I just had to pop into this thread to say that I would pay a whole lotta money for 6 hours of unedited MTV from 1984 - 1986. Am I the only one? I just have this picture of throwing in a DVD and watching Martha Quinn just as she used to be… not this “I love the 80s” crap, just plain ol’ MTV unedited and uncompromised, from the mid-80s.
They are definitely missing a marketing opportunity. Nostalgia sells.
Because my husband will have an aneurism if I don’t make this point, the original was by Falco, and the cover was After The Fire. (Hint: The song is called “Der Kommissar,” and Falco was German. 
)
I agree with this. And I think it’s the reason why so many of the choices listed here are New Wave.
The beginnings of New Wave were in the '70s, of course, and it matured into “alternative” by the late '80s and '90s, but that light poppy New Wave was only popular in the early to mid-'80s.
While songs like “Power of Love” were huge hits, and definitely evoke an '80s flashback, I can’t say that they were definitively '80s. Power of Love is a very basic rock’n’roll song, and there’s really nothing about it that means that it could have only been done in the '80s. Maybe it only would have acheived such great popularity in the '80s, but it just as easily could have been written and recorded in 1975 or 1995.
Therefore, I’ll cast my vote for “I Ran” by Flock of Seagulls, for the reasons that McNew succinctly provided: It combines songwriting mediocrity, flashy “cool” hairstyles and outfits, the obligatory synth-standard of 80’s pop music, present-day band obscurity, and visual exposure via the cutting edge (at the time) MTV.
That’s not to say that it’s not a good song. I think it’s a great New Wave pop song.
And yeah, New Wave was primarily British. I remember it being called “The Second British Invasion” at the time.
Oh, yeah. 1984 was an incredible year.
Crap. I didn’t mean to hit Submit yet…
I think these 3 albums were actually released in '83, but they were huge in 1984. These three albums defined my junior high school years:
Eliminator–ZZTop
Pyromania–Def Leppard
1984–Van Halen
Listening to those albums. Being a huge NY Islanders fan. Going through adolescent hell…good times, good times.
Any of these
Video Killed the Radio Star (the true MTV anthem), Saint Elmo’s Fire, anything by Duran Duran (especially Hungry Like The Wolf), or anything by Michael Jackson.
Actually, he was Austrian.
Lots of good choices - but in all fairness it’s hard to find one track representative of the decade. For me there were three distinct phases:
Phase I: British New Wave/Synthpop ('80-'83) - representative song: “I Ran”
Phase II: Power Ballad/AOR ('84-'87) - representative song: “I Want To Know What Love is”
Phase III: Craptastic Hair Metal ('87-'90) - representative song: “Seventeen”
I was in the UK for most of Phase I & II so it was a brilliant time for me music-wise… when I came to the States it was right at the time Cutting Crew and their ilk got lots of airplay… and it got progressively worse. We had heard legends of MTV, when we were only able to catch good stuff on Top of the Pops, The Tube, Old Grey Whistle Test (for musos), and occasionally Cheggers Plays Pop… when I got here I saw exactly three good songs: a-ha’s The Living Daylights, Level 42’s Lessons in Love, and Swing Out Sister’s Breakout. Then it became the Hair Metal Channel - tons of Cinderella, Poison, and Winger.
Luckily I discovered Yo! MTV Raps and Rap City on BET… saved the decade for me, really.
Good call. Don’t forget The Police (Synchronicity) and Michael Jackson (Thriller)
I’d have to give my ultimate vote to “I Ran” by FoS, but I popped in here to show a little love for my favorite Eighties-ish Eighties Song, “Perfect Way” by Scritti Politti. Can’t have this list without that one.
I think a “most 80s” song has to be slightly indefensible from 2006. That means it can’t be a song for the ages, or a song that could have been great in the 70s or 90s. A quintessential 80s song has to belong to the 80s, it has to be a song that no one listens to any more.
So ZZ Top is out. ZZ Top is timeless. Any really good band that stands the test of time can’t be an 80s band, any song that stands the test of time can’t be an 80s song. So while Madonna screams 80s, she survived to the 90s and wasn’t considered washed up until the 00s. And 80s arena rock didn’t start in the 80s and never really died. Yes, Def Leppard and Van Halen also scream 80s, but they were a continuation of 70s arena rock, and the genre smoothly segued into 90s arena rock.
That’s why the new wave acts are so prevalent. It was a genre that came out of nowhere, flourished in the 80s, and was completely dead by the 90s. So a song has to be huge in the 80s, but totally passe by Jan 1, 1990, the band dead and forgotten, the genre dead and forgotten, and the people who made the song a hit sitting around wondering, “What the hell were we thinking?” If it’s easy to explain here in 2006 why the song was a hit then it can’t be a quintessential 80s song.
To add to the list:
Animalize - KISS
N.E.W.S. - Golden Earring
Born in the U.S.A. - Bruce Springsteen
Grace Under Pressure - Rush
Chicago 17 - Chicago
Like a Virgin - Madonna
The Honeydrippers; Volume 1 - The Honeydrippers
Heartbeat City - The Cars
Private Dancer - Tina Turner
Purple Rain - Prince
Rebel Yell - Billy Idol
Reckless - Bryan Adams
Reckoning - R.E.M.
Run-DMC - Run-DMC
Straight Ahead - Amy Grant
The Unforgettable Fire - U2
Tonight - David Bowie
Touch Dance - Eurythmics
Weird Al Yankovic in 3-D - Weird Al Yankovic
Welcome to the Pleasuredome - Frankie Goes to Hollywood
The Works - Queen
Speaking in Tongues - Talking Heads
Flashdance Soundtrack - Various
Tropico - Pat Benatar
Phantoms - The Fixx
Learning to Crawl - The Pretenders
Agent Provocateur - Foreigner
This is 80’s music, people. Not just Duran Duran and Madonna (although they were indeed huge, and let me just say that Duran Duran puts on a fabulous show - go see them if you get the chance. : ) )
Heh. Good call on Synchronicity. I remember my friend Cara swearing up and down that “King of Pain” would be her favorite song forever and ever, and that no other song could possibly ever by better. 
But my mentions of Pyromania, Eliminator, and 1984 weren’t supposed to be nominations for definitive '80s music. Just responding to featherlou’s comment that 1984 was a truly great year for rock’n’roll.
I wouldn’t necessarily go as far as Lemur866 in saying the song must be “indefensible” or “forgotten,” but I think it does have to be something of a relic. It could still get airplay, but it probably wouldn’t be something that would be part of the regular rotation.
Our excellent local rock station, WDHA, has the “Hair Club” at 8pm every night. And they play Winger and Cinderella and all sorts of craptacular hair bands. And some other station (WPLJ?) does “Eighties at Eight.” The point is, the differentiate between these obviously dated '80s songs and the rest of the songs that they play. They’d never play something from the eighties-era Van Halen or Def Leppard or ZZTop during one of the designated '80s segments because they play that stuff all the time.
Or to put it another way–Let’s say you were a writer for a TV show set in the present day. You want to do a flashback scene to show the characters in 1985. What song are you going to have playing on the radio?
You might put “I Ran” or “Der Kommisar” in the scene. You wouldn’t choose “Rock of Ages” or “Sharp Dressed Man” or “Hot for Teacher” for the scene because if you turned on a classic rock station in 1990 or 2000 or 2006, there’s a damn good chance that one of those songs would be playing right then. They are certainly “of the '80s,” but they’re not “definitive.”
when i whoop ass on a video game…this song goes through my head…
when i get an a on a paper…this song goes through my head.
i need help.
(also of note, other songs that go through my head in triumphant moments are the beginning to “final countdown” and the nba finals music)
i still need help.
thank you, mr. lemur. i think that we can come up with a handful of definitive answers to the original post (assuming there WAS a question).
long story short, we need to boil this down to about 5 songs. one of those songs MUST be something michael (thriller?). i think it’s also hard to argue “i ran”, and maybe “melt with you”. madonna is out for the reasons listed above. she’s 80s, but she also kept churning after the decade.
we can come up with an answer to this riddle. ladies and gentlemen, i have faith in the dope.
Damn! Missed it in post #9
How true. This hair could have existed in no other decade. And the page I got that from also shows a video still from another likely candidate, “Take On Me” by A-ha.
i didn’t want to take over the 5 by myself, because i figured i’d say something that wouldn’t belong at all…but so far, we’ve got (in no specific order)
i ran
thriller
melt with you
(insert numbers 4 and 5)
“rebel yell” might not be too bad, but i still don’t think “80s” when i hear it, despite the wedding singer (which i haven’t seen more than twice).
“frankie goes to hollywood”? “come on eileen”? “maneater”? something by culture club?
i forsee a VERY bitter battle to get 5…and then a happiness when we expand it to 10…and then another very bitter battle when we limit it to ten and then attempt to actually rank those ten.
My votes:
Puttin’ on the Ritz
Rock Me, Amadeus
Walk Like an Egyptian
Manic Monday
Tainted Love
My votes for top 5 then:
I Ran
Safety Dance
Rock Me Amadeus
Alive and Kicking
Take on Me
Don Henley - Boys of Summer (and also Down at the Sunset Grill)
J Geils Band - Centrefold and Freeze Frame
Joboxers - Just Got Lucky
Haircut 100 - Love Plus One
Heaven 17 - Temptation