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1983 in music |
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Important Releases
Michael Jackson's "Thriller",
the most successful album not only of 1983, but
of all time, was released in
1982 and began its epic domination of the
music charts the following year,
1983. The album spawned seven hit singles
and stayed on the US and UK charts for over
three years. Michael was nominated for ten
Grammy Awards, of which he won eight: seven
for the awe-inspiring album "Thriller", and the
other for the song "Someone in the Dark",
featured in the movie
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Thriller paved
the way for countless other African-American
artists' music to be aired on radio and MTV.
Thriller has sold over 104 million copies to
this day, making it the greatest selling album
of all time by an extremely large margin.
Michael's domination of the 80s was fueled by
his follow-up hit album
Bad, released in
1987. This held the title of the second
greatest album of all time for an incredible
number of years.
Head over Heels by the
Cocteau Twins sold poorly upon its initial
release but is considered one of the most
influential albums of
1983. In the ensuing years, the album's
eclectic assortment of
alternative rock,
New Wave and
synth pop influences became a cornerstone of
later alternative rock groups, most especially
in the
United Kingdom, where the Cocteau Twins' mix
of airy textures and breathless vocals (dream
pop) mutated into genres like
twee pop,
space rock and
shoegazing, and eventually hit mainstream
success with a
psychedelic-influenced form,
Britpop.
Quiet Riot's
Metal Health was enormously popular in
1983, and was the first
heavy metal album to go to #1 on the pop
charts. The lead single, "Cum on Feel the Noize"
(cover
of
Slade) was also a huge hit, #5 Billboard,
and set the stage for the mainstream crossover
of later
hair metal bands like
Guns N' Roses and
Def Leppard. Other landmark rock/metal
albums released in this year include Iron
Maiden's "Piece of Mind", Metallica's "Kill 'em
all", Def Leppard's "Pyromania" and Mötley
Crüe's "Shout at the Devil".
The
country music legend Kenny Rogers records
his 23rd studio album "We've Got Tonight," which
was his last album for
Liberty Records. He signed to
RCA for a guaranteed sum of no less than $20
million for 6 albums, the biggest record deal of
all-time up to that point. His earnings for
those recordings amounted to even more, but no
details have been made public. Rogers' RCA debut
included his duet with
Dolly Parton, "Islands
in the Stream", which would become one of
the biggest records of the year.
Some other releases from
1983 deserve special mention:
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The Police's
Synchronicity was their final
release together before breaking up, and was
enormously popular, including one of their
more popular songs, "Every
Breath You Take"
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Eurythmics'
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) was
their breakthrough success, and included
their signature tune, the title track
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Mötley Crüe's
Shout at the Devil was their
breakthrough, and included "Looks That
Kill", though they would go on to greater
popular and critical success in the later
part of the decade after recovering from the
shock of member
Vince Neil's near-fatal car accident
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Nena releases
99 Luftballons and its English version,
99 Red Balloons, generating her fame in the
English-speaking world
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Tom Waits'
Swordfishtrombones was his first
album for
Island Records, and the first in a
series of three thematically and
stylistically linked albums that established
him as a critical darling and cult favorite
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New Order's
Power, Corruption & Lies was the
second since forming from the ashes of
Joy Division (after the suicide of
Ian Curtis) and the first to achieve
critical or popular success, as it was a
stylistically innovative mix of synth vocals
and dance-heavy beats. In some countries
included the best-selling 12" record of all
time, "Blue
Monday"
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Duran Duran scored hits from three
separate albums in this year (Rio,
the reissue of
Duran Duran, and
Seven and the Ragged Tiger)
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Merle Haggard began a run of chart
success in this year, which continued for
about two years. His duet album with
Willie Nelson,
Pancho & Lefty, was an enormous
critical and popular success and did much to
revitalize the careers of both entertainers,
especially with the hit title track
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Stevie Ray Vaughan's
Texas Flood was more popular than
any blues album since the late
1960s, and did much to establish
country-blues as a commercially viable
genre
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George Strait's
Right or Wrong sold extremely well,
and was a pivotal album in the development
of the
honky tonk revival during the rest of
the decade.
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Now That's What I Call Music! kicked
off the long-running compilation series in
the UK
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Run DMC released their debut single,
"It's Like That"/"Sucker M.C.'s"
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Atlanta's first single "Atlanta Burned
Again Last Night," released on independent
record label
MDJ, broke the top ten on Billboard's
country music charts
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Metallica and
Slayer kicked off the thrash metal era
with
Kill 'Em All and
Show No Mercy.
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R.E.M's first full-length album
Murmur kick-started the band's long
career, and was one of the most critically
acclaimed albums of the year
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Albums released
- "Country (music
group) Atlanta releases 'Atlanta Burned
Again Last Night'on independednt MDJ
Records. Song breaks into the top ten in
Billboard's Country Charts.
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Births
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January 19 -
Utada Hikaru, singer and songwriter
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March 14 -
Jordan Taylor Hanson,
Hanson
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May 2 -
Rose Falcon
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March 19 -
Ana Rezende,
Cansei de Ser Sexy
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March 29 -
Luiza Sá,
Cansei de Ser Sexy
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June 30 -
Cheryl Tweedy, member of Girls Aloud
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June 30 -
Patrick Wolf,singer/songwriter
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July 2 -
Michelle Branch,
Justincase
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July 11 -
Marie Eleonor Serneholt,
A-Teens
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September 14 -
Amy Winehouse, English singer
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September 17 -
Jennifer Peña
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October 29 - Amit Paul,
A-Teens
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Deaths
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January 28-
Billy Fury, singer dies of
Myocardial infarction {heart attack}.
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February 4 -
Karen Carpenter, singer, dies of
anorexia nervosa
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February 12 -
Eubie Blake (100), pianist
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February 22 - Sir
Adrian Boult, conductor
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March 6 -
Cathy Berberian, singer and composer
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March 7 -
William Walton, British composer
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April 4 -
Danny Rapp,
Danny and the Juniors, gunshot wound
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April 14 -
Pete Farndon,
the Pretenders, drug overdose
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April 30
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May 5 -
Clarence Quick (46), the
Del Vikings, heart attack
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May 23 -
George Bruns, film composer
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June 2 -
Stan Rogers, musician
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June 25 -
Alberto Ginastera,
Argentinian
composer
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July 5 -
Harry James, bandleader
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July 23 -
Georges Auric, composer, member of
Les Six
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November 7 -
Germaine Tailleferre, composer, only
female member of
Les Six
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November 19 -
Tom Evans, bassist of the rock group
Badfinger.
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December 28 -
Dennis Wilson, member of the
Beach Boys
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| Awards |
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| Country Music
Association Awards |
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| Charts |
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| From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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