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The 1980s were truly one of a kind, and these wild music superstars prove it! Join us as we count down our picks for the most outrageous musicians of the decade, from boundary-pushing icons to full-on shock rock legends who left audiences completely speechless!
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today, we're looking at 10 wild and truly outrageous music superstars
00:06who proved that the 1980s were a uniquely crazy time in history.
00:17Sieg Sieg Sputnik.
00:24When it comes to bands who deliberately courted controversy in the 1980s,
00:29a mention must be given to Sieg Sieg Sputnik.
00:32Fronted by Martin Degville and masterminded by former Generation X bassist Tony James,
00:37they combined futuristic punk, glam aesthetics, heavy makeup, huge hair,
00:42and deliberately artificial imagery with an aggressively commercial philosophy.
00:53They openly sold advertisements to corporations between the songs on their debut album,
00:58making commercialism into a weirdly avant-garde art form.
01:02Their live shows were notorious for turning this side of their image up to 11,
01:07making it a unique experience for those who attended.
01:10They were confrontational on almost every level,
01:13but they also did it in a way that immediately stood out within the glamour and excess of the decade
01:19in question.
01:19What we need is designer of finance.
01:27Rick James.
01:28She likes the boys in the band.
01:32She says that I'm her all-time favorite.
01:35Take the ridiculous excess of 80s rock stars and transplant it into funk,
01:40and you'll probably end up with something close to Rick James.
01:43At the peak of his powers, he had the look, the bravado,
01:47and enormous confidence necessary to make him one of the most magnetic stars of the era.
01:59The problem was, James also had tremendous problems with substance abuse,
02:04ones that ran hand-in-hand with the persona he presented to the world.
02:15In later interviews, he would confess that he was spending somewhere in the region of $7,000 per week on
02:21his habit.
02:21He wasn't trying to toe the line or present himself as respectable.
02:25The character that came with this super-freak era was very much the real Rick James.
02:31She's a super-freak, super-freak, she's super-freaking now!
02:36In the end, his health suffered greatly, but his infamy was set in stone.
02:42Dead or Alive, Pete Burns.
02:51Before You Spin Me Round Like a Record became a number one hit,
02:54Pete Burns had already developed an unmistakable look involving heavy makeup,
02:59dramatic hair, androgynous styling, and flamboyant clothing.
03:02Although Burns would claim that Boy George stole his look,
03:06the comparisons were a constant during their early years.
03:15What was crazy about his explosion in fame was how Burns and Dead or Alive
03:20went from an act firmly rooted in the underground
03:23to topping the charts and performing on national TV.
03:26What made Burns such an outrageous star came down to his knack for being a visual provocateur.
03:39The outfits always stood out, and Burns made no effort to downplay the suggestive themes
03:44of his lyrics, and performances as Dead or Alive grew in popularity.
03:48To this day, he is considered a hugely influential force in Britain's mid-80s pop explosion.
03:56Klaus Nomi
04:04Within five seconds of watching a Klaus Nomi performance,
04:08it's easy to understand just how incredibly different and otherworldly he was as an entertainer.
04:13A German-born countertenor with a surprising vocal range,
04:17Nomi looked less like a musician and more like an alien who had stumbled onto the New York music scene.
04:28He notably performed with David Bowie on Saturday Night Live, giving his career a major boost in 1979.
04:34But it was in the 1980s when we had an all-too-brief look at this unique talent.
04:40Nomi frequently encountered bewilderment from those who witnessed him do his thing,
04:44but he also had a way of winning many of them over before he was through.
04:49Sadly, Nomi would pass away in 1983 due to complications from AIDS.
04:54He was one of the earliest well-known artists who died from the illness,
04:59never fully reaching his potential as a creative force.
05:07Billy Idol
05:13Making his start in the British punk scene of the late 1970s with his band Generation X,
05:19Billy Idol always seemed to have a knack for crafting radio-ready hits that still retained their edge.
05:24When he eventually went solo, it was the perfect storm.
05:27His skill lay in turning the sneering attitude of British punk into an unusually marketable version of MTV-era bad
05:34boy rock.
05:39His spiky blonde hair, sneer, leather, lip curl, and risque videos transformed him into one of the most recognizable faces
05:47of early 80s rock.
05:49It wasn't entirely for show either.
05:51Idol had built up a pretty heavy substance abuse problem during this time and found himself in trouble with the
05:56law on more than one occasion.
05:58He was able to strike a balance between mainstream acceptance and a certain edginess that still made him a rebellious
06:04figure.
06:05Thankfully, he did eventually start to kick his addictions in the 1990s, before they could entirely consume him.
06:11Leave it all the lies. Keep your dream alive.
06:18Grace Jones
06:24Few artists of the 1980s took their performance art to such an intense visual place as the iconic Grace Jones.
06:31Her flat-top hairstyle, highly angular makeup, and androgynous physical presentation challenged a wide range of conventional ideas.
06:40In other words, she was a boundary pusher in the purest sense.
06:44Love is controlled by the hope on me.
06:48Her music was widely acclaimed, too, for its ability to challenge what was considered acceptable in mainstream pop.
06:55Several of her biggest hits were banned for their lewd content, which, of course, only served to increase their notoriety.
07:02There were not many musicians who were able to make powerful statements about fashion, sexuality, race, gender, and performance art
07:09all in one package.
07:11Jones basically cultivated her entire image and visual language by refusing to fall neatly into anyone's predetermined category.
07:19Strange
07:21I've seen that face before
07:24Adam Ant
07:25The elaborate costume and pirate-inspired imagery are, of course, the first thing you notice when it comes to new
07:36wave icon Adam Ant.
07:38He made his breakthrough as the leader of the band Adam and the Ants, scoring a number of top ten
07:43hits in the UK and abroad.
07:52He then launched a successful solo career in 1982, with a few early chart successes.
07:58His love of theatrics made him a memorable live act, one who was not afraid to flip the script on
08:03those in attendance.
08:09When playing at the theatre Royal Drury Lane, Ant reportedly instructed roadies to sprinkle lavender water over every seat, deliberately
08:17recreating an 18th-century custom.
08:19He also arrived at a New York performance by sailing up the Hudson on a replica 18th-century sailboat.
08:25He wasn't rebelling by acting aggressive or unruly.
08:28He was making his eccentric nature the center point of his visual presentation.
08:32Adam Ant was an oddity in the 1980s, but most would now agree that was, very clearly, ahead of his
08:39time.
08:46Nina Hagen
08:54Painting down the style of Nina Hagen is quite difficult, even all these years later.
08:59She melded influences from punk, reggae, horror, cabaret, opera, and more to build something that was truly fresh.
09:07Known as the godmother of German punk, Hagen did eventually manage to rid herself of the substances that were shadowing
09:14so many of her contemporaries.
09:22Her live shows were notoriously chaotic by design, and her media appearances frequently left talk show hosts, journalists, and audience
09:34members utterly shocked.
09:35Hagen was indeed provocative, but she was rebelling against the idea that she should be suppressing any part of herself.
09:43By the mid-80s, her reputation as one of music's great eccentrics was set in stone, and people genuinely had
09:50no idea, at any given time, what she was about to say or do next.
10:08As a force of pure artistic destruction at the height of her fame, Wendy O. Williams occupies a very special
10:15and quite tragic place in music history.
10:18As frontwoman of the plasmatics, she became notorious for performances involving chainsaws, sledgehammers, smashed televisions, and other spectacular acts of
10:28destruction.
10:34This earned her the well-deserved title of the Queen of Shock Rock.
10:38She was constantly butting heads with the law due to the nature of her live shows, crossing lines with a
10:44very casual attitude.
10:45Williams was obscene, over-the-top, and courted controversy as few others did.
10:51Unfortunately, she burned out as the 1990s began, retiring from the music industry due to what others have claimed was
10:58disillusionment.
10:59She would tragically take her own life in 1998, after a long battle with depression.
11:11Boy George
11:18In some parallel universe, the style and overall aesthetic of Boy George and Culture Club would have remained confined to
11:25the underground in the late 70s and 80s.
11:27However, fate had other plans for George, and his band's breakout single, Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?, became
11:33a major mainstream hit.
11:34Do you really want to make me cry?
11:43He subsequently went on to appear on television in elaborate makeup, braids, dresses, and deliberately gender-ambiguous clothing, while becoming
11:50one of Britain's biggest stars.
11:52Parents were alarmed by his image, while young people were hugely receptive.
11:57Boy George became a boundary-pushing superstar, challenging cultural norms and perceptions about gender and sexuality.
12:04I would give everything I own, give up my life.
12:11Unfortunately, personal demons and addictions would leave him with some major legal and personal scandals in the second half of
12:18the decade.
12:19Thankfully, he did survive these turbulent years, and more recently, kicked his habits.
12:25That said, he remains one of the most important figures in 1980s pop, one who influenced countless artists who would
12:32eventually follow.
12:34But who do you think was the craziest music star of the 1980s?
12:39Let us know in the comments down below.