Like every decade, the 1980s were full of fads that were everlasting yet incredibly memorable. Memorable in both a good light and a negative one. Some people look fondly back on the days of leg warmers, big hair, and cropped tank tops. Others, not so much. Well, while there were cultural fads of the 1980s, there were also musical ones. However, not every single band fell into them.
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80s music is some of the most identifiable music in the world’s catalog. It’s so identifiable given its heavy use of synthesizers, drum machines, hair metal guitar riffs, boy bands, and the general emphasis on pop-oriented and upbeat melodies, as well as lyrics. Those were the fads of the 1980s music scene; however, these three bands did not cave to them.
Metallica
Metallica was founded in 1981, but they didn’t hit the big time until 1986 with the release of their third album, Master Of Puppets. Following the release of the album in 1986, Metallica let the world know that 80s rock music could be modest in appearance, but ambitious in its creative sound.
Unlike the hair/glam metal bands Guns N’ Roses, Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard, and Poison, Metallica had a far more understated disposition. In other words, they let their music do the talking, and it talked, as Metallica introduced the socially aware and musically innovative Thrash metal rock genre.
U2
U2‘s music doesn’t even sound like typical 1980s music. Between their socially insightful lyrics and guitar-driven style, U2 didn’t touch the synthesizer rock ‘n’ roll of the decade. Frankly, in the 1980s, there was no other band that could touch U2 in terms of uniqueness.
While U2’s international claim to fame came in 1987 with the release of The Joshua Tree album, their prior albums, October and War, proved they were an influential musical force bound to create their own trends. Well, as history has shown us, they did just that, and they did it in their own way.
R.E.M.
Everything about R.E.M. contrasted with the fads of the 1980s. In essence, R.E.M. was one of the trailblazing bands behind the growth of the alternative rock genre. They focused on substance in their lyrics, utilized unpopular(at the time) folk-rock trends, and appealed to a fan base longing for an underground style of music.
R.E.M. successfully launched their relatively mainstream music career in the late 1980s after the release of their 1987 album, Document. For the rest of the decade, the band would go on to release hit singles such as “The One I Love” and “Stand”.
Photo by © Aaron Rapoport/CORBIS OUTLINE/Corbis via Getty Images
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