# 80s Mania! Best 100 alternative music singles from 1980s **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 9, 2015, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-mania-best-100-alternative-music-singles-from-1980s/734049 "2015-10-09T17:39:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![scoots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b77776/32.png) [@scoots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scoots)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-mania-best-100-alternative-music-singles-from-1980s/734049/21 "2015-10-09T23:17:31Z")
Fun list. And I would just mention - the new New Order album is worth a listen. It’s on spotify. ---
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-mania-best-100-alternative-music-singles-from-1980s/734049/22 "2015-10-09T23:20:29Z")
Was not Peter Murphy’s “Cuts You Up” 1990? It was number one on Billboard’s Alternative Number 1 charts. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-mania-best-100-alternative-music-singles-from-1980s/734049/23 "2015-10-09T23:34:28Z")
The single was released in 1990 but the album it’s on (“Deep”) was released in December 1989. The author calls it out as the last eligible song of the 80s. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-mania-best-100-alternative-music-singles-from-1980s/734049/24 "2015-10-10T00:36:00Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > Simple Minds is an interesting omission. I agree they deserved a spot. > > The other noticeable absence for me was Oingo Boingo. I was so keen to get to the end of the list to see how high Oingo Boingo rated. Harumph. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-mania-best-100-alternative-music-singles-from-1980s/734049/25 "2015-10-10T05:29:47Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Joy Division wasn’t even on my radar until much later. I honestly never knowingly heard a Joy Division song until the late 90s. Hell, most of friends still have no clue who they were. (I mention them specifically because they were #1 on the list.) Joy Division is on the playlist of the local supermarket. Replacements too. That will make one feel old. It’s a weird list. Muskrat Love is also on the list and a bunch of other crappy '70s songs. Then Fatboy Slim or New Order will pop up. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-mania-best-100-alternative-music-singles-from-1980s/734049/26 "2015-10-10T09:23:29Z")
Fun list although I’d define myself as a fan of 80s alternative rock but not as an obsessive one so it was plenty and a bit samey after a while. A top 30 would have been fine as far as I’m concerned. Still, it brings back fun memories - I discovered most of these bands in the early 90s. I’m glad to see **Joy Division** at the top spot. Great call on the **Siouxie and the Banshees** entry, too. I had completely forgotten about _The Mercy Seat_. Great song. I first heard it around 1991, listening to the only radio that played this sort of music at the time in Belgium (and it was only for one hour a day). I was taking a bath and was completely mesmerized by this seemingly endless, manic crescendo. Same thing, to a lesser extent, with **House of Love** and **The Church**. And as has been said before, I’d have chosen different songs for several artists: **The Sisters of Mercy** - _Marian, Alice, Some Kind of Stranger_ or _Burn_. **Suzanne Vega** - _Marlene on the Wall_. **Faith no More** - _Epic_. **The Sugarcubes** - _Hit_. **Depeche Mode** - _Shake the Disease_, _Never Let me down_ or _Behind the Wheel_. **The Cure** - _The Drowning Man_. **New Order** - _Bizarre Love Triangle_. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-mania-best-100-alternative-music-singles-from-1980s/734049/27 "2015-10-10T15:03:28Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > Joy Division is on the playlist of the local supermarket. Replacements too. That will make one feel old. > > It’s a weird list. Muskrat Love is also on the list and a bunch of other crappy '70s songs. Then Fatboy Slim or New Order will pop up. I hear stuff like that pop up in odd places, too. I heard Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds in Zaxby’s a few months ago. ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-mania-best-100-alternative-music-singles-from-1980s/734049/28 "2015-10-10T19:53:59Z")
Interesting how much of this music I still have on my shuffle, and prior to reading this list, I would have said I didn’t like '80s music all that much. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-mania-best-100-alternative-music-singles-from-1980s/734049/29 "2015-10-11T01:02:36Z")
This probably is going to sound either ignorant or arrogant but here goes… I listened to nothing but alternative all through the 80s, (KROQ for several years of it) and I haven’t even hard OF a good chunk of those songs. It seems to me that this is yet another list of trying to “out hip” others by naming the most obscure cuts. A lot of these aren’t even the best songs by the band. Given that, I find it interesting they don’t take their Ministry cut from “With Sympathy”. I know the band supposedly hated that album, and felt they were being forced into doing music they didn’t want, but that album has (for me) one of the cuts that defines the 80s - Work For Love. I guess the author is showing sympathy, as it were. He didn’t pick Cities In Dust for Siouxsie? Not Strangelove for Dep Mode? Heretic! To be fair, I agree with Bad (Live) for U2 over New Years Day, Veronica for Elvis’ song (and it should be way higher), and the top 5 are probably my choices from those bands. But, I wouldn’t put Joy Division anywhere near that high. Interesting omissions. I’m glad there was no Madness, but they probably could have replaced some of the more obscure bands. But where was (unless I missed them?) ABC, Oingo Boingo, The Fixx, Gene Loves Jezebal, General Public, The Motels, Spandau Ballet. I always filed Duran Duran under New Wave, even if I hated them at the time. 🙂 And yet, he puts Black Flag in there. That’s very generous definition of “Alternative”. They’re pure punk. Are Pet Shop Boys too pop? What about the Cars, fer cripes sake. Now they are mainstream, but when they were new they were totally new wave man (totally different head. Totally.) If his definition for Alternative is “out of the mainstream”, then David Bowie doesn’t belong (I think he does, so it’s the definition that I disagree with). ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-mania-best-100-alternative-music-singles-from-1980s/734049/30 "2015-10-11T03:27:30Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > “Running Up That Hill” was #3. It’s not in the Spotify playlist. Thank you. I’m glad to see her ranked so high! ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-mania-best-100-alternative-music-singles-from-1980s/734049/31 "2015-10-11T03:38:51Z")
Love and Rockets - “So Alive” (1989) They do acknowledge in the article that this was #3 pop single, at least. My first exposure to this was on Top 40, and while I enjoy alternative music, I spent every Sunday from around 1987-1997 listening to Casey’s Top 40 Countdown (for much of this time period the Countdown was my only top 40 listening). I associate this with the hit pop-rock of that era, since it was played with all these other huge hit songs. NOW, I still hear this song on the radio a lot, but it’s always on alternative rock stations. So I might hear it back to back with The English Beat or some of these other songs that neighbor it on this list. Also, REM always seemed pretty mainstream to me, since they were in heavy MTV rotation from the mid-80s (I guess maybe pre- mid80s they were more obscure? but they were certainly mainstream WAY before “losing my religion”) and stuff like “Stand” was on Top 40 radio before their later greater commercial break through. Midnight Oil was huge on MTV. Everyone with TV in 1987 probably saw the video. it was like seeing/hearing “Bad” by Michael Jackson or “Sweet Child of Mine” by GNR or something. A lot of the songs are like deep cuts from popular bands with bigger hits, or just earlier pre-breakthrough stuff. I do hear a lot of these songs today- more of the “1 hit” wonders than the deep cuts, though. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-mania-best-100-alternative-music-singles-from-1980s/734049/32 "2015-10-11T03:47:30Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > Joy Division is on the playlist of the local supermarket. Replacements too. That will make one feel old. Yeah, many of those artists have now slipped into more mainstream pop consciousness, that’s for certain. But I still think that for the vast majority of people, Joy Division are not exactly household names. Or I just keep running into people who don’t know them, but are familiar with New Order. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-mania-best-100-alternative-music-singles-from-1980s/734049/33 "2015-10-11T03:53:18Z")
> [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](#): > > Also, REM always seemed pretty mainstream to me, since they were in heavy MTV rotation from the mid-80s (I guess maybe pre- mid80s they were more obscure? but they were certainly mainstream WAY before “losing my religion”) and stuff like “Stand” was on Top 40 radio before their later greater commercial break through. Yeah, but so were the Cure, and they also are what I and my peers called “alternative music” at the time, and what would be played on alternative radio. REM was pretty much the quintessential alternative band that people would have heard of. Have a looksie at the Billboard [alternative chart for 1989](http://www.billboard.com/archive/charts/1989/alternative-songs), for instance. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-mania-best-100-alternative-music-singles-from-1980s/734049/34 "2015-10-11T04:57:45Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > But, I wouldn’t put Joy Division anywhere near that high. Seems to me to be the obvious pick. I was assuming it would be #1 before I started reading. > [@pulykamell](#): > > Yeah, many of those artists have now slipped into more mainstream pop consciousness, that’s for certain. But I still think that for the vast majority of people, Joy Division are not exactly household names. Or I just keep running into people who don’t know them, but are familiar with New Order. Can’t argue with that. At least here in the U.S. You know, if you’re going to have Love Will Tear Us Apart on a playlist that also has a Captain & Tennille song, shouldn’t that song have been Love Will Keep Us Together? Big miss by whoever picked the songs. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-mania-best-100-alternative-music-singles-from-1980s/734049/35 "2015-10-11T08:37:03Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > Thank you. I’m glad to see her ranked so high! Me, too but since it was not in the Spotify playlist, I forgot to mention that _Running Up That Hill_, fantastic as it is, wouldn’t be my first choice among her 80s songs. I’d probably pick the wonderfully quirky _Sat in your Lap_. _The Sensual World_, _This Woman’s Work_ and _Cloudbusting_ are three other songs that move me a lot in her output from that decade (especially the video for the latter). ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-mania-best-100-alternative-music-singles-from-1980s/734049/36 "2015-10-11T17:47:59Z")
That list, while being pretty comprehensive, is also pretty particular to that guy. There’s a lot of shit I wouldn’t have put on, and a lot of stuff that they ranked way too low (Lloyd Cole is at 91? WTF?) but props for trying. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-mania-best-100-alternative-music-singles-from-1980s/734049/37 "2015-10-12T18:47:08Z")
To have fun with some bandwagoning of better cut selections: Concrete Blonde: I’ve always felt _God is a Bullet_ to be one of their weaker songs, teenage pee-chee scribble angst. I’d pick _Still in Hollywood_ or _Happy Birthday_ as a prime 80s cut. Berlin: _Sex_ is a silly gimmick song that doesn’t show off musicianship or vocals. Go with _No More Words_, _Metro_ or _Masquerade_ Sisters of Mercy: Drop _This Corrosion_ in favor of _Marian_, _Temple of Love_, or _Lucretia_ Love and Rockets: _So Alive_ was a later breakthrough chart hit, but they were already solidly established with _No New Tale to Tell_, _Kundalini Express_. David Bowie: Only artist I’d quibble about being “alternative”. He was solidly mainstream IMO, he’d been on Dinah Shore and Johnny Carson and was a household name. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-mania-best-100-alternative-music-singles-from-1980s/734049.md?page=1)