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Re: (TV) The most influential record of the 80's...



At 8:03 PM -0800 2/20/02, Jay wrote:
Beastie Boys--Paul's Boutique

name one better

and before you do, make sure you remember the
qualification: influential

It depends on what you mean by "influential."

I'm going to run the risk of igniting one of our old list arguments again and bring up Public Enemy's _It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back_. Of course, we can go back further for rap much more influential than the Beasties. "The Message," anyone?

Or...like it or no (I'll admit to a fondness for it), there's R.E.M.'s _Murmur_, the touchstone of 80s college rock. (Scott's brought up _Document_, and some may point to _Lifes Rich Pageant_ or _Fables_ there--hey, maybe even _Chronic Town_, but _Murmur_ was a starting point for many of us...)

I'll agree with "Blue Monday" having a massive influence on club culture, and a lot of their ouvre being well worth listening to, as well.

Steve Lillywhite's U2 discs influenced all that 80s BIG DRUM SOUND. (Or was that some 80s Genesis thing? I can't remember.)

Do you mean sheer units sold in the genre that came after them? I'm reluctant to recall, for instance, the vanguards of hair-band-ism, but somebody had to be first. (Ratt? Poison? Bon Jovi? I dunno--but they influenced a ton of bad music.) Shred stuff (Yngwie? Vai? Satriani? EVH, of course) influenced the whole Saturday afternoon guitar-shop wank crew. That seems pretty 80s to me, and walking into any guitar shop on Saturday afternoon can prove juuuust how influential it was.

Or there's the Live Aid "do they know it's Christmas" single, which influenced the flatulent "We Are the World" thing and set the template for every celebrity-studded benefit extravaganza since.

Stopping before I remember too much of the 80s...

--
Maurice Rickard
http://mauricerickard.com/
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