Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year

by Michaelangelo Matos

Overview

A Rolling Stone-Kirkus Best Music Book of 2020

The definitive account of pop music in the mid-eighties, from Prince and Madonna to the underground hip-hop, indie rock, and club scenes
 
Everybody knows the hits of 1984 - pop music's greatest year. From "Thriller" to "Purple Rain," "Hello" to "Against All Odds," "What's Love Got to Do with It" to "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go," these iconic songs continue to dominate advertising, karaoke nights, and the soundtracks for film classics (Boogie Nights) and TV hits (Stranger Things). But the story of that thrilling, turbulent time, an era when Top 40 radio was both the leading edge of popular culture and a moral battleground, has never been told with the full detail it deserves - until now. Can't Slow Down is the definitive portrait of the exploding world of mid-eighties pop and the time it defined, from Cold War anxiety to the home-computer revolution. Big acts like Michael Jackson (Thriller), Prince (Purple Rain), Madonna (Like a Virgin), Bruce Springsteen (Born in the U.S.A.), and George Michael (Wham!'s Make It Big) rubbed shoulders with the stars of the fermenting scenes of hip-hop, indie rock, and club music.
 
Rigorously researched, mapping the entire terrain of American pop, with crucial side trips to the UK and Jamaica, from the biz to the stars to the upstarts and beyond, Can't Slow Down is a vivid journey to the very moment when pop was remaking itself, and the culture at large - one hit at a time.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306903373
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	12/08/2020
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	99,943
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

MICHAELANGELO MATOS is the author of The Underground Is Massive: How Electronic Dance Music Conquered America (Dey Street, 2015) and Sign 'O' the Times (Bloomsbury, 2004). He contributes regularly to Mix-mag and the New Yorker and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

1 WPLJ-FM, New York City, August 7, 1983 1

2 Supreme Court, Washington, DC, January 17, 1984 15

3 Newsweek: "Britain Rocks America-Again," January 23, 1984 24

4 Sunset Strip, Hollywood, February 25, 1984 42

5 Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, February 28, 1984 63

6 Castro Theatre, San Francisco, April 24, 1984 92

7 Island Records, London, May 8, 1984 108

8 The 13th Annual International Country Music Fan Fair, Nashville, June 4-10, 1984 118

9 WPIX Channel 11, New York City, June, 29, 1984 128

10 Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri, July 6, 1984 150

11 Mann's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, July 26, 1984 168

12 Matter No. 9, Chicago, Illinois, July-August 1984 188

13 New Music Seminar, New York City, August 6-8, 1984 209

14 Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, August 12, 1984 228

15 Radio City Music Hall, New York City, September 14, 1984 244

16 Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, September 21, 1984 266

17 EMI Records, New York City, November 13, 1984 285

18 SARM Studios, London, November 25, 1984 306

19 Westwood One, Culver City, California, April 20, 1985 328

20 Wembley Stadium, London, and JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, July 13, 1985 346

Acknowledgments 373

Notes 375

Index 447

Editorial Reviews

A Rolling Stone-Kirkus Best Music Book of 2020

Pitchfork, Best Music Books of 2020

Variety, Best Music Books of 2020

Amazon, Best Books of December 2020 (Biographies & Memoir)

Chicago Review of Books, "10 Must Read Books of December (2020)"

Inside Hook, "9 Books You Should Be Reading This December"

Boston Globe, "Fall Music Books Roundup"

Forbes, "2020 Music Book Roundup"

"Imagine a time when people bought millions of CDs, pop musicians had the larger-than-life allure of movie stars, and nearly every genre, from Top 40 to hip-hop to indie, was thriving. That year was 1984, and Michaelangelo Matos' rollicking and deeply researched Can't Slow Down hurls you back to a time when pop music wasn't just thriving; it welcomed anyone and everyone to revel in its crossover dreams."—David Browne, author of Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon& Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY and the Lost Story of 1970

"Can't Slow Down reads like a "We Are the World"-style celebrity mega-single in book form. It is a delightfully jam-packed group bio that brings together characters from Morrissey to Cyndi Lauper, Michael Jackson to Sade. All jostle for their star turns in this ingeniously structured account of pop music's watershed year. Wearing a massive amount of research lightly and displaying his gift for both the industry "big picture" and the (at times hilarious) artist thumbnail sketch, Matos proves himself to be among the most entertaining and erudite chroniclers of contemporary American popular music."—Emily J. Lordi, author of The Meaning of Soul

"Through rigorous research and engaging storytelling, Michaelangelo Matos offers a comprehensive look at a breakthrough year in pop music. By giving equal weight to major and lesser-known cultural signposts, Can't Slow Down is an insightful read for even the staunchest music fan."—Marcus J. Moore, author of The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick LamarIgnited the Soul of Black America

"At last-the whole glorious saga of the 1984 pop explosion. Can't Slow Down has the full untold story of how rockers and rappers and dance-floor rebels came together to invent the future, changing how music has sounded ever since. Michaelangelo Matos tells this epic tale in all its detail-it's a definitive scholarly history, but he also turns it into a thriller and a love story, with an infectious joy that practically dances off the page. A pure delight."—Rob Sheffield, author of Dreaming theBeatles

"[A] savvy, effervescent, and definitive document of a pivotal time in pop."—Kirkus Reviews

“Pop fans with an appetite for nostalgia will find much to like.”—Library Journal

"Drawn from a wealth of archival material, including oral history transcripts, books, and magazines, Matos’ in-depth look encompasses that landmark year’s hits, stars, and trends and the cultural, social, and financial conditions that helped change the face of popular music. This robust volume provides an abundance of material here for music fans, especially those fascinated by 1980s pop culture, to savor."—Booklist

"[A] carefully researched and remarkably ambitious work that immediately takes a place on the shelf of indispensable books about music in the 1980s.”  —Slate

“[A] warm trip down musical memory lane.” —Houston Press

"The book feels like an ensemble television show, prioritizing shifting perspectives over a tightly-organized narrative. It’s informative, entertaining, and fully immersive."—Pitchfork

"Informed and witty... [with] volumes of information and perspectives even for those of us who were there."—Variety

From the Publisher

11/20/2020

With this unapologetic celebration of 1980s popular music, Matos (The Underground Is Massive) hopes to correct music journalism's lopsided tendency to examine genres in opposition to the mainstream (such as punk and indie rock) while dismissing the music of the masses. Through extensive archival research, the author argues that 1984 was a banner year for pop music both commercially and artistically as radio format changes, MTV's influence, and new technology such as the compact disc promised innovation and profits. Matos organizes his narrative through a time line of industry events, including the Grammy Awards ceremony and the Jacksons' Victory tour, that crescendos with the 1985 Live Aid telecast, an international fundraising event that is hilariously recounted here, mullets and all. Matos's strength is the zippy artist profiles of everyone from Culture Club to Van Halen that zero in on the varied facets of the pop world. VERDICT Protracted dissections of events such as the Grammys may prove tedious, but pop fans with an appetite for nostalgia will find much to like.—Amanda Westfall, Emmet O'Neal P.L., Mountain Brook, AL

Library Journal

★ 2020-10-23
A close study of the artists and economics that made 1984 a monster year for music.

The year overflowed with chart-topping talent—Bruce Springsteen, Prince, Madonna, Van Halen, and more were at or near their creative and commercial peaks—but veteran critic Matos avoids gooey rhapsodizing about big-name performers, instead honoring their musical brilliance while also exploring the market mechanics that undergirded their success. The watchword of the year was crossover, as rock radio lost listeners and MTV disrupted genre definitions. That allowed Van Halen’s “Jump” to shift the boundaries of both pop and metal, British dance acts like Duran Duran and Culture Club to gain prominence, hip-hop groups like Run-D.M.C. to elbow into the R&B and rock consciousness, and Lionel Richie to own the pop, soft-rock, and country markets. The author organizes the period around signature events, like the launch of the Jacksons’ much-hyped (and price-gouging) Victory tour, a Supreme Court ruling on home taping, the movie premiere of Prince’s Purple Rain, and the recording of the for-better-or-for-worse pioneering charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” But Matos ranges widely within those confines and writes authoritatively and entertainingly about a host of genres, whether it’s R.E.M. and Hüsker Dü presaging the 1990s alternative explosion, the rising visibility of global artists like King Sunny Adé and Rubén Blades, or country acts like the Judds angling for chart dominance. That diversification cleared a path for future corporate sponsorships and genre fragmentation, but at the time it felt like unity: Matos cheats a bit by concluding with 1985’s Live Aid concerts, but no moment better exemplified how the era’s breadth of artists captured the world’s attention. It was a big event for a good cause and a last hurrah for a singular cultural phenomenon.

A savvy, effervescent, and definitive document of a pivotal time in pop.

Kirkus Reviews

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