List seems to misunderstand the difference between records and songs.

New Order didn't write great songs. Most of what makes Blue Monday or Shellshock work is the production.

Best song of the 80s is Kiss by Prince. It has that timeless quality of great songs - anyone could pick it up and play it on anything.

No vanilla ice? List sucks.

Misconduc: No vanilla ice? List sucks.

Wrong decade.

HS and college in the 80s....and most of the top 10 is Brit Shiat that few in America listened to. I'll give this credit for recognizing Prince (not his best song), Neneh Cherry, and Talking Heads (OIAL would be a OK #1)

And, no one listened to The Smiths in the USA...no one

Problem when music critics, not music buyers, rank music

The impression I get from that list is "fan favorites of a self-absorbed Brit." I'm not sure even other self-absorbed Brits would largely agree with the choices on that list.

UCFRoadWarrior: HS and college in the 80s....and most of the top 10 is Brit Shiat that few in America listened to. I'll give this credit for recognizing Prince (not his best song), Neneh Cherry, and Talking Heads (OIAL would be a OK #1)

And, no one listened to The Smiths in the USA...no one


Well, it IS a British mag.

Stile4aly: Do you like Phil Collins? I've been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album, Duke.
you would like "trick of the tail" "Duke" has 5 incredible songs, the first 3 and last 2. Duke's travels and Duke's end could be their best under Collins, who i thought was too motown for a progressive rock musician.
/Peter Banks makes Duke a great recording rather than Collins

I got to #94, where "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us" by the execrable Starship is ranked higher than the sublime "Shipbuilding" by Elvis Costello and the Attractions. That was far enough.

I was hating that list til I got to the Top 5, and the inclusion of Love Will Tear Us Apart made me feel better.

Still, every time I read an NME article I have the overwhelming desire to punch the NME staff in their collective face.

Interesting list, but missing so much from the soundtrack of my formative years: J. Geils Band, Rod Stewart, Adam and the Ants, Oingo Boingo, etc.

I love '80s music.

Sunni LaBeouf: [assets.rollingstone.com image 306x306]

1978

Really? Neither of these could make the list, but Grace Jones, Lil' Louis and S-Express do? Really?

"Everybody wants to rule the world" and "shout" should fit in as well

BroVinny: Interesting list, but missing so much from the soundtrack of my formative years: J. Geils Band, Rod Stewart, Adam and the Ants, Oingo Boingo, etc.

I love '80s music.

Mostly agree, but in the 80's, Rod Stewart was also blowing goats.

/I have proof of this, too.

Probably the worst top 100 list from the 80's I've ever seen. How can you have a list like that without REM, Tears for Fears, the B-52's, Billy Idol, Culture Club, Styx, Foriegner, REO Speedwagon and about a dozen others. A lot of what they had were good bands but were songs that weren't even popular in the day.

This list would have been better titled "75 obscure songs from the 80's that only I liked with 25 good ones thrown in so I don't look like a complete moron."

No "Thriller"?
Really?
I mean REALLY?

I think if I had to pick an 80's album that was critically lauded at the time, popular with the public, and objectively well-made, it would have to be Synchronicit by The Police. I was never a major fan of the band or their music, but the music holds up pretty well. But that album came out in 1983, before the musical crap-tsunami had really broken over America. I generally consider the musical decade of the "1980's" to begin in 1984 and end in 1991 or so. (You could probably argue that the musical decade of the 1980's ended when Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit came out. Seems like as good a mile marker as any.)

Buffalo Stance? That shouldn't even be on a top 100 list, let alone at number 7.

No Black Flag? Seriously?

Joe Jackson
Tears For Fears
Hall and Oates
The Police

Come on...

And the list absolutely fails without "Everything She Wants."

I_C_Weener: That is the most pretentious and eclectic list of top 100 "best" songs of the 80s I've ever seen.

Not one mention of Huey Lewis.

Or Rod Stewart..

/My Heart Can't Tell You No..

whyerhead: I_C_Weener: That is the most pretentious and eclectic list of top 100 "best" songs of the 80s I've ever seen.

Not one mention of Huey Lewis.

Or Rod Stewart..

/My Heart Can't Tell You No..

I loved Infatuation. Of course, I was the type to stare at women through binocs too.

She comes in colors everywhere: BroVinny: Interesting list, but missing so much from the soundtrack of my formative years: J. Geils Band, Rod Stewart, Adam and the Ants, Oingo Boingo, etc.

I love '80s music.

Mostly agree, but in the 80's, Rod Stewart was also blowing goats.

/I have proof of this, too.

Meh, "Young Turks" was catchy, and "Infatuation" was ubiquitous at one time; these were what I was thinking of.

I'd also add The Stray Cats eponymous first album to the list. Again, though, it came out in 1981, which I consider outside the "1980's" musical envelope. (Anyhow, Brian Setzer seems to exist outside of any musical era: in his world, it's 1955 all the time, baby.)

That's a pretty good list, but I was honestly surprised not to see the Art of Noise there. They did some damned fine work that was both popular and innovative, from both a musical and video perspective. Much as I like New Order (and did quite a bit of happy dancing to them at the clubs), they were pretty over-represented in the list. Also, while it's hard to deny that the Smiths / Morrissey were influential, they made me want to repeatedly stab my eardrums with steak knives. The list could have done with fewer slots for them. But that's just, like, my opinion, man.

Eurythmics are missing.

Hall & Oats (how many top 10s did they have in the 80s?).


Beastie Boys?

UCFRoadWarrior: HS and college in the 80s....and most of the top 10 is Brit Shiat that few in America listened to. I'll give this credit for recognizing Prince (not his best song), Neneh Cherry, and Talking Heads (OIAL would be a OK #1)

And, no one listened to The Smiths in the USA...no one


Bullshiat. I'm in the same age group as you and we definitely listened to the Smiths in college.

UCFRoadWarrior: HS and college in the 80s....and most of the top 10 is Brit Shiat that few in America listened to. I'll give this credit for recognizing Prince (not his best song), Neneh Cherry, and Talking Heads (OIAL would be a OK #1)

And, no one listened to The Smiths in the USA...no one

Problem when music critics, not music buyers, rank music

I did. I grew up in the '80s also and figured out at an early age that most other Americans (those "buyers of music") had lousy tastes in music. I recognized American pop like Michael Jackson and Madonna as being crap and preferred "Brit Shiat" like The Clash, U2, Duran Duran, The Cure, The Cult etc. To this day, I still do.

The list needs some Matt Johnson/The The, The Cult (no "Firewoman" or "Sanctuary"???), Thomas Dolby, and "Rio" should be replaced with "Girls On Film" or "Planet Earth."

Missing:

Bronski Beat/Communards
Bauhaus/Peter Murphy
Cult
Howard Jones
Adam Ant
Peter Gabriel (FFS!)

farkeruk: New Order didn't write great songs. Most of what makes Blue Monday or Shellshock work is the production.

I think the lyrics of Blue Monday perfectly capture the meaning of the 80s.

JasonOfOrillia:
I know, I'm disappointed too. No Tom Sawyer? No Subdivisions? No Enemy Within?

Always thought that was the quintessential "Teenager in the 80's" song. Seemed to capture the mood/feeling almost perfectly.

/Born in 1970
/Definite "80's Child"

IntertubeUser: UCFRoadWarrior: HS and college in the 80s....and most of the top 10 is Brit Shiat that few in America listened to. I'll give this credit for recognizing Prince (not his best song), Neneh Cherry, and Talking Heads (OIAL would be a OK #1)

And, no one listened to The Smiths in the USA...no one

Problem when music critics, not music buyers, rank music

I did. I grew up in the '80s also and figured out at an early age that most other Americans (those "buyers of music") had lousy tastes in music. I recognized American pop like Michael Jackson and Madonna as being crap and preferred "Brit Shiat" like The Clash, U2, Duran Duran, The Cure, The Cult etc. To this day, I still do.

The list needs some Matt Johnson/The The, The Cult (no "Firewoman" or "Sanctuary"???), Thomas Dolby, and "Rio" should be replaced with "Girls On Film" or "Planet Earth."

People who listened to stations like WXRT in Chicago actually did listen to the The Smiths.... just that that wasn't a wide spectrum of people.

I do say 19985 was a great year for music
Bruce Hornsby's "the way it is" is a great song as well

expobill: I do say 1985 was a great year for music
Bruce Hornsby's "the way it is" is a great song as well

No chance of broad agreement on this list, but such as it was, that was a pretty damn good list. What's weird to me is that the '80s was my musical heyday, I had a very broad range of tastes (my first concert was Howard Jones, my second was Iron Maiden, and I may have been the only kid in Boulder listening to NWA and Public Enemy), and there were a surprising number of songs there I didn't recognize.

My "list fails without" would be "Free Nelson Mandela."

/also, list had no country
//but to be fair, country sucked in the '80s

No Peter Gabriel on the list? That's a glaring oversight. And Bowie's Ashes To Ashes should be in the top 10.

Normally I love a list like this which calls out plenty of Cure, New Order and JAMC. But it's missing WAY too many better and more influential songs from that era.

maelstrom0370: JasonOfOrillia:
I know, I'm disappointed too. No Tom Sawyer? No Subdivisions? No Enemy Within?

Always thought that was the quintessential "Teenager in the 80's" song. Seemed to capture the mood/feeling almost perfectly.

/Born in 1970
/Definite "80's Child"

Be cool or be cast out. Teenage alienation is always a theme but between New Wave and John Hughes it seems to be a major theme of my teenage years. Subdivisions hit that nail on the head.

I did. I grew up in the '80s also and figured out at an early age that most other Americans (those "buyers of music") had lousy tastes in music. I recognized American pop like Michael Jackson and Madonna as being crap and preferred "Brit Shiat" like The Clash, U2, Duran Duran, The Cure, The Cult etc. To this day, I still do.

I retreated to the blues. Old stuff: Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, the Three Kings (B.B., Freddie, and Albert), Robert Johnson (and this was before the reissues where all you could get were crappy dupes of old album sides). The Cyndi Lauper era completely passed me by, as did the Van Hagar phenomenon. I hung around with people who listened to Ratt and Quiet Riot and The Scorpions, but mostly I just listened to the blues and beat up on my guitar in the evenings.

I never could get into britpunk, britpop or the shoegaze stuff, then or now. It always struck me as an atonal, monotone, depressing, meandering mess. Slightly altered Sex Pistols or wannabe Lou Reed stuff.

And Duran Duran? Seriously? That's horrible and you should feel bad.

Man this list just out and out sucks. I'm not clicking on any more links to song lsits or band lists on Fark. Rolling Stone lists are horrible and everyone else's are worse.

too bad U2 did not do anything that decade.
or Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and Steve Lillywhite

bluesbox:

And Duran Duran? Seriously? That's horrible and you should feel bad.
I don't. Not in the least.

Most people who knock DD never gave them a chance. I'd argue that they are very good musicians, that their work has held up over time, and that they've had/still having a hell of a career.

Interesting list. They at least attempted diversity.

I'd have included at least one track from:

Housemartins
10,000 Maniacs
Kirsty MacColl
The The
Go-Gos