator
– “global” album recorded in five different locations on three different
continents: Johannesburg, South Africa; London, England; New York
City, Los Angeles, and Crowley, Louisiana
• Selections combine elements recorded at different times and in different
places
• Extent to which album explores the concept of collaboration- among artists of
different races, regions, nationalities, and ethnicities- diverse musical styles
and approaches to songwriting
• Different from usual concept album- no explicit or implicit story line that
connects the songs or single, central subject that links them all together

13. Broadway in Recent Times
• Influence of rock and contemporary pop music:
– Stephen Sondheim’s Company (1970); Follies (1917)- idiom of revue-style musicals
of 1920s and 1930s; A Little Night Music (1973)- operetta-like; Sweeny Todd, The
Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979)
• Three factors that account for Broadway’s recent success:
– Emergence of the “mega-musical”: high-impact spectacle of staging and sound
equivalent to arena rock
• Continuous singing, eschewing spoken dialogue with anthem-like songs designed to be
memorable, delivered with pop-style vocals, self-consciously elaborate staging fashioned to
wow the audience
• Andrew Lloyd Weber: Evita (1979), Cats (1982), The Phantom of the Opera (1988)
• Les Miserables (1987)
– Revivals of older musicals
• Anything Goes, Show Boat, Wonderful Town
• Movie adaptations: Beauty and the Beast (1994), The Lion King (1997)
– “jukebox musicals”- revue-type shows fashioned around a specific repertory of
older popular music
• Broadway shows fashioned around songs- Ain’t Misbehavin’, Smokey Joe’s Café, Mamma Mia!,
Jersey Boys

14. “Baby I’m a Star”: Prince, Madonna,
and the Production of Celebrity
• Production of celebrity: central to the workings of
the American music industry as the production of
music itself
• 1980s- “star-making machinery of popular music”
– Profitability depended on sales generated by a
relatively limited number of multiplatinum recordings
• Coordination of publicity surrounding release was crucial

15. Madonna and Prince
• Both born in the industrial north of the midwestern United States during the
summer of 1958
• Madonna- dancer, model who moved into music
– Hit recordings depended on high degree of collaborative interaction among the
singer, songwriter(s), producer, recording engineers, studio session musicians, and
others
• Prince- had been making music professionally since the age of 13 as an
occasional member of his father’s jazz trio
– Hit recordings were composed, produced, engineered, and performed solely by
him, many at his own studio
• In common: self-conscious authors of their own celebrity, creators of multiple
artistic alter egos, highly skilled manipulators of the mass media
– Both sought to blur the conventional boundaries of race, religion, and sexuality
– Early, sexually explicit recordings played primary role in stimulating the formation
of the Parents’ Music Resource Center (PMRC), a watchdog organization founded in
1985
• Pressured the recording industry to institute a rating system parallel to that used in the film
industry

16. Madonna
• Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone (b. 1958)
• Late 1980s-1990s- Madonna’s popularity second only to Michael Jackson
• Sold more than 50 million albums and one of the most reliable sources of profit for Warner
Entertainment, corporate owner of the Sire Label
• Purposefully controversial figure
– Scholars have analyzed her social significance, interpreting her as a reactionary committed to turning back the
advances of feminism, a postmodern performance artist, a politically well-informed cultural subversive, and a
“container for multiple images”
• Moved to New York City in 1977- worked as a model, studied dance, and became a presence at
Manhattan discotheques
• 1983- breakthrough single “Holiday” – established certain elements of a distinctive studio sound rooted
in the synth-pop dance music of the early 1980s
• 1984 Like a Virgin- produced by Nile Rodgers, spawned a series of hit singles
– Promoted on MTV through a series of videos and formed the basis for an elaborately staged concert tour; carefully
coordinated campaign to establish Madonna as a national celebrity
• Late 1980s- songs with deeper and more controversial lyric content
• 1992- controversy and commercialism- Sex, a 128-page coffee-table book featuring nude and S&M-
garbed photographs of Madonna and other celebrities, synchronized with release of album Erotica
– “Take A Bow”- biggest single hit from 1994 album Bedtime Stories
• 1990s- appearance in film Evita (1996), album of love ballads, Something to Remember (1996); continued
through Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005)

17. Listening Guide: “Like a Virgin”
• Written by Billy Steinberg and Tom
Kelly; performed by Madonna
(recorded 1984)
• Madonna’s public persona: innocent,
emotionally vulnerable, cheerful girl
versus the tough-minded, sexually
experienced, self-directed woman
• Form: four-bar instrumental
introduction, eight-bar verse, ten-bar
version of the verse, chorus featuring
the hook of the song
• Timbre, texture, and rhythmic
momentum
– Studio mix- clean with clear stereo
separation, heavy reliance on
synthesized sound textures, singer’s
voice strongly foregrounded over the
instruments
• Ironic manipulation about long-
standing stereotypes about women

18. Prince
• Prince Rogers Nelson (1958-2016)
• 1982-1992: placed nine albums in the Top 10, placed 26 singles in the Top 40, and produced 5 number one hits
• Sold over 80 million albums- one of the most popular music superstars of the last three decades
• Born in Minneapolis, MN, to parents who migrated from Louisiana to the North
• Productivity- output averaged over an album per year, compared to an album every 2-3 years of other superstars
– Composed, performed, and recorded more than 75 songs each year
– Style: recorded output has encompassed a wide range- funk, guitar-based rock ‘n’ roll, urban folk songs, new wave, jazz,
psychedelic rock
• 1980 Dirty Mind- new fusion of soul, synth-pop, new wave with hard-edged rock sound centered on virtuoso
guitar work
• 1982 1999- songs that range from pop, rock ‘n’ roll to apocalyptic dance-club funk
• Mid-1980s- “Darling Nikki” from Purple Rain- first recording to ever receive a Parental Advisory warning
• Commercial success: accompanied by increasing frustration with Warner Brothers
– 1996- Emancipation- released on his own independent label, NPG records
– Spent the next decade making a series of lesser-selling albums all over the stylistic map
– Late 1990s- released music exclusively on NPG label, and became one of the first artists to sell his own music via the Internet
• 2000- re-adopted the name Prince
– Return to the charts in early 2000s, performances at the Grammy Awards and inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
• Opposing images in popular press- drew comparisons with earlier figures in the history of popular music
– Occupies middle ground between reclusiveness of Michael Jackson and exhibitionism of Madonna
– Granted few interviews but stayed in the limelight
– Purple Rain- plot and characters draw heavily on Prince’s life, professional and personal

19. Listening Guide: “When Doves Cry”
• Written, performed, and produced by Prince (1984)
• Last-minute addition to Purple Rain soundtrack
• Prince wrote the song, produced the recording, sang all the vocal parts, played all
the instruments
• Lyrics: imagery and psychoanalytical implications; does not conform to usual
formulas of romantic pop song
• Fuses funk rhythm with lead guitar sound of heavy metal, digitally synthesized,
and sampled textures of post-disco dance music; aesthetic focus and control of
progressive rock and singer-songwriter tradition
• Verse and chorus form
• Arrangement: divided into two major sections
– Presentation of the song with its alternation of verse and chorus
– Series of 8-bar phrases in which the background texture is subtly varied while instrumental
solos, sung phrases, and other vocal effects are sometimes juxtaposed or layered or alternated
• Opens with virtuoso solo guitar

20. Key Terms
Analog
recording
Digital recording
Digital samplers
Digital
sequencers
Drum machines
MTV
Synth-pop

21. Key People
Annie Lennox
Bruce
Springsteen
Dave Stewart
Eurythmics
Kenny Rogers
Lionel Ritchie
Madonna
Michael Jackson
Paul Simon
Peter Gabriel
Prince
Tina Turner
Van Halen