Blow The House Down: Eighties Dance Pop
When the 1970s turned into the 1980s quite a few household names could seemingly effortlessly survive in the new decade, like Hall & Oates and pop veterans Graham Gouldman (10cc) and ‘lonely boy’ Andrew Gold, who formed Wax. Both acts sold their old instruments in the mid-eighties and started to use only state of the art electronics to compete successfully with their contemporaries. Even sixties rock icon Steve Winwood (Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Blind Faith) reached #1 on the Billboard pop chart in 1986. As the decade came to a close, a musical revolution took place and the biggest names at the time had to struggle to reach the next decade. House and hip hop wiped away eighties pop like it had never existed. Even the hit factory of Stock, Aitken & Waterman had a quick meltdown, when the 1990s started and euro dance became the next big thing. The house was blown down, to paraphrase Living In A Box. That said, eighties pop has created a legacy that still exists today. Just…
