Reliving the music of the 80's...
 

I admit I've never had much of an interest in mainstream music in the past, but there is something in a lot of music associated with the "80's sound" that I just can't ignore anymore. Over the years, through radio, commercials, insert songs, etc I've heard plenty I've enjoyed and over the past couple months, I'm slowly becoming something of a fanatic of it.

So...Favorite 80's songs? Bands? Singers? Recommendations?

Some of the ones I've indulged in recently:

Iron Maiden (as always...their 80's material remains their strongest, IMO. Number of the Beast, Powerslave and SSOASS are all great albums).

Twisted Sister (*gasp* They actually DO have other songs besides "I Wanna Rock" and "We're Not Gonna Take It". Pretty good ones too).

Van Halen (both Diver Down and Van Halen 1 are amazing albums and Eddie's guitar playing is always fun to listen to. Also, "Jump" = pure 80's sound)

Go-Go's/Belinda Carlisle (I really like Carlisle's voice, whether alone or with the group)

Bangles (same mold as the Go-Go's..."Walk Like An Egyptian" is <3)

Cyndi Lauper (she really faded over the years, but all of her early work is great)

Bonnie Tyler (her raspy voice is really powerful, but it's creepy at times as well..."Holding Out for a Hero" is one of those songs producers fight to get into their movies)

Bryan Adams (radio-friendly rock songs, but I guess that's not a bad thing when you actually like them. Oddly relaxing and nostalgic instead of annoying.)

Others that I'm less familiar with or only really enjoy a couple selections:

Michael Jackson (Beat It and Thriller...don't really care for anything else of his)
Scorpions (Rock You Like a Hurricane, slowly exploring these guys)
Toni Basil (Mickey...the ultimate one-hit wonder!)
Kylie Minogue ("Locomotion")
Quiet Riot (Cum on Feel the Noize)
Survivor ("Eye of the Tiger" and "Burning Heart", obviously)
Debbie Gibson ("Shake Your Love")
Buggles ("Video Killed the Radio Star"...another good one-hit wonder)
Duran Duran ("Hungry Like the Wolf"...Not sure if I like the rest of these guys)

Recommendations highly welcome, especially for lesser-known artists, since I'm mostly working with a Billboard hits list.

Yama's right, Eyeless in Gaza is pretty sweet. Though, seriously mate, pimp a new band every now and again, hm? New Order / Joy Division is always good to look into. The Police. Of course the Eurythmics. There's tons of stuff out there. I think the Zombies were 80's. Or were they 70's? Anyway.

Eurythmics were one I've touched on ("Sweet Dreams" was one of my mom's favorite songs and it's stayed with me for years...I remember the video for this one was pretty wild)...They're one I definitely want to hear more of.

And yeah...I don't really mean solely "in the 80's" (most of the acts I listed have more recent material as well...I just ordered Twisted Sister's "Twisted Christmas"), but moreso the synthpop/new wave/rock/metal acts that had their most exposure in that timeframe, since they were probably the most characteristic of the decade's carefree approach to music. A lot of the early 80's hitlists were still infested with disco music and I'm surprised just how many soft rock "hits" there were.

The Zombies broke up in 1968, Deni. Right before the release of their best record, "Odessey and Oracle".

I was never too into New Order. Dig the first couple of records but by '88 they were pretty weak. Joy Division on the other hand is just one of those immortal bands. The Heart And Soul box set is a must have.

Really, most of the '80s music I listen to is either American punk/thrash or highly experimental electronic stuff which doesn't seem to be what you're looking for.

Really, as long as it isn't disco, rap/hip-hop, or grunge, I'm pretty open. If anything, I'm more interested in anything experimental from the 80's than recently, due to the status of the technology at the time and the actual sound of much 80's electronic music. Besides, I'm more interested in what people actually listen to from the 80's than just stuff I might like, since I can always hunt stuff down later on. :D

Well, I'm talking really damn experimental here – it's rather harsh stuff that understandably isn't most people's cup of tea (Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music is nursery rhymes to this stuff). I can upload some for you if you're really interested, as it can be rather hard to find, but I'll stress again that by "highly experimental" I don't mean synth's in strange time signatures as much as the sound of a buzzsaw for an hour.

Belinda Carlisle, Martika, and Roxette...which are the only 80's albums i own other than two by the fruit-loop Paula Abdul. I wish i had more 80s albums...

Despite the 1980's being my least favorite post-war decade, they was some decent music amongst the Synth-Pop and Heavy Metal: I can't stand either.

Some of the better stuff was:

Pogues (no surprise there)
Husker Du
Dream Syndicate
Swans
Pixies
Gun Club
Steve Roach
Spacemen 3
Replacements

That's all I can come up with off the top of my head.

Mainstream isn't my cup of tea either, but the 80s were the golden age of music, I agree. My favorite artist back then (and still now) is Phil Collins - hell, I had even gone and bought a lot of his promo shit off eBay, but mainly just rare CDs and videos/movies. But that's beside the point.

Dire Straits comes to a close second - aside from their famous hit Money for Nothing, I really enjoy a more overlooked tune, Calling Elvis, since the instrumental variety in the song sets the perfect mood for a hot, summer day (if you decide to check it out, listen to the variation that's on the On Every Street album, as the other variations on other albums are the radio edits and a large chunk of the instrumental section is removed from those).

You gotta listen to A-ha, Depeche Mode, Style Council, Prince and more to come.

Sigue Sigue Sputnik, the live action anime band you must see and listen to.

Quiet Riot owns a special place in my heart

but add
Black Sabbath
Poison
Guns N' Roses
Ted Nugent
Blue Oyster Cult
Alice Cooper
KISS
I could go on and on.

Congratulations upon your very rudimentary knowledge of the 19-fucking-70s.

Seriously. Other than Guns N' Roses and Poison, every other band you named lived their heyday during the 70s. For Black Sabbath, it was also the 60s.

If you don't know anything about music - which you clearly don't - then don't bother typing.

God help us.

80s the golden age? Quite the opposite. I'm sure there are many opposing sides to that, especially since I consider the 80s the dead period, especially for rock. I think music really gotten into the groove with late 60s early 70s, when everyone was literally doing anything. I always consider the 80s either really mainstream pop (Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, Madonna), or unoriginal glam metal bands that produce too many crappy ballads. I really just consider the 80s as a time for massive one-hit-wonders.

I see that Journey, Foreigner, Boston, and Queen have not been mentioned. Some Chicago is alright, but it's because of their slow ballad stuff.

I’ve compiled a list of what bands I’ve got that I believe are 80s period - or have had hits in the 80s although they are from another period - and their respective popular hits. Any additions to the list or subtractions would be appreciated.

A Flock of Seagulls (I Ran)
a-ha (Take on Me)
Asia (Heat of the Moment)
B-52's (Love Shack)
Bananarama
The Bangles (Walk Like an Egyptian)
Berlin (Take My Breath Away)
Billy Idol
Blondie
Boston (prime in 70s, Amanda)
The Cars (Drive)
Chicago (prime definitely in 70s, but slow 80s ballad hits)
Crowded House (Don't Dream it's Over)
Duran Duran
Electric Light Orchestra (prime in 70s, please don't mention Xanadu)
Elton John
Eurythmics (Sweet Dreams)
The Flaming Lips
Foreigner (Urgent, Waiting for a Girl Like You)
Heart
Journey (anything Steve Perry era)
Kim Wilde (Kids in America)
Lionel Richie
Madonna
Megadeth
Men at Work (Down Under)
Men Without Hats (Safety Dance)
Metallica
Michael Jackson
Motley Crue
New Order (Bizarre Love Triangle, True Faith)
Paul Simon (Graceland album)
Peter Gabriel
Phil Collins
Pixies
The Police
The Pretenders
Prince
Queen
R.E.M.
Sonic Youth
Spandau Ballet (True)
Stevie Nicks (Bella Donna album)
Styx (Mr. Roboto)
Supertramp (Breakfast in America)
Tears for Fears
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Toto (Africa, Rosanna)
Van Halen
Yes (Owner of a Lonely Heart)

Good try Crash, but Sabbath released their first record in 1970.

A few I didn't see mentioned. These might not be considered "80's bands" per se, but their albums from the 80's are certainly worth checking out:

- The Cure
- Bauhaus
- Sisters of Mercy
- Mission UK
- The Specials
- Bad Religion
- Misfits
- The Church
- The Cult
- Dead Milkmen
- Skinny Puppy. (I still think most of their best material came from the mid to late 80's)
- Men Without Hats (easily my favorite of the "one hit wonder" 80's band. Maybe it's just nostalgia speaking, but I think the Pop Goes the World album has held up very well)

I have tons of 80s music and enjoy most of it. Yeah, many of the bands listed in this thread are just plain awesome. I think I have about 300 80s songs. Most are awesome, many are good, but there are a lot of bad ones as well.

Reign in Blood man. Then of course there's Death's early catalog and death and thrash metal being birthed.

I also enjoy the Final Countdown and the entire Transformers movie soundtrack.

Good try? Black Sabbath was formed during the 60s. Their prominence was definitely 70s, but nevertheless, they were performing during the 60s too, albeit under the names "Polka Tulk" and "Earth" at first. It was still the same ensemble, however.

So, I wasn't wrong.

Please, please don't make me come up there and smack you.

Whoops I misspelled it. I'll correct it...

Additional Spam:
Oh, someone called in during my DJ shift and requested for them. I actually never heard of them. But he was also asking for the Stranglers, which I played instead.

I'll add The Flaming Lips, R.E.M., and Sonic Youth to my list as well. Trying very hard to think of the vinyl I see in our station...

No need to lecture me on this stuff man, I know it all already. You didn't say "all these bands formed in the seventies, and Sabbath in the sixties", you said "all these bands had their heydays in the seventies, and for Sabbath it was also the sixties", which is evidently false as they were just gigging at blues bars until fall of 1970. In fact, several of the other groups from Kingman's list are longer established than Black Sabbath: Blue Öyster Cult was formed a year before Sabbath and both Alice Cooper and Ted Nugent had recorded two albums a piece by the time Sabbath even had their name. A lot of Sabbath fans (I'm not one of them, mind you) think that the early 80's records with Dio are their best work.

Sorry, but I'm not a person to get into a pissing contest with when it comes to rock history.

Well they where still around in the 80's and so they still can count as 80's bands. It doesn't fricken matter when they formed, if they played in the 80's they count.

I'd check out The Police, U2 and The Cure. U2 had some great stuff in the 80's (Joshua Tree, Unforgettable Fire) and The Police were definitely one-of-a-kind.

Using this logic I could claim my favorite 80's bands were The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Eagles, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan... need I go on?

There are artists and bands that have longevity, but that does not categorize them as an artist from the current decade they've released albums in.

I could see both sides of the argument. For one, some bands just sucked as time went on (too many examples here), and so their best should be labeled as the decade they formed in. But some bands really hit it in some decades than others, even if they were formed earlier. Take David Bowie for example. Not that great in the late 60s when he came out, but in the 70s he really shined. So probably the best way to categorize an artist or band is the decade they had the most pronounced effect in (or height of popularity).