In 1981, everyone in the music business was trying to figure out what the trend for the 1980s was going to be. This year the key phrase was "play it safe," with Adult Contemporary and AOR dominating. Even Neil Diamond (The Jazz Singer) and Barbara Streisand (Guilty) could boast of a Top Ten album. In Country, the strings-saturated Nashville Sound still reigned supreme as Kenny Rogers (Greatest Hits), Dolly Parton (9 to 5 and Odd Jobs) and the Oak Ridge Boys (Fancy Free) were all in their heyday. It was only logical that this kind of country would mesh seamlessly with the bland pop of 1981, and many were the crossover hits. Soul was overcome by balladeers such as Smokey Robinson, Lionel Richie and Diana Ross, while disco was infused with some sophisticated funk by the likes of Kool & the Gang ("Celebration"). Lionel Richie became the first person to produce the Number One pop, R&B and country records in the same week, while his duet with Diana Ross ("Endless Love") topped the U.S. singles chart for nine weeks and became Motown's biggest selling single ever. A brief medley craze was provoked by a Dutch sessions group known as Starsound in the UK and Stars on 45 in America, with their hit "Stars On 45," which was the #2 single in the U.S. in June. A medley of Beach Boy songs and another of Beatles hits did well later in the year. The Stray Cats and Welsh rocker Shakin' Stevens led the way for a brief rockabilly revival with songs like "This Ole House" and "Runaway Boys" respectively.
But the future of Eighties music was making itself heard. U2 made the critics sit up and take notice with Boy (1980) and October (1981). Squeeze gave us a taste of "New Pop" with East Side Story, while Bruce Springsteen illustrated the future of Eighties folk-rock with the gritty, haunting realism of The River, significantly different from the romantic idealism of Seventies artists who worked in that genre. (This year Dan Fogelberg would produce the final encore of the latter with The Innocent Age.) Artists like UB40, The Specials, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Police, Prince, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Pat Benatar and Adam and the Ants all cranked out solid -- and in some cases exceptional -- albums that gave proof through the long night of 1981 that the music was still there, and that some musicians dared to do more than trim their sails and steer a safe course through the calm seas of pop music. Punk rock and the New Romanticism were about to transmogrify into a New Pop tsunami ready to strike next year. Blondie was the trailblazer, with "The Tide Is High" and "Rapture" breaking into the Top Ten. On the business side of things, record sales remained in a slump -- so much so that companies began to look seriously at videos as a means to save themselves. Columbia Records launched CVE (Columbia Video Enterprises) for the purpose of making videos promotional tools designed to drum up interest in bands before they entered the market with a new album of tour. Warner Communications explored a joint venture with American Express -- a new cable channel offering music videos 24 hours a day. Major record labels raised the price of singles to $1.99; only last year they had been $1.29. Home taping became an issue; Elton John, Cliff Richards, Gary Numan and others endorsed British Phonographic Industry's campaign for a tax on blank cassettes because, as BPI's alarmist ads said, "home taping is wiping out music." The first demonstration of the compact disc occurred in Europe; this revolutionary digital playback system utilizing laser beam technology would quickly surpass vinyl in popularity due to its superior sound quality and durability. Sony sold 1.5 million of its Walkman cassette players. Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes" was the biggest single of the year, hitting #1 in no less than 21 countries and winning Grammy awards for Song of the year as well as Record of the Year. (It remained at #1 in the U.S. for nine weeks, matching the duration of the Richie/Ross duet "Endless Love" at that exalted spot, and surpassed only by the ten-week stay of Olivia Newton-John's "Physical.") The Jacksons embarked on a 36-city tour that grossed a whopping $5.5 million, but that was small change compared to the triumphant Rolling Stones American tour that grossed a record-setting $35 million. (The band members netted $4 million of that.) Australia made itself heard; in November three Aussie acts inhabited the Top Ten -- Air Supply with "Here I Am," Little River Band with "The Night Owls," and Rick Springfield with "I've Done Everything For You. |
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