Music of the United Kingdom (1980s)
Popular music of the United Kingdom in the 1980s built on the post-punk and new wave movements, incorporating different sources of inspiration from subgenres and what is now classed as world music in the shape of Jamaican and Indian music. It also explored the consequences of new technology and social change in the electronic music of synthpop. In the early years of the decade, while subgenres like heavy metal music continued to develop separately, there was a considerable crossover between rock and more commercial popular music, with a large number of more "serious" bands, like The Police and UB40, enjoying considerable single chart success.
The advent of MTV and cable video helped spur what has been seen as a Second British Invasion in the early years of the decade, with British bands enjoying more success in America than they had since the height of the Beatles' popularity in the 1960s. However, by the end of the decade a fragmentation has been observed, with many new forms of music and sub-cultures, including hip hop and house music, while the single charts were once again dominated by pop artists, now often associated with the Hi-NRG hit factory of Stock Aitken Waterman. The rise of the indie rock scene was partly a response to this, and marked a shift away from the major music labels and towards the importance of local scenes like Madchester and subgenres, like gothic rock.
Rock
New wave and New Romantics
New Romantic music emerged in London nightclubs including Billy's and the Blitz Club towards the end of the 1970s. Influenced by David Bowie and Roxy Music, it developed glam rock fashions, gaining its name from the frilly fop shirts of early Romanticism. New Romantic music often made extensive use of synthesisers. Pioneers included Visage and Ultravox and among the commercially most successful acts associated with the movement were Adam and the Ants, Culture Club, Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran. By about 1983 the original movement had dissolved, with surviving acts dropping most of the fashion elements to pursue mainstream careers.Post-punk
Some of the most successful post punk bands in the 1970s, such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, Echo & the Bunnymen and The Psychedelic Furs, also continued their success during the 1980s. Members of Bauhaus and Joy Division explored new stylistic territory as Love and Rockets and New Order respectively. The second generation of British post-punk bands that broke through in the early 1980s, in, tended to move away from dark sonic landscapes. Some, such as Gang of Four, shifted to a more commercial new wave sound, while others moved into gothic rock or became early examples of indie rock.Gothic rock
Gothic rock, often shortened to goth, developed out of the post-punk scene in the early 1980s. It combines dark, often keyboard-heavy music with introspective and depressing lyrics. Notable early gothic rock bands include Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, The Sisters of Mercy, and Fields of the Nephilim. Gothic rock gave rise to a broader goth subculture that included clubs, various fashion trends and numerous publications that grew in popularity in the 1980s, gaining notoriety by being associated by several moral panics over suicide and Satanism.Indie rock
Indie or independent rock, was a scene that emerged from post-punk and new wave eschewing the major record labels for control of their own music and relying on local scenes or national sub-cultures to provide an audience. Having enjoyed some success a number of indie acts were able to move into the mainstream, including early indie bands Aztec Camera, Orange Juice and The Smiths, followed by The Housemartins and James. The C86 cassette, released in 1986 by NME and featuring such bands as The Wedding Present, Primal Scream, The Pastels, and The Soup Dragons, was a major influence on the development of indie pop and the British indie scene as a whole.Other forms of alternative rock developed in the UK during the 1980s. The Jesus and Mary Chain wrapped their pop melodies in walls of guitar noise, while New Order emerged from the demise of post-punk band Joy Division and experimented with techno and house music, forging the alternative dance style. The Mary Chain, along with Dinosaur Jr and the dream pop of Cocteau Twins, were the influences for the shoegazing movement of the late 1980s. Named for the bandmembers' tendency to stare at their feet onstage, shoegazing acts like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Ride, and Lush created an overwhelmingly loud "wash of sound" that obscured vocals and melodies with long, droning riffs, distortion, and feedback. Shoegazing bands dominated the British music press at the end of the decade along with the drug-fuelled Madchester scene. Based around The Haçienda, a nightclub in Manchester owned by New Order and Factory Records, Madchester bands such as The Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays mixed acid house dance rhythms with melodic guitar pop.
Heavy metal
In the 1980s, the new wave of British heavy metal broke into the mainstream, as albums by Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Saxon reached the British top 10. Many metal artists, including Def Leppard, benefited from the exposure they received on MTV and became the inspiration for American glam metal. However, as the subgenre fragmented into various subgenres, much of the creative impetus shifted towards America and continental Europe, which produced most of the major new subgenres of metal, which were then taken up by British acts. These included thrash metal and death metal, both developed in the US; black metal and power metal, both developed in continental Europe, but influenced by the British band Venom; and doom, which was developed in the US, but which soon were adopted by a number of bands from England, including Pagan Altar and Witchfinder General.Grindcore
Grindcore, or simply grind, emerged during the mid-1980s as an extreme music genre characterised by heavily distorted, down-tuned guitars, high speed tempo, blast beats, songs often lasting no more than two minutes, and vocals which consist of growls and high-pitched screams. It drew inspiration from some of the most abrasive music genres – including death metal, industrial music, noise and the more extreme varieties of hardcore punk. Grindcore, as such, was developed during the mid-1980s in the United Kingdom by Napalm Death, a group who emerged from the crust punk scene. Napalm Death inspired other British grindcore groups in the 1980s, among them Extreme Noise Terror, Carcass and Sore Throat.Folk punk
Folk punk or rogue folk is a fusion of folk music and punk rock, or occasionally other genres, which was pioneered by the London-based Irish band The Pogues in the 1980s. It achieved some mainstream success in the 1980s and, particularly as the subgenre of Celtic punk, has been widely adopted in areas of the Celtic diaspora in North America and Australia and by many bands in continental central and eastern Europe. Unlike earlier Celtic rock and electric folk groups, folk punk groups tend to include relatively little traditional music in their repertoire, but instead usually performed their own compositions, often following the form of punk rock, using additional folk instrumentation, including, mandolin, accordion, banjo and particularly violin. Other bands adopted some traditional forms of music, including sea shanties and eastern European gypsy music. Among the most successful performers were The Levellers, and singer-songwriter Billy Bragg, who enjoyed a series of hits in the 1980s.Pop
The British charts at the opening of the 1980s contained the usual mix of imports, novelty acts, oddities and survivors like Queen and David Bowie, but were dominated by post punk, and then from about 1981 by new romantic acts. There were also more conventional pop acts, including Bucks Fizz, whose light lyrics and simple tempos gave them three number ones after their Eurovision Song Contest victory in 1981.The dance-pop music of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, initially controversial, gave them three consecutive number ones in 1984, until they faded away in the mid-1980s. Perhaps the most successful British pop band of the era were the duo Wham! with an unusual mix of disco, soul, ballads and even rap, who had eleven top ten hits in the UK, six of them number ones, between 1982 and 1986. Another band that dominated the charts within the early to mid-1980s were Culture Club with a blend of soul, rock, pop, new wave and reggae gathered them nine top ten hits and two number ones until they broke up in 1986. In the second half of the 1980s, British pop music was dominated by Stock Aitken Waterman's "hit factory" with the uniformity of their Hi-NRG sound.
Synth-pop
Synth-pop emerged from new wave, producing a form of pop music that followed electronic rock pioneers in the 1960s and 1970s like Kraftwerk, Jean-Michel Jarre and Tangerine Dream, in which the synthesiser is the dominant musical instrument. Tubeway Army, a little known outfit from West London, dropped their punk rock image and topped the UK charts in 1979 with the single "Are "Friends" Electric?", prompting their singer, Gary Numan to go solo and release the album, The Pleasure Principle from which he gained a number one in the singles charts with "Cars".Trevor Horn of the Buggles captured the changing scene in the international hit "Video Killed the Radio Star". It also became dominant for many New Romantic acts like Visage, Ultravox, Duran Duran and Japan. There were also more straight forwardly new wave pop acts like the Human League as well as Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, and Yazoo. Other key artists from the early to mid-1980s include Eurythmics, Talk Talk, A Flock of Seagulls, Tears for Fears, New Order, Pet Shop Boys, OMD, Thomas Dolby, Thompson Twins, Bronski Beat, Heaven 17, Howard Jones, Blancmange and Erasure.