The 1980s were a decade that ushered in an era of mostly horrible music. A quick Bing search for the best ‘80s songs nets you a list filled with Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Duran Duran and The Bangles.
But the ‘80s provided all sorts of great “‘80s music” as well. Now, I put “‘80s music” in quotes because there was plenty of great music from the ‘80s, which doesn’t fall into the category of “‘80s music.” One example is my beloved Phish, who formed in the '80s; however, they would never be confused for an ‘80s band.
To start things off, it would be a travesty to not have the King of Pop at the top of this non-list. His two albums that he released in the ‘80s, Thriller and Bad, sold a bajillion copies (or at least over 130 million) and help you “Remember the Time,” a joke most of you won’t get because that’s a song off his 1991 album, Dangerous, which was leaps and bounds worse than his two ‘80s albums.
Seriously though, between Jackson’s two albums released in the 1980s, there are upwards of eight songs that could be considered for the Top 100 songs ever—“Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin,” “Thriller,” “Beat It,” “Billie Jean,” “Bad,” “The Way You Make Me Feel,” “Man in the Mirror” and “Smooth Criminal”—and that’s just scratching the surface.
After the King of Pop, the only place to go is Prince. Though he released a bunch of albums in the ‘80s, the three I’m going to focus on are 1983’s 1999, 1985’s Around the World in a Day and obviously, the greatest soundtrack this side of “The Harder They Come,” 1984’s Purple Rain.
Every song on Purple Rain could be a single, but the ones that were released—five of the nine tracks on the album—are bona fide hits, and that’s not even including “Computer Blue” and “Darling Nikki.” Around the World in a Day isn’t as great an album, but “Raspberry Beret” is maybe the greatest song ever, so there’s that.
In terms of most influential bands of the ‘80s, Talking Heads need to be in that conversation. Actually, you can drop the “of the ‘80s” part of that because across generations, no one put their imprint on the music of today as much as Talking Heads. Though their heyday began in the ‘70s, Remain in Light and Speaking in Tongues are two consummate ‘80s albums.
Bruce Springsteen released some good albums in the ‘80s, but his best work came in the ‘70s. Furthermore, really, Born in the U.S.A. is the only “‘80s” album worth its salt; however, “Dancing in the Dark” is a phenomenal song and cracks this non-list because of that alone.
Another great guitar-driven band from this era is Dire Straits. Led by the brothers Knopfler—Mark and David—this band reached such great heights with Brothers in Arms, which went platinum 13 times over in the United Kingdom and nine times in the United States. Though arguably their most famous song, “Sultans of Swing,” came out in the ‘70s, “Money For Nothing” has that distinctive ‘80s sound, which made them incredibly popular.
People often argue about which era of AC/DC was better, the Bon Scott era, which lasted from 1973 until his death in 1980, or the Brian Johnson era, which picked up in 1980 and has carried through the present. While early AC/DC is better, on the whole, with Johnson in tow, the band sold 50 million copies of Back in Black, the album that took them from being a great hard rock band into the mainstream.
Glam rock superstars Guns N’ Roses were as pure a byproduct of the ‘80s as anyone else and Appetite for Destruction is maybe the best debut album of all time. That whole album could have found a place on the band’s Greatest Hits album, but instead, you can find five Appetite for Destruction gems on said Greatest Hits album.
To get even heavier, while many will point to 1991’s Metallica as Metallica’s crowning achievement, the four albums they released in the ’80s were far better musically. Though nowhere near as commercially successful, songs like “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “Orion” and “Seek & Destroy” allowed the band to channel all of their energy as a young metal band in a manner that only the ‘80s could have embraced.
Hip-hop also began to take shape during this wonderful decade, including such standout albums as Eric B. & Rakim’s Paid in Full, N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton, the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique and Afrika Bambaataa’s Planet Rock: The Album, which if you haven’t heard it, drop whatever you are doing—yes, that includes reading this column—and listen to it. Or maybe listen while you keep reading.
Other great songs and albums that came from the ‘80s include anything by Hall & Oates—particularly 1981’s Private Eyes—“Come on Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnight Runners, though you can probably forget about everything else they’ve ever released, as a cursory glance through their discography netted me exactly zero other songs I’ve ever heard of before.
Furthermore, amid all the debris that one needs to wade through, there are some real gems among the one-hit wonders of the ‘80s. In no real order, Men at Work’s “Down Under,” Loverboy’s “Working for the Weekend,” the Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” and A Flock of Seagulls’ “I Ran” are fantastic places to start.
Invariably, I missed your favorite band or artist from the ‘80s and that’s fine. Maybe you think everything I picked is terrible and falls into the category of shitty ‘80s music, and that could be true. But at the end of the day, despite not having the same depth of the ‘70s, the era of what we now call “Classic Rock” or the ‘90s and the new wave of rap and grunge, the '80s wasn’t all “Take on Me” and “Rock Me Amadeus” but had some phenomenal music peppered in there as well.
Think Brian missed a few gems, or picked a few misses, from the ‘80s? Be sure and tell him at weidy@wisc.edu
