Can't slow down How 1984 became pop's blockbuster year

Michaelangelo Matos

Book - 2020

The definitive account of pop music in the mid-eighties, from Prince and Madonna to the underground hiphop, indie rock, and club scenes. Everybody knows the hits of 1984--pop music's greatest year. From "Thriller" to "Purple Rain," "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" to "Like a Virgin," "Hello" to "Against All Odds," "Sister Christian" to "Love Is a Battlefield," "What's Love Got to Do with It" to "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go," they continue to dominate advertising, karaoke nights, and the soundtracks for film classics (Boogie Nights) and TV hits (Stranger Things). But the story of that thrilling, turbulent time, an era when Top 40 radio ...was both the leading edge of popular culture and a moral battleground, has never been told with the full detail it deserves--until now. Can't Slow Down is the definitive portrait of the exploding world of mid-eighties pop and the time it defined, from Cold War anxiety to the home-computer revolution. Big acts like Michael Jackson (Thriller), Prince (Purple Rain), Madonna (Like a Virgin), Bruce Springsteen (Born in the U.S.A.), and George Michael (Wham!'s Make It Big) rubbed shoulders with the fermenting scenes of hip-hop, indie rock, and club music. Rigorously researched, mapping the entire terrain of American pop, with crucial side trips to the UK and Jamaica, from the biz to the stars to the upstarts and beyond, Can't Slow Down is a vivid trip to a thrilling, turbulent time when pop was remaking itself, and the culture at large, one hit at a time. Let's go crazy!

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Subjects
Genres
Popular music
Published
New York, NY : Hachette Books 2020.
Language
English
Main Author
Michaelangelo Matos (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
xi, 468 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 375-446) and index.
ISBN
9780306903373
  • Introduction
  • 1. WPLJ-FM, New York City, August 7, 1983
  • 2. Supreme Court, Washington, DC, January 17, 1984
  • 3. Newsweek: "Britain Rocks America-Again," January 23, 1984
  • 4. Sunset Strip, Hollywood, February 25, 1984
  • 5. Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, February 28, 1984
  • 6. Castro Theatre, San Francisco, April 24, 1984
  • 7. Island Records, London, May 8, 1984
  • 8. The 13th Annual International Country Music Fan Fair, Nashville, June 4-10, 1984
  • 9. WPIX Channel 11, New York City, June, 29, 1984
  • 10. Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri, July 6, 1984
  • 11. Mann's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, July 26, 1984
  • 12. Matter No. 9, Chicago, Illinois, July-August 1984
  • 13. New Music Seminar, New York City, August 6-8, 1984
  • 14. Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, August 12, 1984
  • 15. Radio City Music Hall, New York City, September 14, 1984
  • 16. Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, September 21, 1984
  • 17. EMI Records, New York City, November 13, 1984
  • 18. SARM Studios, London, November 25, 1984
  • 19. Westwood One, Culver City, California, April 20, 1985
  • 20. Wembley Stadium, London, and JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, July 13, 1985
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Index
Review by Booklist Review

It was the year of Michael Jackson's Thriller, Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA, and Prince's Purple Rain as well as the year of the so-called Second British Invasion, with new releases from the Police, Duran Duran, the Eurythmics, and Big Country. Matos calls 1984 "the most jam-packed pop radio year since the mid-sixties." It could be said that the mammoth success of Thriller spoiled the music industry by becoming a "tentpole" album that spun off hit after hit, becoming, Matos writes, "the music business's standard operating procedure." Until it wasn't. Nineteen-eighty-four also brought technological changes as cassettes outsold LPs for the first time, and the first CD was manufactured in the US. Drawn from a wealth of archival material, including oral history transcripts, books, and magazines, Matos' in-depth look encompasses that landmark year's hits, stars, and trends and the cultural, social, and financial conditions that helped change the face of popular music. This robust volume provides an abundance of material here for music fans, especially those fascinated by 1980s pop culture, to savor.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A close study of the artists and economics that made 1984 a monster year for music. The year overflowed with chart-topping talent--Bruce Springsteen, Prince, Madonna, Van Halen, and more were at or near their creative and commercial peaks--but veteran critic Matos avoids gooey rhapsodizing about big-name performers, instead honoring their musical brilliance while also exploring the market mechanics that undergirded their success. The watchword of the year was crossover, as rock radio lost listeners and MTV disrupted genre definitions. That allowed Van Halen's "Jump" to shift the boundaries of both pop and metal, British dance acts like Duran Duran and Culture Club to gain prominence, hip-hop groups like Run-D.M.C. to elbow into the R & B and rock consciousness, and Lionel Richie to own the pop, soft-rock, and country markets. The author organizes the period around signature events, like the launch of the Jacksons' much-hyped (and price-gouging) Victory tour, a Supreme Court ruling on home taping, the movie premiere of Prince's Purple Rain, and the recording of the for-better-or-for-worse pioneering charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" But Matos ranges widely within those confines and writes authoritatively and entertainingly about a host of genres, whether it's R.E.M. and Hüsker Dü presaging the 1990s alternative explosion, the rising visibility of global artists like King Sunny Adé and Rubén Blades, or country acts like the Judds angling for chart dominance. That diversification cleared a path for future corporate sponsorships and genre fragmentation, but at the time it felt like unity: Matos cheats a bit by concluding with 1985's Live Aid concerts, but no moment better exemplified how the era's breadth of artists captured the world's attention. It was a big event for a good cause and a last hurrah for a singular cultural phenomenon. A savvy, effervescent, and definitive document of a pivotal time in pop. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.