In the Rock of Life series I will be recounting my music listening history throughout the years. Each year, starting with 1982, I will describe what I was listening to at the time and then pick my “Album of the Year”. Some (arbitrary) rules: the album will have been released in that year, although some could be from late in the prior year. It must be an album I actually listened to back then, not an album I discovered later. It can’t be a “greatest hits” album.
1986 was an exciting year with some great albums. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t learn about most of them until years later.
To be honest, I’m not sure how much I actually listened to music in 1986 itself. That year as a 15-year old sophomore in high school, I was heavily nerding out writing BASIC programs on my Atari 800XL, playing baseball in my last year of Senior Little League (where I made the all-star team and we were Maine State Champions) and watching the Red Sox make a run at winning the division to go to the World Series1.
In August of 1986, Bon Jovi released Slippery When Wet, their 3rd album. I think it’s important to recognize how different it was when new albums came out back then. Today, there are months of hype and single releases before an album is released. This is to try and juice those streaming numbers in the first week. But back then an album would often be released before its first single was, or in the case of Slippery When Wet just a few short weeks after the single.
In many ways, Slippery When Wet was the perfect summer album with its infectious first single You Give Love a Bad Name. Albums would take time to build up momentum and would rarely debut at #1 on the charts, as often happens today. And if you think about it, that makes some sense. There was no streaming, of course, because there was no internet. To hear a song, you heard it on the radio, MTV or you bought the album. A cassette would cost around $10, which today is about $28 today. I didn’t have a part-time job back then, but if I did it would have paid about $3.50 an hour.
So it would be about 3 hours of work for me to be able to buy an album. Just one album! Today, for $10 I can get a subscription to Apple Music and listen to as many albums as I want! A 15-year old today makes about $13/hour at a minimum (in Maine)2.
Needless to say, I always carefully considered what albums I purchased. As this was Bon Jovi’s 3rd album, you would think I had heard of them before, but I had not. Probably because they didn’t have any real hit singles from their prior two albums.
To get a lot of albums kids would sing up for Columbia House where you would get a something like 10 (older) cassettes for a penny if you agreed to buy several more over the coming year.
I seem to recall getting Slippery When Wet later in the year (on cassette, of course). In fact, it was actually the best-selling album of 1987 (not 1986) due to its slow buildup and subsequent singles.
Another album I did buy and liked a lot was Night Songs by Cinderella. This was their debut album and I really liked the singer’s gravelly voice, sounding a lot like Brian Johnson of AC/DC.
Other notable albums that came out in 1986 include what is now easily my favorite album of that year: Master of Puppets by Metallica. But in 1986 I was not listening to Metallica. I at least knew of them as they were a popular t-shirt in high school, but until hearing and seeing One on MTV in 1988, I knew nothing of them.
Other albums from 1986 include:
Mechanical Resonance by Tesla: I saw Tesla open for a Def Leppard concert in 1987 and it was the first I’d heard of them.
Turbo by Judas Priest: I was not a Priest fan then. Turbo is probably one of their least-favorite albums, but I love it now.
Look What the Cat Dragged In by Poison: Although this was released in 1986, it was an incredibly slow burn and did not become popular until 1987.
5150 by Van Halen: The first album post-David Lee Roth had a lot of radio airplay.
A Kind of Magic by Queen: I didn’t get into Queen until a couple years later, although I do recall hearing One Vision on the radio from time to time.
With all this, my album pick for 1986 is clearly Slippery When Wet. Looking back at it now, I don’t consider it a particularly good album. I do love You Give Love a Bad Name and Livin’ on a Prayer, but I don’t care for Wanted Dead or a Alive. Although Raise Your Hands and I’d Die for You are both good, I find the rest of the album is boring filler. Today I’d say my favorite Bon Jovi album is 7800 Fahrenheit.
The Rock of Life list so far:
1986: Slippery When Wet by Bon Jovi
We don’t talk about what happened in that World Series.
So buying music is cheaper today, but certainly not other more important things such as groceries or housing.
As someone who runs an indie tape label, it's maddening that we're selling cassettes for $10 almost forty years later. Would love to trot out a $28 cassette 😂
Interesting. I must have taken a detour around 1980, but by 1986 I was completely immersed in New Wave, so I missed all of the mainstream rock at the time. I started getting caught up many years later. I'm a bit older, so it's interesting to get your perspective.