Most Eighties-ish Eighties Song

[Headrush042]

Escape was an 80s song? I always thought it was a 70s staple.

Now that I think about it, it may have been '79. My memory blurs a bit when I think back that far.

[Cat_Whisperer]

@Least Original User Name Ever

the simple minds song gets thrown out because it’s almost TOO easy. i think a big part of its eightiesish-ness (yes, it’s MY word now, dammit) is because it was in the breakfast club. remove the breakfast club, and i think you also remove that song as well…at the very least, you dethrone it.

It’s so easy because the song is the eighties in a nutshell. In my opinion, of course. I don’t think it is germane to discuss removing songs from their context, because their context is so important. We had just discovered that you could make little films to go along with songs, and play them on tv, and people (read: teenagers) would eat them up with a spoon. The song/movie/band/actors connection was just being discovered, and I think “(Don’t You) Forget About Me” was instrumental in opening this whole idea up.

madonna was so strong into the 90s, though. that song may have been pretty 80s, but she certainly wasn’t. also, if you point at madonna as being 80s, you must also turn the finger at cindi lauper. i’m not prepared to make that leap, so i choose to exclude it.<snip>

Madonna was huge and hugely influential in the eighties. I didn’t care about her music then, and I don’t care much about it (or her) now, but when you’re discussing eighties music, you would be amiss to leave out mention of Madonna.

as far as michael jackson is concerned, it’s GOT to be thriller. that song is impossible to separate from the video, more than ANY other song ever. any list without michael in it just doesn’t feel complete. (by the way, was “don’t stop til you get enough” in '79?)

Yes - I went with “Thriller” rather than “Beat It” or “Billie Jean” on the strength of the “Thriller” video, which was groundbreaking and earthshaking in its time.

[want2know]

@Hippy Hollow

Isn’t it Alphaville? The “Big In Japan” guys?

Back in the late '80s, NYC’s “alternative” station WLIR (later WDRE) surveyed its listeners and came up with their “Top 200 Of All Time” list (“all time” beginning sometime in the late '70s). On this list, IIRC, U2 had something like 15 songs, The Smiths 10, The Cure 8, etc. The #1 song on the survey was the aforementioned “Forever Young” by Alphaville. I love that song, but only the dance mix version.

My list (a little offbeat, but not obnoxiously elitist (I hope)):

I Will Follow --U2 (may be '79, but has that definite '80s vibe)
It’s a Sin --Pet Shop Boys
I Beg Your Pardon --Kon Kan
Lay Your Hands On Me --Thompson Twins
How Soon is Now? --The Smiths

[Ragiel]

@Athena

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.

I would, I would!

[pantom]

Yeah, it makes your hair hurt. It’s supposed to.
If we’re talking the stuff they’ll be playing to define the 80’s, in this house it’s:

Def Leppard - Pour Some Sugar On Me, from their album, Hysteria.
Madonna - Like a Virgin, album of the same name.
Prince - 1999, album of the same name.
Guns 'n Roses - Sweet Child O’ Mine, from their album, Appetite for Destruction
Michael Jackson -** Thriller**, album of the same name.

As a bonus, Culture Club’s Do You Really Want to Hurt Me, from Kissing to be Clever.

Ah, the good old days. Where’s my blow-dryer, anyway?

[Cerri]

Oh man…I love 95% of all the songs mentioned so far, so I’ll try and list ones I don’t think I’ve seen mentioned yet:

John Cougar Mellencamp- Jack and Diane

Ministry- Every Day is Halloween

Sisters of Mercy- Temple of Love

Night Ranger- Sister Christian

Metallica- Fade to Black or alternatively- Master of Puppets

Prince- Purple Rain

Chicago Bears- Super Bowl Shuffle (not because it was good, but it was a pretty defining 80’s song to alot of Chicagoans in 1985)

[Martini_Enfield]

To me (born in 1981), there are several songs that seem very '80s when I listen to them:

• Queen’s A Kind Of Magic

• Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start The Fire

• A-Ha’s Take On Me (So brilliantly referenced in the Family Guy episode "North By Northwest Quahog)

[MrDibble]

@bmoak

*Yaz: Don’t Go

you and Hippy Hollow have made the same mistake. The name of the band featuring Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet is Yazoo, not Yaz. I know that may be what they are know as in the US, but that’s not their name.

[Tabula_Rasa]

@Stephe96

Something by Wang Chung

Hijack: I saw them in concert at a cadet concert at the Air Force Academy. Strangest concert ever. We guests dressed semi-formal, the cadets were in dress uniforms, and everyone was required to remain seated throughout the performance. Must have been even stranger for the performers than it was for us.

[OpalCat]

@featherlou

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. )

Thanks. I was going to have an aneurism if someone didn’t point that out as well.

[OpalCat]

@Least Original User Name Ever

one of those songs MUST be something michael (thriller?).

madonna is out for the reasons listed above. she’s 80s, but she also kept churning after the decade.

I’m having a hard time understanding why you not only allow but mandate Michael, who kept churning out stuff forever, but invalidate Madonna for it?

This whole thread is making me miss the 80s so much

[BlackNGold]

@jjimm

I’m amazed … {snippity} by how many Brits there are in this list… {snipppity} Men Without Hats…

I believe MWoH to be Canadian. I could be wrong, but that’s what I recall.

I’m going to go with “Melt with You” as well. I spent the eighties listening to almost nothing but metal, but this song SCREAMS 80’s to me.

[jjimm]

Well I never. The singer sounds like he’s singing in an English accent - a long A on “Dah-nce”. I apologise for misrepresenting them.