POPULAR MUSIC THROUGH THE AGES

(80’S AND 2010’S)BY: _______________________________

OVERVIEW OF MUSIC IN THE 80’S Dominated by metal and rock genres

Consisted of instruments such as guitars, drums, bass, etc.

Average song lengths were 4-5 minutes

OVERVIEW OF MUSIC IN THE 2010’S Dominated by genres such as rap, pop, etc.

Consists of beats composed electronically

Average song length is about 3 minutes

How can theses musical periods be

compared?

Song Topics/ Lyrics

Overall “sound” or “feel” of the music

Types of instruments used

Recording process

Quality of live performances

SONG LYRICS IN THE 80’S AS OPPOSED TO 2010’S

Topics about which these songs were written are similar: love, loss, rebellion,

inspiration, etc. (Crafting a Hit, 2014)

Some bands of the 2010’s sound very similar to bands in the 80’s (Peake, n.d.)

There are also some bands that have lyrics similar to songs in the 80’s

INSTRUMENTS USED BY ARTISTS IN THE

80’s

Consisted mostly of guitars, bass, drums (Hannum, 2013)

Vocals had more of a natural sound (not auto-tuned), shrieks

dominated the sound of most of these songs (Crafting a Hit, 2014)

INSTRUMENTS USED BY ARTISTS IN THE

2010’S

Use of electronics (mostly computers) to create beats (Hannum, 2013)

Use of auto-tunes to heavily modify the voice of the vocalist

RECORDING PROCESS FOR BANDS

IN THE 80’S

Songwriters were mostly the band members

Recording in the studio was done in a way to preserve the music

that was actually generated (Hannum, 2013)

Lyrics were meaningful and non-repetitive (Guns N’ Roses, 1987)

RECORDING PROCESS FOR BANDS

IN THE 2010’S

A lot of songwriters hired to write songs for artists

There is a lot of alteration done on the vocalist’s voice to make

him/her sound “pitch perfect” (Hannum, 2013)

Beats produced are repetitive and generic

LIVE PERFORMANCES THEN AND

NOW Most live performances done in the 80’s sounded exactly like what

people heard from the recording studio

Majority of the songs performed live in the 2010’s sound nothing like

they do on the recording (Hannum, 2013)

A lot of stage theatrics were pretty much the same however

(costumes, pyros, etc) (Volans, 2012)

CONCLUSION

Not all songs in the 2010’s sound repetitive and dull

Evolution of music is not a bad thing, some bands prefer mixing two

genres together for example Papa Roach

Some bands are staying true to sounds you would hear in the 80’s

(Slash ft Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators)

Citations Images Used (in order of appearance)

http://www.takegreatpictures.com/app/webroot/content/2010_images/2011/03/10/guns-n-roses-concert-pictur.jpg

http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/ultimateclassicrock.com/files/2012/05/JudasPriestLive-Eric-Haggard.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Gaga_Bad_Romance.jpg

http://images.soundspike.com/artists/ke$ha_8_2010.jpg

http://www.ew.com/sites/default/files/i/2010/10/12/AMA-noms_320.jpg

http://under30ceo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/tumblr_static_rock-n-roll.jpg

http://rnb56756.com/files/images/Top-10-Pop-Music-Albums.jpg

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs16/f/2007/224/c/3/guitar_drums_and_bass_by_neilakoga.jpg

Citations (contd.) http://www.antarestech.com/mediafiles/product_records/images/2

_1_AT_Live_screenbig.png

http://www.myplay.com/files/imagecache/photo_345_square/files/artist_images/tpainbio.jpg

http://concertconnection.blogs.deseretnews.com/files/2014/07/journey.jpg

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/classicrock/images/8/8d/12.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130825141448

http://www.supermusic.sk/obrazky/186888_800x600_FloRidaWall1_instores.jpg

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/X2ThFMBG-Jo/maxresdefault.jpg

http://www.freewallsource.com/papa-roach-9862.html/papa-roach-9862

http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/30800000/Slash-ft-Myles-Kennedy-The-Conspirators-slash-30801568-720-459.jpg

References

Crafting a Hit: How Many Songwriters Does It Take? 2014, June 12th. Associated Press. Retrieved from http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/legal-and-management/6121118/crafting-a-hit-how-many-songwriters-does-it-take

Guns N’ Roses. 1987, July 21st. Sweet Child O’ Mine. Lyrics retrieved from http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/gunsnroses/sweetchildomine.html

Hannum, C. 2014, March 19th. New Study Figured Out The 12 Most Common Themes Of Music’s #1 Hits In The Past 50 Years. Eurekalert. Retrieved from http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-03/ncsu-ao5031814.php

Kesha. 2010, January 5th. Your Love Is My Drug. AZLyrics.com. Lyrics retrieved from http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/keha/yourloveismydrug.html

Peake, S. n.d. Top 10 Songwriting Teams of the '80s. 80music. Retrieved from http://80music.about.com/od/top10list1/tp/Top--80s-Songwriting-

Teams.htm

Volans, M. 2012, April 26th. How To Make Epic Electronic Beats. Tutsplus.com Retrieved from http://music.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-make-epic-electronic-beats--audio-14037