Where for art thou Eric?

First off - I refuse to apologize for the 80's. I know part of me feels I should, but I can't:)

I'm sure in the years to come the 70's parties I once went to will morph into parties revolving around the excess of the 80's. Party goers will, no doubt, be heading off with knitted ties, leather boots, black lipstick ,rounding the whole thing off with massive shoulder pads - and that'll be just the boys!

Don't forget - the 80's may be remembered for their excesses, but they also brought us some amazing music. Ushering in the 80's were The Clash with London Calling; it's wasn't all Duran Duran, and the Style Council, although people in general tend to remember the bands that pushed the envelope of (lack of) style I guess.
In the early 80's Pink Floyd released their concept album The Wall, Springsteen released The River, and a little known group of schoolmates from Dublin won a battle of the bands contest to record and album for CBS called Three. CBS passed on the band, and U2 signed with Island Records; the rest is history.

Band Aid came and went - I still remember the Queen set on that day. They were amazing. Live8 was an unfortunate attempt to capture some small part of the spirit of that original day - It was obvious the original audience wasn't going to get what they wanted as too much had changed in the years since; all that promise - had come to nothing.

Other bands that I personally remember making their mark in the 80's include;
The Cure, Depeche Mode, Queen, Guns and Roses, REM, The Pretenders, AC/DC, and strangely, the B52's....

Sure, Duran Duran were a self indulgent guilty pleasure. Robert Palmer was very possibly simply irresistible, and Michael Jackson may have thrilled us by taking off this sunglasses at the Grammy's.
and..
a lot of British pop involved cardigans and crappy music videos but don't forget US pop consisted, in the main, of guys with huge hair, leather and makeup singing Girls Girls Girls (or variants thereof) ,

but...

though it all was an optimism that seems to be sadly lacking today. I miss the boom days of the 80's occasionally - just occasionally mind, and never for long.

Now, there's a whole genre of artists talking about get'n rich or die'n try'n. But those same guys are actually making a pretty good living off samples ripped from those same 80's songs, so I guess thats some kind of justice.

We children of the 80's may have had a hand in the way the world is today, but I'm not sure that the youth of today, given the same economic environment, wouldn't have made the same life choices we did. Personally, looking back though, I wish I'd paid more attention to the gold, and less on the glitter.

That and girls, obviously.