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wowed audiences around the world. The music's bloody good too.

Genesis/Phil Collins: I've lumped the two together, probably unfairly and I apologize to Phil. It's not that his individual work isn't strong enough to stand by its self, it's just more convenient to discuss them both together. Genesis was yet another British group to be huge in the 80's. Numerous successful albums and singles like Mama, Home by the Sea, Land of Confusion dominated the 80's charts. Lead singer and drummer to Genesis, Phil Collins, is one of my favorite musicians. His solo career is littered with hits and he really is a phenomenal musician. In the Air Tonight, Turn it Off, Easy Lover, One More Night, are just some of his hits that I grew up with through the 80's. I believe several of his songs turned up on Miami Vice as well.

Bryan Adams always had plenty of songs getting airtime in the 80's. Run to You, Cut's Like a Knife, Heaven, Straight From the Heart and Sumer of 69, to name a few.

Huey Lewis and the News were another staple with their easy listening, happy sound, getting popular air time. Power of Love, Hip to Be Square, Stuck With You, I want a New Drug, and Back in Time from the film Back to the Future.

The Police and Sting, like Genesis and Phil Collins were a great success. The quirky reggae and skiff sound of early Police numbers, combined with thought provoking lyrics was highly successful and surprisingly the band only produced five albums before Sting went on to pursue a solo career. Classic cuts include, Every Breath You Take, Walking on the Moon, Don't Stand So Close to Me.

Other big 80's acts were, Tears For Fears, ZZ Top, Poison, Guns n Roses, AC/DC, Steve Perry and Journey, White Snake, Thompson Twins, Wham and George Michael, Level 42, Quiet Riot, Beastie Boys, The Rolling Stones, Billy Idol.

As a kiwi I have to mention some Australasian Rock some of which made its way onto the international stage. Who can forget Men At Work, and their Down Under song, describing the overseas experience of so many Aussies and Kiwi's, thousands of which flock to London and Europe. Australian Crawl knocked out a few great hits, especially Reckless and Down Hearted. One band which is a personal favorite would have to be Cold Chisel. The quintessential Aussie band, they had a hard gritty working class man sound which became a frequent theme of their songs. The band was frequently troubled but some of my favorite cuts include Forever Now, the guitar work by Moss is amazing. INXS was highly successful and various hits wowed the charts. They include songs like The Devil Inside, Original Sin and the album Listening Like Thieves. New Zealand was also producing music but like many Australian bands many didn't make it outside of Australasia. Some exceptions were Split Enz, a Beatlesque at times act which included Neil and Tim Finn, Neil going on to found Crowded House who performed respectively on the international stage.One of my personal favorites was Mi Sex, whose song Blue Day went number one in Texas in the early 80's. Dave Dobbyn is still producing quality music today, but during the 80's he was mostly with the band The Dudes.

Unfortunately, I'll have missed some but these are a few of my favorites.

Sources:

http://www.d efleppard.com/band/index.html

Learn more about this author, Nathan Hook.
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