1980 on 45: Pretenders Calling

It’s hard to imagine in this day and age, but the very first month of the Eighties saw the release of some of the most important and influential records of the decade.

Bowie: The Starman Return(ed) to the Sky

 

Note: this was originally posted on The Secret Sun, the day after Bowie's death. It's reposted here in honor of his birthday.

The Legend is now complete. The story has been told, its ending could not have been more perfectly constructed or executed. It's said that the great ones know when to leave the stage; The Greatest also know how.

1979: Crest of the New Wave, Part 2

In part one, we looked at the roots of the New Wave movement and some of the artists who helped forge it, as well as others who hopped aboard the bandwagon. But there's still so much more to the story, so let's get right down to it, shall we?

1979: The Birthing Pangs of Post-Punk

Has it been 45 years already? Forty-five years since the single most exciting and innovative year in rock history? Damn, I'm old as dirt. But also unspeakably grateful for having been there.

1979: Crest of the New Wave, Part 1

These days, New Wave has come to basically mean "Eighties Synthpop," even though the term was being used before Synthpop was even really a thing. 

1979: The Birth of Hardcore Punk

Read part one here.

Even as punk rock was peaking as an artform, major schisms were forming that would come to define underground and alternative music for the next few decades or so. And the most vital and active wing of post-'79 punk would be the Hardcore movement, in all its various iterations.