Your 80s New Year’s Resolutions
By Julie Anderson After exchanging mix tapes with your friends, you’re admiring your new checkerboard Swatch while squeezed into your acid washed Guess Jeans. Your Member’s Only jacket is hanging in a place of honor in the closet and your gold Add a Bead necklace is around your neck. In other words, your holidays were totally bitchin’. On to the New Year! Let’s resolve to make it the best one yet, or at LEAST as good as 1984 was. For...
The Twelve 80s Songs of Christmas
So, have you been a righteous dude or babe this year? Hoping that Santa will put some bitchin’ 80s themed presents under your tree? And, of course, it’s the time of year for, like, hot apple cider (and hot toddies), carol singing, and thirty varieties of cookies. (But if Mom thinks I’m putting on that gnarly reindeer sweater again for the family card photo, she can totally think again. I’m so sure, Mom!) Crank up these tubular holiday...
Lyrics Video: Moron by Dead Milkmen
You either liked the Dead Milkmen or you didn’t. I did. A lot. This song, off of Eat Your Paisley, is them at their best. Enjoy!
Interview with Nick Richards of Boys Don’t Cry
September 3, 2011 Malibu, CA It was a beautiful day in Southern California as I drove through Malibu on my way to Nick Richards’ house for our interview. As I pulled into the drive, I was greeted with a sign on the gate that reads “Boogie Wonderland.” I took that to be a great start. I found Nick relaxed at home with family and friends in his beautiful retreat. After being greeted by the very friendly New Foundland, we moved to the...
Just You and Me, Babe: Romantic Duets of the 80s
The music of the 80s wasn’t just about hair bands, wailing sax, and stalker music. We had our share of songs that celebrated the tenderness and angst of true love, too. I am so in love with these romantic duets from the 1980s. First off, we have the best selling single of Diana Ross’s entire career: “Endless Love”, her duet with Lionel Ritchie. It was for the movie of the same name starring Brooke Shields, but the movie was nowhere...
80s Rebellion Songs
We’re Not Gonna Take It: When Authority Gives You a Bad Reputation, You Have Fight for Your Right to Smoke in the Boys Room June 13, 2011 Nothing feels quite like the exhilaration of letting your rebel flag fly. The thrill of doing the thing that you know you’re not supposed to do is timeless and not at all unique to one generation or another. I am sure there is some philosophical or more likely psychological theory that explains our...
The Joy of Sax: Sax Solos in 80s Music
By Julie Anderson When I signed up for seventh grade band in the fall of 1984, I desperately wanted to play the saxophone. Forget flute or piccolo or clarinet, the girly instruments: I wanted to wail on a tenor sax. They seemed mature, expressive, and totally sexy. Something a girl might play in a smoky jazz bar, sporting a slinky black dress and dark Wayfarers. Alas, my parents put the kibosh on my saxophone dreams and insisted on...
Mixing up an Awesome Summer, 80s Style
It’s almost Summer. You’re going to be doing some laying out in your Wayfarers with your trusty Walkman. You’re going to be driving around with the windows down and the volume up on your car’s cassette player. You’re going to want to listen to some rockin’ tunes on your jambox. You’re going to want to impress a special someone with your musical taste and generosity. You NEED a good mix tape. But what to put on it? A perfect mix tape...
Women Declaring (and Singing About) Their Independence in the 80s
In the 80s, American women were enjoying some hard-won equality battles. Many women were feeling strong, independent, and bold. They were ready to bring home the bacon and fry it up in the pan (after misting themselves with some Enjoli.) Women in the 1980s were feeling empowered. Of course, women wanted to sing about it, too. We related to songs about how we worked just as hard as men, about how we had personal goals that didn’t...
80s Pop Love Songs
Nothing brings back memories of first loves and crushes quite like the music that was on the radio at the time. It has the power to take you right back to the time and place that you associate with that song. We’ve put together a list of 80s love songs that are guaranteed to do just that. Thanks so much to our Facebook fans for suggesting many of the awesome songs shown here. There are so many to choose from that it was hard to keep...
80s New Wave / Alternative Love Songs
If your 80s musical tastes tend more towards new wave and otherwise alternative music, this is the love mix for you. Here are 16 80s alternative love songs for your Valentine that are sure to have him or her melting with you. What did we miss? What is your favorite new wave love song? Send us an email and we’ll add it to the list. Click the song names below to see the music videos for these awesome new wave love songs. Here’s hoping...
The Dark Side of 80s Music
The 80s saw a dark, modern edge come into pop music. Some of it was intense and brooding, some of it was stalker-ish, and some of it was downright threatening. The tunes were danceable enough, but now that we look back on the lyrics of some of them, it sounds like a few of these writers needed to sit in a romantic time-out chair for a little while. For some of the artists of the 80s, relationships were less about tender feelings and...
Top 5 Things that Never Should Have Existed in the 80s
By Ryan Zimmerman Ryan here. Back with my weekly top 5. This week’s top 5 is “Top 5 Things that Never Should Have Existed in the 80s.” 5. I Want Your Sex (sung by George Michael) Seemingly, in trying to sex up his image and forget the more delicate Wham days of “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” George Michael penned this crap-sterpiece, probably in about 4 minutes. George! You are so much better than this!...
Warrior, Scandal Music Video
Warrior Music Video Sandal, The Warrior, 1984 Information on Scandal on MTV.com
Beat It, Michael Jackson Music Video
Beat It Music Video Michael Jackson, Thriller, 1983 Information on Michael Jackson on MTV.com
