40 sensational songs from the 1980s

Here at AudioPhix, we write a lot of lists. That probably isn’t news to you. The internet lives on lists. They provoke, anger, and maybe sometimes even inform. If you’re like me, you usually just tune in to see how much the list agrees with you. Then you can compliment or denigrate according to your druthers. (I always like to use “druthers” whenever possible.)

The key to a good list is focus. If the list is too broad, it can be rendered meaningless. I know that. I have been writing lists for a long time. But I’m throwing all that gathered experience right out the window on this one. Instead of narrowing in on the best metal or post-punk songs of a given time period, I’m just proclaiming the following to be the best songs… period… of the 1980s.

And of course, I picked the ‘80s because of all the eclectic decades in pop music history, it may be the most eclectic of them all. Which makes it even harder to conglomerate them all into something coherent. But I like a challenge.

Essential songs from the 1980s

The ‘80s are interesting because they were transitional. Classic rock had ceded ground in the world of pop music, but nothing had really grabbed the mantle yet. So we see a lot of genres – both fledgling and established – rapidly evolving to seize market share.

Hip-hop and Dance Pop weren’t yet as dominant as they were destined to become. Punk and Metal were moving from niche to mainstream. Funk and Country were both transitioning into something new. New Wave was – I suppose – new. And old-fashioned rock was still around, infusing all the genres with some of its DNA.

So we’re going to look at an eclectic list of songs, but we’ll try to apply some structure. To wit …

Casey Karem counted down the Top 40 songs in the land when I was a kid, so I am settling on 40 songs for this list. (I could have chosen 250, but I doubt you’d have the time to read that.) I won’t attempt to count them down. Instead, I’ll divvy them up into genres.

We’ll choose five songs apiece from six major genres, and then fill in the rest with a bit of a grab-bag. Ten more songs culled from five additional genres – a kind of lightning round which if my math is right, gets us to 40 songs in all.

I want to get at the aforementioned eclecticism, which is why I’m doing genres. I’m also following my typical rule of only allowing one selection per artist. Doing it this way means that some really outstanding songs won’t have a spot. But rest assured, a song won’t be on this list if it isn’t a truly remarkable example of whatever type of music it represents. There’s no filler on this album

We’ll begin with the granddaddy of all modern popular music – good old rock & roll.

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