80s Child

Sweeping statements are never a good idea.  (Ha!  See what I did there?!)

I recently heard someone saying "no good music ever came out of the 80s".  This made me cross, not only because I am a child of the early 80s.  Because it's just a silly thing to say.

To that, my answer is: The Smiths, Echo and The Bunnymen, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, REM, The Cure, Madonna, Prince, New Order (and of course Joy Division just scraped the 80s, but I still think of them as more late-70s), Sonic Youth, The Pixies, Husker Du, Mudhoney, The Sugarcubes, Siouxie and The Banshees, Kate Bush, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Big Black, The Fall, Throwing Muses, Dinosaur Junior, The Wedding Present, Fugazi, Slint...

Not to mention all of the artists maybe not primarily associated with the 80s but putting out great work (with very 80s production values) during this time: Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Paul McCartney...

And of course some of my favourite bands of all time who will forever be linked to the 90s in public imagination, but had their roots firmly in the 80s: Nirvana, Hole, The Lemonheads, Lush...

So, to those who say there is no good music ever to come out of the 80s - I've told you a million times not to exaggerate.