prurient in a church in troy. that's pretty damn poetic.
― scott seward, Monday, 13 July 2015 23:29 (eight years ago) link
http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/9700-the-200-best-songs-of-the-1980s/
TOP 10 SPOILER ALERT:
10. "How Soon Is Now?"9. "The Message"8. "Once in a Lifetime"7. "Love Will Tear Us Apart"6. "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)"5. "Fight the Power"4. "Blue Monday"3. "Straight Outta Compton"2. "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin"1. "Purple Rain"
Hardly visionary, but I'm sure there's a lot of cool stuff in the 200-50s
― niels, Monday, 24 August 2015 11:18 (eight years ago) link
here's a spotify playlist with 191 of its songs https://open.spotify.com/user/norwich5/playlist/5rYtPUau6Aewf3UrsM7r66
― maura, Monday, 24 August 2015 14:40 (eight years ago) link
great list!
― welltris (crüt), Monday, 24 August 2015 14:42 (eight years ago) link
nah but
― maura, Monday, 24 August 2015 14:43 (eight years ago) link
(shruggie)
― maura, Monday, 24 August 2015 14:44 (eight years ago) link
not to sound like all the idiot rockist/crypto-racist Slicing Up Eyeballs commenters who are complaining about this list, but no Human League was a lil surprising to me
― welltris (crüt), Monday, 24 August 2015 14:46 (eight years ago) link
a lot of great choices through 200-101 and then it hardens into an established, only lightly distorted version of canon, there are also a lot of inexplicable omissions and some u2 songs
― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Monday, 24 August 2015 14:47 (eight years ago) link
...and Hall & Oates.
― The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Monday, 24 August 2015 14:48 (eight years ago) link
...and Michael McDonald.
― The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Monday, 24 August 2015 14:49 (eight years ago) link
no george michael, no 'perfect way,' no pointer sisters, no freestyle (unless you count shannon who to me was always on the cusp), no country, no 'higher love,' totally weak on all the weird left-field pop that bubbled up from secondary and tertiary markets to the charts and made top 40 radio an exciting place
also 'straight outta compton' being picked as the '80s best hip-hop track is just, i mean, what?
― maura, Monday, 24 August 2015 14:49 (eight years ago) link
"Love Will Tear Us Apart" is such a mediocre song
― welltris (crüt), Monday, 24 August 2015 14:49 (eight years ago) link
the post-disco/electro-funk inclusions are the real highlight of the list and their blurbs are almost exclusively written by deej, tim, or meaghan garvey, thrilling me
― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Monday, 24 August 2015 14:49 (eight years ago) link
and like... 'about a girl' but not 'touch me i'm sick'? come onnnnnnnnn
the selection/order/distribution of janet and madonna singles is baffling but
― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Monday, 24 August 2015 14:51 (eight years ago) link
Alan Parsons Project right between Frankie Knuckles and Madonna, where it belongs.
― how's life, Monday, 24 August 2015 14:51 (eight years ago) link
this is the main reason i think this list is great
no 'perfect way,' no pointer sisters, no freestyle (unless you count shannon who to me was always on the cusp), no country
agree that the list needs more of ^^^
i was just happy to see Egyptian Lover first thing
― welltris (crüt), Monday, 24 August 2015 14:51 (eight years ago) link
yeah i was gonna say that i love nwa as much as anybody but calling straight outta compton the third best song of the decade isn't just revisionist, it reeks of au courant click prioritization
― Meta Forksclove-Liebeskind (forksclovetofu), Monday, 24 August 2015 14:52 (eight years ago) link
on the other hand, this is a fun mix to listen to because these are pretty much all very good and well remembered songsnumbering lists by priority and then having DEEP MEANINGFUL ISSUES with those priorities is pretty much always meh
― Meta Forksclove-Liebeskind (forksclovetofu), Monday, 24 August 2015 14:54 (eight years ago) link
xpostI felt the same way about Nirvana being on an 80s list.
― The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Monday, 24 August 2015 14:54 (eight years ago) link
― welltris (crüt), Monday, August 24, 2015 7:49 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― oh, i am a lonlely poster. i live in a box of posts. (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 24 August 2015 15:00 (eight years ago) link
no country
George Clinton once called "Purple Rain" a country song in disguise, which is kind of true. But that's not even the best song on Purple Rain (the album), much less from the whole decade.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 24 August 2015 15:06 (eight years ago) link
alexinnyc will be asking where is: Killing Joke - Love like Blood
― djmartian, Monday, 24 August 2015 15:13 (eight years ago) link
Thanks crüt for the tip on the Slicing Up Eyeballs reactions. Hoo boy! I maybe have problems with this list, but when you're writing comments like "I can't take this serious because I never heard of a lot of trash here," you are a dope.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 24 August 2015 15:19 (eight years ago) link
i counted 137 songs that i like/love. i don't mind that this list is half random and half the usual. lots of great music. fugazi is ugh to me. their one good song is nowhere near as good as a good minor threat song. also, no B-52s no credibility.
― scott seward, Monday, 24 August 2015 15:27 (eight years ago) link
also, when i saw grace jones on there i couldn't help but think that you could replace ten of the songs on this list with ten grace jones songs and you would make your list better.
― scott seward, Monday, 24 August 2015 15:30 (eight years ago) link
Can you imagine the "criminally excluded" list if they done this ten if not fifteen years ago
― da croupier, Monday, 24 August 2015 15:44 (eight years ago) link
These lists are always a photograph of its authors current fascinations and canon, and man Ive seen worse
― da croupier, Monday, 24 August 2015 15:46 (eight years ago) link
Exactly. If they'd done this list in 2000, it would've been all Mission of Burma and R.E.M. and maybe one token rap single.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 24 August 2015 15:49 (eight years ago) link
Without talking about exclusions - there will always be exclusions - I would swap "When Doves Cry" (11) with "Purple Rain" (1).
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 24 August 2015 15:53 (eight years ago) link
I'm pretty sure 10 years ago the highest charting Kate Bush tune in the list would have been below 50, this is a turn of the tide I'm particularly fond of.
― cpl593H, Monday, 24 August 2015 15:56 (eight years ago) link
Purple Rain is one of the most 60s/70s-sounding songs of the entire 80s and When Doves Cry is futuristic even now. iow, I agree with you. xp
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 24 August 2015 15:57 (eight years ago) link
purple rain is really such a bore of a choice
― jamiesummerz, Monday, 24 August 2015 16:02 (eight years ago) link
*prince choice
― jamiesummerz, Monday, 24 August 2015 16:03 (eight years ago) link
seems like the UK in general and synth-pop in particular are underrepresented. No 'Tainted Love'?still, there's something kind of fun about the uber-indie rock site more or less snubbing a lot of college rock.
― campreverb, Monday, 24 August 2015 16:05 (eight years ago) link
don't mind most of the list! If anything, it tracks Pitchfork's progress since injecting new blood almost a decade ago.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 August 2015 16:05 (eight years ago) link
whether its a tendency of consensus, an active aesthetic choice or a little of both, pitchfork tends to give the top spot of their big lists to grand expressions of romantic sentiment - "purple rain," "seasons (waiting on you), "Hold on we're going home," "midnight city," "gold soundz," "god only knows". big exception: "oblivion"
― da croupier, Monday, 24 August 2015 16:05 (eight years ago) link
I mean, "Love Come Down" and refs to Rene & Angela would've been unheard of in 2005.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 August 2015 16:06 (eight years ago) link
whether its a tendency of consensus, an active aesthetic choice or a little of both, pitchfork tends to give the top spot of their big lists to grand expressions of romantic sentiment -
yeah where IS "He Stopped Loving Her Today"?
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 August 2015 16:07 (eight years ago) link
confession - i would have forgotten to include george jones on my Best 80s Songs Ever ballot too
― da croupier, Monday, 24 August 2015 16:08 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f16Fw_K45s
― Meta Forksclove-Liebeskind (forksclovetofu), Monday, 24 August 2015 16:08 (eight years ago) link
dunno if it's the most egregious miss but it was one of the first things i looked for that wasn't there
― Meta Forksclove-Liebeskind (forksclovetofu), Monday, 24 August 2015 16:09 (eight years ago) link
i kinda wish #1 had either been "straight outta compton" in a fit of YES IT IS 2015 or "I've Had The Time Of My Life" with a video of all the writers dancing at the launch party
― da croupier, Monday, 24 August 2015 16:10 (eight years ago) link
"How Soon Is Now" for the Smiths"Just Like Heaven" for the Cure
Yeah this is a really boring list.
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 24 August 2015 16:10 (eight years ago) link
yeah but "Never Too Much"
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 August 2015 16:11 (eight years ago) link
its better if you start at the bottom
― da croupier, Monday, 24 August 2015 16:12 (eight years ago) link
I think I've finally gotten confident enough to finally admit that I do not particularly care for "How Soon Is Now." There, I said it.
― The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Monday, 24 August 2015 16:12 (eight years ago) link
"How Soon Is Now & "Just Like Heaven" are kinda beloved. I suppose they didn't need to place as high as they did, but they needed to be in there.
― billstevejim, Monday, 24 August 2015 16:13 (eight years ago) link
if you're the kind of person who knows the 80s canon very well thank you imo it's better not to cross your fingers that the top ten will blow yr mind but to be like 'hey a carly simon 12-inch'
― da croupier, Monday, 24 August 2015 16:13 (eight years ago) link
"How Snore Is Now"
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 24 August 2015 16:13 (eight years ago) link