Even if you’re old enough to remember the 1980s, you might not notice modern popular music’s visual similarities to that bygone decade. For most, in an era where licensing is now practically a prerequisite to attract viewers over listeners, they’re more covert than overt.
The ’80s actually started promisingly. Artists who’d emerged in the late 1970s (U2, Prince, The Police, B-52s, Pretenders, INXS, Waitresses, Talking Heads, Joe Jackson, XTC) made lemonade out of the lemon that had been arrhythmic disco — a fad that had hijacked syncopation from great funk bands like Kool & the Gang, Ohio Players, and Earth, Wind & Fire — but then mixed it with punk and classic rock for a New Wave style. All as many rock artists who’d started out in the 1960s (Rolling Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd, Yes, Jethro Tull, Chicago, Genesis) became clichéd shells of what they once were. The most creative, like King Crimson, Frank Zappa, Bob Dylan and David Bowie, successfully made the ’60s-to-’80s leap by keeping listeners guessing.
When mid-’80s music video came along, it put even more emphasis on listening with one’s eyes than ears. Combined with a presidential administration in which all that actually trickled down was disdain for, and defunding of, musical education and arts programs, MTV and VH1 started creative original live music on its long march to the karaoke gallows. Forty years later, from watered-down streaming country music to hip-hop and everything in between, the emphasis is on studio production, sampling, sequencing, processing, syncing, drum programming, click and backing tracks, Pro Tools, AI, and auto-tuned vocals for boy bands, female models and other influencers appearing on TV shows and YouTube.
Artists now strive for film soundtracks or video games, with stars manufactured by competitive vocal programming. Being a live performer only matters because only people with disposable incomes can afford overpriced tickets and merchandise, with most of that certainly not being recorded music. The major label recording system and radio have been further usurped by new optics, plus further insipid dance music rhythms.
For an underappreciated spoof of the Reagan-era music video biz, stream Tapeheads, the cameo-filled 1988 comedy starring John Cusack and Tim Robbins. As former James Bond theme vocalist Shirley Bassey sang on a 1997 Propellerheads hit (and video, of course), modern music is just little bits of “History Repeating.” Yet while arts organizations once again get defunded and even renamed, and tribute acts dot the region, occasional presentations still slip through the conservative South Florida cracks.
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In modern moody pop music, one of the reigning queens is clearly vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and actor Billie Eilish. And hers is a quintessentially Hollywood story. Born in Los Angeles to two actors, Patrick O’Connell and Maggie Baird, Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell first came into public consciousness in her early teens via her 2015 debut single “Ocean Eyes.” It was written and produced by her older brother Finneas O’Connell, also a singer, multi-instrumentalist and actor. Ten years later, at age 23, Eilish has become a mixed-media megastar. Despite having released only three albums, her vocals and songwriting have appeared in blockbuster films like the 2021 James Bond vehicle No Time To Die, plus Barbie two years later. As a result, she now has multiple Academy, Grammy, American Music, MTV Europe Music, MTV Video Music, Brit, and Billboard Music Awards. Born in 2001, her emotive, ethereal soprano vocal delivery includes all things modern pop — from indie to emo to goth, with lyrics touching on depression from life experiences — making Eilish a 21st-century poster child for stardom. She’s likely to perform film hits and material from When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019), Happier Than Ever (2021), and Hit Me Hard and Soft (2024).
7 p.m. Oct. 9, 11 and 12 at the Kaseya Center, 601 Biscayne Blvd., Miami (786-777-1000, $265-$1,771).
Modern country music has become mostly overproduced pop with a cowboy hat for video appeal, but an exception is Chris Stapleton. An 11-time Grammy Award winner, the 47-year-old singer, guitarist and songwriter has the pedigree. He was born in Lexington, Ky., and moved to Nashville, Tenn., in 1996 to study engineering at Vanderbilt University. But his songwriting — he’s written number-one country singles for others like George Strait, Luke Bryan and Kenny Chesney — soon proved too successful to finish school. He has more Grammys than years of experience as a solo recording artist, since his debut album Traveller wasn’t released until 2015. Like many current country stars, Stapleton leans into the popular music realm, but his collaborator choices somehow seem more legitimate than contrived. He’s performed, recorded and/or composed music with Justin Timberlake, John Mayer, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Adele, Tom Morello, Cindy Blackman Santana, and Snoop Dogg. Married to fellow singer/songwriter Morgane Hayes and still appropriately living in Music City with the couple’s five children, Stapleton could conceivably play material from throughout the short, five-album solo recording career bookended by his latest, Higher (2023).
7 p.m. Oct. 10 and 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11 at Hard Rock Live, 1 Seminole Way, Fort Lauderdale (954-797-5531, $416-$1,891).
Hip-hop seems incapable of existing without its nicknames. With NBA YoungBoy, you get the advertising of the major sport (NBA stands for National Basketball Association, btw) most favored by the genre’s followers — even as he says it stands for “Never Broke Again.” The second part of the nickname might be harder to live up to as he ages. But the Baton Rouge, La.-born artist formerly known as Kentrell DeSean Gaulden will, after all, only turn 26 years old this month. Which doesn’t mean he hasn’t had a beyond-his-years set of life experiences already. By the time his series of mixtapes led to signing with Atlantic Records and the release of his 2018 debut Until Death Call My Name, Gaulden had suffered a broken neck as a toddler and run afoul of the law in what’s become a lengthy series of arrests and legal issues, including a pardon from President Trump. He’s also entered an unofficial competition with fellow celebrity Nick Cannon, perhaps trailing him in the double-digit number of children with multiple women only because he’s almost 20 years younger. And feuds? There’s one with The Breakfast Club interviewing host Charlamagne tha God, who criticized his parenting, and with fellow rapper Kodak Black, who criticized his latest album MASA (Make America Slime Again).
7:30 p.m. Oct. 13 at the Kaseya Center ($75-$3,014).
Part hip-hop nickname; part Western weirdo, Shaboozey illustrates how far modern country music has gone to gain a more sizable audience. Thirty-year-old Collins Obinna Chibueze was born in Woodbridge, Va., to Nigerian parents, and his nickname stems from the mispronunciation of his last name. Inspired by both hip-hop videos and by his father, who’d attended college in Texas and adopted both country music listening tastes and styles of dress, the dreadlocked artist Shaboozey combined the seemingly disparate extremes. His first single in 2014 bore witness. “Jeff Gordon” featured a sparse hip-hop beat, but its namesake subject matter was the popular driver in the Deep South-approved sport of NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing). By 2018, he’d started his recording career with the debut Lady Wrangler, plus inclusion on the soundtrack to the popular film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. His 2022 follow-up, the Western-themed Cowboys Live Forever, Outlaws Never Die led to the songwriting singer and rapper’s eventful 2024. Not only did Shaboozey release his third album, Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going, but he also appeared on Beyoncé’s smash country release Cowboy Carter. His subsequent latest single is the appropriately titled “Good News.”
8 p.m. Oct. 14 at War Memorial Auditorium, 800 N.E. 8th St., Fort Lauderdale (954-828-5380, $100-$342).
Asheville, N.C., native Warren Haynes is part gospel-tinged lead vocalist, part guitar hero, and the unquestioned lynchpin of Gov’t Mule. When he and fellow guitarist Derek Trucks exited the Allman Brothers Band in 2014, the group chose to throw the towel in on a 45-year career rather than try to replace them. And there are plenty of reasons why. Haynes bridged the Allmans gap between vintage and modern by playing alongside original guitarist Dickey Betts starting in 1989, and then Trucks starting a decade later. Gov’t Mule actually sprang out of Betts’ self-titled side band, which featured both Haynes and drummer Matt Abts, in 1994. Bassist Allen Woody, who’d also been in the Allman Brothers Band, rounded out the trio until his death in 2000. Haynes founded the trio based on his love for other three-piece icons like the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream, and the group’s 1995 self-titled debut and studio follow-up Dose (1998) especially captured the improvisational elements of the Southern jam band. Now 65 years old, Haynes’ current quartet lineup is rounded out by Abts, singing keyboardist and guitarist Danny Louis (on board since 2002), and bassist Kevin Scott, who started touring with Gov’t Mule in 2022 before earning full-fledged membership the following year.
8 p.m. Oct. 15 at the Au-Rene Theatre at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. 5th Ave., Fort Lauderdale (954-462-0222, $34-$158).
The next best thing to seeing him destroy “stand your ground” shooting star George Zimmerman in the celebrity boxing match that Zimmerman backed out of a decade ago is actually witnessing a T-Pain concert. A Florida native born in Tallahassee, Faheem Rashad Najm embarked on the route toward his hip-hop alter-ego when he sat at the sound board at a local recording studio and then converted his bedroom into a recording studio with a keyboard, beat box and four-track tape machine, all by age 10. Now in his early 40s, the rapper has actually creatively turned auto-tune pitch correction from the necessity for inferior vocalists to an art form within his music. His seven albums have frequently featured the effect, overdriven to the point of giving his voice a robotic quality. Snoop Dogg, Kanye West and Li’l Wayne have since adopted similar uses of the technique, and T-Pain has earned a 2008 Grammy Award for “Best Rap Song” (“Good Life,” with West) and a 2010 Grammy for Best R&B Performance By a Duo or Group With Vocals (“Blame It,” with actor Jamie Foxx). Since starting an additional career as an actor and voice-over artist in both TV and film, T-Pain also released his latest album, On Top of the Covers (2023), on which he interprets Sam Cooke, Journey, and Black Sabbath.
8 p.m. Oct. 15 at Hard Rock Live ($158-$1,061).
Very few duos succeed by mixing and matching their personnel for touring and recording. But in that regard, The Mars Volta is in good company with the disparate likes of The Cult, Tears for Fears, and the Black Keys. Vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala and guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez formed The Mars Volta after the collapse of their previous band, At the Drive-In, in El Paso, Texas, in 2001. Bassist Eva Gardner and the guitarist’s brother, keyboardist/percussionist Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez, contributed shortly thereafter; keyboardist/saxophonist Leo Genovese and drummer Linda Philomene-Tsoungui have completed the revolving lineup since 2002 (for context, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea and guitarist John Friuscante have each recorded on multiple albums by the band). One of those was The Mars Volta’s 2003 debut De-Loused in the Comatorium, which is bookended by this year’s Lucro Sucio: Los Ojos del Vacio — which the group played in its entirety before its release while opening the Deftones’ 2025 arena tour. Known for such surprises, one of the hardest-to-define bands is clearly back in form after a lengthy hiatus between 2012 and 2022. Expect the unexpected from the duo and company, who list prog-rock and fusion influences like King Crimson, Frank Zappa, and Miles Davis.
8 p.m. Oct. 31 at The Fillmore at Jackie Gleason Theater, 1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach (305-673-7300, $68-$300).
Absolutely no one in music history has had a career like the one singing guitarist Peter Frampton is currently winding down. After being lead guitarist in Humble Pie, he embarked as a solo artist in search of stardom. A few albums later, he hadn’t caught on — until he beat the odds twice with a release that was both a double LP and a live album, both of which usually result in poorer sales (and speaking of sales, check out the Elon Musk-worthy cost of Frampton’s highest ticket price, which perhaps could come with similar expected donor perks from its financially endowed purchaser). Frampton Comes Alive (1976) caught lightning in a bottle beyond Humble Pie, the group he founded at age 18 with singer Steve Marriott in England, and Frampton’s previous five studio albums. It would be the top-selling album of 1976, a career-defining year Frampton never equaled afterward, either. In 1987, his career was boosted by working with David Bowie on his Never Let Me Down album and subsequent Glass Spiders Tour, and the ever-amiable 75-year-old has since released acoustic, blues, and instrumental albums. His retirement necessitated by the progressive muscle disorder inclusion body myositis, Frampton is certain to talk box-it out on “Show Me the Way” and “Do You Feel Like We Do.”
7 p.m. Nov. 2 at Hard Rock Live ($84-$24,428).
Singing bassist Gordon Sumner’s alter-ego Sting returns to South Florida in what’s practically becoming an annual ritual. And his 3.0 Tour, which started last year, is named for his trio with longtime guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas. The format purposely harkens back to The Police, his groundbreaking 1977-1986 trio with guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland, which mixed reggae and world music elements into a sound that’s since been widely mimicked but never matched. Sting was that trio’s primary and best songwriter, but The Police’s uniqueness was also based on his creative tension with the mercurial Copeland and the glue-like approach of the comparatively genial Summers. Sting started his solo career as a guitarist in 1985 with The Dream of the Blue Turtles, and other gems like Ten Summoner’s Tales (1993) have likewise hinged on his choice of all-star drummers (Omar Hakim and Vinnie Colaiuta, respectively). A banner 2007-2008 reunion tour with The Police hastened his Back To Bass Tour of 2011-2013 and a handful of subsequent releases, the latest of which is The Bridge (2021). Fans can expect material from the 15 solo albums, plus Police classics, from one of the world’s preeminent vocalists, songwriters and musical celebrities.
8 p.m. Nov. 7-8 at Hard Rock Live ($173-$3,950).
Perhaps seeking to live up to its logo, which is akin to the insignia of multi-instrumentalist John Paul Jones on Led Zeppelin’s self-titled fourth album, the Culture Room in Fort Lauderdale has booked a series of pleasant surprises for 2025-2026. One is the brilliant vocalist, keyboardist and producer Thomas Dolby. The London, England, native peaked as a solo artist during the 1980s via albums like The Golden Age of Wireless (and its unforgettable 1982 hit “She Blinded Me With Science”), The Flat Earth (1984, with its hit single and wild video for “Hyperactive!”) and Aliens Ate My Buick (1988), not to mention playing keyboards in David Bowie’s band at Live Aid in London’s Wembley Stadium in 1985. The 66-year-old Brit’s output has slowed since, but certainly not because of complacency. Dolby founded the Silicon Valley software company Beatnik, with its technology used in more than half a billion cellphones since, in the 1990s. He’s also been the music director for TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) Conferences, and on the faculty of the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore since 2014. He leads Peabody’s Music for New Media program, which enrolled its first students in 2018, the year he was awarded the Roland Lifetime Achievement Award.
7:30 p.m. Nov. 8 at the Culture Room, 3045 N. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale (954-564-1074, $52-$96).
Originally hailing from Missouri and having emerged out of Texas in the late 1980s, King’s X brought a new form of power to the power trio format — as in powerful, choir-like three-part vocal harmonies. And its lineup of lead vocalist/bassist Doug Pinnick, guitarist/vocalist Ty Tabor and drummer/vocalist Jerry Gaskill has remained in place since the trio’s influential 1988 debut Out of the Silent Planet. Unfortunately for the band, its influential and soulful vocals and often dark, ominous musical sophistication have consistently outshined its commercial appeal. Members of groups including Pantera, Alice in Chains, Dream Theater, Soundgarden, and Smashing Pumpkins have credited King’s X as an influence, with Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament even saying the trio invented the grunge movement. In truth, the band’s versatility (causing it to be labeled everything from metal to Christian rock) worked against gaining listeners beyond other musicians, which often made it a popular yet dangerous opening act. Ask Living Colour. King’s X opened that band’s concert at Sunrise Musical Theater in support of its third album, Faith Hope Love (1990), and stole the show. On familiar turf at the Culture Room, the trio delivered a stellar performance there in 2000 on its Please Come Home…Mr. Bulbous tour.
7:30 p.m. Nov. 13 at the Culture Room ($36-$72).
California has been the United States’ champion West Coast launching pad for creative rock music over the past 60 years, but Georgia arguably represents the East Coast. Sorry, New York. And Blackberry Smoke is one of the Peach State’s notable 21st-century products. It’s an Americana jam band like California’s Grateful Dead or Vermont’s Phish, but with a Southern twist akin to the Allman Brothers Band — part rock and folk, part blues and country. Vocalist/guitarist Charlie “Starr” Gray is its centerpiece, and his guitar heroics are matched by the strings of guitarist/vocalist Paul Jackson and guitarist/banjoist/dobroist Benji Shanks. Singing bassist Richard Turner, keyboardist Brandon Still and drummer/percussionist Kent Aberle complete a lineup that has the chart placements to legitimize its diverse reputation. Its 2015 album Holding All the Roses reached No. 1 on Billboard’s country chart; Like An Arrow (2016) topped both the country and U.K. rock charts, and Homecoming: Live in Atlanta (2019) landed atop the Americana/folk chart. You Hear Georgia (2021) debuted in that same chart position. The band overcame the 2024 death of original drummer Brit Turner and retirement of percussionist Preston Holcomb to continue touring in support of last year’s Be Right Here.
7:30 p.m. Nov. 21 at Wells Hall at the Parker Playhouse, 707 N.E. 8th St., Fort Lauderdale (954-462-0222, $41-$163).
American punk music tended to emanate mostly from New York City in the mid-1970s, but an exception was Hermosa Beach, Calif., export Black Flag, formed by lead singer Keith Morris and vocalist, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Greg Ginn in 1976. A parade of replacement vocalists and different bass players and drummers came and went during the making of early EPs like Nervous Breakdown (1979), Jealous Again (1980) and Six Pack (1981). The group has since had multiple hiatuses and even more lineup shifts, perhaps the most famous being when it was fronted by future spoken word artist, actor and TV host Henry Rollins from 1981-1986 before the band split up until a brief 2003 reunion. There were other lengthy breaks until 2013, and then until 2019, with Ginn being the only constant amid an ever-revolving door or remaining personnel. That song remains the same. Ginn reformed the band earlier this year with new recruits Max Zanelly (lead vocals), David Rodriguez (bass) and Bryce Weston (drums). Black Flag’s most recent release is What The… from 2013, but fans are likely to request material from its busy 1981-1986 stretch, which included the full-length albums Damaged, My War, Family Man, Slip It In, Loose Nut and In My Head, all of which featured Rollins on vocals.
7:30 p.m. Nov. 22 at the Culture Room ($39.80).
Perhaps Cattle Decapitation thought all the other names were taken. More likely, it was for a conceptual shock value befitting the band’s no-holds-barred metallic sound. Alternately described as death metal or grindcore (or the hybrid “deathgrind”), the San Diego group practically imploded shortly after it formed in 1996, with original members leaving after recording demos. By the time its debut album To Serve Man was released in 2002, no original members remained. But current vocalist/keyboardist Travis Ryan and guitarist Josh Elmore have been constant ever since, with guitarist Belisario Dimuzio and drummer Dave McGraw on board for 10 years or more. A band promoting vegetarianism in this loud and raucous of a context might seem oxymoronic, but Cattle Decapitation walks it as well as it talks it. Ryan and Elmore actively promote such a dietary plan, and have overseen album covers that have caused controversy. A German distribution company refused to work with the band due to the graphic cover of To Serve Man, which displayed the innards of a humanoid-looking figure. Follow-ups have included the equally graphic, visually and aurally, Humanure (2004), Karma Bloody Karma (2006), Monolith of Inhumanity (2012), Death Atlas (2019) and Terrasite (2023).
6 p.m. Nov. 26 at Revolution Live, 100 S.W. 3rd Ave., Fort Lauderdale (954-449-1025, $39-$40).
Part metal, part art rock, veteran group Queensryche seems intent on leaning toward the former before it even takes the stage at the Culture Room. Here on its Volume and Vengeance Tour, its opening act is Accept, a German heavy metal band that might blow out the doors of the intimate Fort Lauderdale venue. Queensryche is likely to match their volume with a vengeance. The progressive metal act initially emerged from Bellevue, Wash., in 1982, but only guitarist/vocalist Michael Wilton remains from its original lineup. He’s currently joined by lead singer Todd La Torre, guitarist/vocalist Mike Stone, bassist/vocalist Eddie Jackson and drummer Casey Grillo. Wilton and Jackson both go back to the band’s apex in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Its third release, Operation: Mindcrime, was a critically and commercially acclaimed concept album. And its follow-up Empire (1990) yielded a huge radio hit in the power ballad “Silent Lucidity,” plus headlining international touring and an MTV Unplugged appearance in 1992 following the conceptual live album Operation: Livecrime. After losing members as their popularity waned during the rise of grunge and alternative rock, Queensryche’s releases have included Operation: Mindcrime II (2006), The Verdict (2019) and Digital Noise Alliance (2022).
6:30 p.m. Nov. 29 at the Culture Room ($81.90).
He may have been heavy-handed as leader of the New York City-spawned the Talking Heads, but in the process, David Byrne helped craft extremely rare 1980s creativity in both the audio and visual realms. Like most ’80s acts with any staying power, the art school-educated Byrne’s former quartet emerged from the 1970s. The Talking Heads’ third album, Fear of Music (1979), brilliantly closed that decade before its fourth, Remain in Light (1980), one-upped it through its mix of pop and African elements. By the time the band starred in director Jonathan Demme’s 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense, Byrne had already collaborated with influential Talking Heads producer Brian Eno on My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981), with the duo completing its instrumental passages with found sounds ranging from political commentary to an exorcism. And while the Talking Heads carried on through the 1980s and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, Byrne had thus branched out into a multi-faceted solo career. His 10 albums since range from pop to Brazilian; opera to Afro-Cuban styles, and flank his theater, film and television scores and appearances. Anyone attending these shows can expect anything from one of the most expect-the-unexpected pop stars in music history.
8 p.m. Dec. 5-6 at The Fillmore ($108-$535).
Lead singers and lead guitarists are the band members most known for egotism, and Joe Bonamassa is both. But at age 48, the blues firebrand at least appears to have mellowed (even if the link to his website reads “Joe Bonamassa — BluesTitan”). Gone are the days when he was recording his 2000 debut A New Day Yesterday with producer Tom Dowd (excerpts of Dowd’s 2003 documentary The Language of Music show a practically unrecognizable, long-haired, understated, 20-something Bonamassa capturing tracks under the guidance of the legendary engineer, whose work included records by Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Cream, and the Allman Brothers Band). If anything, the upstate New York native has finally given blues-rock a guitar hero successor to the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, although there are stark differences. Bonamassa primarily plays Gibson Les Paul guitars, which produce cleaner tones than Vaughan’s Fender Stratocasters. And while the Texan Vaughan saluted bluesy American guitarists from Albert King to Jimi Hendrix, Bonamassa’s influences lean more toward blues-rocking Brits like Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Jimmy Page. Fans can expect tracks from Bonamassa’s 15th studio album, this year’s Breakthrough.
8 p.m. Dec. 6 at Hard Rock Live ($107-$15,247).
The most difficult thing to achieve in music is develop a signature sound. East Los Angeles-spawned band Los Lobos did just that, and more than 50 years later, the quintet still sports a musical style all its own. In fact, if they weren’t from L.A. — the city that’s produced more name popular music groups than any other — Los Lobos might not have been this overshadowed. Original members David Hidalgo (vocals, guitar) and drummer Louie Perez remain after formulating its mix of rock, Tex-Mex, zydeco, country, R&B, Americana and folk elements starting in 1973. Fifty-two years later, the quintet still includes longtime guitarist/vocalist Cesar Rojas, bassist Conrad Lozano and saxophonist/keyboardist Steve Berlin. Winners of four Grammy Awards, the group’s latest is a “Best Americana Album” nod for its latest release Native Sons (2021). Los Lobos’ slow climb toward notoriety began with its 1984 major label debut How Will the Wolf Survive? and 1987 follow-up By the Light of the Moon. Its cover of Ritchie Valens’ “La Bamba” for the 1987 biopic of the same name then thrust a band known for its signature songwriting into unexpected and even unwanted stardom. Subsequent gems like Kiko (1992), Colossal Head (1996), The Ride (2004) and Gates of Gold (2015) have solidified its legacy.
7:30 p.m. Jan. 11 at the Miniaci Performing Arts Center, 3100 Ray Ferraro Jr. Blvd., Davie (954-262-5480, $76-$210).