Greatest (male) country artist/s of the 1980's

Greatest (male) country artist/s of the 1980's

  • Dwight Yokam

    Votes: 2 9.1%

  • Oak Ridge Boys

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Alabama

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Steve Earl

    Votes: 1 4.5%

  • George Straight

    Votes: 7 31.8%

  • Hank Williams Jr

    Votes: 7 31.8%

  • Keith Whitely

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • John Anderson

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Randy Travis

    Votes: 5 22.7%

  • Eddie Rabbit

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    22
I listen to Don Williams all the time. It’s the truth.

A lot of shit music in the 80’s country, but Garth and the revolution started at the end of that decade so it’s not all bad.
 
King George is King George ... he's so far and away ahead of anybody else regardless of the decade throughout his career that it's hard to find anybody even close to comparable. Even if you want to ding him for not being the primary song writer (which he was at least involved in the 80s), that's fine ... he still kicks everybody's ass.

As it comes to most iconic songs of the decade, you have to start with Randy Travis as "Forever and Ever Amen" is purely iconic. Honorable mention to iconic songs coming from Keith Whitley's "When You Say Nothing at All"

Hank's iconic and his high points match anybody's ... you can't have a discussion about 80s Country without Hank

Love them or hate them, the pure accomplishments of Alabama you can't ignore

Kenny Rogers is a really interesting call out because while most think he's from the 70s, the balance of his hits come from the 80s. The biggest accomplishment that I see with Kenny Rogers is he really was in my view the first country artist that really crossed over successfully to the point where you didn't think you were listening to country. "Lady" is iconic ... somebody smarter than me probably can figure this out but it reached #1 on the Country, Adult Contemporary, and Hot 100 charts ... I suspect the list of songs to reach #1 on all 3 is a short list. I'd also be willing to bet he's one of the few to do it multiple times with "Islands in the Stream" with Dolly Parton ... another purely iconic song. The duet aspect was something that few could match his success there including high charting duets with Kim Carnes and Sheila Easton. His 80s resume is definitely deep enough to be considered here.
 
Can't much argue against George Strait.

The Throbber just happens to like Randy Travis better.

And since you mentioned Sheena (not Sheila) Easton, you're welcome. brb, jo.
 
King George is King George ... he's so far and away ahead of anybody else regardless of the decade throughout his career that it's hard to find anybody even close to comparable. Even if you want to ding him for not being the primary song writer (which he was at least involved in the 80s), that's fine ... he still kicks everybody's ass.

As it comes to most iconic songs of the decade, you have to start with Randy Travis as "Forever and Ever Amen" is purely iconic. Honorable mention to iconic songs coming from Keith Whitley's "When You Say Nothing at All"

Hank's iconic and his high points match anybody's ... you can't have a discussion about 80s Country without Hank

Love them or hate them, the pure accomplishments of Alabama you can't ignore

Kenny Rogers is a really interesting call out because while most think he's from the 70s, the balance of his hits come from the 80s. The biggest accomplishment that I see with Kenny Rogers is he really was in my view the first country artist that really crossed over successfully to the point where you didn't think you were listening to country. "Lady" is iconic ... somebody smarter than me probably can figure this out but it reached #1 on the Country, Adult Contemporary, and Hot 100 charts ... I suspect the list of songs to reach #1 on all 3 is a short list. I'd also be willing to bet he's one of the few to do it multiple times with "Islands in the Stream" with Dolly Parton ... another purely iconic song. The duet aspect was something that few could match his success there including high charting duets with Kim Carnes and Sheila Easton. His 80s resume is definitely deep enough to be considered here.
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So in this exercise, I'm giving each artist one decade. Kenny is a tweener no doubt, but I think this case can be made that most of his best songs came out in the 70s.

Look at Kenny's Greatest Hits Album which was released in Sept 1980. Most of the tracks were 1979 and prior.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatest_Hits_(1980_Kenny_Rogers_album)
 
King George is King George ... he's so far and away ahead of anybody else regardless of the decade throughout his career that it's hard to find anybody even close to comparable. Even if you want to ding him for not being the primary song writer (which he was at least involved in the 80s), that's fine ... he still kicks everybody's ass.

As it comes to most iconic songs of the decade, you have to start with Randy Travis as "Forever and Ever Amen" is purely iconic. Honorable mention to iconic songs coming from Keith Whitley's "When You Say Nothing at All"

Hank's iconic and his high points match anybody's ... you can't have a discussion about 80s Country without Hank

Love them or hate them, the pure accomplishments of Alabama you can't ignore

Kenny Rogers is a really interesting call out because while most think he's from the 70s, the balance of his hits come from the 80s. The biggest accomplishment that I see with Kenny Rogers is he really was in my view the first country artist that really crossed over successfully to the point where you didn't think you were listening to country. "Lady" is iconic ... somebody smarter than me probably can figure this out but it reached #1 on the Country, Adult Contemporary, and Hot 100 charts ... I suspect the list of songs to reach #1 on all 3 is a short list. I'd also be willing to bet he's one of the few to do it multiple times with "Islands in the Stream" with Dolly Parton ... another purely iconic song. The duet aspect was something that few could match his success there including high charting duets with Kim Carnes and Sheila Easton. His 80s resume is definitely deep enough to be considered here.
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So back in the early 1980's my daddy started getting serious into cuntry music. He was a Chevy Dealer in those days and did a lot of advertising on KSON, the big FM station for cuntry in San Diego county. @RaceBannon can attest to this, but rural San Diego county is hick ad fuck and they loved them some KSON radio.

On family road trips my dad can a big case full of Reba, King George, Randy Travis, Lyle Lovett, Hank Jr, Willie, etc. Most of them did nothing for a young Yella Piss (inc King George), but I was enthralled with Hank Jr and Willie from the get go.

I came to appreciate Strait later on in life, and, again, I love his albums from the mid 1980s. But he'll never be on my cuntry Mt Rushmore of Johnny, Merle, Waylon and Willie. George had a top shelf voice but lacks the bad ass life story of the all time greats. Combine this with the lack of songwriting and pressed Wranglers, I'm just not quite there.

 
Pulitzer was neck and neck with Hearst in slimy journalism

Then he gave Columbia a bunch of money and got an award named after him

According to American Experience he found newspaper religion

Or Hearst won
 
Pulitzer was neck and neck with Hearst in slimy journalism

Then he gave Columbia a bunch of money and got an award named after him

According to American Experience he found newspaper religion

Or Hearst won
Click to expand...

tumblr_pqm177UrpW1r2lmkgo1_640.gifv

 
Merle Haggard is the greatest country singer of all tim. Willie and Cash are right there.
 
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