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And that goes doubly for the music. But the '80s sound was so much more than the sum of its eccentricities, and there's a huge difference between an "'80s song" and a "song from the '80s. New Wave stalwarts like Talking Heads and Devo found new grooves while transcendent artists like Marvin Gaye and Paul Simon offered up some of the best work of their careers.
And as the decade wore on, rap's wave turned into a tsunami that changed the face of pop music. In gathering our list of the '80s very best, there was a lot to consider: Lasting impact, cultural relevance, actual musicianship, catchiness, coolness and, of course, nostalgia.
But mostly, we curated with maximum enjoyment in mind while limiting the list to one song per artist. From genre-defining works of genius to ear-worm flights of fancy, these are the best songs of the '80s.
And don't get your scrunchies in a bunch: Some hair metal definite snuck in. Listen to these songs on Amazon Music. But forced to pick one Prince song, "Purple Rain" is the obvious choice. It's a swelling, perfectly crafted masterpiece that spotlights everything that made Prince Rogers Nelson an absolute legend: his gift for unique melodies; his multinstrumentalism; his uncanny vocal ability to shift from guttural to falsetto, from aggrieved to ethereal; and his unmatched ability to absolutely slay a guitar solo.
It's Prince at his best, a song that remains as impactful today as it was nearly 40 years ago. We get so used to the sleek, funky side of Michael Jackson on th ehit parade that was Thriller that it's easy to forget how hard "Beat It" actually legitimately rocks. And it's not just Eddie Van Halen's famous finger-busting solo; it's that perfectly formed sneer of a guitar riff — conceived by Jackson and played by session ace Steve Lukather — those exaggered downbeats that feel like medicine balls being slammed down on a concrete floor and the raw desperation in MJ's voice as he chronicles the harsh truths of the street-fighting life.
As much of a dance-floor killer as it is, "Beat It" is a genuinely heavy song, psychologically as much as sonically. In , Houston was still very much a fresh-faced siren with the crystal-clear voice and a world of possibilities at her feet. Her approach to this song — which, when you break it down, is more about loneliness than love — says a lot about her ability to radiate warmth and positivity through her singular sound.
It's miles away from the struggles the singer would face later in her career. Always a party starter and roof-igniting karaoke jam, the song become a bittersweet rallying cry in the years since her death.
You can practically hear year-old smiling through the chorus, urging every last wallflower on to the dance floor. Who can resist? Bowie was all over the place during the '80s: duetting with Jagger, clambering into spandex for Labyrinth , getting buried alive for Merry Christmas, Mr.
Lawrence and ultimately embarking on a midlife crisis that resulted in a worrying beard and Tin Machine. We defy your feet to stay on the floor as that cyclical, cynical, irresistible chorus hurtles on. The title of the track of NWA's debut doesn't just announce the arrival of Dr. It announced the arrival of west-coast rap in the most aggressive, game-changing way imaginable, leaving the dominant hair rockers of the time little choice but to get out of the way.
David Byrne's hugely influential Talking Heads had many songs that seem more definitively '80s than this Speaking in Tongues standout, but few have endured across decades more seamlessly. With its sweetly tingling synth notes and Tina Weymouth's pulsing bassline, it's a lovely, dreamlike song, one that feels timeless because you can't quite tell whether it was gifted to us from the past or the future.
Robert Smith's un-merry men spent roughly half of the '80s making desperately sad goth rock, and the other half writing some of the best pop songs of all time. Is there anyone who doesn't like this song? Nine years later, though, he came awfully close to outdoing himself with "Sexual Healing," his first non-Motown single released just two years before he was fatally shot by his father.
Part of this had to do with the expansion of the music industry, facilitated by MTV and technology. Record companies could now make just as much money by manufacturing one-hit artists in succession while not having to invest the time and money that would make a mediocre musician into a star with more longevity.
Trends were also changing more quickly and many artists could not keep up and adapt fast enough. As the world's society became more globalized, the pool of talent became bigger, making it easier to move onto the next new artist.
The changes in technology and societal attitudes also meant that consumers' attention spans got shorter. Hip hop music originally had a difficult time breaking into the mainstream due to MTV's reluctance to show music videos of black artists. After much criticism, the network started to embrace black musicians like Michael Jackson, whose videos were amongst the most popular, paving the way for hip hop artists like Run DMC and LL Cool J to usher in the era of commercialized rap music.
As the genre gained traction on MTV, it gave the white middle class a glimpse into inner city culture and many conservative parents of the time were disapproving of the genre that had been called the "new rock n' roll. Hip hop music sounded like nothing that had been heard before in mainstream music and the late s was thought of as the Golden Age, were everything seemed original and innovative.
By the end of the decade MTV started airing the program "Yo! MTV Raps" making the hip hop and rap music a global phenomenon. Important hip hop acts like Run DMC and LL Cool J made the genre commercial and were style icons, the Beastie Boys made the music "white friendly" and added elements of rock music, and Salt-n-Pepa were female pioneers of the genre.
The New Wave genre began in the s and was popular until the mids. The focus of this music was on artistic themes and the sound was tied to punk rock, dance music, synthesizers and other electronic instruments.
New Wave eventually became tied to pop music as music videos from the genre were heavily promoted on MTV. The term "New Wave" is meant as an all encompassing term that allows a variety of highly diverse artists to fit into the same category. Some artists had a futuristic sound while others were closer to punk rock. New Wave bands and artists had an impact on fashion with their unique clothing and hairstyles that the youth culture would adopt.
The one-, two- and three-hit wonders that did it as their native artform did it wonderfully. That is not just a less Human League 80s but a less human version of the decade. The songs are what matter, one keeper at a time. Our confusion about how to think about 80s music lies largely in the costume-party aspects. Because, when it comes down to it, there are two sets of 80s. But only one of these lends itself to homage — or parody, depending on your view.
And, come to think of it, you can dig the Bruce Springsteen who made Nebraska and the other guy who suddenly appeared on MTV. Everyone reacted to the end of the Watergate-riddled 70s and the dawn of a new political and social era in different ways. The future was so bright, we had to wear shades — and if Timbuk3 meant that ironically, not all of us were so sure.
The music world may not have agreed with the president on much, but there was accord on at least one thing: in pop, it felt like morning in America. Explore all of the classic albums of the 80s on vinyl. Get ReAL. Nothing was sappy in the 80s we expressed real emotion we were non conformist idiots like the millennial.
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