# Most Eighties-ish Eighties Song **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 13, 2006, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210 "2006-03-13T18:52:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2006, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210/41 "2006-03-13T23:41:05Z")
Oh, and my silly quibbling aside, the songs that screamed 80s for me, I have to break into the roughly 3 segments of 80s music. Early 80s synthpop: **After The Fire** _Der Komissar_, **Men Without Hats** _Safety Dance_ **Kim Wilde** _Kids in America_. Early-mid 80s American Underground: **R.E.M.** _Radio Free Europe_, **The Replacements** _Bastards of Young_, **The Plimsouls** _Million Miles Away_ Mid-late 80s hair metal: **Motley Crue** _Looks That Kill_, **Poison** _Every Rose Has It’s Thorn_ (God, I want to barf just typing that), **Guns n Roses** **Sweet Child O Mine** ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210/42 "2006-03-14T00:33:01Z")
Some great nominations. Many of my picks have already been mentioned, but there are a few others that spring to mind. Whenever i think of the 80s, **Foreigner** is always there somewhere, probably _Waiting for a Girl Like You_, but maybe also _I Want to Know What Love Is_. Early 80s makes me think of **REO Speedwagon** and _Keep on Loving You_. **Laura Branigan** ’s _Gloria_ usually makes the list, as does _Mickey_ by Toni Basil. **Cheap Trick** ’s classic _If You Want My Love_ is one of my favorites. One of my favorite songs of 1982 was _Believe it or Not_, the theme song for the _Greatest American Hero_ TV show, performed by **Joey Scarbury**. Growing up in Australia, i got to hear most of the American and British stuff that came out in the 80s, but was also exposed to some local Aussie stuff, some of which made made the international scene, and some of which didn’t. It’s not really standard 80s one-hit-wonder type stuff, but the music of **INXS** will always be indelibly associated with the decade for me, especially the album _The Swing_, with hits like _I Send a Message_ and _Burn for You_. Australia even had its own power ballads, with the best-known probably being _What About Me_, by **Moving Pictures** , from 1982. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210/43 "2006-03-14T00:45:21Z")
The opening to “The Breakfast Club:” Simple Minds “(Don’t You) Forget About Me.” Quintessential 80’s movie. Quintessential 80’s song. ---
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210/44 "2006-03-14T01:08:35Z")
_Heartbeat_ by **Don Johnson**. Soulless, marginal talent, synth and drum machine, plus the whole _Miami Vice_ pastel T-shirt rolled-up-jacket-sleeves thing. I’d also happily throw a vote to _Take On Me_. Wait, no one has mentioned **Madonna** yet? _Like a Virgin_, people! ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210/45 "2006-03-14T01:14:43Z")
i think we need to throw simple minds out of this discussion. either it’s too obvious, or it’s a damned ringer. to have the quintessential song from the quintessential 0s movie just seems too…tidy of an answer. now, my list gooooooes…(drumroll) maneater (i DEFY you to get that out of your head) she blinded me with science take on me honorable mentions to any michael jackson song. the songs, coupled with the videos, are iconic and such an anchor to those times past. i didn’t mention michael in the top three because i still love all that crap…even his new crap. now, if you want to throw “party all the time” in there along with “somebody’s watching me”, then please, have at it. …was “superfreak” in the 80s? i was born in '81. …(hears the “you just made me feel very old” groan) ---
**Author:** ![Ghanima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210/46 "2006-03-14T01:20:09Z")
Reading this thread makes me want to put on my hot pink jelly shoes, bust out the shoulder pads and stirrup pants, put on some blue mascara and crimp my hair. And snort a big line of coke. Who’s with me? ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210/47 "2006-03-14T01:40:43Z")
> [@Ghanima](#): > > Reading this thread makes me want to put on my hot pink jelly shoes, bust out the shoulder pads and stirrup pants, put on some blue mascara and crimp my hair. And snort a big line of coke. Who’s with me? Let’s trade some junk bonds! How about Video Killed the Radio Star? ---
**Author:** ![marymargaret](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@marymargaret](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marymargaret)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210/48 "2006-03-14T01:55:10Z")
**Love Song** by the Cure \*\*Relax \*\* by Frankie Goes to Hollywood \*\*Love is a Battlefield \*\* by Pat Benatar ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210/49 "2006-03-14T02:01:50Z")
> [@Manduck](#): > > Let’s trade some junk bonds! > How about Video Killed the Radio Star? VKtRS Kicked off the 80’s along with a lot of other really cool music from 1979. If you didn’t get punched or called a fag by a redneck or a rocker over something you wore then you weren’t really part of the 80s. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210/50 "2006-03-14T02:15:22Z")
Rock, schmock. Gimme some early east coast hip-hop, kid. “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugar Hill Gang, followed somewhat closely by “My Adidas” by Run DMC for its seminal use of shoe product placement. On the west coast side of things, “Bust a Move” by Young MC and NWA’s “Straight Out of Compton.” Yeah, boyeeee. I’m going old school on my MP3 player tonight. If you never caught beef with some fool trying to beat you up over your skinny tie, ruffled shirt, athletic shoes, jheri curl activator and leather jackets, you weren’t really into 80s hip hop. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210/51 "2006-03-14T04:04:12Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > I think the question has now been definitively answered. Snyth-pop? Check. Soul-less? Check. Movie tie in? Check. MTV-ready? Check. Goofy clothes and hair? Check. Another essential quality: a sort of dreamy sound that’s hard to describe. That’s why I left off Haysi Fatayzee’s _Shiny Shiny_ or anything by Devo; they’ve got the other qualities, but they’re a little bit too fun. Same thing with old-school rap; it’s too damn fun. Most Dire Straits song have a dreamy quality, but not much 80s-style fun. _Rio_ by Duran Duran and _Atomic_ by Blondie have it. _Just Like Heaven_ by the Cure has extreme dreaminess at the beginning of the song; their song _Love Cats_ has almost no dreaminess. ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Bongo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a9adbd/32.png) [@Winston\_Bongo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Bongo)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210/52 "2006-03-14T04:07:32Z")
For me it’s a tie between “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears and Huey Lewis’ “Power of Love.” The latter benefits from the _Back to the Future_ connection. The former I can’t really explain, except that it just sounds so thoroughly “eighties-ish” that hearing it is like undergoing a three-minute time warp back to 1984. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210/53 "2006-03-14T04:19:36Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > I’m amazed, considering this is an American board, by how many Brits there are in this list. Duran Duran, Flock of Seagulls, Soft Cell, Eurythmics, Culture Club, Dead or Alive, Billy Idol, Adam and the Ants, Human League, Men Without Hats, Simple Minds (well, they’re Northern Irish). > > We truly were the cheese of the century. > > For me, it’s got to be Duran Duran’s _Rio_. I’d choose Adam and the Ants but they were just too good, and IMO stand the test of time. MTV started in 1981 and rolled out nationally in 1982 and hit real big when they started playing Michael Jackson non-stop in 1983. But about 90% of the songs they played in those early years were exactly those British new wavish bands that started making videos in numbers way before the Americans did. MTV was Britain in America for the early 80s. And those songs were perfect for music videos; great bouncy hummable pop with hooks that clawed into your mind. It was the last great era of pop music, IMO. To go with ones you already named, how about Joe Jackson “Stepping Out”; Roxy Music “Avalon”; Tears for Fears “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”; Dire Straits “Money for Nothing”; Police “Every Breath You Take”; and Fleetwood Mac “Hold Me”. All British, all in heavy rotation on MTV, and all among the greatest songs ever. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210/54 "2006-03-14T04:57:46Z")
> [@Lamar Mundane](#): > > I nominate “Melt with You” by Modern English. I agree. But Timbukthree had “The future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades.” That mindless optimism totally screams 80’s to me. ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210/55 "2006-03-14T05:13:59Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > I agree. But Timbukthree had “The future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades.” That mindless optimism totally screams 80’s to me. Psst. That’s song’s about a nuclear holocaust. I heard it on the VH1. I gonna go with that Karate Kid song (You’re the best, around…) if just for the fact that its’ been in my head for the past three days. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210/56 "2006-03-14T05:33:47Z")
> [@An Arky](#): > > Funny how usually folks think of goofy synth-pop or hair metal when they think of the 80s. I think of REM and the million bands they spawned. Jangly guitars, mumbled vocals, paisley shirts. I also think of the hardcore scene. People in the know reviled the kitsch that people seem to now so fondly remember as “80s music” I’d think for a song be definitively “80’s”, it would have be in a genre that didn’t make it out of the decade. Hence, the pop-synth and hair metal. R.E.M. and their spawn hung around well into the 90’s to become what ‘those in the know’ reviled as Complaint Rock. My personal choices? _Axel F_, for its link with one of the essential 80’s movies, Beverly Hills Cop. _You Gotta Fight for Your Right to Party_ _Walk Like an Egyptian_ _Dancing on the Ceiling_ and _All Night Long_, by Lionel Ritchie. _Cum on Feel the Noiz_ _Heat of the Moment_, or anything else by Asia. _Down Under_, to go with the whole Australia craze. ---
**Author:** ![BabaBooey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dfb087/32.png) [@BabaBooey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BabaBooey)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210/57 "2006-03-14T05:36:47Z")
No one’s mentioned “The Promise” yet, the second that came to mind after “Take on Me”. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210/58 "2006-03-14T05:41:26Z")
Anything by: The Cure Echo and The Bunnymen The Teardrop Explodes The Smiths Depeche Mode The Cult Sisters of Mercy New Order That’s what made the '80’s for me at least, as I wandered forlorn and unloved across a gray and desolate beach, surounded by a world incapable of understanding the depth and complexity of my feelings. 🙂🆒😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210/59 "2006-03-14T05:47:13Z")
We Built This City ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210/60 "2006-03-14T06:11:00Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > The opening to “The Breakfast Club:” Simple Minds “(Don’t You) Forget About Me.” > > Quintessential 80’s movie. Quintessential 80’s song. I agree, and fourth (fifth?) this nomination. I graduated high school in 1984, so I am indeed an expert on 80’s music. 😃 Jim and I have also decided that 1984 was the best year for music ever. People like to make fun of 80’s music, but one thing they forget was that the eighties had _everything_ going on - in my opinion, it was the last decade before music became specialized and compartmentalized instead of just being rock music of all kinds of different flavours. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-eighties-ish-eighties-song/348210.md?page=4)