The deal with vinyl is that there's a tradeoff among level, length, and bass. You can have it long, you can have it bassy, or you can have it loud...but you can't have all three, and to even get two requires a mastering engineer who truly understands vinyl.
 
You could get lots of bass from 12" dance singles because you were only about 7-8 minutes long, so you could get loud and bassy.
 

sharke
One word: Reggae. Those old reggae mixes were plenty bass heavy and pressed onto vinyl too. Reggae, Lover's Rock and Ska were huge in the UK in the late 70's and early 80's and I remember hearing the heavy bass thumping out of pubs and clubs when I was a kid.

Another word: cocaine. Drug trends have always had a huge influence on the music scene and the 80's was the decade of heavy blow abuse. I've heard more than one engineer say that 80's mixes were so brash and top heavy because everyone in the studio was coked up and all that treble sounded awesome....

Another word urine. I've saw one person relieve themself on the desk who shall remain nameless.

sharke
One word: Reggae. Those old reggae mixes were plenty bass heavy and pressed onto vinyl too. Reggae, Lover's Rock and Ska were huge in the UK in the late 70's and early 80's and I remember hearing the heavy bass thumping out of pubs and clubs when I was a kid.

Another word: cocaine. Drug trends have always had a huge influence on the music scene and the 80's was the decade of heavy blow abuse. I've heard more than one engineer say that 80's mixes were so brash and top heavy because everyone in the studio was coked up and all that treble sounded awesome....

Two more words : hip hop

Bapu was too busy posting.

I'm not an awful big fan of the 'bassiness' of some mixes today.  It hurts my ears, honestly.  Interesting thread, however, and I'd wager a guess that when I was a kid, I was listening on Walkman devices and tape decks.  No sub woofer.  

Doktor Avalanche
Another word urine. I've saw one person relieve themself on the desk who shall remain nameless.

The person or the desk? I hope it wasn't a nice desk. It sounds like it wasn't a very nice person... or perhaps just a very drunk one?

batsbrew
early albums were mastered for vinyl.
 
if you play vinyl too loud, the needle will jump out of the grooves.
...

IF the needle jumped out of the grooves, in my case, it was because the ESS Heil speakers blew out the walls in the room, that caused the needle to jump!
 
I have blown up Hawkwind, Floating Anarchy and many other super loud albums, and have NEVER EVER, in 38 years, had a needle jump because of the bass ... which would suggest ... HORRIBLE SPEAKERS in the first place. My Heil's don't even shake the floor and the bass is all on the "air".
 
I'm not sure this is right at all ... I have used the Heil's so loud, that I have had to re-cone the speakers twice in since 1978, both here in Portland at Jamac ... who still tells me not to let go of the speakers because that solid build and design is still better than half the stuff out there!
 
(Had the Pioneer PL-12D - top of the line in 1978, and a Stanton 381EEE that cost $275 at that time, and lasted 28 years! And Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream ... sounded ... better than they probably should, specially Schulze!
 But NONE, of the folks around us, even in radio, had anything as good/strong as my system was, in order to hear things that otherwise you do not hear, which was the case in PF's English pressings (American pressings were copies and had the background almost removed!!!!), as well as Beatle pressings.
 
Some of the monitors at the radio station my roomie was on, were pretty good, but I think that was because the place was setup for editing and making commercial spots, and the separation was very good, but the loudest I ever heard something in there was pretty good ... and better than the home systems. But the only time I saw a needle jump there was because the girl .... accidentally came against it .... or .....

plus there are VERY heavy bass albums released on Vinyl today - I've heard them on Vinyl... they are BASS HEAVY!
 
 

alewgro
plus there are VERY heavy bass albums released on Vinyl today - I've heard them on Vinyl... they are BASS HEAVY!
 

Easy cheat!!!!!!
 
FRY's here had a couple of folks showing off the LP's they were trying to sell at an over inflated price, and they put on Led Zep's 1 and 2 to show how strong the bass and frequencies were. I walked up to him and said ... you better take a look at your treble, mid and low settings, because you highlighted the bass, not the rest of the frequencies!
 
Half an hour later, his "audience" was down to a third.
 
The LP thing is NOT about the bass. It's about a lot more. However, I found that the speaker/bass was not the issue ... the CARTRIDGE that picked it up was! Because if it could not pick up half the stuff in the grooves, the music did not sound good, and that was the case in most stuff that sounded like AM radio ... very poooopie!
 
I have no issue with the LP thing! I'm getting rid of mine, and it's down to under 1500 LP's already (from 3K), because the weight is insane and I do not have a house for them!
 
I do not think that folks have any idea (except those at CH, because they work in these things all the time!!!!!!!), what the "fidelity" and its quality in the old days was all about, and IU was basically selling folks a cheap system for a LP, that is not better than the originals in the 70's! It's not only false advertising, it is also serious disrespect for the consumer and taking advantage of what they don't know!!!!
 

Moshkito

batsbrew
early albums were mastered for vinyl.
 
if you play vinyl too loud, the needle will jump out of the grooves.
...

IF the needle jumped out of the grooves, in my case, it was because the ESS Heil speakers blew out the walls in the room, that caused the needle to jump!
 
I have blown up Hawkwind, Floating Anarchy and many other super loud albums, and have NEVER EVER, in 38 years, had a needle jump because of the bass ... which would suggest ... HORRIBLE SPEAKERS in the first place. My Heil's don't even shake the floor and the bass is all on the "air".

i saw it happen quite frequently in the 70's..
but it was extreme.
 
and it depended on the length of the album,
really long albums tended to be the worst.
 
that said,
i think people just decided they liked the sound of more bass, in general.
which i do not necessarily agree with.