Here we post radio-slick, ultracompressed Modern Rock singles 1987-1990 w/ huge gated drums & lots of chorus! (youtube thread)

possibly the most obvious example:

https://youtu.be/Q0eZAFAv5Rg

...yeah but that was 1984.

whoops.. sry, how about this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdpTcvSn8HQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3XMC_Sk3QE

https://youtu.be/UrfFHzqGBZI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrfFHzqGBZI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAkcSd5l9Qg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fitl1T7H16g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUSOlhhE_1Y

lest I incur the wrath of Ned, I will apologize in advance for this having been released in 1991

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSBCjfYUlIE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFzCtKZo24M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKUT5oOTnls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hGcJA8fXvU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onjaC3A2xjk

School of Fish: "3 Strange Days"

YES^

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG9CXd00QHQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpDzee9uguw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Bv887-JlM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDpOMTjE-bg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCIEv73PF4Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5mUJjqAl6U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTR_yBxoyV0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5mltgsGEas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nden62X9GhM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am8OuREtww8

BH and I were just doing a dive into Youtubes of this period a couple of days ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZt7J0iaUD0.

pretty sure late-80s PIL owns this thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv0efmUKP9s

Spent a lot of time on this band, although we did note that rhythm sections could be as inert as they were foregrounded in this era:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejorQVy3m8E

xp Yeah, we were going for a particular niche.

The barely-changing beat might be the loudest element in this classic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxkJHX7ukKE

No drums in this one! Also one that might actually be new to some posters (and that still holds up for me):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z35EEI1HzbY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH6DEefCJWs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHrAjj4s0CU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zDuAhSdAbw

xpsts re: Sund4r - totally, tho dead heart fits the bill even more squarely imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16bFBzx7I_0

xpsts: no myth = otm! // the grapes of wrath track has no drums(?), but if it did you can tell they would be gated af

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=559eWB93jW4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGELjc66kFs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82xV8Rmel4c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVdfi1VoM7w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGp47YwDZ48

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikGd2yoy9Is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw6OVIVqvGg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KostJs1qRTo

'86 but w/e

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFDqUDdVfjY

I know “Finest Worksong” was already posted, and here it is again, where the gate on the snare essentially functions as a giant billboard saying “GIVE US MORE RADIO PLAY.”

https://youtu.be/TBS6N1k4FsQ

The evolution of the snare drum sound in rock is fascinating. Almost as fascinating as the evolution of the kick drum. And the handclap sound. I'm surprised no-one has posted Fine Young Cannibals' "She Drives Me Crazy" (1988):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtvmTu4zAMg

It had a distinctive snare drum sound that was an evolutionary dead end, but it was influential at the time. The original was apparently a blend of a Linn drum machine and analogue recording techniques. I remember it being widespread on SoundTracker sample sets in the 1990s but along with orchestra stabs and shakuhachi flute it fell out of fashion circa 1993/1994 and hasn't come back because it's indelibly associated with the late 1980s. Janet Jackson, New Jack Swing etc.

There's probably enough research material to write an essay about the parallels between post-modernism and the evolution of drum production in rock music. My impression is that in the 1960s and 1970s producers tried to record drums more or less as they sounded in real life, although they continually pushed the envelope in order to make their records stand out, albeit that until the late 1970s it was pointless because most people listened to music on mono radio speakers. Nonetheless they belonged to a tradition whereby acoustic drums were "real" and electronic drums were a novelty.

But in the 1980s the fashion was for a kind of heightened unreality, and when sampling and drum machines became widespread the relationship between acoustic sounds and the processed end result became so tenuous as to be invisible. When I was growing up in the late 1980s all drums were synthetic. Phil Collins was normal. I've just listened to INXS's "Need You Tonight" and it strikes me that the percussion is actually a drum machine, not actual drums, even though the video shows the band's drummer playing along. If a man from the 1960s had been transported to the late 1980s he would have been unable to comprehend the new world. He would have gone mad. One of the key arguments of postmodernism is that there is no such thing as reality, there is just a prevailing narrative.

My impression is that post-modernism died out in the 1990s, essentially because its work was done. It entertained the audience and then left the stage. It died out at roughly the same time the music industry stopped caring about drum sounds, and for the same reason. After the resurgence of 1970s-sounding disco in the late 1990s and the concurrent fad for algorithmic glitch music there was nothing left to say, nowhere left to go. I can't think of any distinctive, unusual drum sounds since the early 2000s. TV-talent pop music doesn't care about the sound of the records, as long as the vocals are in tune, and dance music seems to have gone beyond -isms.

The downside of living in a post-postmodern age is that we are all floating on planks of wood in space. The upside is that we are free.

Also, was Cher modern rock? "Turn Back Time" has the kind of 1980s production that sounds of its time, but it's still awe-inspiring:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsKbwR7WXN4

I was going to share Robert Palmer's "Simply Irresistible", but listening to it again the production is surprisingly thin. I suspect they spent all the money on the video. Is the video for "Simply Irresistible" still controversial in the modern age? "Addicted to Love" is funny because the models look bored, and it comes across as a piss-take, but in "Simply Irresistible" they're unambiguous presented as sex objects. On the other hand the imagery seems very mild by modern standards and the women are presented as professional fashion models e.g. "they are better than you", rather than disposable trash. They never acknowledge Robert Palmer's presence, and the composition makes them appear to tower over him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to2KasivROc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f8JI9R5Suo

pretty sure late-80s PIL owns this thread

Under "things you were shockingly old when you learned," this was the first time I heard Tony Williams, but I didn't realize it was him until maybe 25 years later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdwNr96BdPM

I love all this shit.

Definitely have to add this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUFOVu1CurM

There's a great piece on Stylus that examines Electric Blue's brilliance (Saxophone solo! John Oates! That snare drum sound!)
http://stylusmagazine.com/articles/seconds/icehouse-electric-blue.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTyFUbgSvL8

I was basically raised by MTV from 1983 to 1993, how the hell did I miss all of these PiL songs? Were they only played on shows within their midnight-to-2 time slot ('120 Minutes', 'IRS Presents the Cutting Edge', etc.)?

Also, hell yeah to Hipsway's "The Honeythief", which should totally count as meeting the timeline because it didn't get an MTV feature until '87, at least as far as I can remember. How that song was not a huge hit is a total mystery to me (the lyrics were silly & repetitious, not that stops a hit). Like a brassier Simple Minds or a less-serious Seven and the Ragged Tiger-era Duran Duran, maybe it was a little too "retro" (if sounding like 1983 in 1987 counts as such). Does anyone recall the episode of MTV's program where they pit 2 videos against one another, and the contestants were "The Honeythief" and "I Just Died in Your Arms" by the Cutting Crew? No shade at the Crew (as their true fans call them, I'll assume), but when their song crushed "The Honeythief" in the vote tally, then entered their heavy rotation, I was mad (I could be hearing "The Honeythief" right now, damnit!)

Also, was Cher modern rock? "Turn Back Time" has the kind of 1980s production that sounds of its time, but it's still awe-inspiring:

I was going to share Robert Palmer's "Simply Irresistible",

I think Cher and Robert Palmer were what this stuff was supposedly an 'alternative' to (?) but, yeah, the lines were thin.

" was basically raised by MTV from 1983 to 1993, how the hell did I miss all of these PiL songs? Were they only played on shows within their midnight-to-2 time slot"

Yes, they were on 120 Minutes and the other one that used to be on during the week (Postmodern? can't remember)

Mutt Lange had a lot to do with this sound, too, from the Eventide on AC/DC to especially Def Leppard, where iirc the drums were recorded *last* on "Pyromania," and even then blended pretty equally with what he programmed. That's what Trevor Horn did earlier on ABC's "Lexicon of Love," too, I believe. Peter Gabriel stuff was often a blend of programming and acoustic drums, too; while obvious "Intruder" introduced that particular Phil Collins sound, IV/"Security" and "So" are a crazy mix of live drums and programmed percussion, usually pretty seamlessly blended together. Like on "Big Time:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBAl9cchQac

Oh, and speaking of INXS, I distinctly remember reading an interview with the drummer c. "Kick," where he talked about triggering samples in addition to analog drums, his excuse being that he had suffered a broken ankle or something and needed a way to beef up the weak kick sound. (A concept later taken to the extreme with so many metal drummers who trigger to keep their double bass blasts even and clean.)

Def leppard

I think Cher and Robert Palmer were what this stuff was supposedly an 'alternative' to (?) but, yeah, the lines were thin.

― No language just sound (Sund4r), Saturday, November 16, 2019 9:09 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

^ so true

They make you wait about a minute and a half before you get a proper snare hit but do not disappoint with the gated reverb once you get there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tx7WbMKUe4

More solid chorused guitar action here, though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDWukQw23l8

It's a year early for the timescale but Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Warriors of the Wasteland" is another massive 1980s productions with guitars dubbed on top of guitars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50tabZ33Nhk

Also "Jewelled", the rock version of Propaganda's "Duel", but as with Horn/Lipson's productions it was a couple of years ahead of its time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsYrhNMZa6U

I think Cher and Robert Palmer were what this stuff was supposedly an 'alternative' to (?) but, yeah, the lines were thin.
― No language just sound (Sund4r), Sunday, 17 November 2019 02:09 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

That's the thing. Cher and Palmer were fundamentally pop singers, or at least the majority of their output was pop, but the big rock production was so dominant at the time - even The Cocteau Twins had gated drums - that it was hard to tell the difference. It also meant that a lot of rock acts from the period felt like corporate sell-outs from the start, simply because they sounded like Cher. That kind of production was layered on everything even if it didn't make any sense. Strawberry Switchblade for example. The first Stone Roses album.

My impression is that the rock market divided into metal, hair metal, a thin line of people like Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen who were just plain "rock", and then pop-dance-synth acts that had rock production. But even Bruce Springsteen had the kind of late-80s, not-quite-so-gated, but-still-snappy drum sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4K7XZGeHTE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epmytzBV-f4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ofNev8GtVw