1983 vs. Today

[Lhalo]

That question might be better asked in another thread.

[DowningRules]

Perhaps the biggest difference in the years is that in 1983, KROQ was listenable.

 

If you didn't like a song on KROQ, all you had to do was stick around and you would hear something you liked, whether if it was in heavy rotation or something you never heard before. 

 

And the station played a few different genres of music.  Without doing a search, I'm thinking you woulda heard the Stray Cats, Depeche Mode, The Stranglers, Culture Club, Heaven 17 (name taken from "A Clockwork Orange"), Translator, Killing Joke and on and on. 

 

And late night on Sundays, Rodney on the Roq played all kinds of new English stuff and local bands before it broke in the rest of the States.  There was alot of junk, but there were also alot of gems.

 

I miss listening to KROQ when it mattered.

[arch stanton]

KROQ was great. Once KMET went away it was pretty much my full time station.

[Sam Sanchez]

That is one of the things that struck me. The top five playlist in 1983 is all stuff that I knew and enjoyed. I have heard one song off the current top five, and I don't particularly care for it. One of the main differences is that in 1983 you needed talent to succeed. Today, you need an image and a good publicist.

I think the difference a bit with music nowadays is in the earlier times, you did need talent to succeed because the radio and TV was the only outlet at the time. And I'd say there have always been two groups of people: the people that demand talent and substance, and the people who just consume whatever is given to them and back then both groups needed to be appeased.

Now with the advent of the internet, the people that demand more have no problem scouring the internet for new music and search for what they like whether new or old, will find music on their own terms while there is still that group of people, which seems to be the majority, that will gladly just listen to anything that is forced to them and give studios no reason to actually find talent, and would rather just create an image that is appealing and shove it out there.

Similar can be said for movies while arguably not as blatant.

[The Ghost of Bob Starr]

Perhaps the biggest difference in the years is that in 1983, KROQ was listenable.

 

If you didn't like a song on KROQ, all you had to do was stick around and you would hear something you liked, whether if it was in heavy rotation or something you never heard before. 

 

And the station played a few different genres of music.  Without doing a search, I'm thinking you woulda heard the Stray Cats, Depeche Mode, The Stranglers, Culture Club, Heaven 17 (name taken from "A Clockwork Orange"), Translator, Killing Joke and on and on. 

 

And late night on Sundays, Rodney on the Roq played all kinds of new English stuff and local bands before it broke in the rest of the States.  There was alot of junk, but there were also alot of gems.

 

I miss listening to KROQ when it mattered.

 

 

Everything was good about Kroq in 83 except Jed the Fish.   His suckage transcends every decade. 

[Angel Dog and Beer]

I was a month old and living the good life

 

Being attached to boobs = living the good life. Same now as it was back then.

[AngelsLongBall]

For some reason, this stuck me while reading this thread:

 

We can't bust heads like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to tell 'em stories that don't go anywhere - like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Give me five bees for a quarter, you'd say.

Now where were we? Oh yeah: the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...

[AngelsLongBall]

PS: I was 6

[Lhalo]

Nice pull ALB. I haven't thought about that scene in years.

[HaloFan85]

Perhaps the biggest difference in the years is that in 1983, KROQ was listenable.

 

If you didn't like a song on KROQ, all you had to do was stick around and you would hear something you liked, whether if it was in heavy rotation or something you never heard before. 

 

And the station played a few different genres of music.  Without doing a search, I'm thinking you woulda heard the Stray Cats, Depeche Mode, The Stranglers, Culture Club, Heaven 17 (name taken from "A Clockwork Orange"), Translator, Killing Joke and on and on. 

 

And late night on Sundays, Rodney on the Roq played all kinds of new English stuff and local bands before it broke in the rest of the States.  There was alot of junk, but there were also alot of gems.

 

I miss listening to KROQ when it mattered.

And MTV actually played music.

[Ray McKigney]

Here is why music was good in 1983:

 

[TobiasFunke]

Show No Mercy.....so good!

[Ray McKigney]

Show No Mercy.....so good!

 

That album cover always makes me laugh. Looks like something that was drawn by a 9th grade metalhead.