Hope this topic doesn't come off as racist or anything, it's just something I've observed.

One major difference I notice between early to mid 80s music and late 80s/early 90s music is the latter has a ton of very Afrocentric songs/artists. It's not like the early/mid 80s didn't have black artists, they had Michael Jackson, Prince, Deniece Williams, Ray Parker Jr and so on but the thing is their music wasn't racially conscious at all. You barely even think of Prince and MJ as 'black' artists, you just think of them as artists who happen to be black (well with Michael, at least before about 1987  ;D ).

But in the late 80s/early 90s, you had Public Enemy, Bell Biv Devoe, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, Salt n Pepa, etc and they were all very proud to be black, and had a lot of Afrocentric fashions and motifs in their music and image. Squiggly triangles and all. You also hear a lot more melisma in late 80s signing vs singers from the earlier part of the decade. There are some exceptions like Bonnie Tyler but for the most part the early 80s lacked the melodramatic female voices you had later on from people like Mariah Carey and Taylor Dayne. More typical was medium range or monotone.

Soulful "ooh oh yeah" kind of vocal expressions weren't really common in music for most of the 80s either but they were everywhere by 1990. Melisma was the norm for female R&B singers as late as a few years ago but singers like Katy Perry have brought back the monotone.

What is it that caused this change towards 'blacker' music in the late 80s? Was it simply the American pop music machine being more open minded? Was the late 80s a lot more racially integrated than the earlier 80s? Or was it just that soulful music was starting to have a revival in popularity?

Disco, funk, reggae, hip-hop, and Afro-pop all gained currency in the seventies and eighties.  Talking Heads "Remain in Light" is a good example of a record that fused all of these sounds in 1980.  Punk bands such as The Clash and PIL were using lots of reggae and dub sounds in their music by the early '80s.  Blondie used rap in their hit single "Rapture" (1981).  Other musicians heard these and other forays into afrocentric music and followed suit.  Audiences loved it, so the sounds became predominant in pop music by the late '80s. 

American music has always been Afrocentric....They just wouldn't admit it and went to all lengths to put a white face on it.

American music has always been Afrocentric....They just wouldn't admit it and went to all lengths to put a white face on it.


I'd say it's 50-50. But you're definitely right about rock and R&B based pop.

I think it mostly just has to do with a new generation of rap artists taking over. Hip hop developed in the late 1970s but didn't really come into its own until 1986-1988 when new, young rap artists began to explore the genre. From there hip hop influence continued to spread in popular music, with new jack swing being an offspring of that.

American music has always been Afrocentric....They just wouldn't admit it and went to all lengths to put a white face on it.


Afrocentric means it is "connected to an worldview that centers on Africa," not "made by people with dark skin."

Also, something big happened that affected many blacks in the late 80's. Some sort of epidemic involving an extremely "whack" substance...

Afrocentric means it is "connected to an worldview that centers on Africa," not "made by people with dark skin."

Reading the post, "made by people with dark skin" appears to be what belmont22 seems to mean.


Also, something big happened that affected many blacks in the late 80's. Some sort of epidemic involving an extremely "whack" substance...

I'm not quite sure what this has to do with the post.  ???

Reading the post, "made by people with dark skin" appears to be what belmont22 seems to mean.


Actually it's not. I meant music that centers on an African-American POV and embraces AA identity, not just music that happens to be made by black people (like Prince etc).

Actually it's not. I meant music that centers on an African-American POV and embraces AA identity, not just music that happens to be made by black people (like Prince etc).


Ohhhhhhh!  O.K. 

It could be because the music industry was becoming somewhat stagnant.  I remember having a conversation with friends in the late 70s talking about how we used to buy an album and like every song on the album.  By the late 70s if you liked 2 or 3 songs on an album it was considered a success.  It had become less artistic, more commercial.  Then hip hop and rap came in, love it or hate it, your ears were hearing something different, raw, street.  It made a lot of people angry, and I remember telling some friends, this is what your kids will be listening to, whether you like it or not.  Some thought it would remain a "black thing", then the Beastie Boys made hip-hop okay and all hell broke loose.

Well, yeah...Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and Frank Sinatra can all thank black people when you come down to it. 

I thought he was asking more specifically about the afro-pop sounds of the '80s.

Well, yeah...Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and Frank Sinatra can all thank black people when you come down to it. 

I thought he was asking more specifically about the afro-pop sounds of the '80s.


Y'mean like Ashford and Simpson?

Also, something big happened that affected many blacks in the late 80's. Some sort of epidemic involving an extremely "whack" substance...

I'm not quite sure what this has to do with the post.  ???


???Its an answer to the OP's question.

The spike in crime and poverty caused by crack cocaine, brought more attention to the struggles in the AA community and gave artists more incentive to talk about black issues (as well as more issues to talk about.)