Matts Majestic Music 2 Part 2

The 1980s not only had the very popular Hair Metal Bands, it also gave birth to some of the first Rap and Hip Hop groups. Some of the most popular Rap and Hip Hop groups of this time were NWA, Ice-T, Salt-N-Pepa, Big Daddy K, Run DMC, and the Beastie Boys. Their style of music was more of a heavy beat with strange sounds and steady rhythms. A lot of the rappers and Hip Hop groups wrote songs about their lives before they got famous.  Many of them had rough pasts growing up in poverty and they could barely get by on their own. There was also a lot more profanity in the lyrics of these songs than a lot of the other styles of music. Some of the big songs in this category would be Shoop by Salt-N-Pepa, a remake of Aerosmith’s Walk this Way by Run DMC, and Girls by the Beastie Boys. All these songs were huge hits back in the 1980s and are still fairly popular till this day.

               There were also a lot of very popular Pop groups and singers in the 1980s. Some big names in pop music were Madonna, the Cars, ABBA, Whitney Houston, Banana Rama, the Pet Shop Boys, Debbie Gibson, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. They had a more smooth and peppy sound. Their music sounded a lot happier than the rap and Hip Hop music. These pop artists blended a little bit of guitar, drums, bass, piano, and synthesizers. They were also a lot like the rock groups, but their music was not as hard as the rock bands. Some of the famous songs are Hungry like the Wolf by Duran Duran, Don’t Stand So Close to Me by the Police, Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2, Rich Girl by Hall and Oats, and Dancing Queen by ABBA. All three styles really took the music industries by storm in the 1980s and defined that decade. Many of these bands are still performing now. It is crazy to think they have been performing and writing new songs for over 30 years.