pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

part of what i love about this list is seeing this millennial hipster sensibility form that's as far from spin as spin was from rolling stone

in 2015 the kids reclaimed george benson

No it's like they've gone through the deep cuts and came out the other side and just decided to go with everyone's top 40 hit after all.

i'd agree if the carly pick was "coming around again"

Miles Davis's "Human Nature" > Michael Jackson's

well, it'll take another few years before Pitchfork replaces "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" with "You Give Good Love."

"let the river run"

"pitchfork turned into a quiet storm station so gradually i didn't even notice"

well, basically Eric Harvey's adult R&B essay from a few years ago finally affected got the Sades, Al B Sure!'s and Cherrelles in.

Plus every interview w a punk or indie rock band who goes on about their soft rock and pop tour songs.

All these bands on the road listening to classic pop radio, getting interviewed by P4K, and repping for "Fast Car".

imagine telling a spin writer in 1995 that in 2015 the biggest indecentric website would declare there weren't 20 songs better in the 80s than "i wanna dance (with somebody who loves me)"

indiecentric, i mean

crazy omissions left right and centre

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf_Lwe6p-Cg

list could use some debarge and george michael

I love george michael and i also love that he's the most THIS IS AN OUTRAGE exclusion from a pitchfork list

I HATE YOUR SITE
BUT I DONT KNOW HOW
BUT I DONT KNOW WHEN
TO OPEN YOUR EYES

but idk i'm just complaining. it's a neat shift in taste i just wish it wasn't mostly relegated to 200-100

Because otm. He should have multiple songs if Guns N Roses get to.

it's a neat shift in taste i just wish it wasn't mostly relegated to 200-100

100%, and while i love many a pixies and new order song i don't think they needed SO MANY songs up there, but i'm still appreciative that the purview of ryan schreiber has reached a point where the indignance is "WHERE IS TERENCE TRENT D'ARBY?"

That's one of the pitfalls of a list-by-committee. ARTIST has about five songs that seem like sure things, so people vote for two or three of them to make sure at least one of them gets in and then you wind up with three songs by the same artist in a list of 200 songs. I could've lived with either one of the GNR songs not being represented if it had cleared up a spot for "Save It for Later" or "Human."

no FGTH? list if too unwieldy for me too scroll thru again.

None.

ha I thought "Sign Your Name" would get the Knocked Up contingent.

At least they didn't put "Come On Eileen."

which is a song that I like but at one point (the '90s) seemed egregiously overrated.

mid-80s mtv pop-rock and new wave like "come on eileen" def got the shaft unless it was college rock crossover - no "in a big country," no johnny cougar, no "summer of '69," no "boys of summer," no go-gos, no bangles, etc etc

was there any duran duran? without an easily searchable listen its possible i missed "rio" or something

searchable list

anthony i think the shift you're talking about, while probably humorous to 2005 ilx, is indicative of how online media outlets now have to be as 'all things to all people' as possible

the shift where you leave out mtv pop-rock?

no the one about people being upset about the omission of george michael/wham! and ttd — both in-the-main pop artists (who at the time were heralded for their artistic vision!). this list is trying to canonize all of the pop music of the '80s despite the glaring omissions/excessive leaning on certain artists detailed upthread, which indicates a particular myopia.

also the quiet storm rise is probably in part because of drake, right :\

It was nice to see Chills "Pink Frost" on there. For Talk Talk I would have gone with "I Believe In You" instead.

No other strong opinions, though I agree it would have been interesting to see how much more indie lo-fi/jangle pop oriented it would have been if written 10ish years ago

i'm not denying that pitchfork has its omissions, myopic tendencies, etc, etc but if the goal was being "all things to all people" in an SEO stylee then they did a shitty job

(small voice)

I didn't vote for any george michael because I don't like him

I would have picked "Parkside 5-2" over "P.S.K. What Does It Mean?"

I knew you were hating (on him)

That's cool. If I were paring a list down to 200, I might not include any George Michael or Wham! either because I could probably find 200 things I like more. And I can't think of any GM or Wham! song that is THE song that has to be there, either.

if anything the types of blind-spots we're pointing out underscore that this isn't an "all-things-to-all-people" list of the "HEY REMEMBER THE 80s" variety, but rather the expression of a certain critical mindset. one that, just like the rock mags before it, is distinctive in both its interests and its weakenesses.

"careless whisper"

(My likely choices would be I Want Your Sex and Freedom).

well then i suppose no one aligned behind one single (i would've actually picked "one more try")

An all-things-to-all-people list would be published by Buzzfeed. This list is identifiably Pitchforkian from beginning to end, but the Pitchfork of 2015 and not the Pitchfork of 2003. They're doing a good job and making a list full of songs with straight lines to the music they're reviewing on a daily basis.

also the quiet storm rise is probably in part because of drake, right :\

really think this actually just corresponds to the tastes of the ppl who ended up writing the blurbs

the degree to which the list ignores the music between r&b radio and 120 minutes - with the exception of some diamond-selling icons - is actually kind of amazing when you compare it to how many people think of "the eighties"

Was George Michael on the ILM '80s results?

They really should have put "Stand" on there; then they could have it both ways, including a historically important band AND trolling aging REM fans who hate this song.

(I mean, also, "Stand" is a tremendous pop single that belongs on this list anyway, very much of the '80s but completely absent from people's reflexive "hey remember the '80s" mental playlist as far as I can see.)

Like I said in the Slicing Up Eyeballs comments, if you were looking at a list that properly reflected the eighties, you'd see Mr. Mister and Taylor Dayne and Bonnie Tyler and Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams, but that's not the kind of list they were making.

really anyone who isn't of the "pixies were great but oh man have you heard cherelle" brand of nerd is going to be very, very disappointed if they click on this thing

i bet daryl hall is mad he didn't make the top 50 so i hope someone lets him know he's above peter gabriel and that paul simon didn't even make the list