Duran Duran in New York in September 1981 David Tan / Shinko Music / Getty Images
John Lennon had just been assassinated (December 1980) and the Imperial Led Zeppelin bent their knees after the death (September 1980) of their drummer, John Bonham.
The era of the great bands that reigned in the sixties and seventies was ending.
It was 1981 and the fan was open.
The irruption of technology allowed the displacement of the patriarchal guitar by the elastic synthesizers.
Techno pop
was born
,
sinister pop, new romantics and punk became more violent, becoming
hardcore
.
Did we say that guitars disappeared?
No, 40 years ago
hair metal
was also born
in its most quarrelsome version, with the depraved Mötley Crüe rampaging through the city.
Four decades ago, pop and rock were not one-color: variety and quality prevailed.
These 20 albums prove it:
-The Human League, 'Dare!'
Who are they?
The Human League were essential in the creation of what was called
synth pop
(pop with synthesizers).
In the early eighties the group was on the verge of disappearing.
Its two leaders, Martyn Ware and Ian Marsh, had left.
Only vocalist Philip Oakey, who happened to be the most talented of those from Sheffield, was left alone.
But Oakey rose from the ruins, dusted himself off, and dazzled with this record.
Why is 'Dare!' So good?
The guitar freaks flee from this album.
Their loss.
Synths, drum machines, machine-triggered sounds abound here… and Oakey's baritone voice.
Together they have created pearls of technified pop such as
Love Action
, the very popular
Don't You Want Me
or
The Things That Dreams Are Made Of,
where Oakey sings something imperishable: “Everyone needs love and adventure.
/ Everyone needs cash to spend.
/ Everybody needs love and affection.
/ Everybody needs two or three friends ”.
I will give!
It has been playing for four decades and does not suffer.
- Rainbow, 'Difficult to Cure'
Who are they?
The band that Ritchie Blackmore started when he left Deep Purple.
Maniac and egomaniac, the guitarist changed line-up almost on every record.
This is Rainbow's fifth album and the third vocalist used: first it was Ronnie James Dio (all honors to him), then he signed Graham Bonnet and now it was Joe Lynn Turner's turn.
Why is 'Difficult to Cure' so good?
Seventies hard rock mourned the breakdown of that unbeatable partnership: Blackmore and Dio.
The good news is that he started a sensational solo career.
In
Difficult to Curey,
Blackmore recruits a great vocalist, Joe Lynn Turner.
Together they compose a hard rock album for all audiences.
I Surrender
is a cannonball,
Spotlight Kid
is frantic and shows how great a guitarist Blackmore was still;
Magic
has an
interesting
funk
base
… There is, of course, the theme that closes the album: a cheap instrumental version
of Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony
.
The rest, luxury.
- The Police, 'Ghost In The Machine'
Who are they?
The only band born in the punk era and the
new wave
that became massive and managed to fill stadiums.
The Police decided to overcome labels, evolve, experiment and sophisticate their message.
Ghost In The Machine
, his fourth album, is an example of this.
Why is 'Ghost In The Machine' so good?
The trio here expands its music, introduces synthesizers,
reggae
has become
dub
and the lyrics are proclamations that are still familiar to us today: a troubled citizen overloaded with information and disciplined fulfilling his role as part of a cog in a system that controls.
Ghost In The Machine
sees the birth of intellectual The Police, but with the intact ability to craft commercial refrains, such as
Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
.
Also an album where the relationships between the three began to crack.
A work with experimentation that nevertheless succeeded.
And the beginning of the end of the trio.
- Journey, 'Escape'
Who are they?
Journey began its career in San Francisco in the mid-1970s as a band between progressive and
jazz-rock.
It wasn't until the incorporation of vocalist Steve Perry in 1978 that they switched to melodic rock (AOR, in music terminology) and became one of the best-selling bands on the planet.
Why is 'Escape' so good?
Some realized the greatness of
Don't Stop Believin '
when they heard it in the mythical last scene of
The Sopranos
.
That was in 2007. They were 25 years late, but welcome.
That song was the one that launched
Escape,
a beautiful rock album, with the contained electricity, the necessary ballads and the warm range of Perry's voice.
He sold a brutality: so many people can't be wrong.
- Rick James, 'Street Songs'
Who is it?
Influential character in
funk
and hip hop, gifted artist, unrepentant scoundrel.
He reigned in the late seventies and early eighties, placing 23 songs at the top of the charts in the United States and then plunged into an orgy of vices that ended his life at age 56.
Why is 'Street Songs' so good?
With disco music dying, in 1981 Rick James gives it a boost by adding
funk
propulsion
, paving the way for
neo soul,
laying its foundations for rappers (Jay Z included) to use, and creating the perfect song to lift off their music. bed a dying man,
Super Freak
.
All this is this album.
- Duran Duran, 'Duran Duran'
Who are they?
In the cradle of
heavy metal,
Birmingham, where Black Sabbath and Judas Priest were born, there, in that dark and painful city, there were also hairdressers.
Fresh out of one of them, crammed with highlights and hairspray, Duran Duran emerged in the early eighties, leading figures of the so-called
new romantics
, daringly dressed guys composing luminous music in gloomy surroundings.
Why is 'Duran Duran' so good?
Although his next album,
Rio
(1982), is rounder, his debut is more influential.
Here is everything: the most pop Blur, Franz Ferdinand, the Killers… Sparkling keyboards,
funk
basses
, rhythmic guitars (few taps) and the very personal voice of Simon Le Bon, a reference for Morrissey or Damon Albarn.
- Whitesnake, 'Come an' Get It '
Who are they?
Whitesnake's first stage is the least known of the bunch.
There were guitarists Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden (in addition to former Deep Purple Ian Paice and Jon Lord), wrapping up
the meaty voice of David Coverdale
with their
boogie
guitars
.
This album belongs to that time, when the band was billing hard rock with blues roots, before teasing their manes and becoming the kings of
hair metal
, no longer with Moody and Marsden.
Why is' Come an 'Get It' so good?
There was a time when hard rock bands played with a smile on their face, not a serial killer face.
This is one of the cases.
David Coverdale, the best follower of fat voices a la Paul Rodgers, commands a
rock and boggie band
that makes an album that is not subject to fashions or attached to a period, as it later happened with
hair metal.
- The Rolling Stones, 'Tattoo You'
Who are they?
The Rolling Stones facing a decade, the eighties, complicated discographically (not live, where they filled stadiums) for bands that were born in the sixties.
Tattoo You
was the best of the four albums they recorded in that decade, perhaps their last great album.
And that happened 40 years ago.
Why is 'Tattoo You' so good?
It's funny: we are talking about an album made from scraps, especially the recording sessions of the previous two,
Some Girls
(1978) and
Emotional Rescue
(1980).
But on the whole it makes sense.
The first part is rock, like his dynamite starter
(
Start Me Up
),
his rock and roll
(
Hang Fire
,
Little T&A
,
sung by Keith Richards) and his blues
(
Black Limousine
).
The B-side is filled with great ballads (long live Jagger's falsetto):
Worried About You
,
Heaven
or the best known,
Waiting On A Friend
.
A compendium album of some of the facets of the Stones, an important album in Spain because it was the one that brought them to those two magical concerts by Vicente Calderón in 1982.
- Depeche Mode, 'Speak and Spell'
Who are they?
A case similar to that of The Human League.
The group's main songwriter, Vince Clarke, left after this, Depeche Mode's debut album.
Over time, Depeche were much larger than the Clarke, Erasure, and Yazoo projects.
Why is 'Speak and Spell' so good?
Initiatory work of synthesizer pop.
Songs from when we still believed we could tame machines.
There is a lot of robotics in
Speak and Spell
, but each and every one of the pieces has a soul.
Before the algorithm stole our hearts, there were humans manipulating the data.
Let's also remember that here is
Just Can't Get Enough
, that every time it plays we go out on the track.
- Prince, 'Controversy'
Who is it?
In 1981 Prince was the opening act for the Rolling Stones on the
Tattoo You
tour
.
That didn't go well.
Prince faced for the first time in his career a massively white and patriarchal audience, who at some concerts did not stop booing him and throwing things on stage.
The one from Minneapolis left that tour to record this album that challenges that racist and sexist environment.
Controversy,
the fourth album of his career, was his response to that toxic atmosphere.
Why is 'Controversy' so good?
"I'm black or I'm white, I'm gay or straight," Prince sings in the album's title track.
Because seldom has social revolt been called from sexuality.
In the musical, in
Controversy
are the last blows of disco music
(those swaying guitars influenced by Nile Rodgers), James Brown grunts, orgiastic house-brand ballads
(Do, Me Baby)
, to close the album with the playful pop that would prevail in the early eighties
(Jack U Off).
- Mötley Crüe, 'Too Fast For Love'
Who are they?
“When we broke in, we were more of a gang than a group.
We'd get drunk, pop in an insane amount of coke, and ride the entire Los Angeles circuit in high-heeled boots, tripping every two by three.
Sunset Strip was a hole of depravity. "
This is how the singer Vince Neil tells in the biography of the group,
Los rapos sucios
, the environment in which
Too Fast For Love
, their first album,
was recorded
.
Why is 'Too Fast For Love' so good?
An album without commercial pressures, rough, rocker, rude, full of imperfections and authenticity.
They released it on their own and then it was relaunched by the record company with a more polished sound.
More than
heavy metal,
this album is
punk rock.
Guns N'Roses tore it apart from listening to it before releasing their
Appetite for Destruction
in 1987.
- Kraftwerk, 'Computer World'
Who are they?
Four Germans who had been warning since the beginning of the seventies of the implantation of machines in our reckless existence.
For 1981, his message did not waver: robots will control the world.
They saw the future before anyone else.
Why is 'Computer World' so good?
Since we humans no longer paint anything, let's dance to the sound that our masters create.
This is what Kraftwerk does at
Computer World.
They could have made an apocalyptic record, but it turned out to be a playful job of robotic sounds.
During these last years, creators (and not only musicians) have frequently chopped up parts of this album to promote their songs.
That is one more data of the relevance of
Computer World.
- Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, 'I Love Rock' N 'Roll'
Who is it?
An excellent
rock and roll
interpreter
not sufficiently vindicated surely by the overwhelming dominance of the style by men, especially if we talk about the seventies.
Miley Cyrus had to come recently to remind us of Jett's talent.
Why is 'I Love Rock' N 'Roll' so good?
With the Runaways broken, Jett began a difficult solo career.
It was rejected by all (literally) the record companies, who went up the wall when he published this album, the second of his solo career.
Well-chosen versions and his own songs that are developed where his macarronic voice shines best:
glam rock
.
It all started with a declaration of principles that still sounds vindicable:
I Love Rock 'N' Roll.
- Billy Squier, 'Don't Say No'
Who is it?
The eighties were the decade of opportunity.
American Billy Squire caught a glimpse of one in 1981 and released this
Don't Say No
, a hit that played permanently for a couple of seasons on American commercial radio.
Why is 'Don't Say No' so good?
Squier's move was very clever, who did a job halfway between Led Zeppelin and Boston, neither as furious as the British nor as bombastic as Tom Scholz's gang.
In other words, a more or less hard rock that did not alter the beats of those who liked pop.
Perfect for playing on familiar FM radios, there isn't a disappointing song on the record, merengous ballad included.
- Heaven 17, 'Penthouse and Pavement'
Who are they?
The group that Martyn Ware and Ian Marsh formed when they left The Human League.
It's one of those plays that works out strangely well.
The League released the wonderful
Dare
without them
!
and Heaven 17 debuted with this great album.
Why is 'Penthouse and Pavement' so good?
With that cover so cool and as
techno pop
as
funky
, Heaven 17 created an elegant and danceable pop album with some depth in its lyrics.
“Let's all make a bomb.
/ Put it on and close the door.
/ Put on your best clothes and let's go out and show off.
/ Even if our future is black ”, they sing in
Let's All Make a Bomb
.
No, Heaven 17 didn't have much faith in modern life.
- Black Flag, 'Damaged'
Who are they?
An institution within punk.
From California and with a powerful influence not only among the different subgenres of punk, but also in styles such as
grunge
.
Led by guitarist Greg Ginn and backed by the brutal voice of Henry Rollins.
Why is 'Damaged' so good?
Damaged
can be considered
as a seminal album within the
hardcore,
an extreme side of punk.
Nihilistic, sharp, violent, the dictionary definition of the word "anger" should recommend this album.
- Grace Jones, 'Nightclubbing'
Who is it?
A Jamaican model who dazzled with her androgynous image, shone on the catwalks, was on the covers of the most important fashion magazines ... and one day she discovered New York's Studio 54 and decided that the kind of music that was danced there was her thing.
Since then he has been a pop icon.
Why is 'Nightclubbing' so good?
The same year this album was released, 1981, Grace Jones was on Russell Harty's television show.
The host made a joke about the perfume she was wearing and then turned to talk to another guest.
Jones warned him not to turn his back on him.
As the journalist ignored him, the singer began to slap him.
Millions of people saw it.
That's how Jones was at that time, powerful and non-forgiving with whom he showed paternalistic and sexist attitudes.
Nightclubbing
showcases a melting pot of genres (pop,
reggae
,
funk
,
disco)
sinuously interpreted by a Grace in a state of grace.
- Foreigner, '4'
Who are they?
Foreigner had an immediate and long-lasting success.
His first three albums swept sales.
But there was the best, this room, top of melodic rock.
Why is '4' so good?
Great year, 1981, for rock away from fanfare.
In addition to this
4
,
Escape,
by Journey,
was published
, already discussed in this list.
In most American homes there was a copy of one of them, and in many, both.
Lou Gramm's soulful rock vocals, Mick Jones guitar always hitting the right notes, and a set of catchy songs deliver wonderfully cloying work.
Here's
Urgent
and his sax solo and
Waiting for a Girl like You
, the perfect ballad for American rom-coms.
- The Cure, 'Faith'
Who are they?
Robert Smith's band facing the second album of his sinister trilogy (completed by
Seventeen Seconds,
1980, and
Pornography,
1982) and closing his first cycle, very important, in which he would define a style and then go on nuancing it.
They are still in the gap.
Why is 'Faith' so good?
In this album The Cure gives definitive shape to his world, dark and beautiful, tragic and joyful, disturbing and calm.
Because, despite being depressed, you have to dance.
All
Faith
builds an exciting atmosphere, with moving phases and other terrifying ones.
Simon Gallup's bass makes songs that end up dominated by Robert Smith's dramatic voice ride.
- The Replacements, 'Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash'
Who are they?
"The best band that never was," headlined
Rolling Stone
magazine
a report on The Replacements.
For here are the shots.
A group that influenced REM, Dinosaur Jr., Lemonheads and dozens of American alternative rock bands, but did not get to enjoy the success they deserved.
Why is 'Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash' so good?
This is the first album by the Minneapolis band, the most
punk
of their career.
The Replacements sounded dirty, but you can tell that their references were Chuck Berry and the Rolling Stones.
Keith Richards's opiates were traded for stimulants and alcohol.
They played at insane speed, made chaotic records, plugged in the guitars and that's it.
Because of that lack of planning, despite being so good, they didn't get very far.
And amid all the excitement, a beauty like
Johnny's Gonna Die
.
And in Spain, what
In Spain, 1981 was also an important year.
A key season, since it saw the birth of the two most relevant Spanish hard rock bands, Barón Rojo and Obús, in discography.
The former debuted with 'Long live rock and roll' and the latter with 'Prepare yourself'.
The year zero of 'heavy' in Spain.
At the same time, the movement grew.
If the first operas of Nacha Pop and Radio Futura came out in 1980, the effervescent debut of Los Secretos took place in 1981. They still perform some of those songs in concert: 'Déjame', 'Ojos de perdida', 'Sobre un cristal silencio' … Outside of these two movements there were snipers, like Ramoncín, who just 40 years ago published his most rounded album, 'Arañando la ciudad'.
Or Camarón de la Isla, who after the revolution not understood in his time of 'The legend of time' (1979), returned to the path of the classic with Paco de Lucía and 'Como el agua'.
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