What Song Most Encapsulates the 1980s? (2 Viewers)

[Arathrael]

That's not even an 80s song! It was released in 1979.

 

[Arathrael]

Surely this is it:

 

[Optimus Prime]

That's not even an 80s song! It was released in 1979.

Released in US in February 1980

UK was Aug 79

Counts in my book

 

[efil4stnias]

New Order- Blue Monday. Has to do something with the intro of PCs and groups using computers to synthesize/beats.

Plus i cant hear this song and not think ATIIs/Sitting Duck/Gold Mine.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Runner up - Take on Me by Ah-Ha

When I saw thread title this was the ding that popped in my head
Mostly bc 80s music relied so heavily on having a great or great hook video
Also for car karaoke this probably rivals the air drum solo from In the air tonight

 

[gavinj]

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Thought of another aspect
The 80s/Mtv was a global phenomenon
Until then American music (and English music that sounded American) was exported
But MTV allowed for a lot of importing as well



As well as British acts who actually sounded British - The Cladh to Madness to The Pogues to Dexys Midnight Runners
Also reggae sounds creeping in with Musical Youth and Eddy Grant (I’d put Marley in the ‘too big’ category)

 

[livefromDC]

For me, I always think 80's when I hear this.

Hard to top that one. That's probably the top pick for me too. However, it's a thread so I'll try to add a couple I think worth mentioning.

Everybody Wants to Rule the World


I Believe in the Beat


Let's Hear it for the Boy


These songs all instantly take me back to what I remember the 80s feeling like. It's a feeling like nothing I get from 90s or 2000s music. It's a careless happy that's hard to put into words. Some songs are timeless, these songs are not...and that's not a knock on them at all. They embody the 80s colorful, carefree vibes in a way that makes them perfect nostalgic time capsules. They don't grow old, but they're not timeless. They're quintessential 80s.

 

[livefromDC]

That's not even an 80s song! It was released in 1979.

Released in 79...but definitely an 80s sound, not 70s.

 

[Saintman2884]

What one sounds sounds the most like the 80s felt? Not the best 80s song, not the greatest 80s song. I'm looking for the MOST 80s song, using whatever criteria you want.

You didn't ask, but I'll tell you how I got here. I saw it was Susanna Hoffs' birthday today, so I watched the Walk Like an Egyptian video to see "The Look" again (you guys know what I'm talking about). And there's a ton of really 80s stuff in there. Which made me wonder if it was the most 80s song ever.

But after much deliberation, I've landed on Don't You Forget About Me by Simple Minds.

Criteria:

-It's the theme song for the most 80s movie ever.
-Stylistically, it could only have been released in the 1980s.
-It was in smack in the middle of the decade.
-It became an 80s anthem.

Runner up - Take on Me by Ah-Ha

I dismissed songs my Michael Jackson, Madonna, U2, etc because they're just too big and transcendent. Their reach really extended well beyond the 1980s, but reasonable minds could differ.

My selection doesn't meet the third part in the criteria but it absolutely meets the other three, and that's the Romantics' What I Like About You, released in 1980. It was fast, catchy, had a good musical set-up, you could chant it, yell it, scream it but it wasnt too big, overblown or grandiose like Queen's We Will Rock You/We are the Champions b-sides, it was of the 1980's answer to The Who's My Generation.

If you closely examine the 1980's and a lot of the music that came out, a lot of the early 80's albums lets say by Foreigner, Def Leopard, Queen, it has some of the key qualities that would go to define some of the characteristics of 80's music: big, overly-commercial, large aesthetics, but it contains still some of the experimentation, bit cheezy conceptual themes of the mid-late 70's. Hair metal bands are and always will be a quintessential 80's phenomenon. Bands like Poison, Ratt, Motley Crue, to some extent Guns and Roses seem to fit so well into that hacylon decade, even though Guns had more a punk background along with the thrash bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer, etc.

Thrash, IMHO, is the the marriage between punk and metal. Motorhead was the progenitor in the late 70's, the first rock band who took the best of both sub-genres, the speed, intensity, nihilistic lyrics and themes but also provided a template for musicianship. Punk usually doesn't rely on outstanding, superb otherworldly guitar riffs, drum solos, 10-15 minute epic song suites, in fact, that's one of the reasons Punk came on the scene in the first place in mid-70's as a reaction to prog, hard rock/heavy metal bands putting out boring, unexciting, and ultra-long, and prodding songs and pretensious album themes from Yes, Genesis, unfortunately, although I'm a fan PF's Animals, ELP, King Crimson, Rod Stewart, The Eagles, if it wasnt 20+ minutes long, it wasnt worth playing.

Punk was all about a good riff, three chords, anti-establishment themes, and stripping rock down to its roots and getting back to its basic principles that it had had lost after the late 60's.

 

[Saintman2884]

Thought of another aspect
The 80s/Mtv was a global phenomenon
Until then American music (and English music that sounded American) was exported
But MTV allowed for a lot of importing as well



As well as British acts who actually sounded British - The Cladh to Madness to The Pogues to Dexys Midnight Runners
Also reggae sounds creeping in with Musical Youth and Eddy Grant (I’d put Marley in the ‘too big’ category)

You know that Nina Hagen grew up in former East Germany and that her father, Wolf Biermann, was seen and revered as kind of a East German musical Che Guevera in the 1960's and 70's until he became an outspoken dissident of how ruthless, repressive, cruel and harsh GDR were towards outspoken artists, musicians who didnt completely tow the Stasi's and GDR leadership official party line about "socialist realism". Wolf Beirmann actually was expelled from the GDR IIRC, in 1975-76 when he performed for trade union workers at a West Berlin automobile plant.

Even today, most Germans see Beirmann as sort of their Bob Dylan.

The 1980's were a wonderful time for music, even what we term today, " overly-commercial" music because often it was entertaining, enjoyable, fun and worth listening too. Even some of the underground acts that would become famous "alternative" bands in the 1990's like R.E.M. when Michael Stipe actually had long hair.

 

[SystemShock]

Surely this is it:

Since you posted this, and I don't want to make a thread just for it...

A few years ago there was a youtube fad called "literal video", in which a music video was dubbed to describe what was happening in the video to the music of the song. It was "meh" for the most part, but the one for Safety Dance was great.. So...

 

[Madmarsha]

Safety Dance was a strong entry. But I give you ..

 

[Infoman]

 

[Saintman2884]

Unlike Sting's mellow echoing of the now-popular phrase, I just don't have the immediate, needy urge to even want to know about or watch My MTV after watching, and absorbing Dire Straits music video here.

In fact, I don't even think its their best song, ever. "Sultans of Swing", " Tunnel of Love" were far better songs although "Money for Nothing" is very tongue-in-cheek, silly and humorous as it articulates a frustrated, middle-aged working-class NYC worker who gets angry at rock bands seemingly doing nothing in comparison to the hard work hes had to contend with for 10-15x more money.