Music of the United Kingdom (1980s)

In the early 1980s, the death of Sid Vicious (of the Sex Pistols) and the alleged selling-out of bands like The Clash and The Jam led to still-frequent cries that punk is dead. Hardcore punk diversified into Gothic rock, including Siouxsie & the Banshees and The Cure, and New Wave bands like Adam & the Ants. The rebellious punk aesthetic was adopted by a group of independent record labels and bands playing distinct and uncompromising alternative rock arose. By the end of the 1980s, alternative rock in the United Kingdom had split into multiple genres, including dream pop, twee pop, shoegazing and space rock.

During the mid to late 1980s, techno and house music, originally developed in Detroit and Chicago, respectively, influenced many British musicians and DJs (see History of house music). By the end the 1980s, a uniquely British spin on house music, known as "acid house" had emerged as a result of the underground party scene based around, amongst others, the so-called "Orbital" raves near the M25 motorway of London. Early pioneers of this sound were the Manchester-based 808 State and A Guy Called Gerald, Sheffield-based LFO and London-based Orbital. It was in the early 1990s after the so-called "Summer of Love" in the late 1980s that the concept of an outdoor rave began. In part as a reaction to the aggressive anti-rave policy of the government, during this time the music become harder and darker and eventually led to forms such as hardcore techno and, later in the decade, drum and bass.

Club scene and dance culture

At the beginning of the 80s, major cities like London housed clubs playing hip hop, electro and rare groove, while a few clubs catered to Northern Soul, based on American soul music. Late in the decade, the house and rave scene dominated British dance culture. American house hit the British charts in 1986, but club DJs were often unwilling to play the music. Those that did, like Colin Faver and Mike Pickering, found a hostile audience. At the time, Paul Oakenfold, Nicky Holloway, Johnnie Walker and Danny Rampling, all British DJs, were vactioning in Ibiza, an island near Spain, where an Italian DJ named Alfredo was spinning a variety of Italian disco, industrial, soul and alternative tracks, and the drug Ecstacy was gaining popularity. The Ibizan DJs returned to the UK and founded clubs, beginning with Rampling's Shoom, Oakenfold's Spectrum and Holloway's The Trip. These clubs quickly became phenomenally popular, and modern British dance culture was born. In 1989, several promoters realized that space was too limited for clubs to contain all the people that wanted to attend, and they instead founded outdoor raves like Sunrise and Energy. These raves were full of up to 20,000 people and spawned fantastic stories in the tabloid press and among local residents, concerning violence and drug use. Some of the stories were definitely true, as Ecstacy was becoming the drug of choice for the rave scene. At this same time, acid house and rave music had entered the British pop charts, led by Orbital, 808 State, Nightmares on Wax and LFO.

British soul

Soul music developed in the United States in the 1960s when singers like Ben E. King and Sam Cooke created a secular version of gospel music that owed a debt to R&B. Though there were some British soul singers in the 60s and 70s, they found little success. Perhaps the most characteristic quality of British soul is its influence from reggae and other Caribbean influences, a result of the large Jamaican population in the UK that was never present in the States. Though the 70s saw some British soul acts like Hot Chocolate ("You Sexy Thing", 1975) and Hi-Tension (Hi-Tension, 1978) achieved mainstream renown, British soul did not come into its own until the 80s. The early 80s saw the first major British soul acts, including Sade ("The Sweetest Taboo", "Smooth Operator"), Loose Ends ("Hangin' on a String [Contemplating]"), Imagination ("Just an Illusion") and Billy Ocean.

Perhaps the most influential soul band of the 80s, however, was Style Council, formed by Paul Weller of punk rock band The Jam. Style Council were eclectic and innovative, drawing on numerous influences to combine with Wellers' sociopolitical lyrics.

Later in the decade, newer British soul artists found yet more mainstream success, including Lisa Stansfield and Soul II Soul, while pop-oriented bands produced soul-inflected records. Late 80s pop-soul bands included Eurythmics ("Missionary Man"), Wham! ("Club Tropicana"), Culture Club ("Church of the Poison Mind") and Simply Red ("Holding Back the Years").

Indian music

With the success of Alaap's 1979 Teri Chunni de Sitare, numerous bands sprang up playing traditional and pop bhangra. Apna Sangeet, Chirag Pehchan, Sangeeta and DCS were among the most popular artists of the period. By 1982, bhangra was the most popular music among British Asians.

Bhangra raves were popular in the mid-1980s, when Asian teens would dance all day (not at night) while DJs like X-Executive Sounds and Hustlers Convention played bhangra alongside hip hop, soul and other genres. Multitone Records began released remix albums, and bhangra picked up influences from hip hop and soul music. Other forms of Indian music, including Aki Nawaz's punk sounds, Sheila Chandra's pop, hip hop artists like Joi Bangla and Osmani Sounds, and Najma Akhtar's ghazal/jazz fusion Qareeb arose in the 80s. This set the stage for Bally Sagoo's Wham Bam (1990), a popular album of remixes meant for dancing. Artists like Malkit Singh and Achanak emerged, just as touring brought bhangra to Indian communities in Toronto, Los Angeles, Vancouver and New York City.

Alternative rock

Punk rock had flourished in Britain in the late 1970s, but was soon destroyed by a combination of factors including mainstream popularity that defied punk's original anti-establishment energy, infighting between and among bands and a wave of deaths and departures of key figures. In punk rock's wake came a variety of genres that took elements of punk rock in new directions. New Wave was especially popular in the UK, but other genres were popular underground, fomenting the alternative rock boom of the 1980s.

The Smiths emerged as perhaps the most important of the 80s alternative rock bands. The Manchester-born band played guitar-based pop that recalled the best of the 1960s rock scene, especially the songwriting of Ray Davies and John Lennon. Though they had only two Top Ten hits, Johnny Marr's innovative guitar work helped inspire the ringing sounds of jangle pop and other trends, while Morrissey's clever lyricism earned him a legion of fans.

= Folk-rock and punk fusions

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By the start of the 80s, folk-rock had lost virtually all mainstream appeal, but continued to evolve in new directions underground. The middle of the decade saw two enormously influential performers bring folk fusions back to pop audiences. Billy Bragg's guitar and earthy voice, and The Pogues' fusion of punk rock with Irish traditional music became popular symbols of the post-punk era. The Oyster Band and Dick Gaughan also emerged with limited mainstream appeal but tremendous innovations in folk-rock fusions. In the 1980s, Irish folk music had an impact on stars like U2, The Levellers and Sinéad O'Connor.

= Gothic rock and other alternative trends

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Gothic rock came into its own in the late 80s alternative scene, led by the most popular band of the genre, The Cure. The Cure drew on dark and gloomy predecessors to compose punk-inspired songs with intense energy beneath the calm of poetic lyrics and droning soundscapes. Though The Cure achieved little mainstream success, the band inspired some very popular late 80s groups like The Mission and The Sisters of Mercy. Early in the 80s, Joy Division rivalled The Cure in popularity and innovation, with a more pop-oriented sound. Lead singer Ian Curtis, however, committed suicide and the band continued in a more dance-oriented direction as New Order, bringing elements of Gothic alternative rock to the burgeoning house music scene.

The Jesus and Mary Chain also found a legion of devoted fans in the 80s, combining distortion and airy harmonies with psychedelic drones inspired by American proto-punk icons The Velvet Underground. The band XTC was unusual among British alternative rock bands in that they found far more fame in the United States than in their homeland, where the lush, psychedelic soundscapes of their later albums, such as 1987's Skylarking, inspired the next decades indie rock and power pop. The Soft Boys similarly found more American fame than British, but also launched the solo career of Robyn Hitchcock, who found a cult following in England after 1988's Globe of Frogs. Bands like the Housemartins played late in the 80s, making a more sophisticated and accessible version of The Smiths' alternative rock.

= Madchester and shoegazing

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The diverse sounds of 80s alternative rock laid the groundwork for an explosion of new genres in the early 90s, which in turn inspired the chart-topping Britpop revolution. The most influential band of the early 80s fusion of British alternative rock styles was Stone Roses, who played a sort of updated psychedelic rock with the energy and enthusiasm of their alternative forebears. Inspired by the Stone Roses, bands like the Happy Mondays, The Charlatans and Inspiral Carpets, mostly Manchester-based, reinvented psychedelic dance music in a modernized form called Madchester. Shaun Ryder of the Happy Mondays proved most influential among the Madchester bands; his typically British cryptic lyrics were mixed with dance-oriented music that saw rising fame and seemed likely to dominate 90s pop.

In spite of predictions, Madchester was unable to flourish. The Stone Roses were stuck with a lawsuit that took two years to resolve, while Shaun Ryder's drug problems caused the Happy Mondays to run out of steam. Instead, shoegazing bands inspired by the shimmering, distant and dissonant vocals of My Bloody Valentine (1987, Isn't Anything). This new scene was called shoegazing, after the bands' tendencies to hold low-energy performances, head bowed low and staring at their shoes as they played. My Bloody Valentine saw some mainstream success in the late 80s, and inspired a wave of imitators like Ride, Lush and the Boo Radleys.