https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1981
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hot_Soul_Singles_number_ones_of_1981
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_number-one_dance_singles_of_1981
The Top 40 or Hot 100 in this case, was outrageously fine in 1981. I think I will take three songs from that chart for 1981 year in review.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bette_Davis_Eyes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_One_Bites_the_Dust
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_number-one_dance_singles_of_1980
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hot_Soul_Singles_number_ones_of_1980
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1980
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off_the_Wall_(Michael_Jackson_song)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Give_Me_the_Night_(song)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_Still_Rock_and_Roll_to_Me
When the 80’s began I was still too young to go to the record store alone, that would change in a few years. I started playing the guitar in 1981. I was still listening to black or soul music, pop or top 40 music and I was still loving dance music. Disco transforming into many new genres.
Are you old enough to remember when Americans recorded radio programs onto cassette with one machine? I became good at recording songs off the radio. A prerequisite for my home studio recording career which commenced in high school.
I’m choosing one symbol for the early 80’s. By the end of the decade the cassette tape was going out of business.
I was born in 1969 so the 70’s was the decade that influenced first. Did it influence me the most? My mother who I called “mama” bought records (45s) for me. This was NOT an inconvenience for her since she was a dance music lover and record collector. I followed her lead. A lot of my favorite records were hers first.
I was fully competent on the turn table in elementary school. I wanted to play the guitar when I was small. I had to wait just a little while longer to start guitar lessons.
I am posting less than 1% of the songs I grew up listening to and loved to life. I hope you find something you love too.
I am pretty sure the Grease Soundtrack was mine, not my mom’s. I played this album everyday for only God knows, how long.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funk
The funk years ran parallel to the disco years with a different reputation and outcome.
Disco meaning dance, only shifted slightly under a watchful eye. Funk on the other hand, went away. You can only replicate funk if you go back to the 70’s or ask George Clinton to arrange a track for you.
Here are just a few of my favorite funk bands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament-Funkadelic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_(band)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco
I was around when disco became the greatest thing ever. I remember when they killed her at the baseball park. I remember when disco “jumped the shark” so to speak. What would happen to disco’s legacy? Just new dance music with less stigma. Or a different reputation. I will raving about some of those genres down the road.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da_Ya_Think_I%27m_Sexy%3F
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More,_More,_More
Chic was my first favorite band. Later Nile Rodgers became my favorite producer. Whenever “Everybody Dance,” came on the radio or TV, I ran enthusiastically to hear it.
Below is a short list of records I remember listening to when I was a young girl. My mother and I shared the same taste in dance music. They called her a disco queen. Shout out to mama for passing on her up-tempo taste.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Little_More_Love_(Olivia_Newton-John_song)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Will_Rock_You
I think I liked “We Are The Champions” a little more. I loved both songs which were back to back on a 45. I dedicated the latter to my mama. At a young age, I understood some themes in music.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_with_Me_(Peter_Brown_song)
I always tell the story about my mama going to the record store to buy me “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” by Leo Sayer. She came back with “Feel Like Dancin” By Oliver Sain. She thought that was funny, haha. I would grow up to like Oliver Sain’s record as much as my very beloved Leo Sayer cut.
I loved music when I was a little girl.
This is a list of hit records I might have heard on the radio when I was around six years old.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1975
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hot_Soul_Singles_number_ones_of_1975
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Games_People_Play_(The_Spinners_song)
Music is the one thing that will always bring me joy when everything else from the past is dead and gone. Thank God for music.