Kirjahaku

No period of Bob Dylan's six-decade career confounds fans more than the 1980s. The singer began the decade with Saved, the second in a trio of explicitly religious records, and a tour in which he declined to play his older songs because of concern they were anti-god. Dylan's ambivalence about the songs that made him an icon was mirrored by fans, many of whom found his post-conversion messages strident and judgmental. This made Saved his worst selling album in years and set a pattern for the next several years. Despite being a prolific time, in which the singer released seven studio albums, the decade was defined by inconsistency. Throughout the 1980s, some of his most profound work alternated with lackluster compositions and indifferent performances - sometimes on the same album. However, even as Dylan struggled artistically, all of his albums contained reminders of why he continued to be celebrated. By the end of the decade, his perseverance - both on stage and in the studio - and a spontaneous collaboration with some of his peers coalesced into his best received releases since the 1970s. Rather than closing a book, the combination of Oh Mercy and the first Traveling Wilburys record pointed to new chapters. The 1990s began a remarkable run of success that few popular artists have managed at any stage of their careers.

Out of the dozen different line-ups since Fleetwood Mac formed in 1967, there's only one incarnation that truly matters for most listeners. During their time together, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham created some of popular music's most enduring records, including 1977's Rumours. Written and recorded as multiple relationships within the band were collapsing, the landmark album became a worldwide hit that still attracts new fans. Disbanding might have been the rational response to the turmoil surrounding the making of that album, but they continued touring and recording even as tensions within the group continued to accumulate. Although Fleetwood Mac only recorded two albums together in the 1980s, four of the five members released solo albums that brought their individual contributions to the band into focus. After the group splintered in the late-1980s, it took a request from a US President to fix it, if only temporarily. The underlying tension between the band members' individual and group efforts - the truth that they worked best together but could only do so for limited periods - continues to the present day and reflects that even more so than the 1970s, the 1980s were the pivotal decade for Fleetwood Mac.

In a career full of turning points, none was as sharp as the one David Bowie experienced after his 1983 album Let's Dance. The record gave Bowie the hit that he wanted but completely altered his artistic standing in the process. Instead of an innovator who pushed rock music forward, the singer found himself a global superstar with a mass audience whose tastes he didn't understand and who reciprocated this feeling as the decade unfolded. After immersing himself in the band project Tin Machine, Bowie spent the 1990s embracing reinvention and experimentation with mixed but often fascinating results, leading to a full-fledged renaissance early in the 21st century. From there, his story only got stranger. 2013's The Next Day was a triumphant comeback after years of self-imposed silence, while 2016's Blackstar stood among his most challenging albums and became the final release of his lifetime. One constant is that the records David Bowie released during this time were ultimately the ones he chose to release using his own artistic vision. This book considers all those releases on their own merits, away from the shadow of his 1970s landmarks. Even if Bowie himself didn't always appreciate the results, every album featured songs worthy of his reputation.