Music General : Why were late 70s early 80s slow songs so depressing?

Why were late 70s early 80s slow songs so depressing?

Seriously man.

I was born in '77 and my first music memory was my Grandma singing "You light up my life".

I believe the song was a big hit in '77 so I had to hear it a lot until I started crying every time she sang it to me….. because it was so melancholy.
She said the song was about me which is cool but damn it sounds depressing as hell. No disrespect to her.



Crystal Gayle and Eddie Rabbit: Now I like Eddie Rabbit and Crystal has 10 feet of hair but this damn song with it's weird instrumental siren sounds in the background sound dark and ominous like two ships in the dark in middle of the ocean passing and warning each other about the impending iceberg doom they're about to hit.



Neil Diamond and ET…WTF:
Now as a child I was used to my mother being in love with Neil and that's okay. The first movie I saw was "The Jazz Singer".. but almost being emotionally scarred by seeing the lifeless dying pale white ET (already disturbing to look at) body lying next to the river in that one scene(kids today would not be subjected to that disturbing image…we genXers were raised in a screwed up film period(that's another topic))..I had a weird feeling about the song.

Listening to this song I would see ET healthy with his heart
-light but it would be juxtaposed by an image of his nearly lifeless wet grey corpse by the river. Yea maybe I'm fcked up.




By the way I realize some of these songs are considered brilliant and classic but it's just strange and fascinating how time passes us by and our context and taste including music changes.

Have any "depressing" 70s or early 80s songs to post?

Travel influenser, Skyrizi theme song writer and Most Handsome

Re: Why were late 70s early 80s slow songs so depressing?

Why is some of the so called “edmi” dance music so slow these days?

Gone

Re: Why were late 70s early 80s slow songs so depressing?

Not sure what that is. Guess I'll check it out.

Travel influenser, Skyrizi theme song writer and Most Handsome

Re: Why were late 70s early 80s slow songs so depressing?

You know how with duets the singers stand facing each other and smiling at each other as though they are in love?..

I don't know that song Crystal and Eddie sang. I don't even remember the Neil Diamond song from E.T soundtrack.


Btw, you've written this post beautifully.😁

Re: Why were late 70s early 80s slow songs so depressing?

Yea that'd be pretty cheesy today.

Today a duet would have both singers dry humping each other with strap-ons..or worse.😄

That's okay if you don't know these. Maybe you're younger. There's some sappy songs from that 80s and 90s too.

Thanks for that compliment.

Travel influenser, Skyrizi theme song writer and Most Handsome
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