Early 80's high school crew

[Westtown Willy]

I entered high school in the fall of 1980 just a few months after Three Mile Island unfolded not far from my town at nearly the same time the lid blew off Mt. St. Helens a few thousand miles to the west, Iran was holding 52 Americans hostage for nearly a year which in part prompted the Reagan revolution, & music was undergoing a radical transformation, some pretty interesting times.

The 80’s had a unique sound, whether a fan or not, it was distinct. I didn’t notice it much in real time, my head (and radio) was stuck in the 70’s, but I’ve come to appreciate it a great deal since. Early on this tune captured what would be the look and sound of the decade

40th reunion this coming year, can’t believe it, Generation-X is getting long in the tooth

 

[KennethS]

Mmmm, not for me. In the 80s I was listening to Sammy Hagar, Judas Priest, AC/DC, Van Halen, Krokus, Motley Crue, and a lotta other hard rockers.

 

[Westtown Willy]

Mmmm, not for me. In the 80s I was listening to Sammy Hagar, Judas Priest, AC/DC, Van Halen, Krokus, Motley Crue, and a lotta other hard rockers.

I wasn't much into the big hair/head banger stuff in the 80s, I was still recycling Zeppelin, The Who, Stones, Floyd, Sabbath type bands from the 60s & 70s... plus the later 70s Van Halen & Kiss though they may have fit into both categories. I always thought Hagar sucked on his own, he was decent with Van Halen but being a Diamond Dave fan it was hard to look at anyone else in that band

By the end of the 80s things started looking up again with Guns & Roses who I always thought brought old rock & roll back.

The 80s synthesizer sound was still alive & well towards the end of the decade with this one.

I'm not really sure what the death knell was for that sound but it died with the decade.

Grunge seemed to take over the early 90s, & besides Pearl Jam I wasn't a fan of much of that either.

 

[Squatch]

I was still recycling Zeppelin, The Who, Stones, Floyd, Sabbath type bands from the 60s & 70s... plus the later 70s Van Halen & Kiss though they may have fit into both categories. I always thought Hagar sucked on his own, he was decent with Van Halen but being a Diamond Dave fan it was hard to look at anyone else in that band

^^^This^^^

I'm trying to recall if there was anything I was into during the '80s. All I can come up with was the newer country artists that were doing the more traditional sound, like Randy Travis, Dwight Yokum, Clint Black, and Garth Brooks (my least favorite of the bunch). I did fall in love with grunge when it hit in the early '90s, and as with the aforementioned country artists, is still a favorite genre to this day.

 

[RobertJ]

I graduated high school in '82. I'd say my first music tastes of the late 70s included bands like Tom Petty, Van Halen, Eagles, Scorpion, The Cars, Cheap Trick, Boston, Fleetwood Mac, etc. By the time I graduated, I was getting into some of the early MTV bands like Duran Duran, Human League, Dexys Midnight Runners, Men at Work, A Flock of Seagulls, The Clash, Eddie Money and Blondie.

 

[Westtown Willy]

I did fall in love with grunge when it hit in the early '90s

there are very few distinct memories of single songs that blew me away on first listen but this was one of them, I don't remember exactly what year it was but when I first heard this it was clear this was a monster of a band, it didn't disappoint in the years that followed. I didn't know who or what they were but figured it out quickly, always thought they were the best thing to come out of the era, was lucky enough to see them once

I graduated high school in '82. I'd say my first music tastes of the late 70s included bands like Tom Petty, Van Halen, Eagles, Scorpion, The Cars, Cheap Trick, Boston, Fleetwood Mac, etc. By the time I graduated, I was getting into some of the early MTV bands like Duran Duran, Human League, Dexys Midnight Runners, Men at Work, A Flock of Seagulls, The Clash, Eddie Money and Blondie.

"The Cars" was one of the first albums I possessed, what an absolutely amazing band they were; Benjamin Orr was the force

 

[suicideking]

The 80's was a great decade for music. The best band that came out of the 80's is my favorite, Oingo Boingo.

I was really into music. The first album I owned was Rush Permanent Waves. Also got Moving Pictures when my mom had Columbia House and let me order a few. It was those two plus Ozzy Speak of the Devil. I had no idea what any of these were like, but asked around at school. Got the Ozzy album not even knowing it was live, just saw that it was two records. Asked around at school and the consensus was Rush and Journey. I wasn't all that crazy about Journey.

By 5th grade I was into Metal: Motley Crew, Dio, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard. My sisters were into Nu Wave, so always had Duran Duran and Depeche Mode playing in my house. I couldn't admit I liked those because I was heavy metal only. Wouldn't admit I liked Depeche Mode until high school in the mid 80's.

I spent a lot of my money buying albums and loved going to record stores. Still miss them.

 

[John Cooper]

I graduated in 80/81 (home schooled) I was into just about any and all music, but not Disco.

Zep
Eagles
Tom petty
The Clash
Dio
Dwight Yokum
Garth, not my favorite but he had good songs
Dead Kennedys
To much to list.

I am still that way, I will listen to Classic Country and Classic Rock on the way to work and home again every day.

 

[Westtown Willy]

Also got Moving Pictures when my mom had Columbia House and let me order a few.

I spent a lot of my money buying albums and loved going to record stores. Still miss them.

Columbia House & BMG, the best things to ever happen to music pre-internet and streaming. Like everyone I'd sign up, get my 8 albums for a penny, buy the required 4 more "at regular club prices" then cancel and re-up to do it all again.

It really took off for me when they made the switch to CDs, I managed to build up a collection of around 400 CDs for next to nothing before they all went out of business, still have every one of them.

Records stores were cool, Bezos & Walton killed off the malls & the records stores with them.

 

[freedom_in_4low]

I'm about 20 years behind you guys in age but I like this thread because musically, I always felt like an old soul.

I was in high school from 98-02 but didn't have much love for much of anything from the 90s at the time, though I've gained more appreciation for it now and one of my wife and I's favorite date night activities is a local 90s cover band. Starting in 97 I was walking to the record store to browse and using my parents Columbia House membership to buy Ozzy and Sabbath, Zeppelin, Floyd, Skynyrd, Eagles, Kansas, Boston, Kiss, Poison, Twisted Sister, Van Halen, and of course Metallica. I was the kid blasting 80s Metallica out of an 80s car, leaving my school parking lot in 2001.

My first serious girlfriend in college was a big 80s country fan, so I learned to like George Strait, Garth Brooks and Randy Travis.

I still don't really listen to anything made since I finished high school, and if anything I've continued to broaden my horizons in the 80s stuff to go a little outside of rock and metal.

 

[Westtown Willy]

I was in high school from 98-02 but didn't have much love for much of anything from the 90s at the time, though I've gained more appreciation for it now and one of my wife and I's favorite date night activities is a local 90s cover band.

it's funny how common that story is not only in music but all things, for whatever reason we don't appreciate many things in real time but in looking back we realize...

I heard all the 80's music in the 80's but it was kind of background music, almost muzak, it probably wasn't until long after the decade ended I really began liking it & appreciating it for how cool so much of it was.

I think it has something to do with it being new, new music has no connection to anything (yet), hasn't had time to ripen & gain significance, so for me the classic rock produced in the late 60's & throughout the 70's was far better because it was all that was available the first 14 years of my life so by 1980 it was a well known thing.

Like how you don't recognize when you're living a moment in high school with your buddies that would become legendary to you all 20, 30 or 40 years later.

 

[suicideking]

Columbia House & BMG, the best things to ever happen to music pre-internet and streaming. Like everyone I'd sign up, get my 8 albums for a penny, buy the required 4 more "at regular club prices" then cancel and re-up to do it all again.

It really took off for me when they made the switch to CDs, I managed to build up a collection of around 400 CDs for next to nothing before they all went out of business, still have every one of them.

Records stores were cool, Bezos & Walton killed off the malls & the records stores with them.

I played the Columbia House and BMG game. I saw that you could get bonus CD's for referring your friends. So I made up a fake name and listed my parents house as an apartment building. Fake name = apt. #2

I used to love going to used CD shops until digital music put them all out of business. Now you can't find a computer with a CD drive in it.

 

[cliffish]

I played the Columbia House and BMG game. I saw that you could get bonus CD's for referring your friends. So I made up a fake name and listed my parents house as an apartment building. Fake name = apt. #2

I used to love going to used CD shops until digital music put them all out of business. Now you can't find a computer with a CD drive in it.

I did the same, one summer I took a few courses at college and the dorm I stayed in got all of the campus mail. There where 100's of cd's flooding in every week. The names these kids used to sign up were funny, Jack Daniels, Bud Wiser, Dick Hertz etc...lol

 

[suicideking]

I did the same, one summer I took a few courses at college and the dorm I stayed in got all of the campus mail. There where 100's of cd's flooding in every week. The names these kids used to sign up were funny, Jack Daniels, Bud Wiser, Dick Hertz etc...lol

haha! Yeah, my dog had an account too: Brandy DeGolden. She was a Golden Retriever and had good account standing. Later she even got an offer to sign up for a credit card.

 

[Apparition]

it's funny how common that story is not only in music but all things, for whatever reason we don't appreciate many things in real time but in looking back we realize...

I heard all the 80's music in the 80's but it was kind of background music, almost muzak, it probably wasn't until long after the decade ended I really began liking it & appreciating it for how cool so much of it was.

I think it has something to do with it being new, new music has no connection to anything (yet), hasn't had time to ripen & gain significance, so for me the classic rock produced in the late 60's & throughout the 70's was far better because it was all that was available the first 14 years of my life so by 1980 it was a well known thing.

Like how you don't recognize when you're living a moment in high school with your buddies that would become legendary to you all 20, 30 or 40 years later.

I was too young in the 80's to understand much other than watching my older sister record the radio on cassettes.

Huge GNR fan so luckily I've been able to go see them live although many years past their prime.

I've listened to everything from the surf music, country, rap but it always leads back to 80's rock.

I'll watch Professor of Rock every now and then and it's interesting to hear the stories about how the songs came to be. I wish you could sort them by the actual songs instead of his cryptic video names though.

 

[Westtown Willy]

I was too young in the 80's to understand much other than watching my older sister record the radio on cassettes.

that was the ticket, everyone had a 'box' with a 90 or 120 minute blank tape in it at the ready to capture your favorite tunes. You'd leave it in for days & longer to fill it up, or if the local radio station played an entire album uninterrupted you could grab the whole thing. Once filled you'd break the little tabs off to make sure you didn't accidentally tape over anything, a common occurrence after a few bong hits. I must have had 100 mix tapes, thinking back it's pretty funny, you'd always have a few seconds of either a DJ talking or a commercial at the front & back end of the songs , but it's all good, it was free music before Napster upended the world. I actually still had my entire collection until a few years ago, kept it out in the garage to play on the last box I had that still had a tape deck. When that thing died I ended up tossing the tapes, most of them had degraded from decades of time & countless playings

Huge GNR fan so luckily I've been able to go see them live although many years past their prime.

I was at the Use You Illusion tour in 91 in Philly, Soundgarden opened. I always thought Guns & Roses was the closest thing to the holy grail of rock and roll, Led Zeppelin. Their songs had a similar epic quality, I only wish they could have kept their shit together long enough to pump out a few more albums.

 

[suicideking]

Only time I saw GNR was with Motorhead opening, then Metallica and GNR at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Great show. Probably seen Metallica around 5 or 6 times.

I heard a story (documentary? don't remember where I heard this) that at some point, Axl showed up to a show late as usual. Then said he wouldn't go on stage unless everyone signed a release giving him rights to all their music. Slash didn't really understand what was going on and signed away all his rights. Just another train wreck rock band story.

Figure EVH sabotaged Van Halen multiple times. Fired David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar. What a nut job.

I do remember wearing out cassette tapes. My favorites eventually had to just be thrown out and replaced. Moved to CD's in the mid 80's and sold most of the tapes. Tapes did work better in portable players and cars, CD's skip and get scratched. Though now CD's (and all physical media) are becoming extinct.

My dad was thinking of getting a new car a few years ago. He has a V8 Lexus with a CD changer. He didn't understand why he can't get one with a factory CD changer anymore. I had to explain it to him. Plus they don't have a V8. It would be a V6 with turbo. He doesn't think he can live without the V8 even though he doesn't really leave the city. Just drives slow to the grocery store and such. He ended up keeping his car, though he shouldn't be driving anyway, mid 80's...

 

[freedom_in_4low]

I was at the tail end of the tape thing, and probably held onto it longer than some because even though CDs were around, I couldn't make a "mixtape" out of one because I didn't have a CD burner in a computer until college. Most of my CD collection got jacked out of my Volvo in 2004. Every few years I forget about that and wonder for a few minutes what happened to a CD I remember listening to. I've been basically all digital music since then, and I still notice some of the songs I....acquired on the internet...back in those days are pretty poor quality since storage size actually mattered back then.

I never minded GNR but I couldn't get past how much of a narcissistic a-hole Axl Rose is to ever call myself a fan or want to go to a show. One incident that sticks out in my mind was James Hetfield's pyrotechnic accident opening for GNR and then Rose had to make sure he got back to the center of everybodys attention by not finishing the concert.

 

[Apparition]

I was at the tail end of the tape thing, and probably held onto it longer than some because even though CDs were around, I couldn't make a "mixtape" out of one because I didn't have a CD burner in a computer until college. Most of my CD collection got jacked out of my Volvo in 2004. Every few years I forget about that and wonder for a few minutes what happened to a CD I remember listening to. I've been basically all digital music since then, and I still notice some of the songs I....acquired on the internet...back in those days are pretty poor quality since storage size actually mattered back then.

I never minded GNR but I couldn't get past how much of a narcissistic a-hole Axl Rose is to ever call myself a fan or want to go to a show. One incident that sticks out in my mind was James Hetfield's pyrotechnic accident opening for GNR and then Rose had to make sure he got back to the center of everybodys attention by not finishing the concert.

I had a cassette player in my truck that could seek the next song, I thought that was awesome. Then CD's changed me.

Metallica concerts > GNR concerts.

 

[suicideking]

Metallica concerts > GNR concerts.

Agree with this. I've seen Metallica many times and they always put on a good show. Vs some bands like GNR who used to essentially phone it in. That one GNR/Metallica/Motorhead show, GNR was the worst of the three and the main headliner. Axl seemed to be more focused on his multiple wardrobe changes during the concert which left many scratching their heads.

You can tell Metallica enjoys performing. James talking to the crowd between songs and just the energy they give off. Took my wife to one of their shows a few years ago. She doesn't even really like them much, but said they put on a great show. Took her to Kiss and she said that show kind of sucked. Gene Simmons was also phoning it in at that point. More interested in making some money. Saw Kiss in the late 80's (Animalize tour) and they put on a good show back then.