themusicaddict: Why The Best Decade For Music is the 80s: Exhibit 4,333,082

Friday, April 15, 2016

Why The Best Decade For Music is the 80s: Exhibit 4,333,082

Hello,

This is inspired by (alright stolen) from the March 4th, 2016 Entertainment Weekly. The original chart was posted by Billboard Magazine. This 1986 Top Ten is such a great example of the amazing music of the 80s. I love all the different genres represented here. We have rock, pop, old school soul, new wave and the mysterious sensual music of Sade. About the only thing we are missing is the great rap and some hair metal. But by my count, there are about 5 different genres represented in this Top 10. This wasn't a one time thing- this happened throughout the 80s. You could turn on the radio and hear a Prince song, followed by Europe and then followed by Tears For Fears. The 80's may be over, but long live the 80's.

Here's the Top Ten songs from the first week of March, 1986:

#10) Like many great 70's bands Heart had a bit of a comeback in the 80s. Heart has a lot of good songs in the 80s. This isn't one of my favorites, but a perfectly decent song.

#9) The 80s had some great ballads, and those great ballads weren't in just one genre. Even the hair metal had great ballads- they were called power ballads. For instance Warrant's "Heaven" and my personal favorite power ballad was Poison's "Every Rose Has It's Thorn". But for terms of this blog at #9 is Atlantic Starr's "Secret Lovers":

#8) What do you do when your regular band Genesis isn't recording? Well you go out on your own, this is Mike Rutherfood's side project. Besides this song Mike and the Mechanics had hits with "All I Need Is A Miracle" and "The Living Years". Mike and the Mechanics "Silent Running":

#7 One of the many one hit wonders scattered across the 80s was The Dream Academy. Sugarland has done a pretty great version of this song as well. The Dream Academy's "Life In A Northern Town":

Here's Sugarland's version of this amazing song. Jennifer Nettles has one of the prettiest voices in current music.:

#6) There were a lot of great Billys in the 80's- Joel and Idol are probably the two most famous- but Billy Ocean was also great. I don't think he ever got the love he deserved. This song brings me back to a simpler time. No internet, no constant cell phone annoyance, watching MTV all afternoon and when any thing seemed possible. "When The Going Gets Tough (The Jewel of the Nile Theme)":

Ironically my favorite Billy Ocean song isn't even a "Billy Ocean" song. My favorite song that he does is the Beatles "The Long and Winding Road":

#5) I love me some Sade, as EW points out who knows how many babies were conceived to her music. Even here in 2011 she was still gorgeous and still had that gorgeous voice. Sade's "The Sweetest Taboo":

4) This song is still in heavy rotation on my iPod. The 80s were an era with the great music of Prince and The Time, it was great for Godfather of Funk to make a comeback with this funk classic. James Brown's "Living In America":

3) Okay maybe the video is a bit cheesy, what 80's video isn't, but this is still a great song. What started out as Jefferson Airplane eventually became this radio friendly band. Starship's "Sara":

2) Has there ever been a better voice ever, it's so sad she died so young. Not only a great voice, but an absolutely beautiful woman. I may or may not have had a crush on her back in the day. Whitney Houston's "How Will I Know": The original: