Jump to content

Why are there so many 80's themed bands?


sventvkg

Recommended Posts

  • Members

We're trying to put together something fun for private and corporate stuff but man, there is a GLUT of 80's bands out there!! Anyone know why so many? I mean there's the Spazmatics and its all good but there are SO MANY others!! Why?

Also, what hasn't been done? I'm looking to do a high energy impeccible musicianship-laden fun show with fun music...Don't necessarily want a schtick..Looking for ideas if you're so inclined. We have some but I'd love to hear what you guys think. We have a list but am looking for ideas for the show and branding. What is missing from that market if anything? What is there room for?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Seems to me there is a nostalgia and marketing push to the demographic that relates or grew up in the decade 30 years prior. In the 80's it was about the 50's. Movies, adverts, time life collections. In the 90's it was the 60's, leading up to the Woodstock concerts. In the 00's it was the 70's (that 70's show, swingtown) and so on.

 

That's my take.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

It's popular now because the original fans of that music are going through their midlife crisis/reliving their youth moment. It's happened with every time period since the 50s at least. The 80s may be uniquely appealing because they had an exceptionally strong visual component, due to the rise of video. I've got a friend in a 90s trib band, and seeing a bunch of dudes in flannel playing Alice in Chains and Marcy Playground is not much fun.

 

As far as your project, you're kind of asking us to do the hard work--anyone can book, rehearse, and market, but innovation is rare. If I had a quit-your-dayjob idea, I wouldn't be tossing it to some stranger on the Internet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

Everything Vort and Chicken Monkey said about nostalgia hit the nail on the head.   Before all these 80s band existed the market was deluged with 70s Disco Tribute bands.


Chicken Monkey wrote:

 

 I've got a friend in a 90s trib band, and seeing a bunch of dudes in flannel playing Alice in Chains and Marcy Playground is not much fun.

 


 

 

  This is an interesting statement above and something I've thought about before. 

It DOES seem, in many ways, that the 80s was the last "fun" decade as far as being highly stylized and ripe for parody.   But at the same time, I am old enough to remember people hating both the 70s and 80s so much that nobody believed the music and fashion of those decades would be anything anyone would ever want to relive again.   But that, of course, turned out to be false.  

I think the 90s is available for such nostaligia, it's just a matter of bands doing it right.   Maybe it won't be as much about flannel and grunge as it will be about oversized pants and hip/hop.   The truth is that every decade is somebody's youth, and those people will have just as deep of nostalgic feelings about it as those who grew up in the 50s, 60s, 70s or 80s.   Bands, movies, TV shows, etc that "take them back there" will be popular. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

The 80s was pretty much the last decade of music where playing an instrument well was part of the deal, particularly guitar. The era of solos died in Seattle in the late 1980s, and hasn't returned much. Maybe that's why so many rockers switched to blues and country.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 


sventvkg wrote:

 

Also, what hasn't been done? I'm looking to do a high energy impeccible musicianship-laden fun show with fun music...Don't necessarily want a schtick..Looking for ideas if you're so inclined. We have some but I'd love to hear what you guys think. We have a list but am looking for ideas for the show and branding. What is missing from that market if anything? What is there room for?

 

 

Well, if I had a killer idea, I'd probably be doing it myself...lol.    Not wanting to be schtick makes it more difficult in many ways, because schtick is much easier to market, brand and sell.   Toss out some of the ideas you have and maybe it will trigger something else in my mind or I can help you refine it in some way?   I know what you DON'T want to do, but not really sure what it is you have in mind that you DO want to do. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I know of a really good band from the SF area who was doing the 90s-tribute idea for awhile and apparently wasn't getting enough work as that since they've since broadened their songlist to include a lot of 80s and modern pop. 

I thought their concept was strong---not so much grunge-focused, but trying to focus more on the more fun tunes from the era with a Gwen Stefani-ish girl fronting the band.  But apparently it wasn't enough.  Or it's still too early for that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

To answer the question topic: Because right now that works really well for people.

 

Just in our anecdotal experience it seems like the disco songs that were guaranteed killers 5-10 years ago don't really garner much of a reaction for us anymore, and stuff like "Semi-Charmed Life" is working better.

I think there's definitely a market for a fun-oriented 90s band. The 90s wasn't just gloomy sadness, broken hearts, heroin addictions and hating your father. It was also Ace Of Base, MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, "OPP", "Jump Around", "Rump Shaker", "No Diggity", "Two Princes", and "Baby One More Time". Not to mention "Zoot Suit Riot", "Jump Jive And Wail", Green Day/Offspring pop-punk (and their children), ska, and all sorts of other upbeat, fun, danceable stuff. I think musicians are so focused on the "what's cool to musicians" music sometimes that they forget that there's all kinds of cheesy pop stuff that would absolutely KILL if you had the nads (and lacked the self-respect ;) ) to give it a try.

You just have to do it right...

Brian V.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members


MusicalSchizo wrote:

 I think musicians are so focused on the "what's cool to musicians" music sometimes that they forget that there's all kinds of cheesy pop stuff that would absolutely KILL if you had the nads (and lacked the self-respect
;)
) to give it a try.

You just have to do it right...

Brian V.

 

The successful 70s and 80s themed bands were also about focusing on the fun and the cheese and not the serious stuff.   The successful 80s bands play Madonna and Devo in lace and bangles and flower pot hats.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 


BlueStrat wrote:

 

 

The 80s was pretty much the last decade of music where playing an instrument well was part of the deal, particularly guitar. The era of solos died in Seattle in the late 1980s, and hasn't returned much. Maybe that's why so many rockers switched to blues and country.  

 

BlueStrat, I grew up in the 90s and I think the "era of solos" died more so in the late 90s than the early 90s.  Bands like Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, the Black Crowes, Pantera, etc had long guitar solos.  You have to remember these guys grew up with bands like Zeppelin, old Aerosmith, Van Halen, and Randy Rhoads.  Additionally, the musicianship all around was pretty high for all instruments in some of these bands. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 


sventvkg wrote:

 

 

We're trying to put together something fun for private and corporate stuff but man, there is a GLUT of 80's bands out there!! Anyone know why so many? I mean there's the Spazmatics and its all good but there are SO MANY others!! Why?

 

Also, what hasn't been done? I'm looking to do a high energy impeccible musicianship-laden fun show with fun music...Don't necessarily want a schtick..Looking for ideas if you're so inclined. We have some but I'd love to hear what you guys think. We have a list but am looking for ideas for the show and branding. What is missing from that market if anything? What is there room for?

 

It very well could be just a function of demographics.    the natural progression of things is that people play in bands when they are young.. then are faced with a career and family to support.  The band goes by the wayside.  In their 40s the kids are getting older the finances  and career are under control , and they get back into music.   They tend to play what they grew up on.     The same thing happens when guys retire,, they turn back to wanting top play in a band , hence all the geezer bands.   Blues brothers syndrome ,, we are getting the band back together.   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

My buddy who owns Metropolis Productions in Orlando who books a lot of entertainers for the corporate/private market gave me some good advice last night. Basically he said 80's type party bands are equally about the presentation and personality as well as kick ass music and it's a good market. The MOST in demand are Variety bands that play 60's-Current. Do all upbeat danceable..Listening songs are useless other than the first set while people are eating which is always instrumental/smooth Jazzy versions of popular tunes. So there ya go...Listening songs are USELESS.... Just what i told my partner.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members


sventvkg wrote:

 The MOST in demand are Variety bands that play 60's-Current. Do all upbeat danceable..Listening songs are useless other than the first set while people are eating which is always instrumental/smooth Jazzy versions of popular tunes. So there ya go...Listening songs are USELESS....

 

 

Where have I heard this before??.... ;)

I don't know if it would be any help to you or not, but here's the setlist we've been doing for most of the year and it's kicked ass for us from start to finish every show.   We'll make a few changes to accomodate demographic or event but that's about it.   Biggest one being that "Celebration" and "We Are Family" get played ONLY for weddings and never at any other gig.

 

                         SET 1

Ab     CELEBRATION

Dm    BOOGIE OOGIE OOGIE

F#m BILLIE JEAN

A       WE ARE FAMILY

E       YOUR LOVE

D      JESSIE'S GIRL

C       LOVE SHACK

D       HERE FOR THE PARTY

C       FORGET YOU

Em    STAYIN' ALIVE/BRICK IN THE WALL

Em    RAPPER'S DELIGHT/GOOD TIMES

Bm    GET LUCKY

Bb     WALKING ON SUNSHINE

F       SHOUT

 

 

 

 

                        

                             SET 2

C#m GOOD FEELIN

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

There may have been guitar heroes in the 80s, but they're represented zero percent in the 80s bands. Devo, Madonna, and Duran Duran more than Whitesnake and the DLR Band.

 

And the 90s wave will be the same, when it gets here--it'll be the bands the guys who were learning guitar at the time scoffed at--The Cranberries, "Lovefool", boy bands, and Britney.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Pop music started fragmenting in the late 80s and that process continued and accelerated in the 90s.  There was much less cross-pollenization between sub-genres, and audiences fragmented, which means that today if you're trying to do a nostalgia trip about 90s music it's harder to have a set of tunes that will appeal to most everybody, because there was not a common musical experience shared by most everybody, like there was in the days of classic Top 40 radio.

Also, as noted, it is not hard to come up with a set of fun party tunes from the 90s, but most of that music will be synth-based which makes it tougher to put a band together to play it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 


guido61 wrote:

 

80s nostalgia, like others genres focused on packing dancefloors and selling drinks in bars, is chick oriented. To that degree, the only hair metal songs that work are the ones I call "stripper rock". Not the guitar wanking tracks.

 

 

 I just posted some vids of some guitar wankery... "That 80's Hairband" they do pretty well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...