Who ruled the 80s? Part I

[whiplash1972]

Pick who you think was the best from each grouping... eventually there will be a final poll where all the winners face off. 

The main criteria I used to include these bands was...

1. Had to have at least TWO studio releases in the 80s (this is why bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Winger, Warant, Danger Danger, etc... will be omitted)

2. People outside of Heavy Harmonies have to have at least a chance of knowing who the band is...  

[nyoilers]

Great Poll (s).

For Southern rock in the 80's it's gotta be 38 Special

[Geoff]

Cool thread. I was going to vote for who I thought was most popular/dominant, but I just went with my faves. Made a point of not including their 90's work in my thought process, which would have changed several of these answers for me, so stayed true to the point of the thread because I abide by rules. 

1. 38 Special because I owned (and sold) one of their CDs. Actually had a GS CD too. But, to be frank, I dislike strongly all 4 of these bands.

2. Heart - really, really hard one. Including the 90's my answer would probably be the same... I think? I dunno. This was hard.

3. Rick Springfield - but this was the hardest. A lot of bands I enjoy, but Springfield most of all.

4. Stryper pretty easily in this one.

5. Alice Cooper - 'Trash' crucifies all other output on this list in one fell swoop.

6. Poison - despite GN'R being the obvious answer, Poison did much more for me. Only just over Ratt, who had a large and extremely consistent catalogue to choose from in this era. 

7. As per #1, I'd rather cut my chin off and sew it onto my forehead than actually listen to any of these bands, but I owned and sold a Rush cassette once, so I'll give it to them. 

[auslander]

Nice poll/s.

[Glen]

1. 38 Special - cos its the only one I've heard any from

2. Heart - pretty obvious choice for me

3. Journey - imo Escape / Frontiers & Raised on Radio are 3 of the greatest AOR albums of all time. Honourable mention to Asia, REO & Survivor

4. Striper,  but not a fan of any of them tbh

5. Terrible choices if I'm honest - where is Kiss, AC/DC, Whitesnake ? Out of a bad bunch I chose Aerosmith

6. GnR - appetite destroys all. How is Poison sleaze ? lol

7. Marillion. Easily. The 4 Fish era albums rank among my favourite albums of all time with Script possibly being my No 1 album. only challenged by Escape 

 

thanks for the poll....a lot of effort there

 

[Crazysam]

1. Blackfoot - .38 Special had more radio hits, but I'll go with Rick Medlocke and the boys for their string of solid releases

2. Warlock - I'm a fan of Heart, but I've always preferred their 70's material

3. Journey - I really like several of those other choices, but when it comes to pure 80's AOR Journey was on another level

4. Stryper

5. Alice Cooper - similar to Glen, I was surprised by some omissions, but maybe they will be choices in Part 2 of the poll?

6. Ratt - this one was tough, those first two L.A. Guns albums were great, and I consider Appetite the ultimate sleaze album, but imo Ratt was so consistently good throughout the decade I had to give them a slight edge over those other two bands

7. Rush - this was another tough one for me, as I'm a fan of all 4 bands, but "Permanent Waves" and "Moving Pictures" are the albums that got me into prog rock, so they are a sentimental favorite

[whiplash1972]

Loving all the responses! 

 

Yeah, I think at one point I had over 200 band names in front of me in a Notepad file... I may have accidentally omitted some obvious choices here and there (they all started bleeding together), BUT, they WILL pop up later on. ;-)

 

In all honesty, the only choice I REALLY had to think about was the AOR section; SOOOOO much good shit there it was really hard to choose.... I mean look at some of the releases...

Foreigner: 4, Agent Provacateur, Inside Information

Jefferson Starship/Starship: Modern Times, Winds of Change, Nuclear Furniture, Knee Deep in the Hoopla, No Protection, Love Among the Cannibals (Damn, that's an impressive 80s discography!)

Journey: Departure, Escape, Frontiers, Raised On Radio (classics!)

Queen: The Game, Flash Gordon Soundtrack, Hot Space, The Works, A Kind of Magic, The Miracle

REO Speedwagon: Hi Infidelity, Good Trouble, Wheels Are Turnin', Life As We Know It

Rick Springfield: Working Class Dog, Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet, Living in Oz,  Hard to Hold Soundtrack, Tao, Rock of Life

Survivor: Premonition, Eye of the Tiger, Caught in the Game, Vital Signs, When Seconds Count, Too Hot to Sleep (Holy crap what a hot streak they had!)

Toto: Turn Back, Toto IV, Isolation, Fahrenheit, The Seventh One 

Geez, it was truly a wonderful time to be alive music wise! 

 

 

[Darkstone]

Great poll. Thanks for taking the time to create it mate.

[Jez]

Blackfoot

Heart

Toto

Petra

Aerosmith

Guns 'N Roses

Saga

[Glen]

19 hours ago, whiplash1972 said:

Loving all the responses! 

 

Yeah, I think at one point I had over 200 band names in front of me in a Notepad file... I may have accidentally omitted some obvious choices here and there (they all started bleeding together), BUT, they WILL pop up later on. ;-)

 

In all honesty, the only choice I REALLY had to think about was the AOR section; SOOOOO much good shit there it was really hard to choose.... I mean look at some of the releases...

Foreigner: 4, Agent Provacateur, Inside Information

Jefferson Starship/Starship: Modern Times, Winds of Change, Nuclear Furniture, Knee Deep in the Hoopla, No Protection, Love Among the Cannibals (Damn, that's an impressive 80s discography!)

Journey: Departure, Escape, Frontiers, Raised On Radio (classics!)

Queen: The Game, Flash Gordon Soundtrack, Hot Space, The Works, A Kind of Magic, The Miracle

REO Speedwagon: Hi Infidelity, Good Trouble, Wheels Are Turnin', Life As We Know It

Rick Springfield: Working Class Dog, Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet, Living in Oz,  Hard to Hold Soundtrack, Tao, Rock of Life

Survivor: Premonition, Eye of the Tiger, Caught in the Game, Vital Signs, When Seconds Count, Too Hot to Sleep (Holy crap what a hot streak they had!)

Toto: Turn Back, Toto IV, Isolation, Fahrenheit, The Seventh One 

Geez, it was truly a wonderful time to be alive music wise! 

 

 

survivor were a very close 2nd for me. 

[whiplash1972]

23 hours ago, Glen said:

survivor were a very close 2nd for me. 

The more I think about this, if I were to answer this poll today, I would probably pick Survivor... lol, but those 4 Journey releases, wow... it's a close call... VERY close.