1981- MTV debuted in 1981, because cable TV was only seen as a luxury at the time. MTV’s first ever song broadcast was “Video Killed The Radio Star”. Michael Jackson’s popular music video “Thriller” first broadcasted in 1983 and he had asked a big film director, John Landis, to direct it. “Sledgehammer – Peter Gabriel” had just hit number 1, which earned him his first, from his 5th self-titled album. This song also had gated drums on it.
1983- Lets dance by David Bowie hit Number 1 and so did Billie Jean. U2 also just released Sunday Bloody Sunday. David Bowie’s song “Lets Dance” had Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar, Nile Rodgers was already known for disco and Bob Clearmountain was the mixer. At the time, Disco was dying, because people would burn Disco records, so a lot of people were afraid of using the Disco sound, including Stevie Ray Vaughan, which is why the guitars funk was so toned down, but you could definitely seem elements of Disco. On a more minor note, “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” was also released by U2. Bloody Sunday was an event that happened in Ireland, 1972. This was when 26 innocent civilians died because British troops came in fighting them. There was riots afterwards but this only cause 14 more deaths.
1984- Michael Jackson won AMA’s and Prince’s highly popular song “Purple Rain” was released. Around this time, Margaret Thatcher was prime minister. She was not a very well liked women because she caused a lot of unemployment in UK. Once she died, in 2013, “Ding Dong The witch Is Dead” hit number 1 in the UK charts. Many people also wrote a lot of songs about her such as “Margaret on the guillotine”, which was from Morrisey.
1985- Live Aid was held in 2 stadiums, Wembley, in the UK, and JFK, in the USA. This was a charity event to raise money for African Famine. “Do They Know It’s Christmas Time” pulled together a lot of huge artists which raised over £75,000. The event as a whole hosted legendary artists like David Bowie, Madonna, Elton John, Queen and many others!
1987- The 80’s sound basically always had “gated drums. Gated Drums were created by accident when a band surpassed the threshold to gain extra volume, put a whole load of reverb on the snare and then there was birthed gated drums. This sounded quite punchy and thick on the reverb. It became like the iconic sound for the 80’s, with every big named artist using it.
1989- The Berlin Wall was a way which segregated east and western Germany, with Germany and Russia on one side and England and French on the other. Whilst the wall was there, you needed a Visa to cross over the wall. However, German Citizens got tired of the wall being there and decided to knock it down.