MTV’s Top 100 of 1985, a look back (Part 3)
As we head into the 70s of the countdown, we hit a crossroads of artists new and old. Half of these tracks are by artists who were well into their second, or in some cases even third, decade of making music, while the other half are hit singles by young up-and-comers. Time has been a friend to most of the songs on here, even the terrible ones are remembered (unfortunately). But time was not nearly as kind to most of the new acts here. Of the debut artists appearing in this set of videos, only one managed to maintain any kind of substantial mainstream success as the years went on.
It’s a shame too, because all of the songs here by then-new artists are fantastic. Certainly better than the two showing by one of the kings of shit-ass AOR bullshit that make their appearances here as well.
The Bigot Doug TenNapel and his friend Mike Nelson
Like most of humanity, I’m spending more time indoors these days, watching more movies, playing more games, reading more, and so on. Yay pandemic.
Recently, I started checking out some Rifftrax commentaries that are available on Amazon. For those who aren’t aware, Rifftrax is a show of sorts that offers humorous commentary tracks for bad movies, done by Kevin Murphy, Scott Corbett, and Mike Nelson, all of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame.
I started to watch the Birdemic one. It opened with a slightly racist joke about Korean drivers, but I shrugged it off. But it got me wondering about Mike Nelson. Mike is a conservative Christian who votes republican exclusively. While he’s a private guy who doesn’t give interviews about his politics very often, he has mentioned this in the past. I was curious to see if he had any takes on the recent events (COVID, George Floyd, Black Lives Matter…choose one, it’s been a hell of a year). I scoped out Twitter, but he doesn’t seem to have a Twitter.
He does have a podcast though.
*heaviest breath of my life*
He has a podcast with the bigot Doug TenNapel. Continue reading
MTV’s Top 100 of 1985, a look back (Part 2)
Continuing my look at MTV’s Top 100 Countdown of 1985 with numbers 89-80 (part 1 can be found here). This set of ten brings up some huge swings in quality and staying power, with some all-time classics by legendary artists and songs that have been absolutely (and rightfully….and thankfully) lost to the sands of time. This section of the list is also one of many that shows how much power artists from the 1970s still had on MTV. It wasn’t all day-glo and hairspray. You could be a boring white dude in his 40s who was good at playing an instrument and still score a massive hit.
Or Rod Stewart.
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.
My first (and last) visit to Anata No Warehouse
Anata No Warehouse (“Your Warehouse”) is one of the most famous arcades in Japan, thanks largely to its unique design. The building, which opened in 2009, is designed to resemble Hong Kong’s legendary Kowloon Walled City, with a rusty, rundown facade and odd decor strewn about to give it that retro HK-vibe.
Sadly, the Warehouse will be closing soon. If you’re reading this after November 17, 2019, then you’ve already missed your chance to seek it out. It’s gone, closed forever like so many other Japanese arcades have been lately.
I had never made my way to the Warehouse before, since it’s nearly 90 minutes away from my home, so my trip to check it out in its waning days before its closure was my first (and last). Continue reading
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
A deep dive into Stranger Things’ video store
The following contains no story spoilers for Stranger Things.
As a white male rapidly approaching 40 with a penchant for 80s sci-fi and horror, I am squarely in Stranger Things‘ target demographic. While the show has always purposely drenched itself in nostalgia and pop culture references from the decade in which it is set, season three saw these references go into overdrive. Much of this was due to the insanely elaborate and detailed Starcourt Mall set, which many have already commented on in regards to its authenticity, with era appropriate logos of several mall standards (such as The Gap and Orange Julius) being prominently displayed. The brief scene in a supermarket also served as a nostalgia injection for many, thanks to several shots of 80s brands, including some favorite high-sugar licensed-property cereals being flashed on the screen.
For me though, the biggest nostalgia-bomb in the show came at the end, when two characters visit a video store. My family owned and operated a video store for most of the 80s and into the 90s, so whenever I get to see one on-screen, I always want to get my pause button ready just to see how many of the old VHS tapes I can recognize, and this was no exception. So, what VHS classics did the makers of Stranger Things deem worthy for inclusion into their video store? And were all of them era-appropriate? Let’s take a look.
Prepare to be impressed by my ability to identify out-of-focus VHS box art. 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