I love classic rock, hard rock, indie rock, pop, jazz, blues and a realm of other types of music but in my heart I am an 80's chick.
The 80's was the era I grew up in.
I had the padded shoulders, the frilled shirts, the leg warmers and most importantly the music. Boppy, poppy, new wave, new romantic music with a mix of emo thrown in for good measure. My bedroom wall was covered in posters of my favourite bands and I had a stack of records which by the end of the 80's could fill an entire wall from floor to ceiling.
Going to music shops and flicking through records was one of my favourite things to do. What new treasures and discoveries would I find today?
Music of course was everywhere.
This was the era that MTV started and Saturday afternoon's must-watch viewing was Ready to Roll and Sunday was filled with listening to American Top 40 on the radio and at night it was all about Radio With Pictures hosted by the very laid back Karyn Hay.
80's music was what it was all about, the era of video clips and pretty boys who sometimes wore more make-up than you did.
Duran Duran were my 80's idols.I had posters of them plastered across my bedroom wall and while my friends lusted after lead singer Simon Le Bon my heart belonged to the sensitive, quiet, bad boy guitarist John Taylor.
Yes even then bad boys were my thing.
Surprising as it might be to some Duran Duran are still going strong today some 30 years later and though the boys are somewhat older now and more settled with wives and children John Taylor still plays a mean guitar and makes my heart flutter just a little.
Paul Weller Indie God, Mod God, Rock God. Paul Weller, singer, song-writer and guitarist has been called them all and like Duran Duran he is still performing today.
Never really that well known outside of Britain, Paul Weller's music has involved and changed over the years. From the new wave mod of the Jam, to the R&B pop mix of Style Council to the raw, gritty soul/rock of the solo artist he is today.
And today he is still winning awards including the Godlike Genius Award in 2010 by NME. Pretty good for a working class boy from Surrey.
The Cure Not the kind of boys you would want to take home to mum The Cure were the Goth and emo band of the late 70's and 80's.
Yet despite the wild hair, pale face make-up and black eyeliner these guys could sing and play.
Their music was dark and tormented and mournful and I knew all the words to Let's Go To Bed and Love Cats.
Hall and Oates Admitting you like Hall and Oates is a bit like admitting you like Abba & disco.
Totally not cool.
Then again I've never worried that much about being cool. Kiss On My List, I Can't Go For That, Out of Touch, Private Eyes. These were the songs that I played again and again on my cassette deck and even now I still love their up-beat boppy tunes.
Not being cool is actually kind of neat.
.jpg)
The Police 80's music really wouldn't be complete without these guys despite the fact that they burst onto the music scene in 1978. From the moment we heard the words "Roxane. You don't have to put on the red light..." I and everyone else was hooked. And from then on they produced song after song of which we all had to have and sang and danced along too.
These guys were and are legends.
