MTV’s Top 100 of 1985, a look back (Part 1)
Like most of the world, I’ve been spending a lot of time indoors lately, absorbing as many distractions as possible from this hellscape that we call 2020.
Early on in the pandemic, an incredibly kind soul uploaded a metric crapton of vintage MTV clips to the Internet Archive. This repository has been an absolute godsend for me right now. With the present world in shambles and the future not looking that much better, I’ve not ashamed to say that I’ve used this collection of vintage VHS rips to dive headfirst into the past, soaking up as much audio/video content from my childhood years as possible. All for that fleeting dopamine fix that is rose-tinted nostalgia.
For me, the crown jewel of the entire collection is the 1985 Top 100 countdown, which is included in its entirety, complete with commercials, VJ breaks and news bits. It’s a wonderful time capsule that serves as an amazing document to that incredibly important year in music. While not all scenes and styles are present on the countdown this year (MTV was getting more diverse, but they still weren’t showing a lot of hip-hop, nor anything particularly intense like punk rock either), the list does feel like a perfect microcosm of what was really popular that year, the big guns, the stuff that left an impact.
And Billy Ocean, but we’ll get to him.
While there are more than a few totally forgotten songs on this list, the overwhelming majority of them are legit classics now. So many timeless numbers are here. Since MTV’s countdowns from other years in the decade are not as easy to find, it’s hard to compare them to this list, but I have to imagine that this one stands out for just the sheer number of songs that you still hear on the radio today. 1985 really was a banger of a year for pop music.
And since I have nothing better to do for the foreseeable future, I decided to write about every single one of them. The good, the great, the well-remembered, the terrible, and the utterly forgotten. Doing so, I noticed some patterns and trends of the era that are forgotten now (70s rockers really did well in the 80s, seriously), and was also reminded that some stereotypes of the decade are stereotypes for a reason (so much hairspray, my god, and hair metal hadn’t even really taken hold yet).
I hope that in reading this, memories of what you were doing when you first heard these songs are jogged loose, and bring a smile to you in these times where it seems like smiles are hard to come by.
But let’s kick things off with a nice, long, cry.
Demolishing the false narrative of Disco Demolition Night
July 12 marked the 40th anniversary of Disco Demolition Night, a promotion at a Chicago White Sox game where fans were encouraged to bring disco records that would then be destroyed on the field. The event went poorly, to say the least, and ended up being a riot that caused the Sox to forfeit the game to the Tigers.
In the 40 years since then, the night has taken on a different meaning among disco defenders and historians. What was once considered a stupid display of drunken idiocy is now often discussed an act of overt racism and homophobia. The belief among many music writers these days seems to be that the straight, white men who largely made up the crowd at Disco Demolition night weren’t rebelling against disco because “disco sucked” but they were lashing out against it because it was known as a predominately gay genre populated primarily with people of color. Some people have gone as far as to compare Disco Demolition night to a Trump rally.
As a gay man who loves himself some disco, fuck that. Continue reading
CD Review: Pacific Breeze – Various Artists
For a genre of music that I don’t really like all that much and barely even constitutes as a genre of music in the first place, I sure do find myself writing about “city pop” a lot. Continue reading
Vinyl/CD Review: Neue Tanz – Yellow Magic Orchestra
Pioneering Japanese electronic act Yellow Magic Orchestra turns 40 this year, and Sony Music Japan is celebrating with a massive re-issue campaign set to kick off in full next month. In the meantime, they’ve also put out this new compilation, curated by superstar Japanese DJ Towa Tei, designed to focus on YMO’s more eclectic and minimal output.
A lot of effort obviously went into this release. In addition to getting Towa Tei’s name on it, the album also features art by well-known artist Tomoo Gokita, and the tracks were newly remastered by ex-Denki Groove member Yoshinori Sunahara. Anyone into Japanese electronic music who already wasn’t interested in picking this up will no doubt see their names and be tempted even more to pick it up.
And they probably shouldn’t. Continue reading
Prog Walk – Going For The One To Toyama Park
My sleeping patterns have been odd lately, I often find myself crashing to bed at the relatively early time of 11:30 and waking up a quarter after five, wide alert and ready to start the day. It’s equal parts infuriating and refreshing. I wish I could sleep more, but getting an early start to the day can occasionally be great, especially during the blazing days of a Tokyo summer. Leaving the house after 10am can feel like an exercise in masochism, as temperatures have been well into the 90s almost every day for the past few weeks. So I’ve been taking advantage of my newfound early bird tendencies and trekking out around 6am for a prolonged early morning constitutional, always with musical accompaniment of course. Continue reading
Random Weird Record Reviews
I’ve been taking a deep dive into some weird music lately. I don’t know why. Usually I would share this stuff on Lost Turntable, but since that blog is only for music that is out-of-print (support the musicians you like!) I can’t really do that.
So apropos of nothing, a series of mini-reviews of avant-garde, progressive, leftfeild, new wave, ambient, drone, industrial records that I bought last week. Some are new pressings, all are new to me. And all of them are easily available on iTunes!
Blackouts – Ashra (Manuel Göttsching)
I’d seen Göttsching’s name before and have browsed over his records in the past, but this was the first time I’d picked one up. But I think I’ll be grabbing more in the future, because this album is really special. It’s loop and sequencer based, but it also has strong melodies and hooks on top of all that. Imagine Fripp/Eno but catchy. Really amazing guitar sound on this record, I cannot recommend it enough. If you like Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream or any of the wonky shit I post at Lost Turntable, you’ll probably dig on this. Continue reading
A Nostalgia for MP3 Blogs
The internet is old enough for us to have nostalgia for how it used to be, but most people don’t. Sure, the internet is a flaming garbage pile now, but 20 years ago it was a really ugly flaming garbage pile that ran really slow.
But recently I’ve found myself waxing nostalgic for the internet of 2005-2010. Not because it was before social media ruined everything, but because it was the age of the MP3 blog. Continue reading
Osamu Shoji: 1932-2018
Last month, the music world lost a genius you’ve most likely never heard of, Osamu Shoji. He was 85 years old.
Osamu Shoji was born in 1932, and he started out as a songwriter for Japanese pop artists in the late-60s, but his solo career didn’t take off in any substantial way until the late-70s, when he embraced the then relatively-new world of synthesizers and sequencers. In 1978, he released two albums of original synthesizer music: Welcome To The SF World, and Jataka, two absolutely wonderful records that feature ambient, new age and experimental tracks that showcase everything a synthesizer could accomplish in the late 70s. Continue reading
Japan Record Store Day Release Review Round Up
Record Store Day has been going strong in Japan for a few years now. First, they were content to only carry imports of the UK and US releases, but more recently Japanese artists have started to release their own RSD titles as well. I was able to get a few of them, as well as some other recent re-releases of note, and I thought I’d run through them here for those curious but hesitant to pay the import fees without knowing a bit more first.
Mioko Yamaguchi – Anju
When Mioko Yamaguchi’s studio albums were finally given a CD release a few months back, her “greatest hits” compilation Anju didn’t make the cut. This 7″ single collects the two songs that were recorded for that compilation, and thankfully also includes a CD with them as well. Continue reading
Requiem for Moog (and other synthesizer) covers albums
Synthesizer covers albums. They were a minor rage in the late-60s to mid-70s, thanks largely to the success of Wendy Carlos’ epic Switched-On Bach, one of the very first albums arranged entirely entirely on the Moog synthesizer that actually sounded like music. Before that, synthesizers was either a minor component in a larger band setting, or was only being used for ultra-experimental works that barely functioned as music proper. If you’ve ever gone record shopping, you’ve probably stumbled across these covers albums a budget bin. Maybe you picked one up, laughed at the audacity of it and put it back down. Or maybe you bought a couple just for giggles, only to forget about them soon after.
Or maybe you’re like me and you’ve bought somewhere between 50 and a hundred of them. (It’s hard for me to keep count, my collection is spread across two continents at the moment). Continue reading