HOWARD JONES

One of Britain's king's of 80's synthpop, Welshman Howard Jones, or as fans call him, Ho-Jo, had a huge impact in the early to mid-eighties, as the synthesizer became one of the more dominant tools of the industry. Always known for richly layered songs with positive, inspiring lyrics, Howard made a big splash on both sides of the pond. His first single, "New Song", was a huge hit in the U.K. in 1983, and a moderate hit in the U.S., when it was released a year later.

His next single, "What is Love", performed similarly, becoming a Top Five hit in the U.K., but only a Top 40 hit in the U.S.. Although not huge hits here, however, both songs have gone on to become fan favorites and helped to define one of the signature sounds of the decade. His third U.S. single, "Like to Get to Know You Well", was his fifth huge hit in the U.K., but did not become popular here until it was featured in the John Cusack/Savage Steve Holland classic, Better Off Dead.

Howard's 1985 album, Dream Into Action, was a far bigger hit in the U.S., and spawned three hit singles: "Things Can Only Get Better", "Life in One Day", and his biggest American hit, "No One Is to Blame". As the eighties wore on, Jones keep churning out great records and had three more hits in the U.S.: " You Know I Love You... Don't You?", which was a Top 20 hit from his album, One to One, and two hit singles from his album, Cross That Line, in 1989: "Everlasting Love", and "The Prisoner". Howard Jones has gone on to release ten more albums (the most recent being in 2009) and have several more hit records and still performs all over the world.

A truly wise person uses few words; a person with understanding is even-tempered. - Proverbs 17:27

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five was not only one of the first really well known hip hop acts, but also the first that was culturally relevant. Joseph Saddler, or Grandmaster Flash was already well known as a talented deejay throughout the Bronx during the late seventies.  To make his DJ show more unique, he recruited his friends Melvin Glover (bka Melle Mel),  Melvin's brother, Nathaniel (bka Kidd Creole), and Bobby Wiggins (bka Cowboy) to act as his "MCs" during the barbeques, block parties and club gigs that he was hired for.  As Flash's DJ techniques became increasingly innovative and his emcees' rhyming skills became ever more skillful, the foursome began building steam and a foundation to get out of the ghetto.  Things changed in a major way when the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" was released, and proved that hip hop music could reach a mainstream audience, and thus be quite profitable.

After adding two more rappers, Eddie Morris (bka Scorpio) and Guy Williams (bka Raheim), Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five began recording. In 1980, their first two records, "Freedom", and "Birthday Party" were minor hits for them. The next year, Grandmaster Flash released the single "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel", which was a major hit for him. The "song" is composed entirely of samples from the movie Flash Gordon, and from other records, including his own with the Furious Five ("Freedom" and "Birthday Party"), Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust", Chic's "Good Times", Blondie's "Rapture", Spoonie G's " Monster Jam", and Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band's "Apache". "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel" is also considered to be the first recording of turtablism (or the craft of manipulating a record by means of techniques such as scratching and cross-fading). The group would have a major breakthrough in less than a year.

1982's "The Message" is still considered one of the most important hip hop records in history. It was one of the first records to emphasize lyrics over the beat, though the beat has been sampled many artists over the years.  The song has been sampled (musically, lyrically, or both) by artists such as Eminem ("What's the Beat"), Ice Cube ("Check Yo Self"), Puff Daddy ("Can't Nobody Hold Me Down"), Mos Def ("Close Edge"), Talib Kweli ("Broken Glass"), Tupac Shakur ("2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted"), Snoop Dogg ("Gangbangin 101"), Coolio ("County Line"), and Common ("Book of Life").

"Don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge / I'm trying not to lose my head,"

"It's like a jungle sometimes/It makes me wonder how I keep from going under,"

Unfortunately, the stark lyrics of "The Message" seemed to be a harbinger of things to come for the group, as Grandmaster Flash felt that he was not getting paid what he was owed and left Sugar Hill Records, suing the company for $5 million in unpaid royalties. Flash's lawsuit splintered the group, as Melle Mel, Scorpio and Cowboy stayed with Sugarhill, and proceeded to record their next big hit, "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)".

The record company did not want the public to know that Flash had nothing to do with the 1984 record, so it was released as a single performed by "Grandmaster + Melle Mel", even though Flash left a year prior to its production and release. The famous line from the anti-drug song, "A businessman is caught with 24 kilos. He's out on bail and out of jail and that's the way it goes" refers to the car maker John DeLorean, who was caught using drug money in an attempt to keep his company out of bankruptcy.  Although "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)" was a big hit, much of the music from the single was stolen from the song "Cavern" by the dance band Liquid Liquid, and the resulting lawsuit played a big role in Sugar Hill Records closing its doors in 1986. See what greed can do?

Following "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)" Melle Mel and his crew continued to have success: their 1984 single, "Jesse" was widely praised for urging their audience to learn more about politics, as it urged people to vote for then presidential candidate Jesse Jackson. During the summer of '84, the group scored another hit with "Beat Street Breakdown" the theme song to the ground-breaking hip hop culture film, Beat Street.  Later that year, Melle Mel became the first rap artist ever to win a Grammy award for "Record of the Year" for providing the opening rap on Chaka Khan's smash hit, "I Feel for You".

God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives. - 1 Thessalonians 4:7

GUNS N' ROSES

Take vocalist Axl Rose and rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin from the band Hollywood Rose and combine them with Tracii Guns, Ole Beich, and Rob Gardner of the band L.A. Guns and what do you have? The beginnings of what would become Guns N' Roses.   Replace Tracii Guns, Ole Beich, and Rob Gardner with Slash on guitar, Duff McKagan on bass, and Steven Adler on drums, respectively, and then you have one of my favorite rock bands from the '80s.

As with many nascent bands, GN’R’s members' relationships were really solidified during grueling club tours to get their name and music out. The band's biggest gig was on Halloween night, 1986, when they opened for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. This was such a successful show for them, execs from their record label wanted a release quickly, but the band felt they needed to get tighter by doing more shows. When they finally left the road to go into the studio to get something on vinyl, Geffen Records wanted they band to hold on to their new but growing fan base, so it released an EP around Christmas of 1986 called Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide.

This was a collection of four songs, two covers (Rose Tattoo's "Nice Boys" and Aerosmith's "Mama Kin") and two originals, but they were not recorded during live gigs in the clubs, as we all thought initially. Axl said in an interview on MTV a few years later that the songs were demo records with audience sounds added later. While Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide was doing its job in the streets and getting the band's name out there further, the band was doing its job in the studio, creating, I think, one of the great albums of rock and roll.

In July of 1987, Guns N' Roses released their debut album, Appetite for Destruction, and really took no prisoners. We used to joke (sort of) that, although the songs on the album were about many different topics, the underlining theme was...women! Of the 12 tracks on Appetite, five songs are about women or mention women or relationships: "Sweet Child o' Mine", "Think About You", "My Michelle", "You're Crazy", and "Rocket Queen".  But, hey, why else be in a band, but to get women?

"Welcome to the Jungle" was the album's second single, but the first one to get widely noticed and became a Top Ten hit. It's about a small-town boy arriving in the big city, where it's do or die (cliché alert!). MTV was afraid to show the video initially, playing only in the early morning hours, but it caught on anyway, and was soon the most requested video for months on the daily countdown. The next single made an even bigger splash.

Band members have been often quoted, saying that "Sweet Child o' Mine" began as a joke, with Slash just messing around on his guitar. One by one, other band members joined in, and Axl couldn’t help but jot down some lyrics. We all should fool around with our friends like this, as they ended up with their only #1 record and an international Top Ten hit.

There's not much I can write about Appetite for Destruction that Rolling Stone, Spin, Musician, Billboard, and countless other rags haven't already written. The album topped Billboard's Album Chart for a year, produced three hit singles: "Paradise City", "Welcome to the Jungle", and "Sweet Child o' Mine", but rock radio stations really played all of the tracks on the album, especially "Nightrain", "It's So Easy" and "Mr. Brownstone."

G N' R’s next album, G N' R Lies, is not really an album at all. It’s an extra long EP, consisting of 8 songs: the first four tracks are the ones on Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide, and the last four are acoustic songs, with the standouts being the smash hit “Patience” and "Used to Love Her".  G N' R Lies was another hit and sold over four million copies, despite the fact the controversial track, “One in a Million”, had many pegging the band as homophobic and racist, due to its lyrics, written by Axl Rose. This would be the band’s final release in the ‘80s.  

For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time - to show us his grace through Christ Jesus. - 2 Timothy 1:9

DEPECHE MODE

It's the late '70s. Vince Clarke, Marty Gore, Dave Gahan, and Andy Fletcher are young blokes from Essex, England. They love Bowie, Ultravox, American Soul music, and a fairly new band, The Cure. They pick up some instruments, and learn to play them (kind of), and start a band. They play out in local schools, which leads to gigs at local clubs, and this leads to their first studio-quality record, Speak & Spell, in 1981.

Speak & Spell was successful within a few months, and the band released five more albums in 1980's. This first album was a big hit in the U.K., but was all but ignored in the U.S., save for some minor airplay of the singles, "Just Can't Get Enough", "Dreaming of Me", and "What's Your Name." When the band began writing songs for their next album, Clarke was not feeling the darker, moodier direction the new songs were heading in, and left. Alan Wilder was then hired to play keyboards, and Martin Gore took over principle songwriting duties, and that's the line-up that stuck until 1995.

The decade of the '80s proceeded, and so did Depeche Mode, releasing the albums A Broken Frame (1982), Construction Time Again (1983), Some Great Reward (1984), Black Celebration (1985), and Music For the Masses (1987).  They released over twenty singles which made it into the U.K. Top Forty, and seven of those songs also made it onto the U.S. charts, most notably, "People Are People", "Master and Servant", "Strangelove", "Never Let Me Down Again", "Behind the Wheel", and their biggest American hit of the '80s, "Personal Jesus". Not surprisingly, all of these small and medium-sized hits paved the way for the album that made Depeche Mode international superstars: Violator.

Since Violator was released in early 1990, I won't go into detail about it here, but I will say that it sold around five million copies worldwide, spent a year and half on the charts, and spawned four hit singles: "Personal Jesus" (#28), "Enjoy the Silence" (#8), "Policy of Truth" (#15) and "World in My Eyes" (#52).

I love all who love me. Those who search will surely find me. - Proverbs 8:17

GENESIS

Genesis released four studio albums in the eighties (Duke in 1980, Abacab in 1981, Genesis in 1983, and Invisible Touch in 1986), each more popular than the last. There was also a double live album, Three Sides Live, in 1982 that was also successful. Duke was warmly received by fans and critics, and  spawned not only the popular group of songs known as the "Duke Suite," but also the smash single, "Misunderstanding," one of the two songs on the LP written by Collins.

All of the album's other songs were written by Banks and Rutherford. 1981’s Abacab was notable for its richer than usual production style and a hit collaboration with the Earth, Wind & Fire horn section on the single "No Reply at All".  1983's Genesis album became the band’s third consecutive #1 in the UK, and was also a big seller here, spawning their first U.S. Top Ten single, “That’s All.” The album’s other singles, "Mama" and "Illegal Alien” were popular in the U.S., but far more so elsewhere in the world.

Between Genesis albums, Phil Collins had been releasing solo records. Both 1981’s Face Value and 1982’s Hello, I Must Be Going! were successful and contained several hit singles ( “In the Air Tonight”, “I Don’t Care Anymore”, “You Can’t Hurry Love”). However, Collins’ 1985 LP, No Jacket Required was his smash, hitting #1 in at least 10 countries and spawning four huge singles: “Susudio” (#1), “One More Night” (#1), “Don’t Lose My Number” (#4), and “Take me Home” (#7). In the midst of all of this popularity, Collins’ band, Genesis would release their true breakthrough LP in the U.S.

1986’s Invisible Touch was Genesis’ biggest album to date, containing five U.S. Top 5 singles: "Throwing It All Away", "In Too Deep", "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight", "Land of Confusion" and "Invisible Touch".  The band seemed like they were everywhere at this time: the singles’ videos received heavy MTV rotation (especially "Land of Confusion" and "Invisible Touch"), they became the first band to play four sold out consecutive nights at Wembley Stadium, and several of the album’s songs were used in TV shows (“Miami Vice” and “Magnum, P.I.”), film (Mona Lisa), and commercials.  Invisible Touch was Genesis’ final album of the 1980’s, and it was enough, as the record stayed on the charts for two years and the band spent the rest of the decade touring and doing charity shows.

Hold on to the pattern of wholesome teaching you learned from me - a pattern shaped by the faith and love that you have in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 1:13

DURAN DURAN

Formed in Birmingham, England in 1978, Duran Duran were the most successful New Wave band of the '80s and the leading band in the "Second British Invasion" of the U. S. at that time. Duran Duran charted over a dozen Billboard Hot 100 singles and it is estimated that they have sold at least 100 million records. This dominance of the '80s music scene was fueled in large part by the band's visual image, which they cultivated with fashion designers and set decorators. Also, their often controversial videos, which sometimes included partial nudity and sensuality, were groundbreaking style-wise, as the band was also one of the first to employ professional directors and cinematographers using 35 mm film movie cameras, giving their videos a much more cinematic look. The primary and most famous lineup of Duran Duran consisted of Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, Roger Taylor, Andy Taylor and Simon Le Bon, also known as the "Fab Five."

The band's first album, Duran Duran, was released in 1981 in the UK and was big hit there, staying on the chart for two years.  In the U.S., however, the album's initial release fizzled. In May of 1982, they released their second album, Rio, which was another big hit in the UK, and finally broke the band in the U.S. Although the single "Hungry Like the Wolf", was Duran Duran's fifth single released in the U.S., it was their first successful song here.  After the huge success of "Hungry Like The Wolf" (it was Top 3 song in the U.S.), the band released the title track to their album, "Rio", in the states. It was already a hit around the outside of America. "Rio" also charted high on the Billboard chart. Taking advantage of their two hot singles in the Spring of '83, the band released the stand-alone single "Is There Something I Should Know?" and again, another hit record resulted. 

Later that year, Seven and the Ragged Tiger, was released, and it included several more worldwide hit records, such as "Union of the Snake", "New Moon on Monday", and the "The Reflex", which, after it was significantly remixed by super producer and musician, Nile Rodgers,  became Duran Duran's first number one hit in the U.S. The band's next project was the long-form video Arena, which was part concert film and part Barbarella-inspired concept video, which was recorded during their 1984 Sing Blue Silver North American Tour. The accompanying Arena album also contained two more hit singles for the group: a new studio track, "The Wild Boys"(which went to Number 2 in both the U.S. and the U. K.), and a live version of a previous song that did well in countries other than ours: "Save A Prayer", (which went to #16 on Billboard's chart).

Taking a break from Duran Duran for a while, John and Andy Taylor wanted to produce and play on some hard rock and funk records, so they call up some buddies in the form of Robert Palmer and Tony Thompson, and supergroup Power Station was born. Power Station released one self-titled album, which produced two Top 10 singles (“Some Like it Hot” and a cover of T-Rex’s “Get It On (Bang A Gong).”  Simon Le Bon and Nick Rhodes, also had a “splinter group” called Arcadia, which was closer to the Duran Duran sound, but much less successful than either Duran Duran or Power Station. Arcadia did score a Top Ten hit in the U.S., the U.K., and several other countries with the single, "Election Day." Roger Taylor was involved in both groups, as the drummer for Arcadia, but also played a bit on the Power Station LP. Also in 1985, the band recorded the title song to the 007 film, A View to a Kill and the single remains the to the only James Bond movie theme song to hit #1 in the U.S., and became the highest charting Bond theme on the UK chart when it hit #2 there.

The non-stop work schedule which produced three studio albums, one live album, several tours and videos, in five years finally took its toll when two of the “Fab Five” finally needed a real break: drummer Roger Taylor succumbed to exhaustion and retired to the English countryside, and guitarist Andy Taylor just wanted to do something different. These changes and tension within the group plague them all through the recording of 1986’s "Notorious."  Although the title track went to #2 in the U.S. and album sales were strong, the band was losing some of their fans to a more mature kind of pop music; one more influenced by R&B.

The album’s other two singles, "Skin Trade" and "Meet El Presidente", hit the charts, but were nowhere near as successful as the band’s earlier work.  Duran Duran’s last two hit singles of the ‘80s, "I Don't Want Your Love" (#4 in the US) and " All She Wants Is" (#4 in the US), were from the 1988 album, Big Thing, an LP which a quality collection of tunes that were influenced by hip hop, rave, and house music. The band closed out the 1980s with the LP Decade: Greatest Hits, which also sold very well.

Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. - Hebrews 10:23

POISON

Poison, that little glam metal band from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, was formed in 1981, but it wasn’t until 1984 that it would consist of the current lineup that we all know and love (or hate): Bret Michaels (lead vocals), bassist Bobby Dall, Rikki Rockett (drums), and of course, on guitar….C.C. DeVille. And, everyone knows, DeVille beat out Slash for the job, as C.C. was far more glam.

As ubiquitous as Poison was in the 1980s, it’s surprising to some that they released only two albums during the decade: Look What the Cat Dragged In in 1986 and Open Up and Say...Ahh! in 1988.  In between the these albums, Poison contributed a song to the Less Than Zero film soundtrack, a cover of Kiss’ "Rock and Roll All Nite."

Poison’s debut album: Look What the Cat Dragged In, was released in the summer 1986, and initially not successful; it slowly crept up the charts and eventually peaked at #3 on the Billboard chart the next summer. It ended up selling over 4 million copies worldwide. The album had 3 successful singles: "I Want Action", and the monster hits "Talk Dirty to Me", and "I Won't Forget You"

The band’s second album, Open Up and Say...Ahh!, was and even bigger hit, selling around 8 million copies worldwide. It also featured Poison’s biggest hit, the #1 single "Every Rose Has Its Thorn." They had other big hits from the album as well: "Nothin' but a Good Time", "Fallen Angel", and a cover of Loggins and Messina’s "Your Mama Don't Dance". As with every good rock band, Poison was also known for their great live shows and their raucous partying. The nineties would be great to Poison too: they would sell 7+ million copies of their next album, Flesh & Blood and their fans would continue to adore them, even though released songs like “Unskinny Bop.”

The godly walk with integrity; blessed are their children who follow them. - Proverbs 20:7