♪ he was shot by an unknown at this time white male. >> world has reacted with immense shock and grief to the first rock and roll assassination. >> it was like, in one moment, the '60s and the '70s got murdered. >> his life has given more love than most men and women on the face of this earth. we are here to prove that love is not dead, even though john is. >> you know, you start the decade with the death of a beatle. you don't really know where you are going to go from that point, you know, culturally or musically. >> for a while, it seemed there was nothing new on the horizon. announcing the latest achievement in home entertainment. the power of sight. the power of sound. stereo. mtv music television. >> we all are so excited about this new concept in tv. we will be doing for tv, what fm did for radio. >> at the time, the world was saying we don't think anybody's gonna watch videos over and over. but we knew we had something special. ♪ pretty one, when you gonna give me some ♪ >> mtv made you feel like those artists were in the room. you had a personal concert all day. >> when you had the rotation of, say, maybe 100 different videos being rotated over and over on mtv, they do a great job of exposing new acts. >> written was ahead of the curve. they had a ton of videos in their inventory and that was what paved the way for this accidental second british invasion. >> if you look at some of the groups on the popular music charts in america today, you can't help asking where, on earth, did they come from? well, the answer is the same today as it was two decades ago. they come from britain. >> the music isn't anything like the famous group that came from there. the beatles. >> got to understand they were 20 years ago. we are a new generation and new -- new wave. ♪ you were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar when i met you ♪ >> by the early 1980s, new wave is used to describe these sleek, dressy, cool bands that are coming out of england. ♪ don't you want me, baby ♪ ♪ don't you want me oh ♪ >> british artists all understood how to use visuals, in a way that i think american artists didn't necessarily get that quickly. ♪ do you really want to hurt me ♪ >> do you really want to hurt me is a good song. it is a song old people like and young people like. so i think the proof is in the pudding. buy it and eat it. >> mtv actually met with durand durand's managers, and said we are looking for kind of like james bond videos on location. and their managers are the ones that went to the band members, and said look, we really need to up the ante with these clips. you know, we need to give this channel something they have never seen before. >> there are some that have accused your videos of being soft porn. >> well, excuse me. >> we like to call them tastefully smutty. ♪ >> when i first met durand durand, they were saying that they thought they look like rock stars, so why not become rock stars? ♪ don't stand so close to me ♪ >> why do you think we are so popular over there? >> well, i think there is a tradition that goes back over the past 20 years from the days of the beatles and the rolling stones, where british bands seem to be better at it than americans. >> the police have sold 4 million albums in one year. rolling stone chose them as the best new band of the year. taking note of the swirling, dreamy soaring quality of the sound. >> it was incredible to see them and i couldn't believe what i was hearing out of three people. i was shocked. >> i once read that you are called the pink floyd of the '80s. what do you think of that? >> we are not at all. we are just -- we are the cure of the '80s. >> the holy trinity of alternative british music is the cure. depeche mode and the smiths. all three of them started out as these fringe bands that, by the end of the '80s, were selling out stadiums. >> what is new order? computer programmers? or musicians? >> i would say neither, actually. >> what are you then? >> bank robbers. >> in the uk, disco did not suck, it never sucked and bands like new order combined it with the new synthesizer sound, and they gave us these incredible songs that got us out on the dance floor. >> i like what is happening in dance places now over this last year or two. hey! it's me! your dry skin! i'm craving something we're missing. the ceramides in cerave. they help restore my natural barrier, so i can lock in moisture. we've got to have each other's backs... cerave. now the #1 dermatologist recommended skincare brand. i strip on public transit. i strip with the guys. i strip all by myself. breathe right strips open your nose for relief you can feel right away, helping you take in air more easily, day or night. >> it has done wonders for the sagging record industry. it has made overnight stars out of rock groups, whose records have been gathering dust. >> this year, the first since 1978, bngs is finally up and the reason is music videos. >> we had no idea that music videos would have that much of an impact on the musical culture. it changed the entire dynamic of what you had to do as far as promotion was concerned. you had to be a performance artist, as well as a musician. >> the intelligent ones recognize that it's a marriage between the visual artist and the musician at this point. the man or the woman who finds the right combination will take it all. ♪ put on your red shoes and dance the blues ♪ >> when david and i decided that we were gonna work together, it was pretty clear to me that david wanted to make a commercial album. like, you know, now i am going to go make a pop record but it was gonna be his version of pop. >> my songs always tend to be impressionistic or even have a surreal quality to them. and on this album is the first time that i've really tried to adapt to a didactic kind of approach to some writing. >> artists in the '80s and david bowie for that matter realized if you want to make it, you got to be on mtv. >> but there is one group that is not happy with mtv -- many black artists who have been told their music doesn't fit the format. >> that is what is happening. we are being sat in the back of the bus television style. and there are other cable shows that form, they are going to try it. >> mtv doesn't exclude black acts. what mtv does exclude is music that is not rock and roll. >> mtv came out with no consideration on how to infuse black music in their mix. >> i am just floored by the fact that there is so many -- so few black artists featured on it. why is that? >> we have to try and do what we think not only new york and los angeles will appreciate, but also some town in the midwest that will be scared to death by prince or a string of other black faces. >> interesting. okay. thank you very much. >> when are we gonna see anybody of color on mtv? because you said music television. when are you going to start covering all genres of music? >> music doesn't have color and it shouldn't have color and i don't believe in that. what i do, i don't want it labeled black or white. i want it labeled as music. >> 1983, motown has this big tv special, motown's 25th anniversary. at that time, thriller is out and thriller's doing well but michael jackson couldn't get billie jean on mtv. >> when the rest of the world was going crazy and he can't get on mtv? michael jackson? come on. >> when he does that moonwalk, if you were sitting on the couch, by the end of it, you were on the floor in front of the tv. you couldn't believe what you were seeing. >> i will say that the moonwalk was really one of the first viral moments that affected rock history. the next week, "thriller" started selling a million copies a week. >> i like michael jackson because he sing good, he is bad, he knows how to dance. >> he is so sexy and so gorgeous. >> he is exciting. >> michael jackson is the man of the '80s. >> mtv starts to get pressure from cbs records, which was michael jackson's label. >> rock and roll, in itself, really was the thing that broke a lot of rules. when you are very successful, you try to make your own rules occasionally. >> as the story goes, cbs essentially said we will pull every other artist we have on mtv if you don't play this. they had to be essentially blackmailed into doing it. ♪ it doesn't matter who is wrong or right just beat it ♪ >> he was the artist that mtv really needed. they didn't know they needed him, but, boy, when we started to see those michael jackson videos, was just unbelievable. >> then, there is the domino effect. suddenly, you see prince videos from warner brothers do the same thing. ♪ party like it's 1999 ♪ >> prince wasn't just a -- a materializing out of nowhere. where was he before this video was filmed? >> well, prince was a huge star on black radio stations. i mean, people -- he had a real underground cult following and he was a very sexy, hot performer. ♪ can you, my darling, can you ♪ >> prince loved the idea that he was taking his punk-funk music, and turning it onto a white audience and that wouldn't have happened, if not for mtv. ♪ this is what it sounds like when the doves cry ♪ >> when i was younger, i always said that, one day, i was gonna play all kinds of music. and not be judged for the color of my skin, but the quality of my work. >> prince had a great androgyny. he blurred the gender line. he sings, he writes, he plays. every time i see him, it's just like, really? okay, i quit. >> when he plays guitar, it's just part of his body in a way that i've never really seen before. and it's not contrived. it's just -- it's just happening. >> what was his music? was it r&b? you know, his music was just straight down the middle, mainstream, grab you by the throat and balls pop. ♪ we go down to the river and into the river we dive ♪ >> at this point, a lot of it is about being there, which is why we haven't done too much of the video thing. a lot of it is -- it allows too much distance. like, what our band is about is about breaking down distance. >> bruce was all about credibility and intelligence and integrity. so, how would he translate his music and his attitude toward the world to what seemed like this frivolous world of the music video? bruce is not going to be next to a winking model on a sailboat. ♪ you can't start a fire without a spark ♪ >> he ends up doing essentially an in-concert video starring a then-unknown courtney cox. it's like this weird re-creation of something that organically happens in a bruce springsteen concert. if there was an artist in the '80s who transcended the music video, he is the guy. he is the one guy who didn't actually need to do great music videos to still be a great artist. >> he is bruce springsteen. it was great music. from l'oreal paris. this foundation with hydrating serum is so lightweight it doesn't settle into lines. age perfect serum foundation from l'oreal paris. we're worth it! (vo) for me, one of the best things about life is that we keep moving forward. we discover exciting new technologies. redefine who we are and how we want to lead our lives. basically, choose what we want our future to look like. so what's yours going to be? one of the worst things about a cold sore is how it can make you feel. but, when used at the first sign, abreva can get you back to being you in just 2 and a half days. be kinder to yourself and tougher on your cold sores. david bowie. mic jagger, billy joel, rod stuart. all famous, all rich, and all men. rock and roll has been pretty much dominated by men until the last few years. >> pat benatar is hot, very hot. three albums in the past three years, all million sellers and the hatest latest album hit the top of the charts in just one month. her style is defiant, raucous, tough, and very sexy. ♪ we are young heartache to heartache we stand ♪ >> it appears to me that the one onstage is what i would picture a modern woman to be. someone, who is aggressive and soft at the same time. has a lot of strength and conviction. and, um, can look good and still have brains. >> you would think that, in the era of music becoming a visual form more than ever, that it would all be about objectification but there were a lot of strong women on that video screen. >> meet the darlings of la's new music scene, the go-go's. unlike earlier girl groups such as the ron sets or supremes, the go-go's play their own instruments ♪ they got the beat, yeah ♪ >> that was as punk rock as it got for me to see girls up there, you know, not just singing backup or not just, like, standing in some cool outfit in front of a band. like, they were the band. ♪ it doesn't matter what they say in the jealous games people play ♪ >> while the go go's have always managed to look like they are having fun, they are to be taken seriously. they are the first female group ever to have a number one album, and they are at the top of a list of female rock stars, whose impact within the industry is stronger than ever. ♪ in the middle of the night what you gonna do with your life ♪ >> i thought her voice was extraordinary. and cindy was a very good visual-content creator. i mean, those videos were so colorful and fun. >> this being march the 31st, it is also a monday. some of you might consider it a manic monday. you would be interested in knowing there is a hit song of the same name. we are joined by the architects of that song, they are the bengals. you guys are very hot, yes? ♪ i was just in the middle of a dream ♪ >> when the bangles came out, everyone was like oh, it's like another go-go's. the bangles were like, uh-uh, we are not the new go-go's, we are the new beatles. >> lot of people call that a '60s sound. do you -- do you think so? >> just as our main influence, we don't go and consciously say let's make this -- it's just seems to be that is the way the songs end up sounding. ♪ just another manic monday, wish it was sunday ♪ >> there was always a certain amount of people who will never take women as a group seriously. >> i mean, it's run by a very chauvinistic, i would imagine, recording industry. >> we concentrate on the music, you know, we don't really worry about those things. we just keep writing songs. >> i think that there was a little bit of an attitude like they're okay for chicks. they can play okay for girls. we didn't understand why our gender mattered, or why it defined us. >> people magazine this week says it will take an act of congress to keep this woman from becoming a mega star. whitney houston! ♪ i want to know if he really loves me ♪ ♪ i say a prayer ♪ >> whether she was doing a dance song or she was doing a ballad -- it kind of stopped you in your tracks because you just couldn't believe that one woman could be blessed with that much, with the looks and the talent. >> this lady started out as a dancer, went to new york, went to paris. worked with vans, came back as a single and is she hot? this is madonna. >> if you saw madonna then, she looked just like the girls who hung out at a club called the funhouse. all the girls there had the mesh thing and they had the boots and it was kind of a mix of new-wave punk with this other dance sensibility. ♪ holiday celebrate ♪ >> i think madonna was able to use that core of dance music, and use the style of the streets that were going on and evolve that into a pop career. >> we are a couple of weeks into the new year. what do you hope will happen not only in 1984 but for the rest of your professional life? what are your dreams? what's left? >> to rule the world. ♪ star light, star bright make everything all right ♪ >> all the sudden, there was girls around that had the gloves with the fingers cut out of it and the hair wrapped up in the net and wearing the short skirts. there was like hundreds of thousands of jewish girls around the country wearing crucifixes because of madonna. >> what do you like about her? >> well, i like the way she thinks about -- she acts like a different attitude that no one else has. >> she dresses out she wants, acts how she wants, sings how she wants. she does what she wants. >> i think her appeal is that she is feminine. she is herself. she is sexual but she's strong! she's an individual woman. >> madonna understood the mtv phenomenon. she understood the vibe and the look and the sound. it all came together with her. >> you keep giving them little surprises. if they get you all in one glance, then what's -- what's gonna make them look again? >> madonna sang like a virgin and started rolling on the ground, people thought it was a career-ending moment for her. >> in this wedding dress, rolling around on the floor. it kind of stopped everybody in their tracks thinking what is she doing? and why is she doing it? but literally, by the next morning, she is the biggest star in the world. >> madonna had no doubt. she was like this is happening. get out of the way. i have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis. so i'm taking zeposia, a once-daily pill. because i won't let uc stop me from being me. zeposia can help people with uc achieve and maintain remission. and it's the first and only s1p receptor modulator approved for uc. don't take zeposia if you've had a heart attack, chest pain, stroke or mini-stroke, heart failure in the last 6 months, irregular or abnormal heartbeat not corrected by a pacemaker, if you have untreated severe breathing problems during your sleep, or if you take medicines called maois. zeposia may cause serious side effects including infections that can be life-threatening and cause death, slow heart rate, liver or breathing problems, increased blood pressure, macular edema, and swelling and narrowing of the brain's blood vessels. though unlikely, a risk of pml--a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection--cannot be ruled out. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions, medications, or if you are or plan to become pregnant. if you can become pregnant, use birth control during treatment and for 3 months after you stop taking zeposia. don't let uc stop you from doing you. ask your doctor about once-daily zeposia. hey! it's me! your dry skin! i'm craving something we're missing. the ceramides in cerave. they help restore my natural barrier, so i can lock in moisture. we've got to have each other's backs... cerave. now the #1 dermatologist recommended skincare brand. wanna lose weight and be healthier? 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(announcer) aerotrainer's ergodynamic design and four patented air chambers create maximum muscle activation for better results in less time. it allows for over 20 exercises. do the aerotrainer super crunch, push ups, aero squat. it inflates in 30 seconds. aerotrainer is tested to support over 500 pounds. lose weight, look great, and be healthy. go to aerotrainer.com. that's a-e-r-o trainer.com. in the '80s, the videos were so expensive and so complicated. and you had to wear things that you would never dream of wearing before. and at first, it was a lot of fun to really get dressed up and pull on that corset and create big, huge hair. >> you had to have that sex hair kind of thing. you know? i am coming out of a gold mold. anne has a welding iron and she is this, like, amazon welder woman or something. >> we felt lost in the theater of it. it got to the point where the videos were more important than the songs. >> it did feel like i can't steer the ship anymore. where is it going? you know? where are we headed? >> i think heavy metal is -- is the true rock and roll of the '80s. and rock and roll was basically music made by people who were thinking with their crotches. >> heavy metal. it is not something new in physics, it is rock and roll. loud, rude. it glorifies sex and violence, it hates authority, and adolescent boys love it. >> this is it. this is the hot stuff. alan, turn it off for a second so we can talk. ♪ one step away from you ♪ >> you turn on your television set and you see this weird, beastly presentation that was birthed in the pit of hell. >> where do they get this information from that i am satan? do i appear to you to have horns? i know i am a bit strange looking. i don't speak like this. >> critics say there is something seriously wrong with metal music. outrageous, by design. that it may have contributed to a number of teenaged suicides. >> has rock and roll finally gone too far? a growing number of people think so and today they took their case to a u.s. senate hearing. their complaint? that rock lyrics and videos are crossing the line into trash and smut. >> we are asking the recording industry to voluntarily assist parents who are concerned by placing a warning label on music products -- "inappropriate for younger children, due to explicit sexual or violent lyrics." >> in the '80s, these artists who were pushing boundaries in different ways were bringing those messages and images into our homes and that provided a political opportunity to push back against it. >> we can say they're senators' wives, ooh, you know, and they are messing around in washington but they obviously have some real concerns. there is a lot they do that i ahmaud because they are taking responsibility as citizens. >> i brought along two videos which i believe are representative the kind of presentation which have caused the furor. ♪ i'm hot for teacher ♪ ♪ i've got it bad, so bad ♪ >> who is going to decide what's a sexual content of a lyric? who is going to decide what is obscene? same housewives who are spearheading the movement? >> in all canada, i would tell you it's outrageous filth and if i can find some way constitutionally to do away with it, i would. >> fans felt i am capable of making my own decisions about the music i want to listen to. i don't need tipper gore deciding this is too obscene for me. >> the next witness will be mr. frank zappa. >> the establishment of a rating system, voluntary or otherwise, opens the door to an endless parade of moral quality-control programs based on things certain christians don't like. i think you should leave it up to the parent because not all parents want to keep their children totally ignorant. >> yeah. >> the women didn't get the rating system they wanted but they did get a commitment to begin applying a printed inscription on the packaging of albums, cassettes, and music videos warning that they contain blatant explicit hirks. >> good rock and roll breaks all the rules. okay? that's just the way it is. that is the way it always has been. elvis presley was not good for the children, either. >> everybody, i am very pleased to announce to live aid which, without a doubt, will be the largest pop concert ever held. >> live aid was the brainchild of bob geldof and the two of them were looking to raise as much money as possible for the famine victims in ethiopia. >> when tomorrow's 17-hour fundraising concert starts, sell-out crowds in the stadiums will be joined by a television audience of perhaps 1.5 billion people around the world. ♪ come on now in the middle of the road ♪ >> watching live aid on tv was my version of driving to woodstock and i watched every second of it. ♪ to live like a refugee, don't have to live like a refugee ♪ ♪ all we hear is -- ♪ >> the great thing about live aid, it showed that musicians for me seemed to be the most altruistic people in the world. >> a group whose heart is in dublin, ireland. [ cheers and applause ] whose spirit is with the world. a group that's never had any problem saying how they feel, u2. >> when u2 play live aid, things have changed. rock and roll was getting serious. music could change the world. bono could change the world. >> u2 formed ten years ago when its members were still school boys. now, arguably the hottest rock and roll band in the world. their last album, the joshua tree, has so far sold more than 13 million copies worldwide. >> u2 somehow in the video age were still developing and becoming a great band and naning that kind of connection with people and not getting the message lost in the medium. >> spent the last ten years point pointing finding out how to be in u2. spend the next ten years seeing what u2 can do. 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(robert) thank you. subaru. more than a car company. hey! it's me! your dry skin! i'm craving something we're missing. the ceramides in cerave. they help restore my natural barrier, so i can lock in moisture. we've got to have each other's backs... cerave. now the #1 dermatologist recommended skincare brand. right now, all around us, and so compelling you never miss the fact there is no melody is a music that is all beat, strong beat, and talk. it's rap music. rap music began in harlem in the south bronx on playgrounds like this one where people would gather to recite their own lyrics, their raps over the instrumental section. >> the brakes was curtis blow's biggest hit. selling 680,000 copies last year and hitting the top of the rhythm and blues sales charts. >> as a young kid running around with a local dj crew, i watched the transition from all the disco music we used to play at all the block parties to slowly but surely hip-hop taking over. >> the music underneath rapping is called scratching and it is a process of using two turntables and a mixer, making new sounds out of already-existing albums. >> the thing that gave life to the music in the '80s for me was hip-hop because it took the sounds of the '60s and '70s and brought it to the forefront. ♪ a child is born with no state of mind blind to the ways of mankind ♪ >> the message was the first hip-hop song that wasn't just a party song. it was talking about what was going on, it was talking about urban decay. it was talking about drugs, crime, prison. all of these things that were hitting these communities really hard. ♪ burglars, gamblers, big pocket peddlers ♪ >> when a message hit man, it was like okay, put that down. what did he just say? pull the record back. play that again. ♪ don't push me cause i'm close to the edge ♪ >> everyone knew the game had changed. and it really opened the floodgates for the next generation of rappers. >> when run dmc came out, they were taking rock and roll music and putting it together with hip-hop and making something brand new out of it. ♪ you can't touch me with a ten foot pole ♪ >> run d.m.c. kind of led zeppelinized hip-hop because it was fit for arena. knocking the scoreboard down. >> aerosmith had sort of fallen off the map at that point and it sort of brings them back to the fore. and it also breaks run dmc in a much bigger way because then you start to get more white kids listening to hip-hop. >> run dmc's latest album entitled "raising hell" has sold more than a million copies in just 13 weeks. a first for a rap record. >> the album is called "license to ill." that is a stupid name. ♪ wake up late for school and you don't want to go ♪ ♪ ask your ma please but she still said no ♪ >> hip-hop was our baby, this is our culture, our music, we created it and then here come the beastie boys and we were afraid we were going to lose it. ♪ you got to fight for your right ♪ >> and then, we started listening to their music, they really were funky and they could really get busy. so we were like, okay, all right. >> beastie boys come out what people thought would be a pop hip-hop group, it was straight hip-hop. beastie boys was dope. you know what i mean? >> license to ill really spread like wildfire. and introduced a lot of people to hip-hop culture. >> can you give us some definitions of the lls? >> ll stands for ladies, love, legend, lover of ladies, red hot lovers looking for a little, lesson learning, liking, just a lot of ls. >> the guys only be talking about yourself. how much of a lover, how the women love him to death. you know what i mean? how they can throw down, how good they can dance, how bad they are. nobody better not mess with me and all that kind of foolishness. they won't address the issues. the issues, being poverty. the issues, being not having political power. you see what i am saying? all of these issues, they should be addressing this with their energy. >> ra kim is the god mc. he single-handedly changed the phrasing of rap music in hip-hop. he came to the world like a poet. i learned different rhythms listening to jazz. i learned different rhythms so i kind of incorporated that with my rhyme style, not just the regular dum, dum, dum. i was in between. >> what i am trying to do -- i am trying to, um, set examples for the little kids. know what i am saying? got to teach the babies, know what i am saying, try to lead them in the right path. >> summer of 1987, rebel without a pause comes out. it was a call to arms. it was the sound of anger. it was the sound of something boiling under. public enemy literally said that we wanted to be music's worst nightmare. >> public enemy is extreme politics. it's met almost no radio air play even on black stations. it is rap for a reason. they call it a mind revolution. >> "rebel without a pause" was heavily influenced by rakim and heavily influenced by what was just going on. it was really a desperate call to have us being heard. >> you talk about black all the time to a multiracial audience. shouldn't you maybe be thinking about who are the people i've got out here? haven't you got a responsibility to them rather than what you personally -- >> i have a responsibility to my people and my culture, because my people and my culture have been brutalized and ignored for years. ♪ my mother standing in the welfare line ♪ ♪ the way you survive is crime ♪ ♪ my life is over so i might as well speak my mind ♪ >> ice t is the first west coast gangster rap. reality rap. 6:00 in the morning police at my door. ice t did it way before nwa did it. ♪ straight outta compton ♪ ♪ ice cube from a gang called with attitude ♪ ♪ i got a sawed off ♪ ♪ squeeze the trigger and bodies are hauled off ♪ >> the los angeles rap group nwa drew fire from police because its album “straight outta compton” talked in brutal and vulgar language about retaliating against cops for their anti-gang sweeps in the l.a. area. >> nwa gave us the gritty, grimy gang-banging streets of compton. this is what's going on with us. ♪ as i leave believe i'm stomping ♪ ♪ when i come back boy i'm coming straight outta compton ♪ responder: the owner of this apple watch has taken a hard fall and is not responding to their watch. the emergency location is latitude 47.7 longitude -117.5 with an estimated search radius of forty one meters. this message will repeat in five seconds. ♪ hey! it's me! your dry skin! i'm craving something we're missing. the ceramides in cerave. they help restore my natural barrier, so i can lock in moisture. we've got to have each other's backs... cerave. now the #1 dermatologist recommended skincare brand. (vo) for me, one of the best things about life is that we keep moving forward. we discover exciting new technologies. redefine who we are and how we want to lead our lives. basically, choose what we want our future to look like. so what's yours going to be? when that car hit my motorcycle, insurance wasn't fair. so i called the barnes firm, it was the best call i could've made. call the barnes firm now, and find out what your case could be worth. ♪ call one eight hundred, eight million and i d d so my y quesonons coueouout hicacase.y y son, ♪ call one eight hundred, cacalledhehe bars s filion and i d d soit was the best call coueouout hii could've made. call the barnes firm aand find out what your case all ccould be worth.uld've made. ♪ call one eight hundred, eight million ♪ ♪ i want my mtv ♪ you can talk about videos, but in the '80s the actual sound of what popular music was and what was accepted as a sound, a drum sound or keyboard sound or bass line sound, changed profoundly over the course of the decade. ♪ she drives me crazy like no one else ♪ ♪ she drives me crazy and i can't help myself ♪ >> coming to the end of the '80s, like watching a kaleidoscope. you open it up and you see a little bit of everything. ♪ the love shack is a little old place where we can get together ♪ >> it was the time when everybody was getting involved and everybody was expressing themselves loudly. we are having the best time ever. ♪ never gonna give you up never gonna let you down ♪ ♪ never gonna run around and desert you ♪ >> every audience needs to get fed. you know, we'd fed the pop audience. but where's the rock 'n' roll? ♪ oh, we're halfway there oh, living on a prayer ♪ ♪ take my hand we'll make it i swear ♪ >> bon jovi comes in with a huge record. ♪ pour some sugar on me ♪ >> def leppard. fantastic record. ♪ pour some sugar on me ♪ >> and that begins to bring that kind of music back. ♪ pour your sugar on me ♪ >> at the end of the '80s, everybody came to the same conclusion simultaneously. something new needs to happen here, and it's got to be real-sounding, more garage, less produced. ♪ >> this music that was bubbling out of places like portland and seattle, and bands like nirvana that weren't looking to fit in to what was being played on mtv or what was being played on radio. ♪ i can see you every night ♪ >> eventually radio and mtv came to them. >> the seeds of what will happen in the next decade are already all there by the end of the '80s. college rock like r.e.m. was something new entirely. ♪ follow me, yeah follow me i got my spine i've got my orange crush ♪ >> the way that peter buck played guitar and the way that stipe sang where the voice was incredible but you couldn't quite figure out what he was saying, it just made them more alluring and mysterious, you could get why that band would become huge. ♪ >> it wasn't new wave, it wasn't a new romantic. they started calling it alternative music. ♪ it's the end of the world as we know it ♪ ♪ it's the end of the world as we know it ♪ ♪ time i had some time alone and i feel fine ♪ ♪ fine fine fine fine ♪ >> you know, this is the thing about the '80s. everyone thinks it's about crazy haircuts, lots of makeup, insane clothes, and it was. but the thing about this music that lasts is that their songs were so good. you can go back and listen to those records, from the engineering to the musicianship to the writing and to the performance of it. it surpasses most music. >> everybody had a story, and they wanted to tell it. the artists that were coming through the tv and into your lives. ♪ everybody wants to rule the world ♪ >> i'll say that the music of the '80s is more effective than what came to us in the '60s simply because all of us were included this time. no decade was more effective in dance music, in politics, in different genres than the '80s. there will never, ever be another decade like it, ever. ♪ everybody wants to rule the world ♪ ♪ there's a room where the light won't find you ♪ ♪ holding hands while the walls come tumbling down ♪ ♪ when they do i'll be right behind you ♪ ♪ so glad we've almost made it so sad they have to fade it ♪ ♪ everybody wants to rule the world ♪ imagine what it was like back when the rolling stones could shock parents everywhere. my, how times have changed. >> i see hustling. i see killing. that's what i rap about. >> you can take me out of the ghetto, but you can't take the ghetto up out of me, dog. >> it's a tough time to grow up in. and nirvana and kurt cobain in particular reflect the angst. >> i learned how to write for myself, and it's pretty ironic that most people related to it. >> boom, there it is, platinum record. >> country music has taken over the airwaves and the record charts. >> the honeymoon's over. now we're getting down to real commerce. >> aren't these girls just crazy? >> yeah, they are. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪