Monday, December 23, 2013

Radio Daze: Pop Hits Of The '80s, the next volume


The ninth in a series of eleven posts is now available over at Herc's Hideaway.  Herc suffers from triskaidekaphobia and we'll respect his wishes not to mention the number that comes between 12 and 14.  This latest imagined volume of the Radio Daze series covers the months April-October 1984.  During those months, I graduated from high school, met my future wife, moved over 370 miles away from home to attend college, and fell in and out of love an amazingly high number of times for a seven month period.  In my opinion, "soft rock" as I know and love it ended sometime in 1983 (more on that later), so keep that in mind as you look at the 12 tracks Herc has selected for this volume as well as the remaining two volumes yet to come.  I don't hate them, but they're not a really soft rock to this kid.

Title Artist
Come Back and Stay Paul Young
My Ever Changing Moods The Style Council
Love Will Show Us How Christine McVie
I Can Dream About You Dan Hartman
Borderline Madonna
Nobody Loves You Like I Do Anne Murray & Dave Loggins
Desert Moon Dennis DeYoung
Solid Ashford & Simpson
All Through the Night Cyndi Lauper
Sea of Love The Honeydrippers
Do What You Do Jermaine Jackson
Some Guys Have All the Luck Rod Stewart

Click on the banner below to visit Herc's Hideaway to listen to the playlist and get my take on these songs.



Click on the links below to check out the original 5 compilations as well as Herc's previous Radio Daze playlists:

7 comments :

  1. Hi!
    Just found your blog through BTG and your Radio Daze posts caught my attention. I bought and loved that collection back in the mid 90s. So many lost 45s there and I wished they had continued with that series.
    Feel free to visit my blog on my 80s annual list. Although 1982 is one of my favourite music years, I'd have to pick 1984 as my top year of that decade.
    Merry Christmas!
    ric

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    1. Those were my sentiments for "continuing" the series. Been a big fan of the content and look of your site since stumbling upon it a few months back while looking for "Best Albums of 1982."

      You're not from the States are you? Haven't read your site completely so if you revealed your location, I missed it. Guessing Untied Kingdom or Australia or even New Zealand based on your selctions on the half dozen or so charts I've peeped.

      Have a Happy and a Merry!

      HERC

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    2. Were you 14 in 1982? There is a theory that is the "magical age" where our cultural tastes are shaped and the popular music that year will mean most to us. I has tested and found this to be pretty true plus or minus one year depending on the individual's pop music exposure.
      Btw, you're right, I'm not from the States, even though it's pop music has influenced me from a tender age. I am actually from Singapore.
      ric

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    3. In 1982, I turned sixteen. I had a traumatic incident shortly before my birthday, when I was supposed to get my driver's license, so I was forced to ride the bus for three hours each day to and from school. My trusty Walkman kept me company on those rides and if I had to guess, it was the year I listened to the most music. Until last year, when I found myself suddenly unemployed and really listened to music like it was my job to do so.

      I have read Daniel Levitin's book This Is Your Brain On Music and it is in Chapter 8 (page 231) that he writes: Researchers point to the teen years as the turning point for musical preferences. It is around the age of ten or eleven that most children take on music as a real interest...

      Levitin goes on to write about fourteen and the time of emotionally charged, self-discovery. Memories linked to emotions are "tagged" and are only amplified when one or more of the physical senses are added. This is why both smells and hearing music triggers so many memories in people. It's all brain chemistry. My own informal survey of two dozen family and friends yielded the age of sixteen or seventeen as the average, with the extremes running from age 12 to age 20.

      Mark (aka the soft rock kid) who runs this site is a few months younger than me and he bought his first record at age 10 in 1976, the beginning of his Favorite Decade. I bought my first record in 1974, though I received several albums and singles as gifts in 1973, so I skew a little younger. If I had to name my favorite ten year period of music, it would definitely be 1973-1982.

      Singapore, huh? Can't say I've been fortunate enough to meet anyone from Singapore yet so welcome to the club. Always looking for more people to discuss music with.

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    4. Welcome and welcome to the discussion, Ric! Hope you'll continue to visit. If you don't mind me asking, what is BTG?

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  2. BTG is Burning the Ground, DJPaulT's most excellent vinyl rip site. The site's name is taken from this Duran Duran single.

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  3. Yes, 16/17 seems to be the other age people would mention. I guess being in junior college (high school) is another important transition in one's life.

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