1982

From Holocene to Anthropocene - A quantum leap. Envoronmental degradation and disater is the bane of civilization. Is there any way out? It seems to be distant and remote.

Quite arguably the greatest debut success story in US pop music history, the Australian septet Men At Work exploded onto the American pop scene in late summer of 1982. Their rise to a position of being one of the most popular acts of the day was surprising and meteoric and the group itself possessed one of the more unique sounds of the '80s.

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With their clean-cut look and frothy pop melodies, Haircut 100 became major sensations in the UK when their debut album Pelican West was released in late 1981. The album wouldn't hit the States until the following summer and although they wouldn't create quite the stir they had in England, their lone US Top 40 hit would become one of the more unusual and memorable hits of the early '80s.

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Toward the end of 1981, Los Angeles' Go-Go's scored their first hit with "Our Lips Our Sealed" and, as 1982 began, they stormed the charts with its even more successful follow-up, "We Got The Beat," which reached #2 on the pop charts and helped the band's debut album, Beauty And The Beat, become a #1 album.

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The daughter of a bassoonist for the New York Metropolitan Opera, pop songstress Melissa Manchester wrote commercial jingles and sang back-up for Better Midler before embarking on a solo career in the mid-'70s. While notching Top Ten hits like "Midnight Blue" and "Don't Cry Out Loud," Manchester also found success as a songwriter as well, including writing the smash duet between Kenny Loggins and Stevie Nicks, "Whenever I Call You Friend."

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When Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young formed in 1968, the union brought together members of The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and The Hollies, making it one of the first supergroups in rock music history. During the next three years, the band played Woodstock, released two albums that went to #1, and had hits with classic songs including "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," "Ohio," "Teach Your Children," and "Woodstock."

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Few American acts had more success and were a more ubiquitous presence on radio during the '70s than the band Chicago. From their beginnings in the late '60s as an ambitious horn-driven group fusing progressive rock, pop, and jazz, Chicago became a more streamlined, focused pop entity during the decade with ten Top Ten albums, including six #1s, and a string of smash singles like "Colour My World," Saturday In The Park," and "If You Leave Me Now."

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The band Blondie had emerged from the fertile New York punk scene of the '70s to become one of the most popular acts of the decade's end. With their eclectic style and the comely visual image of lead singe Debbie Harry, their fortunes carried over into the '80s. By the time the group was readying their album The Hunter for its 1982 release, they had already notched three #1 hits, all stylistically different, in the new decade with "Call Me," "The Tide Is High," and "Rapture."

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With the their 1980 album Lost In Love and 1981's follow-up The One That You Love, Air Supply and their soft rock sound had become international stars. Both albums had gone multi-platinum and the Aussie act had scored a streak of six consecutive Top Ten singles, all of them reaching the Top Five. They were one of the greatest success stories of the early '80s even if they were critically reviled.

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Although he began his career in the late '60s with a focus on the blues, guitarist Steve Miller found great success during the '70s with a string of more pop-oriented singles that were staples on rock radio. From 1973 through 1977, Miller and his band placed seven songs into the US Top 40, including the Top Ten hits "The Joker," "Rock'N Me," "Fly Like An Eagle," and "Jet Airliner." Miller's albums were multi-platinum smashes and the act was one of the most popular in American music.

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After shattering existing records for chart success with their album Rumours in 1977, including six months at #1 and a then-unprecedented four Top Ten singles, Fleetwood Mac's follow-up Tusk was a relative disappointment when it arrived two years later. When the band regrouped, it was following a lengthy hiatus that saw both Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham release successful solo albums.

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With the acclaim she won at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1972, keyboardist/singer Patrice Rushen became an in-demand session player for much of the '70s, performing with jazz stalwarts like Jean-Luc Ponty, Lee Ritenour, and Stanley Turrentine. She also released several albums of her own which featured Rushen's brand of jazz, R&B, and funk.

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Shortly after the dawn of the '80s, it appeared that the best days for the band Kansas were behind the group. After becoming favorites on rock radio during the '70s for their distinctive style of progressive rock and notching hits with songs like "Carry On My Wayward Son," "Point Of Know Return," and "Dust In The Wind," the band was splintering.

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With their heavily electronic sound and lyrical bent shaped by their art school education, the synth-pop duo of Soft Cell, consisting of Marc Almond and David Ball, were one of the more interesting and unlikely acts to score a major pop hit during the early '80s. Although it wouldn't be released in the States until 1982, Soft Cell's debut, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, had been issued the prior year in their native UK, producing several hit singles and creating a buzz in the US through imported copies.

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Indiana's favorite son, John Cougar's career had been gaining momentum slowly for six years by the time he released the album American Fool in June of 1982. Two years earlier, he had issued his best-selling album to date, Nothin' Matters And What If It Did, which had produced two Top 40 hits including the #17 hit "Ain't Even Done With The Night". It gave no indication, though, of the monster success that awaited Cougar.

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