1984 Was So Last Year

Beginning it´s creation in 1983, MCMLXXXIV [better known in it´s numerical form as 1984] was the seeming beginning of an end. For a brief run down of Van Halen´s history: the band was formed in California by the Van Halen brothers, guitarist Eddie and drummer Alex in 1972. They enlisted bassist Micheal Anthony and vocalist David Lee Roth to round out the band, and played around California till gaining a record deal. Once they acquired one, they recorded their first album in only 5 days, being released in 1978 with the incredibly original name Van Halen. The album was a major success and made Van Halen shoot to infamy. They were a new kind of hard rock, they weren't covered in makeup like Kiss and they weren't too loud to scare people away, they had a certain artistry to their music many people loved. Eddie became infamous for his guitar playing nearly immediately, the unmatched star of the band [though Roth clearly wished otherwise]. 

Van Halen had a tight work schedule, often completing great albums in two weeks [an impressive feat, especially in an era like the 1980s in which content was always needed to fuel radio and MTV, a reason why the band was so popular during this era]. This schedule started to slow down by ´82, as the band's two biggest creative forces started to have issues. The band's predecessor to 1984, 1982´s Diver Down, was an unhappy album for Eddie to make. The album consists of 5 covers such as their infamous rendition of Roy Orbison´s classic, (Oh) Pretty Woman! And Martha and the Vandella´s Dancing in the Street [also covered by artists such as The Grateful Dead, The Kinks, so on and so forth]. These were essentially Roth´s idea, and Eddie was unhappy only performing covers when the band had proved they could make great original music. 

1984 was a back to basics album for the band, a perfect fusion of their hard rock roots, Eddie´s newfound interest in synthesizers, and Roth´s theatrics. The album was a hit, the biggest of their career, producing 4 chart topping hits, and three mainstay MTV videos. The album was

proof Van Halen was never just a flash in the pan, and opened up their music to legions of fans. Controversy was a sign of making it for 80s rock and roll, the days of long hair being a sign of delinquency were of the past - now you had to work for it. In the same decade the parental advisory sticker would become a

badge of honor, lyrical content, album covers, music videos, and merchandise were all fighting for the controversial moments as well. 1984's album cover is that of a cherub smoking. If that wasn't enough, you also had songs like Panama with a now infamously sexually explicit bridge, or the goofy Hot for Teacher. What separated Van Halen even the slightest from others who were known for similarly stupid antics was the musicanship that drove the band forward. To be honest, the band would most likely be written off as one of the single most childish bands of it's day if it wasn't for having one of the best electric guitar players to ever do it at it's helm.

Eddie Van Halen was THE guitar god of his day, almost resurrecting this dying breed of instrumentalists. While good guitar players had never really disappeared from rock, they were becoming harder to find then they once had. You went from The Yardbirds spitting out two of the best guitar players of all time [and Eric Clapton] a year apart from each other to being lucky if you got one really good solo every two years. Even then, being sloppy on stage was the standard and quite frankly expected. Then boom: Eddie. You had a god who sounded great on record and somehow even better live. He was building these guitars, putting down solos that literally lit speakers on fire, and most importantly was the name on the front of the band. He was the frontman, rightfully so.

While 1984 was insanely successful, it would prove to be the last one created with the four original members. Roth would part ways with the band in hopes of starting a new band, and while no one clearly knows his reason for leaving Van Halen at their peak success, it is assumed it was once more creative differences with the rest of the band. While losing their frontman would be the end of any other band, Van Halen only got better after Roth´s exit. In 1985, Eddie was introduced to hard rock frontman Sammy Hagar of Montrose, who later went on to become Roth´s replacement. 

Many people call Hagar´s stint with the band as Van Halen´s golden period, as his voice lent perfectly to the music the band would start to make. Van Halen adapted with the times, they never got caught in a stale routine making the same music over and over. With Hagar as the frontman there was a newfound power to the band, he never tried to become the star or overshadow Eddie´s playing, two things Roth was infamous for. 

While "The Sammy Years¨ were great for Van Halen, they were short lived. In 1996, Eddie and Hagar had a disagreement that led to the band and Hagar respectfully parting ways. Hagar wanted to be a solo artist, as his years between Montrose and Van Halen to do solo work were incredibly short, and Eddie wanted to make sure that whoever was his band's singer had their whole heart in Van Halen, and only Van Halen. In the late 90s the band recruited former Extreme frontman Gary Cherone for vocals, but the result [the ill fated Van Halen III] was a major bomb by the bands standards, and Cherone left the band in 1999. 

The band would go through many one off tours and greatest hits compilation reunions, but wouldn't release a complete new album after Van Halen III. Roth and Hagar both came back into the band for tours [2002 even featuring a tour of both, dubbed the Sam and Dave tour], but Anthony left the band in 2006 due to longstanding creative differences with the Van Halen brothers, being replaced on bass by Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie´s son. 

The band would officially disband in 2020 after Eddie´s tragic death at 65 due to throat cancer. His death marked the end of Van Halen, as while he and his brother were the two constant members, he was the heart and soul of all the band was. Without Eddie, there is no Van Halen. There has been some push from Wolfgang for a tribute concert to his father, but the inner drama of Van Halen is proving to make it impossible, and Wolfgang putting an indefinite hold on the concert for the time being.

1984 is the album and the year Van Halen was on top of the world, and proved that they would never be forgotten in the pantheon of rock.