Pre 1990's Feel Good Music

[Lencoboy]

Simple melodies and harmonies are very pleasant to the ear. Any other 80's goodness like this? I only learned of them today Lenco.

I agree with you that simple melodies and harmonies are very pleasant to the ear. As for Five Star though, they were (and still are) a bit of a 'hit-and-miss'/'take it or leave it' kind of act for me, plus (for better or worse) very 'of their time'.

[Catkins]

https://youtu.be/4qoymGCDYzU

[Catkins]

The one above is a song I love. Not sure why but a really good song.

Below is a real jolly song for me.

https://youtu.be/6913KnbMpHM

[Buster70]

I may be looking back through rose tinted headphones but music was just better pre 90s who could forget such hits as ,
chas & Dave , Rabbit
Clive Dunn , Grandad
The tweets , The Birdy song
Benny Hill , Ernie ( The fastest milkman in the west )
such timeless classics and the harmonies on chas n Daves Gertcha we’re out of this world , these days it’s all just noise as my dad would say , I mean shout , I haven’t slept in a very long time , that s not a song just a statement

[Lencoboy]

I may be looking back through rose tinted headphones but music was just better pre 90s who could forget such hits as ,
chas & Dave , Rabbit
Clive Dunn , Grandad
The tweets , The Birdy song
Benny Hill , Ernie ( The fastest milkman in the west )
such timeless classics and the harmonies on chas n Daves Gertcha we’re out of this world , these days it’s all just noise as my dad would say , I mean shout , I haven’t slept in a very long time , that s not a song just a statement

I kind of agree with you that quality of music in general started to decline from the 90s onwards, as it gradually became more and more about 'gimmicks', being 'edgy', pushing everything to the max and general 'can't be bothered'-ness from artists, producers and labels, rather than the actual musical talents and the strengths of the songs themselves as the decade wore on, whose trends have essentially continued to this very day.

Most people have almost always been of the opinion that 'controversy sells', but it seems like pretty much every artist is compelled to jump on certain bandwagons and adhere to certain formulas today in order to appear 'relevant', whereas pre-90s it was mostly the strength of the actual songs themselves and general musicianship that appealled to most record-buyers.

Ditto for the general quality of TV, since the 90s, but that's another story.

[Lencoboy]

I kind of agree with you that quality of music in general started to decline from the 90s onwards, as it gradually became more and more about 'gimmicks', being 'edgy', pushing everything to the max and general 'can't be bothered'-ness from artists, producers and labels, rather than the actual musical talents and the strengths of the songs themselves as the decade wore on, whose trends have essentially continued to this very day.

Most people have almost always been of the opinion that 'controversy sells', but it seems like pretty much every artist is compelled to jump on certain bandwagons and adhere to certain formulas today in order to appear 'relevant', whereas pre-90s it was mostly the strength of the actual songs themselves and general musicianship that appealled to most record-buyers.

Ditto for the general quality of TV, since the 90s, but that's another story.

Whilst on this very same subject (and on a more positive note), I did read an article on the Official Charts website yesterday (the original article itself was from around mid-September or so) that quite a few artists (contemporary and 'heritage') this year have opted to release limited edition CD versions of their respective single releases, and have since sparked a bit of a mini-revival in the CD single format, after having seemingly gone the way of the dodo since the latter half of the 2000s, plus of course limited edition vinyl and even cassette versions have become increasingly popular so far over the course of 2021 alone.

I know it's a bit of an 'I'll believe it when I see it' kind of scenario right now, but usually whenever people actually purchase hard-copy formats of releases it means they actually care about and value both the artists and products concerned, which is harder to do with digital downloads and streams, so hopefully it might eventually spell an improvement in both the general quality and variety of material in the mainstream pop charts, which have sadly been skewed mostly towards rap and dance-pop since the latter half of the 2000s when physical format singles first died out in favour of digital downloads and streams.

Back on track, I've thought of another great one from Lionel Richie, 'All Night Long' (from 1983).

[WiredIncorrectly]

compelled to jump on certain bandwagons and adhere to certain formulas today in order to appear 'relevant'

Madonna did this, and her recent work is nothing compared to her original works. Today, Drake does this but I'm not so much of a fan of his music when compared to "analogue musicians".

[WiredIncorrectly]

The one above is a song I love. Not sure why but a really good song.

Below is a real jolly song for me.

https://youtu.be/6913KnbMpHM

Never heard this before, but I really enjoyed this.

[WiredIncorrectly]

A classic fav. of mine. 80's women were stunning.

[Fishmanpa]

I saw Pat Benatar live back in the day. She was such a tiny little thing but rocked her socks off! I had such a crush on her. I've seen many of the classics from the 70's and early 80's, but then again, I'm old

FMP