First, I want to say I am kind of glad I found this forum.

I was born in early 1985, so I was too young to experience the majority of the 80's but I do remember listening to a lot of music from 88-90 and it was mostly blues music.  I was hooked on Ray Palmer, Steve Winwood, the Black Crowes, and absolutely loved Stevie Ray Vaughan, especially his hit 'Crossfire'.  I am now starting to get into blues music again and recently rediscovered Stevie Ray Vaughan.  So I have a few questions:

1.  How big was Stevie Ray Vaughan throughout the entire 80's?  My understanding that he was considered to be peers with Jimi Hendrix.

2.  If Stevie Ray Vaughan didn't die in the 1990, would music in the 90s be any different?  I know this might be crossing boards here that could include the 90s

3.  Was the blues scene then conflicted to what was popular in the 80s(ie snyth pop)?

Again, great to be in this forum, though I be more in the 90s board often ;).

First of all, welcome to the boards.

I, too am a (modern) blues music fan.  Eric Clapton, for instance, was my introduction to the genre.  I did eventually discover SRV, but sadly, it wasn't until after his death.  I have seen a few of his videos on old-style MTV or maybe it was VH1 (when both played videos), but it wasn't until youtube was around that I got to fully appreciate his music.  I think he probably was influential on alot of musicians that like that genre.

Johnny Lang also comes to mind, as well as Jeff Healy as to talented blues guitarists.  I hope that we can find other members that enjoy the same music as well and have lots of discussion.  I'm always open to new (or old) music that I might not have heard of, but would enjoy.

Thanks. 

Eric Clapton is also one of my favorites. 

Have you seen MTV unplugged with Stevie Ray Vaughan and Joe Satriani?  I did get clips of it but I heard they had a guitar battle with each other and SRV won hehe.

I have heard of Jonny Lang, but not Jeff Healy, I will try to check him out.

And I agree, hopefully there are more blues fans on this forum :).

Joeman:  I graduated college in 1986, so to say the era was influential in developing my musical  tastes would be an understatement. 

I don't profess to be an expert on SRV or Blues-oriented Rock, but my stab at your questions is as follows:


First, I want to say I am kind of glad I found this forum.

I was born in early 1985, so I was too young to experience the majority of the 80's but I do remember listening to a lot of music from 88-90 and it was mostly blues music.  I was hooked on Ray Palmer, Steve Winwood, the Black Crowes, and absolutely loved Stevie Ray Vaughan, especially his hit 'Crossfire'.  I am now starting to get into blues music again and recently rediscovered Stevie Ray Vaughan.  So I have a few questions:

1.  How big was Stevie Ray Vaughan throughout the entire 80's?  My understanding that he was considered to be peers with Jimi Hendrix.  SRV was big in the 80's, insofar as a blues/rocker could be in the age of MTV, New Wave, Hairbands, etc.  Perhaps for some, MTV was a conduit to new music genres that otherwise would have been ignored as being 'too different.'  I recall many debates on who was the more talented (SRV vs. Jimi), or how SRV was a two-decades-later carbon copy of Hendrix, and so on.  For my tastes, they are unique talents, and that Stevie seemed more 'musical' of the two.

2.  If Stevie Ray Vaughan didn't die in the 1990, would music in the 90s be any different?  I know this might be crossing boards here that could include the 90s.  It certainly could be argued that music would be somewhat different, moreso because of what was lost.  I'm not sure if around he and Double Trouble would have spawned a wave of blues-oriented rock (above and beyond what ended up in the 90's), but they certainly would have remained a viable, influential, and popular band.  Other blues/rock bands of that era that I can recall include Robert Cray, the Fabulous Thunderbirds (with Stevie's brother Jimmy), and yet another rebirth of Clapton. 

3.  Was the blues scene then conflicted to what was popular in the 80s(ie snyth pop)?  As above, it was an odd juxtaposition of styles amongst the New Wave sounds of MTV 80's, but each had their place.  Witness the huge concert that was held at Alpine Valley, WI the night of Stevie's death - including Clapton, no less.  I for one had no problem listening to (or watching a video of -- how  novel!) SRV and Double Trouble, followed by INXS, followed by The Fixx.  And yes, now that I am an aging 44 year old, each of these examples has a significant share of my iPod bytes.

Again, great to be in this forum, though I be more in the 90s board often ;).

First, I want to say I am kind of glad I found this forum.

I was born in early 1985, so I was too young to experience the majority of the 80's but I do remember listening to a lot of music from 88-90 and it was mostly blues music.  I was hooked on Ray Palmer, Steve Winwood, the Black Crowes, and absolutely loved Stevie Ray Vaughan, especially his hit 'Crossfire'.  I am now starting to get into blues music again and recently rediscovered Stevie Ray Vaughan.  So I have a few questions:

1.  How big was Stevie Ray Vaughan throughout the entire 80's?  My understanding that he was considered to be peers with Jimi Hendrix.

2.  If Stevie Ray Vaughan didn't die in the 1990, would music in the 90s be any different?  I know this might be crossing boards here that could include the 90s

3.  Was the blues scene then conflicted to what was popular in the 80s(ie snyth pop)?

Again, great to be in this forum, though I be more in the 90s board often ;).




Stevie Ray was big, but nowhere near Hendrix.  His death was a shock, but the world of music went on, just as it went on after the death of Hendrix, but Hendrix left a footprint much larger than any.

Thanks guys for the replies.  Sounds to me the 80s blues revival was great.  I do agree that Hendrix left a bigger mark in history but I hoping that SRV gets inducted to the R&R HOF next year as he should have been this year!

Even though I'm not a big SRV fan (more into poppy stuff), I do like "Crossfire", that's a good song with just a little pop sound, and he seemed pretty talented. It's sad he died young too.

I've thought about that too, there seemed to be a return to less synthy, natural and blues sounding music around 1988-90. Joe - you might be right about that, even grunge and alot of 90s rock was more stripped down, and maybe some of the bluesy stuff had a hand in that.

I agree Marty, whenever I turn to the 80s music channel on the radio, there seems to be two different eras in the same decade lol.  Also, I think alternative rock also was getting big back in the late 80s which helped pave the way for grunge and mainstream alternative. 

The Counting Crowes, seems to be a mix between the blues and alternative which was kind cool imo.

^ I agree, especially about the Counting Crows ("Mr Jones" is a great song).

Forgot to say too, I'm a decent Steve Winwood fan. He seems like he fits into both worlds too, something like "The Finer Things" is like a slower synthpop song, but "Roll With it" is pretty rootsy.

^ I agree, especially about the Counting Crows ("Mr Jones" is a great song).

Forgot to say too, I'm a decent Steve Winwood fan. He seems like he fits into both worlds too, something like "The Finer Things" is like a slower synthpop song, but "Roll With it" is pretty rootsy.


"Roll With It" was a great song too, which basically was my theme(along with "Simply Irresistible" by Palmer) of I view of the late 80's. :)

Speaking of the late 80s, wasn't ballads huge then?  It could have been my mom since she loves "soft rock" and back then she would always put this channel in the car.