Articles and essays.
Their rise and fall were rapid, but their output was almost Beatles-ish in terms of its sheer volume in a short amount of time: a new studio album each year from 1984-1987 with three other compilation LPs and 25 singles in that four-year span.
They had been left for dead as dinosaurs of 70s prog-rock with just one big hit to their credit in America – 1972’s “Roundabout.” In fact, the English band known as Yes technically broke up in 1981, but then a funny thing happened.
Just a year after their formation in New York City, the rock band known as Scandal was all over the fledgling MTV with the low-budget clip for their song “Goodbye To You.”
Following their big American breakthrough in 1982, German metal veterans Scorpions had new expectations to live up to, but they easily cleared the bar with their 1984 album Love At First Sting and its massive hit single.
By the mid-80s, disco was well and truly dead.
It stands as one of the most beloved, innovative and profitable comedy films of the 1980s, and its theme song has endured the test of time as a venerable spooky season staple.
Madonna wasn’t the only absolute superstar of the 80s who made her first mark on the mainstream in 1984.
The British duo of Eric Woolfson and Alan Parsons, recording as the Alan Parsons Project, had built a cult following with their intricate musicianship and heady lyrical output over the course of six albums, and they had had their biggest hit with their 1982 release Eye In The…
“Don’t switch the blade on the guy in shades, oh no.”
When you have the career longevity of an artist like Elton John, there’s going to be highs and lows, ups and downs, peaks and valleys.
While they were far more popular in their native UK, the three British women who recorded as Bananarama nevertheless left their mark on the American pop charts with a trio of huge hits.
One of the most successful family musical acts in American history seemed to have gone its separate ways by the mid-80s, with one member on his way to becoming one of the biggest stars in the entire world.
He may have already been “The Boss” and was growing his legend as a live performer but Bruce Springsteen had never truly commanded the pop charts, with just four top 40 hits and one top 10 to his name.
When 1984 began, people didn’t know that the members of an English prog rock band were about to put a stranglehold on the pop charts the entire back half of the decade.
They were an overnight success over a decade in the making.
They were still three years away from becoming truly one of the biggest bands in the world, but the rise of U2 was well underway by the time they released their fourth album The Unforgettable Fire in 1984.
While the LGBT community continues to fight for basic human rights in many places in 2026, much of the world has come a very long way in terms of acceptance since the 1980s, when hate crimes were rampant and HIV was looked on by some politicians as a disease not even worth…
What if I told you that one of the biggest and best throwback hits of the 80s is only little more than a footnote in the stellar career of its singer?
Musicians often pay homage to other artists who they feel influenced by or respect for.
A quartet of fresh-faced English lads forms a band and gets a record deal.