Talk:1980 in music

Distinction between this article and the corresponding category
I just spent some time trying to improve this article, but I think it needs a lot more work. The biggest and most useful change would be to turn the article into a narrative about the year 1980 in music; if it remains simply a bunch of lists, or links to lists, the equivalent category (Category:1980 in music) is better organized and almost always more up-to-date.

Maybe a small step towards improving such articles would be to have a few paragraphs at the beginning that highlight the big events of the year. 67.100.128.67 20:29, 5 October 2007 (UTC).

Rationale for what year singles are placed in
While looking at several of these "(YEAR) in music" Wikis, I notice the same tunes turn up in several years. For instance, The Pretenders cover of The Kinks "Stop Your Sobbing" appears both in this list and in 1979 in music.

Does Wikipedia consider the single "released" when it is first made commercially available?

When it reaches its chart peak (if it charts)?

Or do they say that it is "released" in every year that it continues to chart...in other words, a song released in December 1979 would appear both in 1979 and in 1980 if it charts in 1980.

Just looking for some clarity on this.... GBrady (talk) 14:01, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Should this article be reformatted?
After having looked at the articles for "year" in music, as well as articles for "year" in R&B, "year" in country, etc. I am thinking that the article simply saying "year" in music as far as recorded music goes should include the top 5-10 "pop" hits of the year with a link to more descriptive article including all the Top 10 hits, "notable" recordings, etc. as well as sections for top 5-10 R&B hits and link to full article, etc. As it stands, these articles seem to assert that "pop" is the only music that matters in a given year but adding all the content from the articles focused on other genres of music within that given year will make the article unwieldy and overlong. Does anyone else feel that the articles simply saying (year) in music should be a general overview of the very top hits of the respective genres with spinoff articles detailing the individual genres in depth? Discuss... GBrady (talk) 21:15, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Other significant singles=WAAAY too long
This section is HUGE. Perhaps the best way to handle this is leave the other significant singles be POP singles...since it's the predominant format...and then have links for "important" punk/heavy metal/new wave etc. music articles for the particular year. I can't imagine most people are coming here looking for what The Slits recorded that year for example. GBrady (talk) 17:47, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

How did the lead section get down there ?! It was supposed to be up with the globalize template is. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1006:B101:66AD:8DB2:AD47:6D80:224 (talk) 10:36, 22 August 2013 (UTC)

made some adjustments.
I've made some adjustments to the first section, because the lead is all the way down by events. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1006:B125:839F:F8A9:6612:83B8:24C1 (talk) 17:48, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

Edited the details surrounding John Lennon's Death
The previous entry seemed to focus more on the events surrounding Mark David Chapman, who has nothing to do with music, outside of murdering John Lennon. The focus of this historical tragic event should be Lennon himself. Personally, I don't even think the name of his assassin should be mentioned because 1) It is inconsequential for this timeline; Lennon was murdered, the world lost a musical hero; That's the story. 2) I do not believe this man should be given more recognition for his actions, especially since he has nothing to do with music. — Preceding unsigned comment added by JTCBlues (talk • contribs) 15:56, 24 April 2014 (UTC)

Other significant singles
I've removed this section for the following reasons;


 * What is the criteria for a "significant" single? Apparently there is none, other than in the contributing editor's view.  So it's all personal opinion.
 * What is the point to this list? Hundreds of singles were released and charted during 1980.  Do list them all?  Where's the line drawn?
 * The list was massive. Are we seriously expecting anyone to read through it,  especially without any explanation about why the reader should consider them significant?
 * The list was universally English language singles that charted in the US or UK. So there were no others in any other country?  Do we find room for them too?

The section was simply uncontrollable listcruft. Unless someone can suggest a verifiable, sensible and factual basis for defining "significant" ? -- Escape Orbit (Talk) 19:37, 24 July 2014 (UTC)
 * I note that this section has been re-inserted, without explanation. Unless someone addresses the above points I will remove it. -- Escape Orbit  (Talk) 17:02, 28 July 2014 (UTC)
 * I've gone ahead an done this. I also note that this issue was first raised on the talk page a year ago.  Happy to discuss. -- Escape Orbit  (Talk) 17:18, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

Births Section
Does the Births section really belong in this article? The article states that is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1980. While the people born in 1980 may have gone on to great significance in later years, I would suggest that their notability and relevance to music in the year 1980 is zero. None of them recorded anything, or released anything, or toured, or performed, or sang, or were professionally active throughout the entire year. They were all totally unknown, both within the music industry and general public.

I believe the reader has an expectation to read in this article something of what happened in music in 1980. Babies getting born isn't something happening in music. This article is not List of musicians born in 1980. Can it be removed? -- Escape Orbit (Talk) 21:36, 30 March 2015 (UTC)


 * I think you will find this is a standard section in all of the "[year] in music" lists (they are none of them properly articles). Removing the section from just this one will inevitably result in someone replacing it. If you feel strongly that these birth lists should be broken out into lists of their own, you should try to find a more global forum on which to propose it, perhaps on one of the project pages linked at the head of this page.—Jerome Kohl (talk) 01:53, 31 March 2015 (UTC)


 * I wouldn't argue for any list articles like this. I believe them to be invariably patchy, mostly pointless and very little use to the reader.  Categories do a far better job of that kind of thing.  But that's another issue. What's more pressing is that, for instance, the birth of Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys has nothing to do with the music of 1980.  I may take it up at project level. -- Escape Orbit  (Talk) 16:34, 31 March 2015 (UTC)
 * I feel much the same about these list articles (patchy, pointless, etc.). When you bring this up at project level, you might consider starting a discussion about setting some standards for what belongs in the chronology of Events in such list/articles. On the same grounds you raise (about births having nothing to do with music in the year in question), I find reports of marriages, divorces, arrests, assaults, automobile accidents, and so on entirely off-topic, unless of course they were accompanied by significant musical performances.—Jerome Kohl (talk) 18:07, 31 March 2015 (UTC)

Disco in 1980
Here is the source: []

Various pressings have indicated songs which appeared on the weekly top ten have been noted as disco in one form or another (i.e. soul-disco, reggae-disco, rock-disco). If you look at the weekly charts of February 22nd, 1975 and December 27th, 1980, you will clearly see that no disco hits (or its relatives) were present in the Billboard Hot 100 top ten of both charts. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tennlumni01 (talk • contribs) 16:45, 21 February 2016 (UTC)
 * This source says nothing about "Disco music genre's five year weekly top ten streak ending". It also says nothing about disco being in the chart every week since February 22nd, 1975.
 * All this appears to be is the source of the data for your own original research, where you have looked at all the charts over this period. Wikipedia does not publish original research.  If you want the article to say something about disco's five-year streak, you need a source that has already been published that says this. -- Escape Orbit  (Talk) 17:16, 21 February 2016 (UTC)

I've now removed this unsourced, originally researched, trivia on the above basis. Please respond before restoring again to the article. Thanks. -- Escape Orbit (Talk) 17:21, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

Albums
I'm not sure how to edit it. Can someone add "Power" by the Temptations to April 18? I wasn't able to edit it properly. Josh (talk) 22:38, 21 November 2020 (UTC)