Mixtapes and MTV

Capturing the sounds and shifts of a bigger, brighter decade.

For better or worse, the 1980s shifted the dial on expectations about what pop and rock music should be. But the decade saw more than just mullets and shoulder pads. It was also the heyday of synth pop, the golden age of heavy metal and hip-hop, and the beginnings of acid house.

Buoyed by the extraordinary success of Michael Jackson’s Thriller (still the biggest-selling album of all time), the 1980s saw new ways of experiencing music. The Sony Walkman shifted listening from a shared to a solo experience. Vinyl records gave way to cassettes, then CDs. The arrival of MTV saw music, television and consumerism merge an unholy alliance, while record producers became the new gurus of chart success. Against a climate of political conservatism and ostentatious materialism, the industry embraced the notion of charity rock, saw powerful female performers take centre stage and witnessed the subcultural stirrings of what was to come in grunge.

Witty, vivid and brimming with stories, Mixtapes and MTV charts the musical highs and lows of a tumultuous decade, which saw free-market economics, the AIDS crisis and the fall of the Berlin Wall. From Duran Duran to Run DMC, from Madonna to Metallica, and from Springsteen to Sinéad O’Connor, this book offers new insight into the decade that fashion (arguably) forgot – but music did not.

‘Tony Wellington writes passionately about music history. This book grooves like a mix of Adam & The Ants and Prince. What’s not to love?’ – Stuart Coupe