Each Friday at work someone posts a theme for music, and today it was 'music from the year of your birth'. 1983 doesn't jump out as a great year, but after some digging I decided to make a playlist because the quality and depth is pretty remarkable. David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, Genesis, Yes, Pink Floyd, and debuts from Metallica and Slayer among some pretty great punk.
The most glaring difference between now and 40 years ago is the near total absence of any hip hop. Rap came out of the wider hip hop movement that included break dancing and grafitti in New York City in the early 80s. Rappers Delight and Rapture may have been everywhere in 1980, but club promoters in Manhattan were still pushing the dregs of disco. Herbie Hancock was one of the first to bring it back to a mainstream audience with Rockit, and many great hip hop DJs cite this as their first exposure to scratching. Both Wild Style and Style Wars were released in 1983. You'll struggle to find a more honest and accurate document of the early years of hip hop cultre.
1983 might be the specific point in time that bridged 70s rock bands releasing LPs and trying to remain relevant and the digital and electronic future of new wave, electronic, and hip hop on a new technology called the CD.