Celebrate the Eighties With This Eighties Menu

To many, the eighties conjure up memories of kitschy music, Brat Pack movies and an explosive stock market. Remind party guests of these rocking good times with an eighties party and an eighties menu. With the right mix of movies, music and food, your eighties party will have guests walking like Egyptians and waking up before they go-go.
What would an eighties menu be without eighties drinks? No drink is more definitively eighties than Tab. Contrary to popular belief, this diet cola is still available. Shopping around before your party can mean you guests will be treated to that familiar pink can. For snacks, remind your guests of that loveable eighties alien, ET. ET loved Reese's Pieces and so will your guests. You may also want to dare guests to tempt fate by eating Pop Rocks and drinking Coke.
For dessert on your eighties menu, one scene comes to mind. In "Sixteen Candles," the most well-known scene features a very special sixteenth birthday cake. To make this sweet sixteen cake, heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 2 (9-inch) round baking pans. Set aside. Combine 3 cups all-purpose flour, one tablespoon baking powder and one-half teaspoon salt in large bowl. Set aside. Beat one and a half cups sugar and three-quarter cup butter in large mixer bowl at medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally, until creamy. Add four eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add one tablespoon vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition just until mixed. Divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Bake for 29 to 34 minutes or until wooden pick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire racks 10 minutes. Loosen cake by running knife around inside edge of pans. Carefully remove cake from pans; cool completely. Frost your cake and don't forget the all-important sixteen candles!

For so many, the eighties remind them of youth and a carefree, buoyant time. Let your party guests experience this again by throwing an eighties party, complete with this eighties menu.

Mrs. Party... Gail Leino takes a common sense approach to planning and organizing events, celebrations and holiday parties with unique ideas for eighties party supplies and fun party games. She explains proper etiquette and living a healthy life while also teaching organizational skills and fun facts. The Party Supplies Hut has lots of party ideas with hundreds of free holiday printable games and free birthday party activities. Over 100 adorable Themes including EightiesParty Supplies to fit your birthday celebration, holiday event, or "just because" parties. Party themes include cartoon characters, sports, movie, TV shows, luau, western, holidays, and unique crazy fun theme ideas.

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Today's Music: Where Are We Heading to?

One thing with Western Music is that it spins fast in evolution. By the time Disco fizzled out, we had not had enough of it. It lasted from the early eighties to the mid-eighties that coincided with the hatching of Hip-hop music. I have always thought that a style of music should become extinct only when there isn't interest in it anymore: it doesn't make sense to end the raving of a genre when people are still in love with it, buying every single copy of the music genre in the market. That was the case with Roots and Culture brand of Jamaican music. As root reggae was getting abandoned, late South African reggae legend, Lucky Dube, said he carried out a research and discovered people loved the genre. That emboldened him to embrace it as the genre of the music to play. Today, we are all aware of how successful Lucky Dube became before his death in 2007. He traveled to every nook and cranny of the world since the love of his music was globally omnipresent and rose to become Best Selling African Recording Artist in 1996. Today, the genres of Disco and Roots Reggae are still been played on radios around the world and still being and downloaded online. These are proofs that something else was responsible for the sudden "death" of these genres. The worst that can happen, however, is for the music to evolve to something that is less attractive. I think that this is the situation in which we find ourselves today. What is called Hip-hop, which is considered the raving genre, has become indistinct, lacking in gusto, and without much artistry, unlike what it was from the mid-eighties to about the mid 2000s. Since American music influences popular music around the world, one could see the chaos around the world. Here in West Africa a new genre, a close descendant of Hip-hop in the genealogy, has emerged. It is known as Azonto Music. It is a genre of music that I can describe as more of noisy and "toy-sounding" music, characterized by lack of meaningful messages and emphasizing on rhythm. It is hardly a style of music that can intellectually inspire. I have thought that perhaps the notion in my mind that the influence of America music was diminishing was merely my imagination. Sometime in the middle of this year, I was writing an article to underscore the need for government to support the music industry in order to create jobs. I was looking for statistics to back my claim that the music industry can generate a lot of jobs and foreign revenue. That was when I discovered that revenues from American music exports have actually been plunging down since 2011. It became my proof that the music isn't able to influence people around the world as it was in the past. My word is that a music genre should only be buried when it is truly death.

Yiro Abari: Nightingale:
http://nightingaleng.blogspot.com.ng/ 

Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Yiro_Abari/22138 

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http://EzineArticles.com/9256654

Alphaville Dance With Me (Short Vuclip Version)

Alphaville: Forever Young Review

Background

Alphaville is a relatively underrated synthpop outfit that achieved territorial success with their timeless debut album “Forever  Young”.  The talented trio consisted of the enigmatic lead singer Marian Gold and the other members were the angelic Bernhard Lloyd and the pensive looking Frank Mertens.  The band was initially named “Forever Young” before changing to “Alphaville” which was possibly inspired by the science-fiction movie with the same name.   This ultra modern approach was apparently quite the trend during the eighties especially with the advent of the Futurist/ New Romantic movement that was so prominent early in the decade.

The band was formed in 1982 by Marian Gold and Bernhard Lloyd after meeting at the music project Nelson community.  They then subsequently recorded the first demo of the title track as Alphaville.  The album was released in autumn 1984 and produced by Colin Pearson, Wolfgang Loos and Andreas Budde.  Unfortunately, Frank Mertens left the band and was replaced by the more earthy-looking yet equally talented Ricky Echolette who played a major role in the follow-up album “Afternoons in Utopia”.

Singles released

“Big in Japan” was the debut single which was inspired by the phrase used to describe Western bands who are popular in Japan yet unknown in their native country.  It achieved major success in countries such as Switzerland, Germany and Sweden and even reached the number one spot on the Hot Dance Club Play in December 1984.  The song has a unique oriental style introduction showcasing typical ingenuity and technical wizardry that became common place in that era.

The dance orientated “Sounds Like A Melody” was the next single to be released on 14 May 1984 which managed to top the Italian charts.  The song structure is quite phenomenal as it focused on vocal melodies with alternating stanzas.  It also includes an 8-bar instrumental synthesizer melody at the beginning, followed by a verse-chorus-verse structure and then repeats for almost one minute to the end creating a euphoric synth experience even by modern standards.

The emotionally charged “Forever Young” made quite an impression in Scandinavia and the German Speaking countries in Europe.  It failed, however, to reach the American Top 40 even after three separate US single releases.  This is probably the strongest track on the album and the synth instrumental at the end is sheer emotion translated in electronic bliss.  Don’t forget to check out the eerie intro as well.

The upbeat “Jet Set” was release in March 1985 which is a light-hearted take on modern greed and the end of the world.  This is a superb final track to the album.

“Victory of Love” which is the first track on the album also appears on the greatest hits album First Harvest but according to my research this was not officially a single.

Citation:

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphaville_(band)

Depeche Mode - Everything Counts (Remastered Video)

Have a look at this video! Its surprisingly fresh with some complex synth arrangements and strange instruments.

Norwegian Pop Bliss

Pop demi-gods A-ha was a Norwegion pop band formed in Oslo in 1982 by the trio of Morten harket, Magne Furuholman and Pal Waaktaar. The peculiar name was actually a song written by Waaktaar and chosen as it was a Norwegian word that could be pronounced in English. Their ground breaking debut album “Hunting High and Low” featured two international number #1 singles “Take On Me” and the danceable “The Sun Always Shines on TV” which deservedly earned them a Grammy Award nomination as Best New Artist. Their brand then exploded and the album became one of the best selling albums of 1986 and spent most of October and November in the top 20 of Billboard’s Top 200 album chart.


With their phenomenal “Take On Me” single Warner Brothers in the United States invested a significant amount of money on the revolutionary video which purged their success in the Billboard Top 100.


Allmusic journalist Tim DiGravina described this pop gem as being “a new wave classic laced with rushing keyboards, made emotionally resonant thanks to Morton Harket’s touching vocal delicacy.”

You win again!

1987 was the year Bee Gees released their synth driven pop triumph that became a #1 hit in Britain, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Denmark and Norway as well as making the top 10 in Italy, the Netherlands, Australia and Sweden. This sparkling offering from these veterans was released commercially on vinyl and cassette and a peculiar 1 track CD single was produced as a promotional-only copy in the USA and a 2 track Mini CD was released in Japan. This sounds quite ultra modern for that period and the music itself has a sleek, timeless feel appropriate for that decade. In fact, the musical arrangement did not include live drums of a bass instrument so typical to that era. However, common sense prevented them from dominating the charts in the fruitless nineties as that incantation would simply have been a wasteful abomination. Further reading: http://www.bubblews.com/news/1358128-the-retroscope-17-october

The Power Of Love

This power ballad was originally recorded by Jennifer Rush in 1984. Rush ahd been recording for CBS, Frankfurt at the time with producers Gunther Mende and Candy De Rouge since 1982. She had her first German chart placing in 1984 though with the Top 30 hits: “25 hours”; “Ring Of Ice” and “The Power Of Love” which was written by Candy, Mende, Rush with Mary Susan Applegate. It initially debuted at #97 on the UK chart dated 22 June 1985. CBS subsequently deleted the single for a few weeks to concerntrate demand in hope of affecting a Top 40 debut upon the re-release. It eventually appeared at #36 on the UK charts dated 21 September 1985. A series of Top Of The Pops performances eventually paid off enabling the song to reach the summit. The song went on to sell 1.39 million copies in the UK as of November 2012. Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson chose this ballad for their first dance at their 1986 wedding. Apparently Huey Lewis & The News and Frankie Goes To Hollywood also had Top 10 UK hits in 1985 with different songs called “The Power Of Love”.


Further Reading:
http://www.bubblews.com/news/1321060-the-retroscope-12-october 

The Retroscope: 12 July

12 July 1986: Simply Red scored their first US #1 single with “Holding Back The Years”. Mick Hucknall wrote the song when he was only seventeen while living at his father’s home. The chorus apparently only emerged many years later although it was initially inspired by the upheaval caused by his mother leaving the family. It was co-written by Neil who was also an ex-member of the Frantic Elevators. The song also appeared in the movies “Cross My Heart”, “Love & Basketball” and “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past”.


http://www.bubblews.com/news/798469-the-retroscope-12-july

Holding Back The Years

This is probably one of the best ballads ever written during that period of excess. The music video was filmed in the English Coastal town of Whitby while the band members play the role of the local cricket team who sees Hucknall off on his journey. Although a #1 hit in the US those familiar with Simply Red do not always appreciate their earlier works for its sheer sincerity. It also seemed more fun as with most videos in the eighties. http://www.bubblews.com/news/798469-the-retroscope-12-july

The Retroscope: 30 June

30 June: Huey Lewis and the News went to #1 on the US album chart with their third album “Sports” catapulting them to international fame. It had been certified 7 x Platinum by the RIAA and ranked at # 2 on the Billboard year-end chart for 1984. The album featured four top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and a fifthe went Top 20 including the memorable “If This Is It”. The album cover shows a photo of the band at the 2AM Club, a popular bar located in Mill Valley, California where the band performed early in their career. http://www.bubblews.com/news/740002-the-retroscope-30-june