Hip To Be Square: Remembering the 80's

After Spending countless nights watching Much More Retro (Canadian version of VH1 Classic) I've come to realize that the music that dominated the 80's was much more than just bad hair and over the top makeup. Granted, I've always appreciated New Wave but it wasn't until recently that I saw just how strong some of the songwriting was back then and how it deserves much more respect than what it is given.

Of course, my view of the music of that specific decade could be askew since essentially all I'm really seeing/hearing from those days is most likely the cream of the crop and I don't doubt that there was a fair share of garbage on the radio and MTV as there is today.

But there is just something to those ridiculously infectious hooks that I can honestly say are amongst the finest batch of pop songs of the past 25 years.

A-Ha's "Take On Me" might be a song that you laugh at when someone plays it in the car (behind tightly rolled windows), but if you listen to it closely, and just let that gorgeous melody sink in you may find yourself concluding that the track has got to be one of the best radio singles in recent memory and much more than just a dated staple that we are led to believe.

If you can look past the ghastly production techniques that dominated the times (Someone PLEASE do something about the reverb on those drums!) you will see that the 1980's brought forth a golden era of pop music. I don't want to make another music post that whines about the music of today not being up to speed with the music of the past in regards to the quality of what we find on the radio, but at the same time, it's hard not to see the top 30 Billboard singles of today and compare them to the top 20 of this week in 1986 and not feel a little discouraged in some aspects.

I mean who can forget Madonna? One of the 10 most influential pop icons in music history (along with another 80's staple in the once brilliant Michael Jackson) and when skimming through her several tremendous singles she put out (as well as often times wrote herself) during the 80's we can see how well sex appeal with great songwriting to match gives us a true definition of a pop star as oppose to scantily clad girls in their late teens who often have a shelf life of 5 years or take a hit once they take more than a year off to recoup.



Yes, I could do without some of the songs by Air Supply, Whitney Houson, and *cringes*....Michael Bolton, but the emphasis placed on the art of the great pop hook seems to have been lost in the muddle somewhere between "The Macarena" and "London Bridge"

I was never able to appreciate the hair metal that ran rampant throughout the decade and there was definitely some bad music being made in those times (as with any time music was being recorded) but something really needs to be said for just how great the songs of Tears for Fears, Duran Duran, New Order, Pet Shop Boys, and Depeche Mode really were.

The music videos we see today on the retro channels may illicit a snarky laugh and have us wondering how people were able to get away with what they could judging by the awful outfits and questionable personas, but if we look underneath the surface, we'll find plenty of songs that are simply timeless and transcend the lack of seriousness people give to one hell of a fine era in music.


Here are some key songs I'd recommend some of you revisit and really pay attention to how well they were constructed....


New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle
Duran Duran - New Moon on Monday
Depeche Mode - Everything Counts
Thompson Twins - Doctor Doctor
Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen
Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls
Tears for Fears - Everybody Wants to Rule the World
A-Ha - Take On Me
Human League - Don't' You Want Me Baby
Madonna - Lucky Star
The Cure - Just Like Heaven
The Smiths - This Charming Man
Michael Jackson - Billie Jean
Joe Jackson - Steppin Out
Talking Heads - Burning Down the House
Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time
The Clash - Rock the Casbah
Men Without Hats - We Can Dance
Madness - Our House
Psychedelic Furs - Love My Way
Hall and Oats - Private Eyes
Nena - 99 Red Balloons
The Go Go's - Our Lips Are Sealed


....Now of course, there are many many songs that were omitted, as well as the biggest hits of some of the above mentioned artists, and I failed to touch upon some of the other big hitters such as U2 and the Police, but I wanted to focus more on the mainstream groups that people don't take quite as seriously as well as some of the songs I really enjoy for the most part.