I was checkin out other blogs looking for new bands and came across this gem, Frankmusik. I found Frankmusik on a post on The New Wave Diva, who credits a Mr. Billy Suede for turning her on to this great little British pop artist. Check out this video for the song “3 Little Words” off of his debut album “Complete Me.” Very 80s and very fun!! The video for “3 Little Words” reminds me of a scene from the 80s movie “Big” with Tom Hanks where he is dancing on the giant keyboard. Frankmusik has also remixed material from other artists such as Lady GaGa and the Pet Shop Boys.
Here’s a couple more pure pop fun vids from Frankmusik, enjoy!
This is a very cool little video showcasing a very cool little toy from Electro-Harmonix. The EHX 2880 is a stereo multi-track looper. Nothing in this video is pre-recorded, we get to see Matt Hill of The Floozies lay the song out for us in real time. Enjoy!
Swedish synthpop band Melody Club takes a little more than a page from history, more like a whole chapter! Melody Club is sooo retro 80s that it’s not even funny, it’s actually cool! Each of their albums are full of very slick, well-crafted pop songs that get you movin’ to the beat and humming along. Everything about this band makes me feel like I’ve just taken a ride in a DeLorean equipped with a flux capaciter, set the time to 1984, we’re going back, to the future!
I’m always searching out new artists and new sounds. It seems that more and more over the past few years I find artists that sound like they could have hit the charts 20 years ago in the 80s. I have also noticed 80s fashion becoming more popular with some of the kids today. Why is this? When I was in high school, which was almost 20 yrs ago, the 60s/70s were super cool. My friends and I listened to a lot of 70s bands like Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, The Ramones, and others. Why? This has been a topic of conversation many many times over the years and it seems the same thing always comes up. Each generation wants something to call their own. Yesterdays fashion is just that, old, done with, its history. So why then look even further into the past for inspiration? It seems that after a decade or so we are removed enough from the past that the ideas can sound fresh again. We always look to the past to see what has been done before so we can build upon it. So it seems that these things may go in cycles, the new kids look about 10-20 yrs back for inspiration (because they don’t want to sound like what was recently done and be a copy cat), and that sound seeps into the music of today. There has to be something new about it though. If an artist just copies what was done 15 yrs ago then they are retro and its nothing new. If an artist takes the sounds from 15 yrs ago and puts it into the context of today’s popular sounds and technical capabilities, then whamo! a new sound is born. It seems that the most obvious influence coming from the 80s is the use of synths and keyboards, something that I always thought the 90s were lacking.
A couple of artists that I have run across who seem to do this quite well are Shiny Toy Guns and No Doubt on their album Rock Steady which Rick Ocasek of The Cars helped produce. The song Don’t Let Me Down sounds alot like The Cars.
