Rock ‘n’ roll photographer captures epic decade with new book ‘Music in the 80’s’

If you’re curious about how great the ’80s was, a book by a famous rock ‘n’ roll photographer sheds light on the epic decade that starred the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Freddie Mercury and Bette Midler.

“The past is a foreign land,” a novelist once wrote. “They do it differently there.”

That certainly applies to the decade of the 1980s.

“I think I was definitely a person who gave the ’80s a bad name until I worked on this book,” said photographer Lynn Goldsmith.

Goldsmith’s new book, Music in the 80’s, caused her to reconsider that opinion because she says the diversity that’s been going on in that decade was so powerful.

So many different genres are represented in her photos at the Morrison Gallery in SoHo.

“What you see is how many different types of music really have had a lot of popularity,” Goldsmith said.

But a lot of it wasn’t shaped so much by record companies as it was by cable TV and MTV.

“Before MTV, artists were often considered inauthentic if they had hair, makeup and styling. And MTV really changed that,” Goldsmith said.

It was an era defined by big hair and a style that can only be called larger than life, which suited a visual stylist like Goldsmith, who has worked behind the camera since she was 12.

“She wants the best of you magnified,” Patti Smith said.

Artists like Smith keep posing for Goldsmith. They are photo shoots that become a collaboration between two artists.

“It’s the feeling I get in that pivotal moment that’s holding my camera,” Goldsmith said.