Artist: George Michael
Album: Faith
Release Date: October 30, 1987
Each time I think I’ve got 80s pop music all figured out and am ready to move on to bigger, certainly better things, someone comes around and slaps me back into place. Right now, it’s George Michael’s Faith. Maybe it’s because current pop music has some remarkable common factors with 80s music, but Faith came out 22 years ago and sounds like it would still have a place in last week’s Top 40 (someone needs to pick off The Black Eyed Peas, right?). Tracks like the beat-driven “Hard Day” and “Hand to Mouth” still resonate with a surprising amount of relevance in today’s pop culture. The kids today might not be listening to it, but the people making the music the kids listen to today are, and that’s almost more important.
I’m not going to lie; my knowledge of George Michael’s existence, let alone his catalog, was virtually nonexistent this time a year ago. Even now I know simply of his work as the guy from Wham! and this album, but it’s a good start nonetheless. In all likelihood I probably won’t immediately go out and educate myself on all the finest points of 80s pop music, since let’s be real here, there was far more good than bad in that category. But at least now I have some respect for the notion that some good things did come out of the era, and what came out of it is incredibly relevant to what goes on today.
George Michael – Father Figure [iTunes] (YSI)
==TJ==
Filed under: Album A Day | Tagged: 1980s, Album A Day, George Michael
Some ’80s pop you might want to have a listen to is Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine. The blend of Cuban-based Latin beat with American melodic sensibilities is excellent…and the styles range from the dance-pop of “Conga” and “Rhythm is Gonna Get You” to the ballads of “Words Get in the Way” and “Anything for You”.
Plus there’s probably no lovelier female voice in contemporary music than Estefan’s.