Her wanderlust had taken her to her eventual boyfriend Chuck E. Ricki Lee Jones’ self-titled debut offered the initial hint that a wandering ragamuffin with a bohemian mindset had the skill and savvy to create work with decided commercial appeal. There was great music coming from every corner of the musical landscape, though most of it was ignored by pop radio at the time. Michael Jackson was turning his Motown roots into music for the masses with Off the Wall, and artists like Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Funkadelic, Emmylou Harris and Neil Young were all exploring new sounds. Post-punk and New Wave were in full blossom with boundary-pushing albums from Talking Heads, B-52’s, Joy Division and Gang of Four. Yes, 1979 was the year of “Y.M.C.A.”īut disco was only a part of the music scene in 1979. Donna Summer had three of the Billboard top 20 songs of 1979, alongside acts like Chic, The Doobie Brothers, Gloria Gaynor and, of course, The Village People. In music, it was the year of the Disco Demolition, when Chicago shock jock Steve Dahl blew up a crate full of dance music, declaring the death of disco, but like his beloved rock, it would prove more resilient than he hoped. The snowboard was invented in 1979, as was the modern superhero movie with the release of Superman. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and the U.K. Forty years ago, America was filled with tube tops and harness boots, the Atari and the Walkman.

Joy division discografia