But no one perhaps expected such a shift for the new so-called Generation X.īut in our enthusiasm to canonise, and in some cases pigeonhole a genre, it’s all too easy to focus on the big bands and forget that another important facet of grunge was its diversity. It didn’t arrive out of nowhere, of course, and change from the 80s predominant trends – be it hair metal, winsome indie or slick virtuoso twiddling – had been coming for a while. Check out how many bright young things in 2021 are pulled to the offset guitars that grunge guitarists used primarily because at the time they were unpopular enough to offer excellent bang for buck. Grunge changed music, fashion, guitar aesthetics, gear trends… all of which reverberate to this day. There’s an argument therefore that grunge was the last truly global phenomenon in guitar culture. Britpop’s shenanigans might have led to an epidemic of young men in Adidas Gazelles reaching for Sheratons, but it famously never really exported beyond these shores. READ MORE: The Beatles’ 20 greatest guitar moments, rankedīut even with so much distance between now and then, grunge remains a truly important and significant moment in the history of our instrument.Talk about “too much fucking perspective”… By way of comparison, go back 30 years from 1991 and the Beatles had yet to sign a record deal, the Stones hadn’t even formed, and Britain’s biggest guitar hero was Hank Marvin. As Modern English would say, the future’s open wide.If you want to feel old, remind yourself that 2021 marks 30 years since grunge went overground and, led by Nirvana, a score of revolutionary bands became household names and inspired millions to pick up guitar and play it in a way that was altogether more angular and noisy than what had come before. ![]() So here’s to one of music’s greatest years. But every single one is excellent, and every single one helped invent the pop landscape we inhabit. Some of these tunes are influential works of art. This list is full of all-time classics, still sung around the globe: “Don’t You Want Me,” “Billie Jean,” “Just Can’t Get Enough,” “Little Red Corvette.” There’s also buried treasures, cult favorites, one-hit wonders. The hits, the flops, the flukes, the deep cuts. So let’s break it down: the 100 best songs of 1982, 40 years later. There’s go-go, ska, country, reggae, hi-NRG, goth. Hardcore punk takes a huge creative leap. Beatmasters get their hands on new toys to play with-the 808, the DMX, the Linn LM-2, the Jupiter-8. African music goes global via King Sunny Ade. ![]() The veteran stars realize it’s time to either evolve or die, so legends like Marvin Gaye, George Clinton, Lou Reed, Stevie Nicks, Aretha Franklin get inspired to make their boldest music in years. All over the world, rebels are checking each other out on the airwaves and plundering each other’s tricks. Radical ideas about art, gender, race, sexuality are in the air. Except music video accidentally makes stars out of New Romantic provocateurs like Duran Duran, ABC, and Culture Club. That upstart network MTV has 24 hours a day to fill, so it’s forced to play these art-fop weirdos nobody’s heard of, since they’re the ones making videos. 1982 kicks off the cross-cultural mix-and-match future we’re all living in now. But the real fun is happening on the radio, where crazy new sounds are mutating and evolving at warp speed. Sure, you can go to the movies and see E.T. After 1982, music will never be the same. So do some of history’s most tragic haircuts. New stars, new beats, new noises explode every week on MTV. ![]() Prince claims his throne as the Coolest Man Alive. Hip-hop takes over with “The Message” and “Planet Rock.” New Wave synth-pop invades the Top 40. One of the most experimental, innovative, insanely abundant music years ever. Welcome to 1982: the year that invented pop music as we know it today.
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