Based on my limited memories of that era, I remember constantly hearing love songs from Heart, Richard Marx, Michael Bolton etc...  I don't know if it was a huge thing in the late 80s or it could be from the radio station my mom would put on.  I do know that the late 80s was a change from the synth-heavy pop from the early 80s and it more in its blues/roots from which would set the tone of the 90s, so the various ballads could be an effect from it.

Not at all - in the US and UK, the big hits were catchy pop / dance... New Kids, Debbie Gibson, Rick Astley, Soul II Soul, Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson.

The only ballad heavy era was the mid 90s with Celine, Whitney, Bryan Adams, Mariah Carey... oy!  ::)

Not at all - in the US and UK, the big hits were catchy pop / dance... New Kids, Debbie Gibson, Rick Astley, Soul II Soul, Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson.

The only ballad heavy era was the mid 90s with Celine, Whitney, Bryan Adams, Mariah Carey... oy!  ::)


I guess your right, and I do think Meatloaf made a comeback in the mid-90s too.

Yeah all the big (and long) power ballads seemed to say at no1 in the charts for ages in the 90s.

Anyway everyone experiences different things during these eras, but yes I think your mother's taste in music probably had a hand in how you looked back on it.

I remember more ballads in the early 80s than I do in the late 80s.  A few examples ...

Let Me Go - Ray Parker Jr
Straight From the Heart - Bryan Adams
When I'm With You - Sheriff
Leader of the Band - Dan Fogelberg
Keep on Loving You - REO Speedwagon
In the Air Tonight - Phil Collins
Muscles - Diana Ross
Just Between You and Me - April Wine
Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do) - Christopher Cross

and the complete Air Supply hits collection LOL

Not at all - in the US and UK, the big hits were catchy pop / dance... New Kids, Debbie Gibson, Rick Astley, Soul II Soul, Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson.

The only ballad heavy era was the mid 90s with Celine, Whitney, Bryan Adams, Mariah Carey... oy!  ::)


I'll probably get trashed, but Deborah Gibson is known for ballads, which during her 'electric youth' her two #1 hits were ballads. Also her later material, especially her 1995 album "Think With Your Heart", are mainly ballads. Her main influences were Billy Joel and Elton John.

OK, I'll shut up now.


edited: accidently misspelled Billy Joel's name

I remember more ballads in the early 80s than I do in the late 80s.  A few examples ...

Let Me Go - Ray Parker Jr
Straight From the Heart - Bryan Adams
When I'm With You - Sheriff
Leader of the Band - Dan Fogelberg
Keep on Loving You - REO Speedwagon
In the Air Tonight - Phil Collins
Muscles - Diana Ross
Just Between You and Me - April Wine
Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do) - Christopher Cross

and the complete Air Supply hits collection LOL


I'll add several of Foreigners hits as 80's power ballads as well....

I'll probably get trashed, but Deborah Gibson is known for ballads, which during her 'electric youth' her two #1 hits were ballads.

For me, Debbie is better known for stuff like Shake Your Love, Only In My Dreams and Out of The Blue. That's just me though.  ;)

In my opinion, the early 80s are the ones with the most love songs and slow ballads like "Lady", "The
Woman In Love", "Joanna", "I'm Going To Keep On Loving You", "Endless Love", all Air Supply songs, "With Open Arms", "She's Out Of My Life", "Truly","On The Wings Of Love", "Baby Come To Me" "If Ever You're In My Arms Again", quiet storm in urban radio stations, etc.  The late 80s were more rhythmic with New Jack Swing, hip hop, dance-pop tunes.  The late 80s were definitely not the slow-ballad era, not like the early 80s.  I know because I was there as a child and a preteen.  The early 80s were more slow ballads, The mid 80s were more synth-pop, and the late 80s were more dance-pop, new jack swing, and golden age of hip hop

More than just simply LOVE ballads. You also had many HAIR BAND ballads at the time who needed to chart ballads to stay on top, "Love Bites", "Bad Medicine", "When I See You Smile" among many others! If anything, I find the ballads of the late '80s (and the entire '80s in general) to be sappier/more cliche than the '90s ballads which are less cheesy and more "professional". Bryan Adams and Whitney were already having ballad hits at the time (not the '90s as one poster said), Madonna had stuff like Live To Tell, Michael Jackson had stuff like The Man In The Mirror, Phil Collins had stuff like Another Day In Paradise and A Groovy Kind Of Love. But there are "different" ballad styles that I have noted over the years.

Early 20th Century- 1954: Jazz/Classical Pop Ballads, real instruments used, stuff like Frank Sinatra's "I'll Never Smile Again"
1955-1963: Rockabilly/Doo Wop Influenced: Stuff like Connie Francis, Pat Boone
1964-1969: Few ballads at this time due to rock revolution; but those that chart tend to be more orchestrated or have funkier beats.
1970-1974: A high point for ballads with the Singer-Songwriter era, very "timeless" and common on classic hits/oldies stations today. Stuff like Carole King, Elton John, James Taylor, The Carpenters, etc.
1975-1979: A low point for ballads due to Disco/Punk/Arena Rock, have a more "modern", "manufactured" sound than the SSW era. Lots of movie theme ballads popular around this time. Ranged from beautiful "You Belong To Me" to absolutely a cliche "You Light Up My Life".
1980-1985: Ballads on the upswing as synthesizers make music easier to produce along with the disinterest in disco; but are becoming "sappy sounding". Christopher Cross, Lionel Richie, Chicago's ballads of the era are GREAT examples. "Quiet Storm" music popular by black artists; I like to call those particular ballads "Shopping Mall Music". Those repetitive drum beats become prominent and continue through the '80s.
1986-1990: Pretty much the peak of the ballad era overall, not just among singers, but also among rock artists. Ballads were a major component of the success of the Hair Bands. That "Yamaha DX7 Electric Piano" sound, which was what the original poster was probably thinking about with all of those ballads, was at it's peak.
1991-1997: Ballads mostly popular by just women artists or R&B singers; but are transitioning from "power ballad" to just "ballad" with the softer sound. Compare the two versions of "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" and you'll see what I mean. "Real Ballads" are on the decline late in the period as rap becomes more pronounced. Hits last longer on the charts but are fewer in number. You can feel the transition from Mariah's Daydream (1995)/Butterfly (1997)/Rainbow (1999) albums. The first is still ballad-heavy but has hints of hip-hop influence. Butterfly has a couple of "guest rapper" album tracks, and the standard ballads are bordering on hip-hop. By the time you reach Rainbow, it is pretty much a Mary J. Blige album with a softer voice.
1998+ Few ballads as the genre merges with R&B/Hip-Hop. Leona Lewis' Bleeding Love, even though it's "ballad styled", is more "pop" than "ballad" sounding.

Here are some other obvious things that people may think of the late '80s as the peak: The big three Dirty Dancing hits (I've Had The Time Of Your Life, She's Like The Wind, and Hungry Eyes) were all over the radio and also, on your MIX/Adult Contemporary, early-mid '80s ballads were still common in rotation played with the then-current ballads. This style of music was ALL OVER RETAIL OUTLETS at the time, because of the "modern, light" feel of the music. The Yamaha DX7, with that distinctive "Fulltines" preset sounding like an electric Rhodes piano, may very well have been cliched due to all of the ballad overplay during this era. The Arista label, in particular, has a high concentration of these ballads among its artists.

For me, Debbie is better known for stuff like Shake Your Love, Only In My Dreams and Out of The Blue. That's just me though.  ;)


The same here.  When I think ballads, her name is the last thing that enters my mind.  Though of all her songs, I do remember 'Lost in Your Eyes' the best

You're not paranoid, the late 80s did have a lot of ballads. It's just that the early 80s had more.

Yeah, there were a lot of ballads in the late 80s, but this was even more the case in the 90s.  I think this trend really began with Whitney Houston and expanded into hair metal after Bon Jovi released Wanted Dead or Alive.  Pretty much all of the biggest hair band songs from the early 90s (Forever, More Than Words, Wind of Change, November Rain, etc.) were power ballads, unlike the hard rockers of the late 80s like Welcome to the Jungle, Pour Some Sugar on Me, and Livin' on a Prayer.  And yes, the debut of Mariah Carey definitely built upon the foundation that Whitney Houston started a few years earlier.  In fact, love ballads remained extremely popular until about 1999, with several songs by Boyz II Men, Celine Dion, and the aforementioned Mariah Carey reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, usually for several consecutive weeks.

Yeah, there were a lot of ballads in the late 80s, but this was even more the case in the 90s.  I think this trend really began with Whitney Houston and expanded into hair metal after Bon Jovi released Wanted Dead or Alive.  Pretty much all of the biggest hair band songs from the early 90s (Forever, More Than Words, Wind of Change, November Rain, etc.) were power ballads, unlike the hard rockers of the late 80s like Welcome to the Jungle, Pour Some Sugar on Me, and Livin' on a Prayer.  And yes, the debut of Mariah Carey definitely built upon the foundation that Whitney Houston started a few years earlier.  In fact, love ballads remained extremely popular until about 1999, with several songs by Boyz II Men, Celine Dion, and the aforementioned Mariah Carey reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, usually for several consecutive weeks.


The Whitney effect? Did she bring back 'the voice'?

The power ballads were just awful.  I hated that.

The Whitney effect? Did she bring back 'the voice'?


Yeah, she, Mariah, and Celine were a huge breath of fresh air to pop fans who had grown disillusioned by the influx of synth bands like Duran Duran and topical artists like Madonna and Janet in the early-mid 80s. Whitney Houston had the most impressive singing voice that people heard on the radio in several years, yet at the same time she could appeal to the MTV generation as well, thank to her occasional dance singles like How Will I Know.  Mariah Carey was much the same, keeping the balladeer/dance pop diva trend well alive throughout the 90s, during which Whitney didn't release a whole lot of material.

The power ballads were just awful.  I hated that.


Some of them were pretty bad, circa 1988.  ::)

Yeah, she, Mariah, and Celine were a huge breath of fresh air to pop fans who had grown disillusioned by the influx of synth bands like Duran Duran and topical artists like Madonna and Janet in the early-mid 80s. Whitney Houston had the most impressive singing voice that people heard on the radio in several years, yet at the same time she could appeal to the MTV generation as well, thank to her occasional dance singles like How Will I Know.  Mariah Carey was much the same, keeping the balladeer/dance pop diva trend well alive throughout the 90s, during which Whitney didn't release a whole lot of material.


Oh yes, Celine was everywhere in the 90s! She peaked in 1996-1998. In the 80s, she was not popular in the US yet, then came 'Where does my heart beat now.'

The Whitney effect? Did she bring back 'the voice'?


Do you mean "her voice"?

Do you mean "her voice"?


That too.  :D

If anything, ballads were popular throughtout most of the '80s like I pointed out several years ago in an old post. If you ever encounter old daytime soap operas from this decade, you'll find that some shows (especially One Life to Live and As The World Turns) often had such a ballad playing during the closing credits. They were often knocked off for their own individual versions and were often used as "love themes" between the characters. The soap opera Another World even introduced a ballad as its theme song in 1987.

There were really several camps/styles of ballads in the '80s: The quiet storm camp (think Jeffrey Osborne, Luther Vandross, later Smokey Robinson, Quincy Jones) that in away was a modern update to the '60s soul. Then the  pop ballad camp that was focuses on a big crossover of both Adult Contemporary and Top 40 stations (and eventually being the basis of VH1 during its early years) such as Christopher Cross, Lionel Richie, Phil Collins, Richard Marx, Laura Branigan, some '70s carryovers such as Elton John, Billy Joel, and Olivia Newton-John, and even some of Madonna's ballads such as Crazy For You and Live to Tell. Artists like Whitney Houston, Taylor Dayne, Anita Baker, and Janet Jackson's ballads were sometimes considered "pop soul", meaning that their ballads have an obvious soul influence while still petraining to the ballad style. One difference is that towads the late '80s, these tended to stray more dance/rhythmnic influenced as opposed to being true soft rock and of course started to have that "Whitney effect". The early '80s had country crossover ballads such as Elvira, Kenny Rogers, and Eddie Rabbit. Then of course you had the hair metal ballads, which are guilty pleasures to many though are the basis for the antherms of that genre. Whether it was 1981, 1985, or 1988 it wouldn't take long to hear a ballad whether on a pop station, on a TV show, or even on a PA system.

I don't see the '90s as much of a ballad-defining decade as the '80s were, mostly to a lesser amount of variety. As the '90s progressed, ballads became increasingly relegated to Adult Contemporary stations except for some one-hit wonders and divas, and not long into the new century, traditional ballads pretty much disappeared from the charts and are relegated to "cabaret/mood music". People seem to overstate the '90s because many of their hits lasted longer on the charts than most ballads of the '80s did, but the quantity produced was far less, and this even includes some remakes of '70s/'80s songs. That decade did have some Disney ballads from its movies on the chart though. But with the grunge, house, techno, hip-hop, alternative rock, contemporary R&B (New Jack Swing/Hip-Hop Soul/Nu Soul for early, mid, and late '90s respectfully), and teen pop, it just couldn't quite stand out as much.

Some of them were pretty bad, circa 1988.  ::)


I know but come on!

I guess that's why every rose has its thorn
just like every night has its dawn
just like every cowboy sings a sad; sad song
every rose has its thorn.

:P ::) I hate that song in particular! ::) :P