For me it was when Grunge, arrived on the scene, there by putting to rest New Wave and Hair Metal.

Once the 90's began, it seemed like it was next to impossible for 80's bands and musicians, to chart and survive.

The only few that manage to make it, as far as I know...

Motley Crue

REM

Guns N' Roses

INXS

Duran Duran  (barely)

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Genesis

Van Halen

Am I missing any others?

???

You completely missed out the pop genre. 80s stars like Whitney and Janet Jackson did just fine. And let's not forget Madonna! Oh and Bon Jovi!

You completely missed out the pop genre. 80s stars like Whitney and Janet Jackson did just fine. And let's not forget Madonna! Oh and Bon Jovi!


Thanks for pointing that out!

They were more luckier than Martika, Debbie Gibson, and Tiffany, combined.

Debbie Gibson


Who? :D

There was even the country genre.  80s favourites like Restless Heart, Blue Rodeo and Bonnie Raitt all managed considerable success within a chart when grunge, rap and r&b were dominating.

Who? :D

There was even the country genre.  80s favourites like Restless Heart, Blue Rodeo and Bonnie Raitt all managed considerable success within a chart when grunge, rap and r&b were dominating.


Also a good point.

How ever, Michael Damien, Richard Marx, Taylor Dayne, and others pretty much didn't have that much success, or moderate.

Hair metal groups like Poison, Cinderella, and Helix pretty called it a day, too.

December 31, 1989 :D

December 31, 1989 :D


I have to agree with you.  :)

George HW Bush inauguration ceremony.  I watched it with a snotty art student I unsuccessfully tried to sleep with.  Meh, can't win 'em all, not even the majority in my case.  Anyway, 1989 for me was limbo between the '80s and the '90s.  It didn't really feel like anything. 
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/12/grommit.gif

How ever, Michael Damien, Richard Marx, Taylor Dayne, and others pretty much didn't have that much success, or moderate.

Hair metal groups like Poison, Cinderella, and Helix pretty called it a day, too.
Yeah, Marx he had moderate chart success in the first half of the 90's(1990-1994) on the Billboard Hot 100 and pretty good chart success on the US A/C Chart from 1990-1998. I weas just looking at Marx's chart discography on "Wikipedia". I remember "The Way She Loves Me" was all over A/C radio in 1994 and it hit #20 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Now And Forever" hit #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1994 according to "Wikipedia".

Phil Collins was another artist who had  moderate success in the 90's. His band "Genesis" was still pretty popular in the early 90's as was marked on the creator of this thread.

I thought "U2" did good in the 90's and "Depeche Mode" did alright in the 90's. I remember "Barrel Of a Gun" and "Its No Good" by Depeche Mode being popular on rock radio in 1997.

Phil Collins was another artist who had  moderate success in the 90's. His band "Genesis" was still pretty popular in the early 90's as was marked on the creator of this thread.

I thought "U2" did good in the 90's and "Depeche Mode" did alright in the 90's. I remember "Barrel Of a Gun" and "Its No Good" by Depeche Mode being popular on rock radio in 1997.


I was a rabid Depeche Mode fan in the '80s.  "Violator" was where they started to lose it, even though "Personal Jesus" and "Enjoy the Silence" were their two biggest hits in the U.S.  That album was okay, but lackluster compared to "Music for the Masses," which, in turn, was not as good as "Black Celebration," their pinnacle.  I did not even buy a copy of "Songs of Faith and Devotion" I was so disgusted by David Gahan's attempt to market DM as a grunge band.  Then Alan Wilder left and DM was doomed.  "Playing the Angel" is the only DM record post-Wilder worth listening to.
::)

December 31, 1989 :D
It was a Sunday.

I'd say either when the Cold War officially ended or when Smells Like Teen Spirit became a hit. Either way, both were in 1991.

I was a rabid Depeche Mode fan in the '80s.  "Violator" was where they started to lose it, even though "Personal Jesus" and "Enjoy the Silence" were their two biggest hits in the U.S.  That album was okay, but lackluster compared to "Music for the Masses," which, in turn, was not as good as "Black Celebration," their pinnacle.  I did not even buy a copy of "Songs of Faith and Devotion" I was so disgusted by David Gahan's attempt to market DM as a grunge band.  Then Alan Wilder left and DM was doomed.  "Playing the Angel" is the only DM record post-Wilder worth listening to.
::)
Well, I am a casual follower of DM. I think they did lose it with "Songs Of Faith Of Devotion" album  along with Gahan's drug habits along that time frame(1993-1995 I think.) I don;t think with 1997's album "Ultra" they were trying to be a grunge band though. I have heard one track off off"Playing The Angel" and it took me back to their 80's sound(maybe "Music For The Masses" and "Violator" days although "Violator" was released in 1990. Unfortunately, DM isn;t really popular in the states anymore like they were in the 80's and 90's so thats why I don;t hear much of their music anymore.

I'll never forget where I was when the 1980's officially ended.

I was in a nightclub in Germany, having recently flown over from the States, and the song playing was "Pump The Jam" by Technotronic.

All of a sudden everyone yelled, "Happy New Year!"

And then it was 1990.  ::)

Well, I am a casual follower of DM. I think they did lose it with "Songs Of Faith Of Devotion" album  along with Gahan's drug habits along that time frame(1993-1995 I think.) I don;t think with 1997's album "Ultra" they were trying to be a grunge band though. I have heard one track off off"Playing The Angel" and it took me back to their 80's sound(maybe "Music For The Masses" and "Violator" days although "Violator" was released in 1990. Unfortunately, DM isn;t really popular in the states anymore like they were in the 80's and 90's so thats why I don;t hear much of their music anymore.


When David Gahan got sick last year and had to cancel their show in Athens, they had already sold 30,000 tickets.  That's pretty impressive.  If you haven't made a halfway decent album in 20 years, you can't do that in the U.S. unless you're the Rolling Stones!  Who knows, maybe they'll be in the Macy's parade this year -- DM not RS!
;D

I'll never forget where I was when the 1980's officially ended.

I was in a nightclub in Germany, having recently flown over from the States, and the song playing was "Pump The Jam" by Technotronic.

All of a sudden everyone yelled, "Happy New Year!"

And then it was 1990.  ::)


That's just it.  Early Techno was like Rap without the Rapping part.  I didn't get into it until I discovered The Orb and Aphex Twin in '93.  I heard of The Orb as early as '91, but just assumed it was trashy club music, like Black Box or something. 

See, I associate the '80s with adolescence.  I turned 20 in 1989 and all that negative identity (in the Eriksonian sense) became useless to me.  Saying "f**k you" via music and fashion didn't cut it anymore.  In the spring of '89, I joined the Progressive Labor Party.  That helped me continue the negative identity by saying "f**k you" to the whole world!  But 1989 was a crummy year to turn into a communist!
:D

December 31st, 1989.

Am I missing any others?

???


Def Leppard released a highly successful album in 1992 (Adrenalize), which sold three million copies in the US alone (and more than 500,000, I believe, between Canada and the UK). If I recall correctly, it was the number one selling album the week it came out. They had two of the top 100 songs of the year in 1992, and one in 1993 (released as a single in August of that year!). The latter was a new song off a compilation released in '93. In any case, it is clear that they still had mainstream popularity even though hair metal was seemingly just about dead by that time.

If you watch the videos of the Adrenalize singles (especially "Make Love Like a Man" and, even more so, "Heaven Is"), you will see that both their image and sound were largely unchanged from how they were in the 80's.

On a different note within the topic, Tears For Fears also had a top 100 hit in 1993.

That's just it.  Early Techno was like Rap without the Rapping part.  I didn't get into it until I discovered The Orb and Aphex Twin in '93.  I heard of The Orb as early as '91, but just assumed it was trashy club music, like Black Box or something.

(LOL re: 89 and politics!)

Musically, I was almost omnivorous.

If rappers are using samplers, then I'm listening to Public Enemy's She Watch Channel Zero in 1988 and digging their sampling of Slayer's Angel of Death from '86 while looking back fondly on the Beastie Boys' reworking of AC/DC on Rock Hard.

If synthpop's dead because all the Depeche Mode sounds the same?  Fine, for every Technotronic Pump up the Jam, Get Up, This Beat is Technotronic, etc, there was something like A Split Second's Rigor Mortis filling a dancefloor.  Getting from one to the other was a bit of a journey, but for me, MARRS' Pump up the Volume and Bomb the Bass' Beat Dis were the gateway drugs to Front 242's Headhunter or Clock DVA's The Hacker. 

I enjoyed my musical odyssey and enjoyed discovering tons of goodies while wallowing in the obscurity of industrial, wondered whether I should file later-age FLA, Ministry and KMFDM under "industrial" or "rock" or "thrash metal" when people started picking up electric guitars, and watched synthpop/newbeat/techno/euro/trance/dance splinter into uncountable obscure subgenres only to reform itself as electro/dubstep 20 years later.  But I missed the thing that marked the biggest shift in the top 40 for the next 10-15 years.  So I'm going with Penny Wise's original post from four years ago - it was the rise of grunge (and various forms of "alt-rock"), all new sounds that took marketshare from synthpop/new-wave and traditional hard-rock/metal. 

If someone were to put a gun to my head and demanded I put an actual date to it, I'd say the day Nevermind was released.  September 10, 1991.  If it hadn't been Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit, it would have been someone else's band and some other song, but the listening audience, myself included, was ready for a change, and that was the song and the album marked the change that ended up defining the next 10-15 years, through grunge/nu-metal/etc.

Def Leppard released a highly successful album in 1992 (Adrenalize), which sold three million copies in the US alone (and more than 500,000, I believe, between Canada and the UK). If I recall correctly, it was the number one selling album the week it came out. They had two of the top 100 songs of the year in 1992, and one in 1993 (released as a single in August of that year!). The latter was a new song off a compilation released in '93. In any case, it is clear that they still had mainstream popularity even though hair metal was seemingly just about dead by that time.

If you watch the videos of the Adrenalize singles (especially "Make Love Like a Man" and, even more so, "Heaven Is"), you will see that both their image and sound were largely unchanged from how they were in the 80's.

On a different note within the topic, Tears For Fears also had a top 100 hit in 1993.


Bon Jovi also released an album in late 1992 called "Keep the Faith". The album debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200, and at least one single (the title song) reached the top 30 on the Billboard 100 singles chart. It also went double platinum.

And, of course, when it comes to completely out-of-left-field 90's hits, one can't forget about this little gem from 1993:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOikQWAL8qc

How in the blue hell did Meat Loaf have a #1 hit in the year of "Unplugged in New York"? The early 90's were certainly an odd time for music.

I don't remember it.  :\'(
I remember other stuff from 1989/90, but not New Years (Eve).

(LOL re: 89 and politics!)
If synthpop's dead because all the Depeche Mode sounds the same?  Fine, for every Technotronic Pump up the Jam, Get Up, This Beat is Technotronic, etc, there was something like A Split Second's Rigor Mortis filling a dancefloor.  Getting from one to the other was a bit of a journey, but for me, MARRS' Pump up the Volume and Bomb the Bass' Beat Dis were the gateway drugs to Front 242's Headhunter or Clock DVA's The Hacker. 

I am just now checking out A Split Second. Thanks for introducing me to more great music! I will check out Clock DVA later (Headhunter is a very fun song).


If someone were to put a gun to my head and demanded I put an actual date to it, I'd say the day Nevermind was released.  September 10, 1991.  If it hadn't been Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit, it would have been someone else's band and some other song, (bolding mine) but the listening audience, myself included, was ready for a change, and that was the song and the album marked the change that ended up defining the next 10-15 years, through grunge/nu-metal/etc.


I totally agree. We have talked about grunge and the Seattle scene before, and there were tons of bands that were quite renowned in Seattle that I don't think ever really attained national fame, and I think that many of them were candidates for filling the niche that Nirvana ultimately filled for being in the right place at the right time. Or maybe it would have been a similar band from a different city. Is it possible that maybe we have overestimated Nirvana's importance in their place and time a little bit due to Kurt Cobain's early death? I am not denying that Nirvana was incredibly important and that they influenced countless bands after them, but I can't ignore the fact that Pearl Jam consistently outsold Nirvana before Kurt died. Because of that, I wonder if Nirvana became more influential in part because of Kurt's death and if Pearl Jam had perhaps been more influential up until that point.

WZpoQhiiO2g

For me this is officially when the 80s ended with the bands who were writing and performing their own songs breaking up because they hadn't gotten their just rewards.  Mark Holmes officially went on record earlier this year and said that this wasn't a "real" album all it was was a bunch of covers and stuff like that.  And the way Mark was trying to get rid of that "teeny bopper" image was what made me aware that Platinum Blonde was over and the told which way to piss bands were becoming more and more popular.

If someone were to put a gun to my head and demanded I put an actual date to it, I'd say the day Nevermind was released.  September 10, 1991.  If it hadn't been Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit, it would have been someone else's band and some other song, but the listening audience, myself included, was ready for a change, and that was the song and the album marked the change that ended up defining the next 10-15 years, through grunge/nu-metal/etc.


As usual, I agree. ;)

I think the thing that really helped "SLTS" have the cultural effect that it did was just how cool the music video was. It was fresh, dark, edgy and totally anarchistic, all of the things rock music is supposed to be, but no longer was in the era of Whitesnake and Winger.

Having said that, I do also believe that it could have been a group other than Nirvana that ended the reign of the hair bands. I mean, it was supposed to be Guns N' Roses that changed everything, but Axl was no Kurt, and the release of "November Rain" turned out to be the most damaging blow to the street cred of a rock artist since Rod Stewart decided to go Disco. "Nevermind" was just out of nowhere, though. If I remember correctly, I think that even Geffen Records only thought they'd sell about half a million units nationwide, and that was if they were lucky. Nirvana was just sort of in the right place at the right time, and it paid off in a big way.

I don't remember it.  :\'(
I remember other stuff from 1989/90, but not New Years (Eve).


were you still young around that time?

I'll never forget where I was when the 1980's officially ended.

I was in a nightclub in Germany, having recently flown over from the States, and the song playing was "Pump The Jam" by Technotronic.

All of a sudden everyone yelled, "Happy New Year!"

And then it was 1990.  ::)


Perfect.

You can always check out the music charts from December of 1989.

were you still young around that time?


yes. probably.

Bon Jovi also released an album in late 1992 called "Keep the Faith". The album debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200, and at least one single (the title song) reached the top 30 on the Billboard 100 singles chart. It also went double platinum.

And, of course, when it comes to completely out-of-left-field 90's hits, one can't forget about this little gem from 1993:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOikQWAL8qc

How in the blue hell did Meat Loaf have a #1 hit in the year of "Unplugged in New York"? The early 90's were certainly an odd time for music.


That song doesn't really feel 80's or 90's. Seems kind of timeless.