Music and Culture in the 80s

The 1980s was the most controversial decade in modern British history. It was the decade of the Falklands War and the miners’ strike, the expansion of the City, the great council-house sell-off and the ascendancy of Margaret Thatcher. Yet, these were also the years of individual aspiration and cultural diversity. More than ever before, Britain was a land defined by owning things and buying things, by designer labels and High Street brand names. 

The Eighties did not begin on January 1 1980; they began on May 4 1979 with the arrival of Margaret Thatcher in Downing Street. Queen Elizabeth may have reigned but it was Thatcher who ruled the Eighties. A decade of big politics and big hair. 

The Eighties can appear endearingly unfamiliar. The Eighties were more subtle and significant: there would be no Katie Price without Samantha Fox, no Lady Gaga without Madonna, no Simon Cowell without Stock, Aitken and Waterman and no David Cameron without Margaret Thatcher. The Eighties marked the death of one Britain and they hinted at another Britain to be born. 

Music

80s British music was built on the post-punk and new wave movements, incorporating different sources of inspiration from subgenres and what is now classed as world music in the shape of Jamaican and Indian music. 

Popular post-punk-rock bands that found success in the 70s included 'Siouxsie and the Banshees' and 'The Psychedelic Furs'. Their success continued through to the 80s. Members of Bauhaus and Joy Division explored new stylistic territory as Love and Rockets and New Order respectively. The second generation of British post-punk bands that broke through in the early 1980s, in, tended to move away from dark sonic landscapes. Some, such as Gang of Four, shifted to a more commercial new wave sound, while others moved into Gothic rock or became early examples of indie rock. 

Culture

As a decade, the 1970s spelt doom. British youth culture had been discredited by punk. A monumental recession followed the Labour government’s “winter of discontent”, threatening the prospect of no jobs for years ahead. For Britain, the Swinging 80s were a tumultuous period of social change when the young wrested many levers of power away from the over-40s. London became a creative powerhouse and its pop music and street fashion the toast of world capitals. All because a vast dance underground had been gagging for a very sociable revolution. 

An optimistic movement emerged that the press dubbed the New Romantics, based on a London club called the Blitz. Its soundtrack was a pounding synthesised electro-pop created for the dancefloor by a studio seven-piece called Visage, fronted by Steve Strange. But the live band who broke all the rules were Spandau Ballet.  

As the last of the Baby Boomers, the so-called Blitz Kids were concerned with much more than music. In 1980 they shook off teenage doubt to express all those talents the later Generation X would have to live up to — leadership, adaptability, negotiating skills, focus. Children of the age of mass TV, these can-doers excelled especially in visual awareness. They were the vanguard for a self-confident new class who were ready to enjoy the personal liberty and social mobility heralded by their parents in the 60s. 

Amid the whirl of 1980s consumerism, what you bought and what you wore became an integral expression of your identity, your values and even your politics. And one magazine in particular captured the mood of a generation. The glossy pages of The Face championed street fashion and club culture and became a source of inspiration for many British youngsters.  

Youngsters and adults alike experienced uprising technology such as digital watches, Sony Walkmen and arcade/computer games. Magazines and big-name stars were all the talk, and Madonna was arguably on top.