Still not shaking the 80's

Gotta love Rhino Records. I know that a lot of other music fans think what Rhino does is essentially redundant, but I have to disagree--what they do is just way fun. I just got a copy of the new box set called Left of the Dial, which is an overview of "underground" rock from the 80's, which is of course the bread and butter music in my house. Hell, the Man of Mouse won her over and wooed her into what is now the House of Mouse with his solid love and dedication to great 80's music. Of course, he sort of thought getting this box set was redundant, too, because we already owned most of these albums, but he had to confess that he thought that it was put together nicely with just enough obscure tracks to make you feel like you had invested wisely.

One of the frustrating things for rock fans like me who think that the 80's produced some of the most innovative and delightful rock music is that the entire decade is routinely disparaged in the mainstream, which favors the 60's and even the 70's as some golden age of rock music. Luckily, this is quickly changing as more Generation X-er's (I hate the term, but what can you do?) join the ranks of music critics, editors and other insiders who dictate the common wisdom. It's a good thing, but it took too long and in the meantime a grave threat to how the music of the 80's is remembered has emerged. Yes, I am talking about gruesome nostaglia for the worst crap puked out of the mainstream in the 80's. Hundreds, if not thousands, of 80's compliations have come out to apparently marvelous sales and have ensured that the decade will be remembered as a musical wasteland of Toto and Wham! and A-Ha.

I guess that wouldn't bother me so much except the notion that most 80's music is nothing but brainless pap best suited for being played for drunk secretaries to dance to at hotel bars has managed to attach itself to the reputations of bands I adore like New Order and Devo. And there's also the notion that the 80's music that isn't brainless pap is just whiny goth crap and that has attached itself to the Smiths, the Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Joy Division. It was already out of control by the early 90's, when music critics fell over themselves over Nirvana, declaring that they had saved rock music which the critics apparently thought had sucked for 25 years, as if all the aforementioned bands had never existed. Or in some cases had platinum sales.

That's why it's amusing to think that bands like New Order and the Cure have to be reimagined as "underground" rock to get the credence they deserve to get put on a compilation like this. I guess I don't really mind--both bands came out of the underground even if you couldn't say they stayed there. But it's interesting that people seem to believe that in order for something to be taken seriously after 1973 it has to have some kind of underground cred. No matter how you look at it, though, this box set is exactly the sort of corrective we need so that we can get a better grip on the 80's and realize that for millions of fans around the world, it was the definitive time in which their musical tastes were shaped