3 Rock Voices From the 1980s You’ll Recognize in About Two Seconds

Not only did the 1980s have a recognizable sound, but so did some of its singers. When you’re an artist, the highest compliment anyone can give you is that they recognized your work within seconds of encountering it.

That means you have a style—a true perspective. Here below, we wanted to highlight three such creative minds from back in the day. Indeed, these are three rock voices from the 1980s you’ll recognize in about two seconds.

Prince

Everything about Prince was recognizable. If someone in the 1980s told you a guy dressed in purple was about to walk into the room, you’d guess it was Prince immediately, and you’d get out your autograph book. Similarly, as soon as someone puts on a song by the Minnesota-born artist, you know it’s him. Prince’s singing voice was fun and flirtatious. It was also fantastic and effective. Whether he was singing about little red Corvettes or going crazy, the guy knew how to stick in your mind thanks to his unique, sticky sound.

Bruce Springsteen

You can’t write a song like “Born in the U.S.A.” and not be memorable. While the New Jersey-born artist Bruce Springsteen was already a household name thanks to his work in the 1970s and early 1980s, when he released “Born in the U.S.A.” in the middle of the decade, he became a rock god. That famous chorus—and Springsteen’s rugged, passionate vocal performance on it. It’s the kind of stuff that gets burnt into mainstream culture and is never forgotten. Today, as soon as one of his songs comes on, you know it’s The Boss. He’s just one of those true originals.

Phil Collins

Phil Collins created his own sound. If you listen to his band Genesis or his solo work, you begin to quickly understand Collins’ sonic genius. Not only did he write interesting lyrics and put together memorable chord changes and rhythmic tempos, but the sound Collins constructed was perhaps his greatest feat. It sounded as if it was being beamed to us from Saturn or the outer reaches of the galaxy. It made him sound totally his own in his time, and it remains glorious to this day.

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