To make these Best Songs lists work for me, even as I progress along the decades, I have made a conscious effort not to repeat artists from previous lists and to limit my selections to artists and/or songs that in my view, are strongly representative of the decade in question.
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It was a little instructional to binge watch this 2nd season to Netflix’s 80s scifi homage Stranger Things after catching the risible Thor: Ragnarok. If nothing else, Stranger Things 2 demonstrated that the golden age of scifi movies was definitely the 80s.
Star Wars changed the face of cinema when it was released in 1977, never mind the face of scifi movies. In the decade following its whirlwind success, 13 films (included the Star Wars sequels) built on the new paradigm which director George Lucas had provided.
Back in the early 90s, when Nirvana were top of the charts, alternative rock became the ‘in-thing’ and suddenly, the so-called ‘corporate rock’ of the 80s was something to be disdained by the grunge generation. Despite being critically reviled, here are seven examples of great rock songs that deserve a revaluation.
When MTV first exploded, the music video suddenly became THE ultimate promotional tool for the record labels. Here’s five MVs from the 80s that we dug.
What were yours?
Comebacks are on the agenda in today’s PoPTV.
80s band The Primitives are back with a new album. Here’s the video for title track and lead single.
NINETEEN EIGHTY
A transitional year for me. I welcomed the new decade as a National Serviceman having enlisted on Boxing Day, 1979. But more importantly, my musical tastes were changing as well, significantly. Sometime in 1978, I had been exposed to punk when a JC friend played to my friends & I, the Sex Pistols‘ Anarchy in the UK LP (banned in Singapore but smuggled in for good measure) and to be honest I was unimpressed. For a pop-rock lover weaned on The Beatles, Deep Purple, Queen, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, the Sex Pistols seemed dumb and barbaric!
That said, by 1980 I had begun to cotton on to the post-punk movement and had already started listening to the pioneering new bands of that era, which seemed far removed from the old-school rockers of my relative youth. Fueled by the noises made by rock mags like NME, Sounds & Melody Maker, I had started to abandon the old bands (as irrelevant) and had ’embraced’ the future of rock.
More recommended listening @ Spotify! This week we look at obscure post-punk from the late 70s/80s that fans of contemporary revivalist bands might wanna check out…
SOUTHERN DEATH CULT (1981 – 1983)
A early 80s goth rock band that is best remembered for providing singer Ian Astbury the platform from which he would form Death Cult with guitarist Billy Duffy before finding success as The Cult. Listen to its eponymous debut LP below.
