We are in the time tunnel: the eighties are back again - and this time they are here to stay

Surprisingly, 2022 shines a face for names like New Kids on the Block, Rick Astley, Tires for Pierce and Soft Basket - artists who conquered the charts 35 years ago, and the industry sees them mostly as machines of nostalgia.

Can they return to the forefront of the stage with new and successful songs?

Well, it's not that simple - but it's possible

Avi Goldberger

27/03/2022

Sunday, 27 March 2022, 00:01 Updated: 00:05

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Noy Eisen performs the big hits of 2021, from Walla!'S annual international parade.

Eco 99 and Tiktok (Editing: Nir Chen)

The New Kids on the Block, Rick Astley and Salt & Papa were at their peak of popularity in the late 1980s, but 2022 is actually brightening their faces for now.

The New Kids invented the concept of boy bands and became the first success of the genre, one that would be worn in the future by bands like the Backstreet Boys, Take That or One Direction;

Astley was the ultimate Cinderella story: a truck driver who got a "job" from a tea maker in a recording studio.

It was in this studio that he was discovered, and there he recorded the hit "Never Gonna Give You Up", following which Estelli sold about 20 million albums worldwide in 1987/8;

At the time, the African-American trio Salt & Papa were considered a groundbreaking ensemble: three women who performed cheeky, feminist and pioneering rap / pop, one that was a milestone for many rap-RNB artists down the road.

The boy bands were invented, and now they're back.

New Kids and The Block (Photo: Reuters, Eduardo Munoz)

When the nineties came, the horn of these artists began to fade.

In a cover story in Maariv for Youth, they then asked the New Kids "Are they really singing?", To imply that everything behind the quintet is just a production;

Astley has continued to release albums, six in fact since the 1990s began, but since 1991 he has not had a hit;

Salt & Papa attracted a bit more, but after 1993, when rougher rappers started popping up, they stopped being relevant - and the hits were over.

These three giants of the past, along with N-Vogue, a female RNB ensemble formed in 1989 and very successful in the first half of the 1990s, have now teamed up for a tour of North America that will begin in May.

To mark this round, they have jointly created a new song, "Bring Back the Time", a kind of hymn to the late eighties - for the year 89, to be exact.

"You know we still have the magic," they sing in a segment that sounds like it was produced in the eighties, "nothing can take that away from us."

Along with his clip, in which they dress up as all sorts of eighties stars, the segment went viral.

Lovers of nostalgia also flew for the concept.

Even Yaron Eshbal, presenter of the radio program "Time Tunnel" in a radius that specializes in nostalgic hits, deviated from his custom and played a new song.

Thus they managed to return to consciousness, at least for a moment.

Back in the spotlight

"Bring Back the Time" is part of a trend, which has been evident in recent months, of a new work by artists who stood out in the 80s.

We should emphasize: this is not a comeback of the eighties, because the music from this decade has never really disappeared.

It's enough to open Galgalatz, Radius, Echo or here 88, to hear Alphaville, a-ha and Madonna there, to understand how much the music from the 80s is still present here.

This is another matter: the desire of artists who had their huge success four decades ago to continue to create new and successful music, and to return to the spotlight.

It's not just the New Kids that are making noise.

Anyone who has been in the United States for the past month may have been confused for a moment and thought it was 1985 and not 2022.

The British duo Tires for Pears has released a new album, and instead of falling into the "who cares about a band of boomer from 40 years ago" category - it's just everywhere.

The exposure around the album "The Tipping Point" is pulsating: Mother on TV, with CBS and ABC news and news appearances;

Whether in print, with reviews and articles in all reputed newspapers and magazines;

And if on the radio that cheers, when fuck Luo even hosted them on his popular podcast on Apple Music.

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About a week after the album's release, when Billboard Magazine released the United States' album sales parade, it became clear that the buzz around Theresa Four Pears was not just in the media - and the public was excited about it.

The album went straight to number one on the American sales charts, surpassing the popular soundtracks of "Ancanto" and "Pokemon 25" and contemporary albums by artists like Adele and Ed Shiran.

Tires for Pierce is now joined by more eighties artists who are emerging from the horror of nostalgia performances and trying their luck with new materials: Soft Basket, Watt Watt Watt, Men Without Hats, Sonic Youth and even the Cure are planning to release new albums soon.

Along with the comeback albums that have come out in the last six months to Abba, Duran Duran, The Stranglers, Brian Adams and Debbie Gibson, one can really talk about a phenomenon.

More on Walla!

While the stars sank into a corona coma, the children and the elderly conquered the parades: Summary 2021 in music

To the full article

Buzz also outside the media.

Tires for Fires (Photo: GettyImages, Michael Putland)

Tirez For Pierce disbanded in the late eighties, when throughout the 1990s its two leaders, Kurt Smith and Roland Orzabel, refused to talk to each other.

In the early 2000s they completed, recorded a reconciliation album called "Everybody Loves a Happy Ending", and since then have mostly become a repertoire band.

One that appears all over the world and also in Israel with its past hits.

Now the band is trying to prove they have more to offer than songs like "Shout," "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" and "Sowing the Seeds of Love" that are still airing on the radio.

And it's not easy.

The band began working on new material six years ago, and their then-director, Gary Gersh, who previously directed artists such as Nirvana and Soundgarden, connected them to Universal Records, which is in charge of the duo's catalog.

The company suggested that the band release a collection of hits with two new songs that would bring them back into the spotlight, and move on from there.

After the collection came out, Tirez Four Piers realized that Universal had no real intention of continuing the relationship and releasing more new material to the lineup.

The band got into a crisis and when Urzabel's wife fell ill and later died, they canceled the tour that accompanied the collection in the middle, and that seemed to be the end of the duo.

Then came the corona.

Urzabel sat and wrote songs about his wife's death, about life, about friendships.

He brought the materials to Smith and together they created "The Tipping Point".

But not everything was simple on the way.

They went back to expelling, which would help them put out the album, but it rudely rejected them.

"He sent us an email," Orzabel told the New York Times, "that says he doesn't want to do it anymore. He said we're a past band and that's it. There's no point in releasing a new album for us."

So they turned to other channels.

They contacted Concord, an independent and small record company that specializes mainly in jazz, and there they got excited and released their album.

This is a beautiful story that proves that you do not need a huge corporation behind you to be successful today.

Nostalgia machines

Stars from the 80s have recently been peeking at all sorts of places, not necessarily expected.

The most notable case, apparently, is that of Bono, the lead singer of U-2 who voiced the character of Clay Callaway in the film "Song 2", and thus managed to reach an audience from a completely different generation.

In the film, Callaway is a lion who was once a legendary rock star but retired to long solitude after his wife's death, while the other characters persuade him to return from retirement to participate in the musical they are creating.

Callaway is convinced, and in the finale of the film performs U-2's song, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."

The band even created the film's theme song, "Your Song Saved My Life".

An audience from a completely different generation.

Bono (Photo: GettyImages)

And there are more examples: Richard Marx, an American pop singer who gained great fame in the 80s, has made a comeback to consciousness in recent weeks, after appearing in Jeff and Erica's wedding episode of the hit sitcom, The Goldbergs.

Even Madonna, who has faded in recent years, is trying to get back to business, with her strategy being to break into the youth stronghold, the tic-tac-toe.

The singer teamed up with two hit contractors in the app, Fireboy DML and Sickick, and together they created a new version of her classic hit "Frozen".

The new version already has over 40 million listens on Spotify, so it probably works.

Artists from the eighties are so strong at the moment, that in the public vote that is taking place these days for the candidates to join the Hall of Fame, quite a few ensembles and performers from the period are candidates.

Four million have already voted for the 17 candidates, including Eurythmics, Pat Benatter and Kate Bush.

Those who are safely led are Duran Duran, followed by Eminem, a much more contemporary name.

And if you're missing more British duos from the eighties, then this week a new single came out, which is a connection between two of the most successful ensembles of the period: Soft Basket led by Mark Almond teamed up with the Fat Shop Boys, and they release the song "Purple Zone" together.

The song, which has tremendous excitement around it, is the second single from Soft Basket's upcoming album, "Happiness Not Included."

A groundbreaking band.

Soft Basket (Photo: GettyImages, ostello)

Soft Basket are considered a groundbreaking band in the new wave and synthesizer music.

Their novelty to the solo track "Tainted Love" was the world-best-selling single in 1981, and one of the most successful songs in history.

Despite their importance, the lineup finds itself in a situation similar to that of Tirez Four Pierce.

Universal Records (again) released a special package in 2018 that includes all of the duo's recordings, and they conditioned its release on them appearing in London under the title "The Last Show".

The duo agreed, but Dave Ball, the other side, thought it was a mistake and told Almond that "the 'last' title should never be put on anything."

Bull Justice, and the closures during the corona and the loss of income from the lack of performances, not to mention boredom, led them to work on new materials.

One of the excerpts from the album that will be released in May is even called "Nostalgia Machine", and it mocks the way the industry sees vehicles like Soft Basket - nostalgia machines.

Sometimes, two hits is enough

In 1982, exactly 40 years ago, the Canadian band Men Without Hats released one of the biggest hits of the year, "The Safety Dance".

The band's name, as well as the hit, referred to a protest against the use of condoms, which grew in those years.

Men without hats are actually men without hats and "The Safety Dance" is a challenge to the safe sex.

What they did not know then was that the AIDS epidemic was around the corner, and when it became the subject of the world - this position became disgusting.

Instead of becoming a huge band, the band's second album failed and apart from one other hit, "Pop Goes the World", from '87, the band failed to rise.

Their career may seem striped, but it turns out that two hits is enough.

Ian Doroschuk, the band's leader, who is also releasing a new album this week, explained in an interview with the Times Colonist about the ease with which bands from the eighties make a comeback.

"We are not expected to make a lot of money from the new works," he explained.

"Bands with hits and successful albums from the '80s made a lot of money the old fashioned way. Men Without Hats sold millions of albums at one point, and the royalties from playing the songs to this day are huge.

Out of the quiet that exists thanks to the revenue from past hits, a lot of eighties artists are working - but here the question arises as to whether they can also return to the forefront of the stage, release hits and be successful.

Well, as last year proved, it's not simple - but possible.

Elton John, for example, whose career - like that of all the names that have come up here has already belonged to the past - proved in 2021 that by joining the right people, one can return to the top of the charts.

In fact, three of his songs reached number one on the UK charts last year.

Along with the success of Abba's comeback, and now that of Tirez for Pirez as well, it certainly seems possible.

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Tags

• Soft Basket

• Mark Almond

• new kids on the block

• Rick Astley

• Bono

• u2