Quote:
Originally Posted by SlyStone63
What went wrong with so many artists/bands that had huge success commercially and critically throughout the 60s and 70s once the music world entered into the 1980s? Commercially or critically they fell off badly in the 80s.
I'll name a few... Stevie Wonder, Donna Summer, Joni Mitchell, Earth Wind and Fire, Elton John, David Bowie, Queen, Aerosmith, Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Barry White, AC/DC, Bob Dylan and many more?
Was it because of MTV? The technology of the 80s? Trend chasing? Creative juice was out?
What do you all think?
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Ok well this OP is pretty badly informed, at best.
Stevie Wonder I'm not too familiar with all of his work, but wasn't "I Just Called to Say I Love You" a number one hit in 1984? And then there's this:
(from Wiki: bolded text is mine)
The 1980s saw Wonder achieving his biggest hits and highest level of fame; he had increased album sales, charity participation, high-profile collaborations, political impact, and television appearances
Donna Summer, from Wiki again:
Summer received four nominations for the 7th Annual American Music Awards in January 1980, and took home awards for Female Pop/Rock and Female Soul/R&B Artist; and well as Pop/Rock single for "Bad Girls". Just over a week after the awards, Summer had her own nationally televised special, The Donna Summer Special,[18] which aired on ABC network
Joni Mitchell was a child of the sixties; nothing lasts forever. I can't speak of her as I don't know enough about her but I think perhaps she might have found it hard to fit into the new world of synths and DAT. She seemed to have reservations about Thomas Dolby producing one of her albums.
Earth Wind & Fire were very much a thing of the seventies soul explosion. When that began to wind down, good as they were, they probably found themselves in a similar situation to Joni. NLF again.
Elton John? Bowie? Queen? Aerosmith? Seriously? These artists had some of their biggest hits and best-selling albums in the 1980s, with Elton having major hits like "Blue Eyes", "I'm Still Standing" and "I Guess That's Why They Call it the Blues", plus that memorable duet with George Michael; Bowie kicked the eighties in the teeth with a "remember me?" including "Ashes to Ashes", "China Girl", "Modern Love" "Let's Dance" and "Blue Jean" to say nothing of teaming up with the next band on your list for "Under Pressure"; Queen had "Radio Ga-Ga", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "Another One Bites the Dust" and then there was this little aside, from Wiki again:
Queen chalked up a major international "first" by becoming the band to do for popular music in South America what The Beatles did for North America 17 years ago. Half a million Argentinians and Brazilians, starved of appearances of top British or American bands at their peak, gave Queen a heroic welcome which changed the course of pop history in this uncharted territory of the world rock map. In open-air concerts at temperatures of around 96 degrees, in stifling humidity, the ecstatic young people saw eight Queen concerts at giant stadia, while many more millions saw the shows on TV and heard the radio broadcasts live.
I could go on. Streisand is Streisand and at one point gouged witless fans of five hundred dollars per ticket, so I don't think she was worried. Many of the others - Diana Ross, Dylan, Aretha etc - were again of their time, though all of them had further hits.
In summation, I think you're being either very cruel or unfair to these artists or just trying to make a case by framing your evidence in a way that suits it. None of these artists "fell off badly in the 80s" as you like to say, not from what I've read and not from the evidence of sales and ticket numbers.