In the USA in 1981, nobody cared about anything anymore. Everything was dead. All the wild and tantalising hopes of disco and punk had bled out into mall-ready R&B and lukewarm skinny-tie power-pop, respectively, and the only sounds blasting out of vans or Camaros on the streets were either the dirtbag metal of Ozzy and Iron Maiden or the relentless AOR mush of REO Speedwagon and Foreigner.
It was Ronald Reagan’s fault, really. Barely a year into his tenure as president of the United States, and already his cowboy posturing and trickle-down economics had emptied everyone’s pockets and had us all convinced that the Russians were coming to blow us into smithereens any day now.
