Articles — 80s

MusicGoldmine.com recently acquired a stellar collection of ZZ Top awards, all presented to and personally owned by late ZZ Top bassist, co-lead vocalist, keyboardist, and songwriter Joe Michael "Dusty" Hill. Hill founded the group with bandmates Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard in 1968 and played an integral part in the group's recordings and live performances for over 50 years until his passing in 2021. Hill was a prolific collector of his own and other memorabilia. The 2019 Banger Films/Eagle Rock ZZ Top documentary That Little Ol' Band From Texas showed many of these and other record awards and mementos displayed on the...

Tom Zutaut arrived as a record label A&R (Artists & Repertoire) man in an unlikely way. Given an entry-level job at Elektra Records at the beginning of the 80s, he felt that the label's current artist roster was weak and that they needed to sign new artists. He first suggested Joan Jett. No, they said. Jett would soon hit it big in her post-Runaways  life with a smash cover of The Arrows "I Love Rock 'n' Roll." After that he pegged The Human League as future hitmakers in the U.S. after seeing their fledgling but promising start in the U.K. No, they said, and the U.K. outfit went on to...

The 1980s were a great time for all music -- rock, pop, new wave, R&B, punk, rap/hip hop and more. It was the era that started with great new wave bands like Blondie, The Cars, The Pretenders, R.E.M., The Smiths, The Cure, The Police, Tears For Fears, among others. Rock loomed large as well during the 80s with everyone from AC/DC, Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Journey, Poison, Loverboy, Motley Crue, Tom Petty, Rush, U2, Van Halen, Whitesnake and more to hard rock like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth, Guns N' Roses and others by the end of the decade. Pop,...