# What music was popular the year you graduated high school? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 22, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-music-was-popular-the-year-you-graduated-high-school/490368 "2009-03-22T19:30:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-music-was-popular-the-year-you-graduated-high-school/490368/41 "2009-03-23T18:29:00Z")
The big songs my graduation year were [“Civilization”](http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/c/civilizationbongobongobongo.shtml) and “Stone Cold Dead In The Market”. We were very PC back then. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-music-was-popular-the-year-you-graduated-high-school/490368/42 "2009-03-23T18:45:24Z")
At The Drive In and The Mars Volta were popular among the men in my high school. Outside of my high school, I doubt anyone had ever heard of them. ---
**Author:** ![Gotterfunken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-music-was-popular-the-year-you-graduated-high-school/490368/43 "2009-03-24T02:46:21Z")
According to [this site](http://www.musicoutfitters.com/topsongs/1990.htm) (which appears to take its data from Billboard), the top 10 songs of 1990 were: 1. Hold On, Wilson Phillips 2. It Must Have Been Love, Roxette 3. Nothing Compares 2 U, Sinead O’Connor 4. Poison, Bell Biv Devoe 5. Vogue, Madonna 6. Vision Of Love, Mariah Carey 7. Another Day In Paradise, Phil Collins 8. Hold On, En Vogue 9. Cradle Of Love, Billy Idol 10. Blaze Of Glory, Jon Bon Jovi Sinead and Billy Idol were OK, but nothing else from the top 10 is really representative of my taste. Of the entire top 100, these were the only songs that I remember with some degree of fondness: 1. Enjoy The Silence, Depeche Mode 2. Epic, Faith No More 3. Love Shack, B-52’s And that’s about it. I was listening to the same stuff that **Dante** and his friends were (please don’t call it emo!!!), so hardly any of the songs I liked ever broke the Top 40 (or in this case, even the Top 100). ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-music-was-popular-the-year-you-graduated-high-school/490368/44 "2009-03-24T03:05:02Z")
The top 10 songs of 1988 were, apparently: 1. Never Gonna Give You Up - Rick Astley (I’ll be damned) 2. Look Away - Chicago 3. I Live For You - Natalie Cole 4. Man in the Mirror - Michael Jackson 5. Fast Car - Tracy Chapman 6. A Groovy Kind of Love - Phil Collins 7. Together Forver - Rick Astley (I’ll be damned, again) 8. I’ll Alway Love You - Taylor Dane 9. Hands to Heaven - Breathe 10. Don’t Worry Be Happy - Bobby McFerrin [Cite](http://www.mbgtop40.com/top100s/1988/chart.html) BTW, I _distincly_ remember hearing “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades,” by Timbuk 3, **on the way home from school on my last day of high school**. Kind of poetic, in a way, since I hated high school and was thrilled to not have to go there any more. ---
**Author:** ![hellpaso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@hellpaso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hellpaso)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-music-was-popular-the-year-you-graduated-high-school/490368/45 "2009-03-24T03:27:21Z")
Can’t remember the titles— Queen Commodores Eagles BeeGees Parliament “We’re the class forever great–the mighty class of '78!” ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-music-was-popular-the-year-you-graduated-high-school/490368/46 "2009-03-24T14:50:50Z")
1988 1. “Need You Tonight,” INXS 2. “Look Away,” Chicago 3. “Roll With It,” Steve Winwood 4. “Every Rose Has Its Thorn,” Poison 5. “Got My Mind Set On You,” George Harrison 6. “So Emotional,” Whitney Houston 7. “Seasons Change,” Expose 8. “Baby I Love Your Way/Freebird Medley,” Will to Power 9. “Could’ve Been,” Tiffany 10. **"Never Gonna Give You Up," Rick Astley** Damn! we got rick-rolled! ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-music-was-popular-the-year-you-graduated-high-school/490368/47 "2009-03-24T15:57:47Z")
Top ten songs of my graduation year, 1980: 1. Call Me, Blondie 2. Another Brick In The Wall, Pink Floyd 3. Magic, Olivia Newton-John 4. Rock With You, Michael Jackson 5. Do That To Me One More Time, Captain and Tennille 6. Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Queen 7. Coming Up, Paul McCartney 8. Funkytown, Lipps, Inc. 9. It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me, Billy Joel 10. The Rose, Bette Midler What a list! Ed ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-music-was-popular-the-year-you-graduated-high-school/490368/48 "2009-03-24T16:21:28Z")
From that same site that **Götterfunken** mentioned - 1. My Sharona, The Knack 2. Bad Girls, Donna Summer 3. Le Freak, Chic 4. Da Ya Think I’m Sexy, Rod Stewart 5. Reunited, Peaches and Herb 6. I Will Survive, Gloria Gaynor 7. Hot Stuff, Donna Summer 8. Y.M.C.A., Village People 9. Ring My Bell, Anita Ward 10. Sad Eyes, Robert John But here’s the thing - that might have been on the radio, I don’t know. Growing up in Brandon in the 1970s, we had two C+W stations, a local muzak FM station, a top 40 station from Winnipeg called CKY, and CBC AM. Harder to get were CBC FM and CITI FM from Winnipeg, which played AOR for a while before it turned into an all-ACDC station. (The FM reception from Winnipeg was intermittent.) If you weren’t into any of those, and my friends and I weren’t, you were left collecting albums. The local shops were pretty dismal (top 40 only; no, we won’t order anything in.), and so most of our vinyl was bought in Winnipeg on occasional visits. **What Music Was Popular when I Graduated High School** is a totally weird, skewed list that was hugely dependent on what had passed our way at the time. Our most popular albums of 1979, garnered lovingly from my memory, were - King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King (1969) Little Feat - Waiting for Columbus (1978) Frank Zappa - Sheik Yerbouti (1979) Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here (1975) FM - Black Noise (1977) Gentle Giant - Playing the Fool (1977) Weather Report - Mr. Gone (1978) Nash the Slash - Bedside Companion (1978) Stanley Clarke - School Days (1976) Mahavishnu Orchestra - Birds of Fire (1973) The interesting thing (to me) is that even though these albums were not all released in 1979, they were all either the most recent albums we could find of bands we were already into, or brand new discoveries for us. I don’t remember which of us first came up with the King Crimson album, but I do remember us all describing it as this obscure, one-off project from the band Greg Lake was in before ELP. Then we found out about all the other stuff that Fripp had done - we’d just been in this weird little geo-temporal bubble where this band had completely passed us by. It’s fascinating to look back on that period now, when if I can name a band and an album, I can pretty much get it within 24 hours. In those days, I had to wait a couple of months until the next trip into the CITY (going from the farm into Brandon was going into town, but you could hear the block capitals when someone was going into Winnipeg) to scour the record shops to look for new or different recordings that might be interesting, (Hmm, Brand X - Morrocan Roll) or might be total crap (I wish I could remember the name of an album by somebody or other, Colin something, maybe; but he had talked all these fabulous progressive rockers into being on his album, but it was just dreck!) - you never knew until you got it home. It was truly a time when your musical tastes defined your personality and your circle of friends, because it all took so much effort to acquire. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-music-was-popular-the-year-you-graduated-high-school/490368/49 "2009-03-24T16:39:12Z")
[QUOTE=HeyHomie] BTW, I _distincly_ remember hearing “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades,” by Timbuk 3, **on the way home from school on my last day of high school**. Kind of poetic, in a way, since I hated high school and was thrilled to not have to go there any more. [/QUOTE] That song was big when I was starting college in 1986. I remember being overcome by pre-eng calculus and thinking how I needed to take off the shades and turn on the headlights. ☹ Strangely, [“Shades”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Future%27s_So_Bright,_I_Gotta_Wear_Shades) placed at #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1986, but didn’t makei t to the overall Top 100 for 1986. The official top 10 in 1986 was: 1. That’s What Friends Are For, Dionne Warwick, Elton John, and Gladys Knight 2. Say You, Say Me, Lionel Richie 3. I Miss You, Klymaxx 4. On My Own , Patti Labelle and Michael McDonald 5. Broken Wings, Mr. Mister 6. How Will I Know, Whitney Houston 7. Party All The Time, Eddie Murphy 8. Burning Heart, Survivor 9. Kyrie, Mr. Mister 10. Addicted To Love, Robert Palmer Personally, I’d lop the first four right off, as well as about half of the others. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-music-was-popular-the-year-you-graduated-high-school/490368/50 "2009-03-24T17:10:51Z")
June 7 1980: 1. Funky Town - Lipps Inc. 2. Don’t Fall in Love with a Dreamer - Kim Carnes and Kenny Rogers 3. Coming Up - Paul McCartney 4. Biggest Part of Me - Ambrosia 5. Call Me - Blondie 6. The Rose - Bette Middler 7. Cars - Gary Numan 8. Against the Wind - Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band 9. Little Jeannie - Elton John 10. It’s Still Rock & Roll to Me - Billy Joel I guess I like about half of what was popular at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-music-was-popular-the-year-you-graduated-high-school/490368/51 "2009-03-31T19:01:09Z")
I got this link in email a few minutes ago and thought I’d have a better chance of finding it again if I stuck it here. Enjoy – if you haven’t already. > **[The Pop Music Anthology](https://popmusicanthology.com/)** > > Step into a time machine and get to know the biggest hit makers in the history of recorded music. Feedback? Email popmusicanthology@gmail.com. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-music-was-popular-the-year-you-graduated-high-school/490368/52 "2009-03-31T20:40:19Z")
Well, the music that topped the charts in 1979 was NOT necessarily the music that was popular at my high school. Suffice it to say that, at my school, anybody listening to the Bee Gees’ “Too Much Heaven” or Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” (smash #1 hits both!) was going to get mocked mercilessly! The stuff I remember being popular at my school were the budding New Wave bands (Blondie, Devo, the Cars). Though some of us still clung to the art-rock dinosaurs who were rapidly running out of ideas. And while nobody much liked Meat Loaf, you could NOT escape from “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”! ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-music-was-popular-the-year-you-graduated-high-school/490368/53 "2009-03-31T22:42:40Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > 1973, a sucky year, apparently. > > 1. Tie A Yellow Ribbon 'Round The Ole Oak Tree, Tony Orlando and Dawn > 2. Bad Bad Leroy Brown, Jim Croce > 3. Killing Me Softly With His Song, Roberta Flack > 4. Let’s Get It On, Marvin Gaye > 5. My Love, Paul McCartney and Wings > 6. Why Me, Kris Kristofferson > 7. Crocodile Rock, Elton John > 8. Will It Go Round In Circles, Billy Preston > 9. You’re So Vain, Carly Simon > 10. Touch Me In The Morning, Diana Ross No kidding. Lots of ballady stuff. I didn’t remember it being that bad. My choices: 1. Crocodile Rock, Elton John 2. Will It Go Round In Circles, Billy Preston 3. You’re So Vain, Carly Simon 4. Frankenstein, Edgar Winter Group 5. We’re An American Band, Grand Funk Railroad 6. Right Place, Wrong Time, Dr. John 7. Superstition, Stevie Wonder 8. Loves Me Like A Rock, Paul Simon 9. Stuck In The Middle With You, Stealers Wheel 10. Shambala, Three Dog Night 11. Long Train Running, Doobie Brothers 12. Midnight Train To Georgia, Gladys Knight and The Pips 13. Smoke On The Water , Deep Purple 14. The Cover Of Rolling Stone, Dr. Hook and The Medicine Show 15. Your Mama Don’t Dance, Loggins and Messina 16. Feelin’ Stronger Every Day, Chicago 17. The Cisco Kid, War 18. Reelin’ In The Years, Steely Dan 19. Hocus Pocus, Focus 20. Do It Again, Steely Dan 21. Rockin’ Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu, Johnny Rivers 22. Ramblin’ Man, Allman Brothers 23. Angie, Rolling Stones 24. Money, Pink Floyd 25. Free Ride, Edgar Winter Group ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-music-was-popular-the-year-you-graduated-high-school/490368/54 "2009-04-01T05:59:33Z")
1974 and all I remember that the popular music was universally awful! Here is the top 10 from Billboard’s top 100 for 1974. Please do not make me listen to a single one of these again. Really, if I hear Seasons In the Sun again… I cannot be held responsible for what happens next. 1. The Way We Were, Barbra Streisand 2. Seasons In The Sun, Terry Jacks 3. Love’s Theme, Love Unlimited Orchestra 4. Come And Get Your Love, Redbone 5. Dancing Machine, Jackson 5 6. The Loco-Motion, Grand Funk Railroad 7. TSOP, MFSB 8. The Streak, Ray Stevens 9. Bennie And The Jets, Elton John 10. One Hell Of A Woman, Mac Davis ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-music-was-popular-the-year-you-graduated-high-school/490368/55 "2009-04-02T04:36:12Z")
> [@ghardester](#): > > 1974 and all I remember that the popular music was universally awful! Here is the top 10 from Billboard’s top 100 for 1974. Please do not make me listen to a single one of these again. > > Really, if I hear Seasons In the Sun again… I cannot be held responsible for what happens next. > > 1. The Way We Were, Barbra Streisand > 2. Seasons In The Sun, Terry Jacks > 3. Love’s Theme, Love Unlimited Orchestra > 4. Come And Get Your Love, Redbone > 5. Dancing Machine, Jackson 5 > 6. The Loco-Motion, Grand Funk Railroad > 7. TSOP, MFSB > 8. The Streak, Ray Stevens > 9. Bennie And The Jets, Elton John > 10. One Hell Of A Woman, Mac Davis Aww, Loco-Motion wasn’t so bad. The rest, however … [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-music-was-popular-the-year-you-graduated-high-school/490368.md?page=2)