#music for the 80's

[eightiesfan]

Wires

[possible-streetwear]

[yodaprod]

Kate Bush signs her new album 'The Dreaming' for fans at the Virgin Megastore, Oxford Street in London, UK (1982)

[thegroovyarchives]

Whitney Houston, 1982. Photographer: Bette Marshall (via: Dionne Warwick Archive)

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson of the B-52's - 1980s Polaroids

[sheikfangirl]

Zelink Week Day 4 - Enchantment

@zelinkcommunity

"

Zelda II: A game about focus, commitment, sheer will... and love!

[metalcultbrigade]

Motörhead - Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers (EP). 22/11/1980

[partial-prints]

If you love vampires, listen up!

Do you enjoy vampires, 80’s music, a healthy dose of homoeroticism - all with a theatrical flair? Well look no further, for I submit to you Dance of the Vampires.

(More cool pictures at the very bottom)

What is it you may ask? It’s a musical about a vampire who seduces a girl and invites her to his midnight ball - an offer she simply cannot turn down. The whole thing sorta gives Phantom of the Opera vibes, but like, wayyy less creepy (despite it being a literal vampire). I will say now that yes, Tanz der Vampire (the original title of Dance of the Vampires), is in German, but there is a full recording with English subtitles on youtube, so please don’t let that prevent you from watching it. Now if you’re still reading, allow me to elaborate on the 80’s music and homoeroticism that I previously mentioned.

Let’s start with the tragic gay romance, because I’m sure that’s what you want to hear about first. While not a main part of the musical, the main vampire’s son falls in love with - gasp! - the vampire hunter’s apprentice. They dance together, and with stage magic involving a mesh screen and an actor on the other side dressed identically to the apprentice, it appears as though the vampire has no reflection in the “mirror”. Of course, the feeling is not mutual, as the apprentice is only at the castle to rescue the girl, who he is in love with.

Now, onto the 80’s music. Surely you’ve heard of the song Total Eclipse of the Heart, or the singer Meatloaf (even if it was just his role as Eddie in Rocky Horror Picture Show). Well, the man who wrote that song and a majority if not all of Meatloaf’s work, was Jim Steinman, who composed the musical. The soundtrack contains a decent amount of electric guitar, even a bit of synth at parts, and all around just sounds awesome. However, he only had about a month and a half to compose it all, so he reused some stuff he previously wrote, including a couple Meatloaf songs and Total Eclipse of the Heart, a song he originally wrote for a Nosferatu musical that ended up not getting produced. It was actually originally titled “Vampires in Love,” so what better song is there to fill the place of a big love duet between the girl and the Count?

Tanz der Vampire is my favorite musical ever. I’ve loved it ever since Count von Krolock appeared on the screen and first began to sing, and you may love it too. So I implore you. Please do yourself a favor and check it out. I’ll provide a link of a full recording with English subtitles here, but it should also be the first result on youtube when you search “tanz der vampire english subtitles.” (That production also has Drew Sarich as the Count, my personal favorite.) I should add though, do not watch the broadway production because it’s terrible.

If you’re still not sold, I’m not sure what else I could say to convince you, but hopefully you at least found this interesting and learned something new. If you want to know more about Tanz der Vampire or would like to hear about other musicals about vampires, please let me know and I can answer any questions. (If even one person watches it because of this I’ll consider this a success, and if you do watch it please let me know because it would really make my day.)

And now I’ll leave you with some pictures of Tanz der Vampire as a last resort to convince you how awesome it is and that you should watch it. (I also put in the alt text the song each picture is from for anyone interested)

*ooo the set design and costuming have hypnotized you… you want to watch it now… do it for the vampires…*

[johnny-dynamo]

Little Shop of Horrors by Ian Permana

[liminalmindcore]

[hollywoodroses]

Slash, Steven Adler, Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin of Guns N’ Roses perform at the Troubadour where they played 'Rocket Queen' for the first time on Sept. 20, 1985 in Los Angeles (photo: Marc S. Canter)

[eightiesfan]

- More - Wires

[possible-streetwear]

[yodaprod]

Duran Duran signing copies of their new video at the Video Shack in New York (1983)

[thegroovyarchives]

Images from Future Pop: Music For The Eighties by Peter L. Noble, 1983. (via: archive.org) 1. Sparks 2. Peter Gabriel 3. Sting 4. Robert Smith 5. John Foxx 6. Thomas Dolby 7. The Fixx 8. Annie Lennox 9. David Byrne 10. Robert Fripp