Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year

by Michaelangelo Matos

A Rolling Stone-Kirkus Best Music Book of 2020

The definitive account of pop music in the mid-eighties, from Prince and Madonna to the underground hip-hop, indie rock, and club scenes

 

Everybody knows the hits of 1984 - pop music's greatest year. From "Thriller" to "Purple Rain," "Hello" to "Against All Odds," "What's Love Got to Do with It" to "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go," these iconic songs continue to dominate advertising, karaoke nights, and the soundtracks for film classics ( Boogie Nights ) and TV hits ( Stranger Things ). But the story of that thrilling, turbulent time, an era when Top 40 radio was both the leading edge of popular culture and a moral battleground, has never been told with the full detail it deserves - until now. Can't Slow Down is the definitive portrait of the exploding world of mid-eighties pop and the time it defined, from Cold War anxiety to the home-computer revolution. Big acts like Michael Jackson ( Thriller ), Prince ( Purple Rain ), Madonna ( Like a Virgin ), Bruce Springsteen ( Born in the U.S.A. ), and George Michael (Wham!'s Make It Big ) rubbed shoulders with the stars of the fermenting scenes of hip-hop, indie rock, and club music.

 

Rigorously researched, mapping the entire terrain of American pop, with crucial side trips to the UK and Jamaica, from the biz to the stars to the upstarts and beyond, Can't Slow Down is a vivid journey to the very moment when pop was remaking itself, and the culture at large - one hit at a time.

 

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History, Audiobook, Pop Culture, Politics

480 pages, Hardcover

First published December 8, 2020

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Good music doesn't have an expiration date." -- quote attributed to singer/songwriter Paul Okoye

Music journalist Matos takes on a momentous two-year period in tune-oriented show biz - from the transition of New York City's WPLJ-FM radio station to a contemporary hits format in August 1983 to the stunning dual-continent all-day Live Aid concerts in July 1985 - with his intricate work Can't Slow Down (title copped from singer/songwriter Lionel Richie's multi-platinum late '83 album, which cemented his solo career success after exiting his helm at the Commodores in 1982). Although initially a little slow-going in the opening chapters - so much so that I mildly considered throwing in the towel to 'DNF' it - the book soon picks up the tempo and chugs through the various genres competing for time on the airwaves and MTV (rock, pop, R&B/soul, hip-hop, and even a smattering of country) and the artists who seemed to be EVERYWHERE circa 1984 - such as Michael Jackson, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Tina Turner, Cyndi Lauper, and Phil Collins - alongside promising 'newbies' Madonna, Run-DMC, U2, Wham! and R.E.M. making inroads to larger U.S. audiences. As explained by author Matos, 1984 truly was the blockbuster year - sales of albums (but technically cassettes, as that format finally outsold the former for the first time) including Purple Rain, Born in the U.S.A. and the juggernaut called Thriller pushed the recording industry to have one of its best years ever, especially notable after a damaging post-disco era sales recession in 1979. Although not quite a comprehensive minute-by-minute document of the time - that would likely require a tome four or five times the length - there were plenty of good anecdotes and a sense of nostalgia flowing through the pages. (I especially liked one section where he blasted away at the often-bland and interchangeable 'corporate rock' bands, with one act thrown some caustic but - if only in my humble opinion - deserved shade.) Let me put it this way - if you can recall hearing 'Dancing in the Dark,' 'When Doves Cry,' and 'Like a Virgin' all within the same hour AND on the same radio station circa January 1985 then you will likely get a kick out of much of the content of this book.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I turned ten in 1984, so this book couldn't help but hit a lot of my pleasure points, and I rarely found it less than interesting in the moment. That pleasure is undermined, however, by Matos' inability or unwillingness to keep himself from editorializing in distractingly snarky ways by squeezing in potshots at various artists, most of whom rank among the easier targets of the era (Journey, Starship, et cetera). Given that the mission he lays out for himself at the start of the book is to offer the world's first comprehensive overview of this watershed moment from the inside, Matos' sneering asides are generally as jarring as they are unnecessary; they often indicate a cynical remove from the culture he's supposedly trying to celebrate.

[EuroHackie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brutally disappointing. For a book that proports to be about pop music in 1984, it spends an awful lot of time talking about every single genre of music (with a disproportionate amount being obscure British postpunk) for the last half of the 70s and the first half of the 80s. When a book about 1984 can only offer half a chapter on Madonna, you know you're in trouble.

I didn't care for the scattered nature of the book - endless tangents and digressions - or the author's opinions of "boomer musicians" and acts he hated (lo be unto Huey Lewis, Foreigner, Def Leppard!). That it all ends with two breathless chapters on the charity singles for Africa, followed by Live Aid (which happened in mid 1985) does not help matters.

An actual book at the actual genre of pop in the year 1984 would be fascinating to read. Unfortunately, this isn't it. If only the late, great Michael Cruz was still alive - he is one person who definitely could've given this slice of music history the treatment it deserves!!

[Hank Stuever · Rating 2 out of 5]

As someone who turned 16 in 1984, all I can say about this book is that it was more fun to live through than read about. But there's no reason this book couldn't have been more fun, more illuminating, more about the moment. It's heavy on clips research and determined to touch every aspect of popular music in 1984 (mission accomplished), but lacking in a through-line, a theory (or theories), contextual analysis, the meaning of it all. Encyclopedic, and about as exciting.

[Lydia Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Great New Book About the Year That Changed Pop
Michaelangelo Matos’ Can’t Slow Down tells music history the way it’s actually lived. This bought all the memories of my young years back to me. I still listen and love this memory. Great pictures.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's lots of great information in this look at pop music in 1984. However, it is often organized in such a scattershot fashion, it's a bit of a chore to read. For example, a chapter set at the Grammy Awards flits about as if there were some literary equivalent of ADHD. I think there's a really good case to be made for 1984 being a truly signpost year in pop music history, and this book offers plenty of exhibits. But this book doesn't effectively find a way to build this evidence (so to speak) into a coherent summation that brings this premise home. Of course, this might just be a choice made by the author, but it made the book a slight disappointment, in some respects. Still, I'm glad I read it.

[Jennifer Schultz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read if you: Want a laser focused look at one explosive year in music history.

1984 represents a pivotal moment in music history: it saw the rise of Prince, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, and many more. Pop music isn't the only thing covered--Matos also explores country, heavy metal, and rap artists. You will definitely want to make your own music playlist to listen to while (or after) reading this!

Librarians/booksellers: Your pop culture and Gen X patrons/customers will love this!

Many thanks to Hachette Books and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Dennis Holland · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was only six in 1984 but what a major year it was for me and music. Not for all the remarkable musical events, artists and stories jam packed into this— well detailed history of 1984’s significant impact on the music industry —but because in 1984 my aunt gave me my first Walkman and four albums celebrated that year for Christmas I will never forget. I didn’t care that my Walkman didn’t have a rewind button and could only fast forward because Cyndi Lauper’s ‘She’s So Unusual’, Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’, Tina Turner’s ‘Private Dancer’ and Madonna’s ‘Like A Virgin’ were awesome from start to finish and I listened to those four tapes over and over until 1986 when Madonna and Cyndi released ‘True Colors’ and ‘True Blue.’ I am just as, if not more, fascinated with 80s popular music now as I was as a six year old.

[Chris]

This was the year I started listening to pop music so it was an enjoyable light read. But the book has no focus other than the year 1984. Is it about pop music? All music? Subjects change at the drop of that hat, with some artists getting most of a chapter and others half a paragraph. And the book has no thesis other than a chronological telling of Wikipedia level facts. It seems to want to make the point that 1984 was an important year, but never really tries. And then ends with two chapters focusing on 1985. A strange and at time frustrating read, but light and breezy.

[Jay Gabler · Rating 5 out of 5]

The subtitle of Can't Slow Down reflects a reality that's become increasingly clear as the decades pass: there was something special about that year. As Matos points out, when people think about how great music was in the '80s, they're overwhelmingly thinking about the peak period from 1983 to 1985, and especially 1984. Early '80s music was anodyne, argues Matos, so boring that the entire record industry slumped. The late '80s became almost a parody of themselves, with trends that were fresh in '84 played out and watered down.

There have been other unusually great years in popular music: 1955, 1967, 1977, 1993, 2007, 2014. There was something towering about 1984, though. Consider all the absolute icons who were at their peak popularity and influence. Prince, Madonna, and Bruce Springsteen all released their signature albums that year; while Michael Jackson, David Bowie, and the Police toured behind smashes released in 1983 or late '82.

Veterans of the '70s (Hall and Oates, Genesis, Foreigner, the solo Eagles) and even '60s (Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder) were finding fresh new sounds. Angular post-punks like Talking Heads and New Order were pushing pop, while grizzly blues acts like ZZ Top and all number of hair-metal outfits were bursting out of speakers. Hip-hop hit the mainstream, and alternative rock (R.E.M., U2) was starting to do the same. Dance music was booming, with even Springsteen delving into 12" remixes (though not before fortifying himself with a 12-pack, notes Matos); while country music unapologetically (and very literally) went Vegas.

Somehow, 1984 became the year that everyone seemed to get together and push toward the mainstream...and the result was a pop music fan's dream, the likes of which we're not apt to live through again. I reviewed Can't Slow Down for The Current.

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of information - a big, rambling compendium of lots of what happened in popular music in 1984. And there was a lot - Thriller and Jackson family drama, Prince’s rise as a reaction to that; overt sexuality in music from Culture Club, Madonna, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and REM in the age of AIDs and Tipper Gore; Run DMC and the birth of rap; the popular adoption of CDs and rise of concert ticket prices; disco’s transformation into dance/club beats; vitriol and ego in bands like Black Flag and Van Halen; the proliferation of pop movie soundtracks; randomly-the Judds’ strange meteoric rise; and social justice movements like Geldof’s Do They Know It’s Christmas and We Are the World.

So, did I like it? I guess so, in the same way that it’s sort of sometimes fun to read a an encyclopedia or reference book. A bit dry - but not really boring. It just was a lot, and I can’t say that the writer ever fully advanced or offered any theories on why the year was so prodigious. What was it all in reaction to? Opportunity? Backlash? The Reagan-era duck soup of technology, artistic liberty & cash? And also, I felt it ended quite abruptly - stuff still not tied up in a bow. Missed opportunity for a better book, IMO.

(Incidentally, there’s more mentions and intriguing info in this book about Mo Ostin, who was heavily covered in the Warner Bros. book Sonic Boom I just read. He’s quite a fascinating figure and may be the Zelig of pop music - he seems to have made a lot of stuff happen.)

[Shari Suarez · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're an 80's kid like me you will absolutely love this look into the music of 1984.
According to the author, 1984 changed pop music forever. This book introduces us to all the favorite artists of the 80's and gives us great insights into their work and sometimes their personal lives.
Madonna, Sting, Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, Lionel Richie, they're all there.
I found it fascinating if a bit choppy in places.

[Sheree · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took me forever to read this—interesting information presented poorly. I kept wishing for more analysis and connection, rather than just a rote listing of minutiae.

[Pat · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the content of this book, but felt that it needed some good editing to make it more comprehensive. I thought the chapter titles almost arbitrary, and the content jumps around and frequently has no flow and no connection: you can be reading about one artist, and suddenly a sentence is thrown in that is totally unrelated and the details of the latter never revealed. Also how do you write a book about music in 1984 (the year I graduated from high school) and not mention The Cure?

Still, I learned a few things and enjoyed watching some old videos that Matos mentioned.

[Lovely Loveday · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year by Michaelangelo Matos reflects a reality that's become increasingly clear as the decades pass. A book that does not feel like a rapid-fire shooting of fact after fact, but instead a real story. If you’re a fan of Billboard’s Hot 100, you need to read Can’t Slow Down.  

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

1984 was the year I fully committed to "rock" music (really Top 40 radio, which gloriously had all types of music), so I was predisposed to find this book interesting. I wasn't prepared for how interesting it was, though. I learned a bunch of new things and thought the format of weaving the stories of dozens and dozens of artists around bigger events worked very well. It even ends (smartly) with the coda of "We Are the World" and Live Aid. I turned 13 that year and got my Sony Walkman for Christmas along with my first 5 tapes, but I bought some albums and a ton of 45s that year, while listening to WLS in Chicago as much as possible. Just more context for why I quite enjoyed dipping in and out of this book for a couple weeks.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I crammed out 372-pages of pop music in less than 48 hours of jet-lag, and it was worth every moment. I was in tenth grade in 1984, and by that point I was too snobby to be a fan of any of the music Michaelangel Matos covers in this fascinating novel (the Minutemen, Husker Du, Meat Puppets and REM notwithstanding. And, fine: Van Halen.). And yet the music was ubiquitous, perhaps more so than any other time of my life. You took it for granted. Prince. Madonna. U2. Huey Lewis. Run DMC. Phil Collins. Lionel Richie. So much music, be it good or bad, just permeated every facet of life back then. It was a fascinating, compulsively readable book, all done through Matos's secondary research, which only makes it that more impressive. Highly recommended it you like reading music books.

[Tanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick and easy read despite the length, but it felt a little too encyclopedic. I do understand the larger points about 84 (and to some extent 85) the author was trying to make, but it might have been better with a little more analysis and less "factoids."

It's weird as an old woman to realize you partied with several of the bands in chapter 12, but there it is.

[Jon Chaisson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exhaustive (but not exhausting!) overview that's a lot more inclusive musically than I'd expected, and I had to appreciate that. This is not just about the 1984 your favorite 80s-retro streaming station makes you think of with Madonna and Wham! and all the AT40 tunes you know. It covers several then-popular subgenres from the next wave of rap (there's a great bit about Run-DMC and the multiple breakdancing movies that came out that year), punk and post-punk (mentioning not just the Smiths but the Minutemen and SST Records) and more. MTV plays a strong role in the book but Matos makes sure to remind the reader they weren't the ONLY style and music influencer out there, mentioning that college and local radio also had roles as well. [There is a bit of low-hanging-fruit cheekiness here and there, especially when bands like Journey and Air Supply are mentioned, but it's always tempered with humor and often followed by pointing out such bands' strong suits as well.]

I truly enjoyed reading this and even learned a thing or two in the process! This one's a keeper in my music bio library!

[René · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was more than I bargained for. Considering the subtitle and the cover image, I thought this was going to be about pop music--like rock, R&B, and Top 40 stuff. Instead, it also touches on rap, country, heavy metal, hardcore, reggae, and world music. Some of it was justifiable given the crossover in the early/mid 80s of bands like Van Halen (who went from heavy metal/hard rock to pop) and Run D.M.C. (first rap superstars and first to combine rap with heavy metal). But when the author starts bringing in random Nigerian musicians or jerky punk/alternative rock Chicago producer Steve Albini and obscure Brit bands unheard of outside the punk and new wave audiences between 1976 and 1981 in the UK, it started to feel overly "inclusive" to the point of tedious.

Sometimes the author really stretched the timeline boundary as well, leaping ahead to 1985 and beyond so he could discuss bands that really didn't become relevant or have any hits until then. Likewise with discussing people whose careers were definitely over by 1982. I got the feeling it was just favoritism on his part, not because of any focused argument about some people being more influential after hanging it up or more representative of the future of pop and rock than others. There were a lot of performers and bands of the time who were very popular who he could've (and should've) discussed, like Howard Jones, Bryan Adams, Kool and the Gang, The Cars, or The Go-Gos, who barely get a mention. It seems weird to instead go into detail about kind of fringe figures like Henry Rollins or Husker Du in a book that leads up to the unity spirit of Band-Aid, USA for Africa, and Live Aid. Not to mention that the title comes from a Lionel Richie album.

I really think they should've rethought that subtitle.

I also don't think the author is a good storyteller. He seems like a great researcher, but this wasn't always to the reader's benefit when he got bogged down with music industry facts and figures so often. The first chapter is a disaster of too many stats to be interesting to anyone not working in that industry. He couldn't have found a good music story about some fans or some performer to draw us in with? It also ended on a really weird tangent, a kind of arrogant quote from Sting.

There were a number of dead-end tangents like this. At one point the author mentions Grace Slick deciding to retire in the mid-80s, despite having a few hits with Starship, the latest incarnation of her 60s band Jefferson Airplane (Slick is sadly quoted as saying "old people" don't belong on the rock stage). Later he mentions Van Morrison and Bonnie Raitt being dropped from their labels, insinuating their careers were totally over after heydays in the 60s and 70s. He also spends a few pages on the controversy revolving around artists refusing (or not) to play the Sun City resort in South Africa during the apartheid era, and in this section he drops some random tidbits about Paul Simon and Steven Van Zandt. If you're a child of the era (Gen X or a late Boomer) with a good memory or a lot of music knowledge, you might be able to "complete the sentence" concerning all these references. Grace Slick held the record for over a decade for being the oldest woman with a Top 10 hit (until Cher had a hit in her 50s in the late 90s). Van Morrison and Bonnie Raitt both scored comebacks in the late 80s and 90s, especially Raitt. Paul Simon released Graceland, an album featuring African musicians, which garnered him a lot of awards as well as criticism for breaking the South African boycott. And Steven Van Zandt wrote "Sun City," a protest song inspired by the whole Live Aid thing, that raised awareness about the apartheid boycott. But the author doesn't explain any of this. Which makes me wonder who he wrote the book for? Just music insiders of a certain generation or two? Does he assume a lot of this is common knowledge, even among any younger or future readers who might pick up this book?

The best factoid was that Madonna came up with the idea, main lyric, and title of Weird Al Yankovic's "Like a Virgin" parody. ("Like surgeon / cuttin' for the very first time.") It reveals she had a sense of humor about herself from the beginning that was always overshadowed by her ambition and image.

[Bargain Sleuth Book Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

For more reviews, visit www.bargain-sleuth.com.

Music really is the soundtrack to our lives. I have six older brothers and sisters who were all into music. So were my parents. I love all kinds of music, but I grew up most definitely a part of the MTV generation. I was eleven years old in 1984, so obviously, I’m the perfect demographic for Can’t Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop’s Blockbuster Year.. I received an ARC from NetGalley for my honest opinion of this book, which is released December 8, 2020 by Hachette Books.

You don’t have to be a child of the 1980’s to enjoy Can’t Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop’s Blockbuster Year. The book really isn’t just about 1984; there’s quite a good history of music-making and record and radio play of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. I worked in radio in high school and college and played all sorts of music on several different types of stations: A/C (Adult Contemporary), CHR (Contemporary Hit Rock) and AOR (Album Oriented Rock). This book covers them all and more.

The reason 1984 was such a big year for music can be whittled down to one thing: Michael Jackson’s Thriller. It was released in 1983, but most of the singles and videos and awards came in 1984. The record in all forms sold more than 23 million copies in a few short years. And Michael Jackson videos did something else: the broke the color barrier on MTV. Before Jackson, there simply weren’t any African American (the author used the term Black because that was what we said at the time) artists on the hit-making music channel.

In 1984, cassettes were the number one source of music for people in the United States and UK. And another, new format was making in-roads: the compact disc. Players sold for hundreds of dollars, and a disc could set you back $20 (as opposed to vinyl or cassette which were around $10). I had no idea CDs were that old; I thought we were early adopters when we got our first CD player in the late 1980’s.

No band or artist of 1984 was left untouched. Everything from Duran Duran’s Seven and the Ragged Tiger and Arena to Willie Nelson’s duet with Julio Iglesias, to Wynton Marsalis’ Hot House Flowers to Run D.M.C.‘s crossover success, Can’t Slow Down covers the breadth of popular music in the United States and U.K. Once in a while the author reveals his opinions on artists, which I found jarring and unnecessary. He did not like Huey Lewis & the News, whose Sports would spawn four #1 hits. He also didn’t think much of Steve Perry from Journey's voice or Wham!’s Make it Big, even though it was a top seller that year.

The author interviewed many of the artists. He seemed to like Van Halen a lot and spent a lot of time talking to “Edward.” Apparently sometime after fading from the spotlight, Eddie Van Halen wanted to make it clear he was grown up and preferred his formal name. The influence of Van Halen making heavy metal more accessible is covered in detail, as well as the spectacular exit of David Lee Roth after scoring big on the charts.

Some other bands that are covered include Def Leppard, Bon Jovi (and the fascinating fact that all the members of Bon Jovi were, from the first contract signed, considered employees of Jon Bon Jovi), Phil Collins, who was everywhere that year, to Twisted Sister, Ozzy Osbourne, Prince’s breakthrough year with Purple Rain, both the soundtrack and the movie, R.E.M., Los Lobos, Culture Club, The Go-Go’s, Madonna, ZZ Top, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen, Chicago, Don Henley & Glenn Frey’s solo success (Don Henley’s Boys of Summer has to be one of my all-time favorite songs and videos), Pat Benatar, Daryl Hall & John Oates, Lionel Richie’s monster year including performing at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, just to name a few.

It was the year of soundtracks, besides Purple Rain there was Footloose and Ghostbusters, which were mega hits. There’s even mention that Ghostbusters ripped off Huey Lewis and the News’ I Want a New Drug, and there was a lawsuit. Twenty years later, the producers admitted they’d used Lewis and the News’ record as temp music and lobbied for the band to write the theme song, which they turned down. The suit was eventually settled out of court, quietly, by the end of the year.

Nineteen eighty-four is also the year of Nikki Six of Motley Crue’s fatal car crash in which he was driving drunk and only suffered minor injuries, as well as Def Leppard’s drummer Rick Allen’s accident where he lost his left arm. The Beach Boy’s Dennis Wilson died while surfing, and the irony was not lost that he was the only Beach Boy who actually surfed.

Can’t Slow Down also talks about the more socially-conscious efforts of Band-Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas, and continued into 1985 to cover USA for Africa’s We Are the World and Live Aid in the summer of 1985, but the author discounted all the older groups, calling Live Aid’s primary legacy was “this veritable golden parachute, putting the media spotlight back on acts with nothing to contribute to the present day,” which I thought was a rather cynical take on the day.

If you’re a fan of Billboard’s Hot 100, you’d be wise to pick up Can’t Slow Down to get a look at what radio and record playing was like in the mid-1980’s. If you’re Gen-X like me, it’s a great trip down memory lane, with mentions of groups long-forgotten.

[Chris Pippin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A better subtitle for this book would be "Everything That Happened in Music in the Early 80s." It is way too long and goes into detail on such artists as Wynton Marsalis, Husker Du, and obscure bands like the Style Council.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF @ chapter 6.

There's nothing inherently wrong with this book, it's just if you don't already have an interest in the music or grew up in the era, this book is not for you. The facts and information was detailed, but it didn't really drag me in and get me excited about this world.

[Ives Phillips · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stopped at 17% because I just simply could not keep an interest in this book.

[Ernest L Sewell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year should have 50% less pages, and it may have been 100% better.

Michaelangelo Matos has no idea how to write about the greatest decade of music in a lifetime. He'd rather tell backstories from the 1970s or early 1980s about the punk and new wave movements, coupled with a dizzying and uninteresting narrative of AOR radio stations seemingly resistant to play anything new.

Arguably, the three biggest artists of the 80s were Prince, Michael Jackson, and Madonna with Springsteen pulling up a close fourth. Yet all of those have maybe a chapter's worth of mention in the whole book. Matos says his research came from archived material and it shows. He rehashes old stories we've heard about the making of Purple Rain the movie, or Jackson's Thriller. He doesn't even consider delving into the sheer mania around these two releases in 1982 (as Jackson's skyrocketing extended into 1984 before the world turned purple), or the impact of Prince or MJ crossing over.

Matos other problem is he injects his opinion and personality into the story far too often, calling bands "corporate rock" or older groups "geezers." As a journalist, he's supposed to not be the story, yet his personal opinions of some of the greatest bands of the 80s are on full display rather than the band's accomplishments on their own.

But if you're into the punk or new wave movement, then this is your book. The narrative is stunted and simultaneously overwhelmed by Matos's obsession with bands few have heard of, and lacks the sheer knowledge to put them in perspective to 1984. Few people were even remembering punk was a thing by 1984, yet to hear the author tell it, it's all that mattered. (He even missed Prince's self-monikered "punk funk" of 1980 during his Dirty Mind era; it being the most new-wave or punk thing Prince ever produced).

The book is not worth reading, at all. I skipped whole sections on the Cold War with Russia or other political items that in no way tied into the music or message by artists in 1984. How could he miss talking about Prince's "Ronnie Talk 2 Russia" or his "you're gonna have to fight your own damn war" chant at the end of "Partyup" as part of the anti-war movement in 80's rock?

It's painfully clear Matos would rather ramble on about literally anything except the sheer glory of the music of 1984. I mean, just go on Wikipedia for "1984 in Music" and look at the albums released, starting with 1984 by Van Halen on January 9, and note all the amazing albums released that year. Not even a quarter of those were mentioned in the book.

Matos also gets his facts wrong, one example being knowing the drummer for Culture Club.

Matos covers every decade of music except 1984, and that's a damn shame. Never had I been so excited to read a book and equally and utterly crestfallen by the end of it. (Imagine watching The Godfather and Brando is never on screen, or watching A Nightmare on Elm Street without Freddie.) Maybe if we asked Matos to write a book on punker G.G. Allin, he'd somehow pivot and actually write the book that the cover promises.

It makes me question whether this book was written by A.I. or by Matos himself. If this book isn't A.I. Slop, then it serves as inspiration for it.

[Wesley Hyatt · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a great concept for a book unfortunately undermined by the author's determination to shoehorn every little bit of trivia he wants to include about anything that interests him. The result is a book lacking a cohesive narrative that comes across as a random series of diversions that often start and stop abruptly. It took me months to wade through because of its clunky, chunky approach with too many tangents that should've been caught and removed by the editor. Case in point: on page 71, Joan Rivers and Boy George joke about how each other looked like other celebrities on steroids, which leads to a paragraph about steroid abuse during the year. What has this got to do with music in 1984?!

Even worse is the author's efforts to touch on pop culture outside of music, which only shows his ignorance and has plenty of mistakes. He's the only writer I know who calls the beloved Larry "Bud" Melman from David Letterman's show "the annoying old-man character" (page 142). On page 176 he groups the classic TV series M*A*S*H as one of the "shows dealing with adult sexuality in however juvenile a manner" (so wrong). On page 246, he talked about Miami Vice as a Saturday night phenomenon when it actually aired Friday nights. I could cite more, but I'll stop here.

Can't Slow Down is obviously meant to be an exhaustive review of everything major and something minor going on musically in 1984, as shown by its notes and index taking nearly 100 pages alone (nearly a fifth of the book). However, being well-sourced doesn't automatically translate into being well-written, and that's the case here. Too many names, events and quotes are thrown at the reader with typically weak transitions if any. It's overkill, especially when it comes to acts in depth that weren't among the big pop acts of the year as the book's title implies. Again, this needs an editor to cut back on the confusion and tedium.

This is a big disappointment that I don't intend to reread. Not recommended unless you really love the music of the time and are willing to put up with stories about several acts you've never heard about and don't understand why they're being included, much less what the point of it all is.

[JennieWithTheBooks☮️(◕‿◕✿) · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a way, I was one of those privileged kids back in 1984 ... in 1984, I had a cassette deck that could record straight off the radio!! My parents bought me a top of the line Panasonic boombox for my 16th birthday ... pop stars really were our royalty in 1984. 

Music historian Michaelangelo Matos’ book, doesn't just highlight one artist, nor one scene, nor one genre, but rather a moment itself ... a very long moment to be sure. As Matos readily admits in his introduction, his story frequently spills outside the boundaries of the calendar year in question, but it works. He no doubt rigorously researched the material for all 400+ pages. What the reader winds up with is a vivid picture of the very moments when pop was remaking itself, and the culture at large ... one hit at a time!!

Somehow, 1984 became the year that everyone seemed to get together and push toward the mainstream...and the result was a pop music fan's dream, the likes of which we're not apt to live through again. Can’t Slow Down is a sweeping, roundtable history, at which Duran Duran sit alongside the Judds, who sit alongside the Minutemen, who sit alongside Rubén Blades, who sits alongside Metallica … you get the picture?? It’s also a carefully researched and remarkably ambitious work that immediately takes a place on the shelf of indispensable books about music in the 1980's.

It’s become increasingly common to look back on the music of the era as the sound of bygone consensus, especially following the deaths of 1980's icons. I'm left feeling rather nostalgic tonight ... I do think a trip down "memory 🎶 music 🎶 lane" might be in store ... the kids might not be too happy with me ...

4 SOLID GOLD ⭐⭐⭐⭐ on this one!!
 

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've lived long enough to read histories of something I was intimately acquainted with. 1984 found me working for mainstream record stores - I remember the time shortly after the Motown 25th Anniversary special described in here when we received 100 copies of Thriller at 10 AM and sold out of them well before noon - and then switching to an indie store, all while I was writing for both the daily paper and my own little fanzine. Music was changing on all sorts of fronts that year, and Matos, who may be a little bit short of analytical skills, is exceptionable at combing through the primary sources (many of which I read in real time) and pulling anecdotes and data about almost all of the important players outside of jazz and classical.
This was the year Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna, Jellybean Benitez, and I all turned 26 years old, and the way I remember it, we all had roles to play. (It's not my fault if Matos didn't know about mine.) But it's not just the superstars - Matos details the rise and revolution of hip hop that year, and does a decent job drilling in on the indie rock scene - mostly the SST bands, but Black Flag, Husker Du, the Minutemen, and Meat Puppets were all remarkable in 1984. He ends the book with stories about Band-Aid, We Are the World, and Live-Aid, and sort of concludes that these charity events helped flip the switch on popular music. I don't know if it did, but there weren't nearly as many good records at the top of the charts after 1984 than during it.

[Kera’s Always Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would first like to point out that I had not yet been born in 1984, instead coming into this world a whole three years later in '87, so that would make me more of a '90s kid... But, that didn't impact the enjoyment I had while reading this.

This is a very in-depth and fun look at the impactful year of 1984 and all it brought to the world in the way of music and how that year's music has gone on to impact so much more. In this meticulously researched book (which is pretty big, by the way) we get a deep dive into everything American pop through the course of the year and how that has gone one to change the game. This year was so effectual in pop culture that we still hear echoes of it today.

This is going to put you in such an 80's pop music mood. I suggest you set yourself up with a 1984 music playlist to enjoy while you read this.

Some of my favorite highlights were the origin story of Run-D.M.C., the focus on Michael Jackson and sections about Prince, the ultimate legend!!

One thing I really liked about this book was it didn't feel like a rapid fire shooting of fact after fact after fact, but instead a real story... Matos does a great job keeping you engaged and present inside the year of 1984. This was a really enjoyable book that I will admit took me some time to get through. But it was so worth it.

[Miya A · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

So much of nostalgia is rooted in popular culture, particularly in the music that encapsulates this time. The 1980s was certainly a fascinating decade for music with a rise in new genres, the death of old ones, and of course, the rise of MTV and concurrently, some of the world's biggest superstars.

I wasn't even born in 1984 (but came along two years later, so I grew up with a lot of the music/artists mentioned in this book). I learned so much from reading this; little nuances, funny stories about performers, fast facts about who wrote and recorded what with who, etc. In that regard, this thoroughly-researched book was a lot of fun to read, especially for a music fan like myself.

At times however, this book was almost too detailed, trying to accomplish far too much. I zoned out during some parts that rambled on a bit too long. I also found that the structure, which in itself was unique and intricately planned, did lend itself often to unnecessary repetition of facts and ideas, and was a bit disorienting.

If you are into pop culture history, most definitely read this. It's overall interesting, in-depth, and even if you're even a *little* bit of a music snob, you'll appreciate Matos' acerbic wit. Having said that, be warned that it is dense and can definitely feel disorienting.