pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

lol the list is actually better and slightly more idiosyncratic than the ilm poll results ;_;

swap out both guns n roses songs for whodini "friends" and newcleus "jam on it"

put toto's "africa" at the #1 spot (jk but that song rules anyway)

speaking of toto, i will not hear any complaints about mj's "human nature" being so high!

'human nature' is an uber classic & my highest ranking personal fav mj song

The instrumental rideout with Vincent Price's monologue on "Thriller" is my favorite MJ song, but I guess parts of songs aren't eligible.

newcleus "jam on it"

This song changed my life as a 9 year old.

led zep for scaredycats

Yes you are so hardcore and an intellectual giant who had it all down at fifteen

haha dude i sooooo didn't think that at 15

and i still love rem, i'm just also capable of lighthearted, albeit reductive sum-ups

personally revisited H&O for this list & found "Your Kiss Is On My List" has aged best but nothing i could do

ok i really don't understand led zep for scaredycats, help me croup

well like led zep they're an exceptionally gorgeous band that swung pretty wildly stylistically compared to their peers, a singer whose lyrical quality is dubious but there's no denying people cling to his siren song. and like led zep they shoulda broke up with the drummer went out of commission. "scaredycats" just cuz like this shit is timid mush compared to zep, c'mon

and the point that i heard rem '83-'93 by high school isn't meant to be impressive. it's not impressive to like a top ten hit when your 10, and eventually have the band's discography by 15. my point is that its hard for me to engage with rem in a "how to convince an adult they're the bees knees" when my sense of them being the bees knees came when i was so young.

when the drummer went out of commission, rather

i realize this is very reductive shorthand, but no one should reach terror level You Think You're So Great about it

nah they picked the right H&O

k i'll allow it.

my case--in the 80s they wrote a bunch of snappy little numbers, in the 90s they were a much more interesting arena band than u2.

if the problem is "scaredycats" is too dismissive, pretend i said "sensitives" or "liberals" or whatever - i coulda called zep "rem for vikings" on the other side of the coin

I played a Rickenbacker 360 at Guitar Center a month or so ago and it was like, wow, this is truly a beautiful musical instrument.

It was like two grand or something.

nah they picked the right H&O

― brimstead, Monday, August 24, 2015 10:29 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

song is played

anyway idk why people are mocking the george benson cut when its a certified quincy jones / rod temperton slapper in the vein of 'rock with you' 'stomp' and 'ai no corrida'

20 favs that didnt make it

Bananarama: "Cruel Summer"
Marshall Jefferson: "Move Your Body"
Audio Two: "Top Billin'"
Bernard Wright: "Who Do You Love"
Michael Franks: "Lotus Blossom"
Shirley Lites: "Heat You Up"
SOS Band: "Just Be Good to Me"
Prince: I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man
Debarge: "I Like It"
Billy Idol: "Rebel Yell"
Paris: I Choose You
Nick Straker Band: "A Little Bit of Jazz"
Gwen Guthrie: "7th Heaven"
Eric B and Rakim: My Melody
Gypsy Kings: "Bamboleo"
Lil Louis: "French Kiss"
Spoonie Gee: Love Rap
Anita Baker: Sweet Love
Paul Simon: "The Boy In the Bubble"
Cameo: "She's Strange"

also, everything on Hotter than July by Stevie Wonder

5 more

Keith Sweat: "How Deep Is Your Love"
Alicia Meyers: I Want To Thank You
LL Cool J: "I'm Bad"
Jan Hammer: Crockett's Theme
Regina Belle: "Baby Come To Me"

ok im done

Hmm, just noticed they didn't rate Pump Up the Volume by M/A/R/R/S. That's kinda inexplicable.

loooool yessss

they should have put "pump up the jam" on in honor of this timeless thread: PUMP UP THE VOLUME /V/S/ PUMP UP THE JAM (clearly the p4k staff has read all of ilm's classic threads)

oh hey, i did this (because of course i did)
ILX's 200 Songs of the 80's That Aren't in Pitchfork's Top 200 Songs of the 80's Spotify Playlist
We're only short 60 or so. Make your case.

^compiles most everything available on the service that's been mentioned since the list came up, if it wasn't clear

(plus, you know, a number of tracks i wanted on)
been listening to dazz band while compiling this, worth the work

some of my adds include 6'n the mornin, cokane in my brain, when i hear music, always on my mind, 9 to 5

also: africa must be free by 1983, the glamorous life, nightmare on my street, electric avenue

Ace of Spades is on the PF list, btw.

(switching out for master of puppets)

or orion actually

also sekoi fali by the bulgarian women's radio choir

aw that hugh mundell is 78 and not 80's till it hit the uk/us so i'll remove on a technicality
so subbing in Byron Lee's "Tiny Winey", the cover of which was an early heterosexual awakening marker
also yellowman's zungguzunngguguzungguzeng because i'm tired and it feels right

Kid Creole & The Coconuts - Stool Pigeon
Junior - Mama Used to Say (original version not on Spotify, just a re-recording)
Marshall Crenshaw - Whenever You're on My Mind

Ready for the World - Oh Sheila

the glamorous life is on the list too

seems lke a dumb exercise imo once ppl just start naming 80s songs but w/e

Yeah, I mean I already mentioned the three songs upthread I thought absolutely should've been included (and I'd stan just as hard for "Oh Sheila"), but I guess I'm just contributing good stuff to forks' playlist at this point...which, btw, got me to listen to S.O.S Band for the first time and now they're my new favorite thing.

never been wild about 'oh sheila', feels like something wrote on a napkin that sheila e rejected & is more hook than song imho

something *prince* wrote

it ain't best-of-decade material but it's dope

Why is there no Tom Waits? 80s are his best decade by far.

Apart from Doves Cry would change all Prince songs to SOTT-songs lol

Hows about an opinion (positive or negative) on a blurb for a change eh?

no If I Was Your Girlfriend is a genuine 0_o as that's become the hip pick from SOTT era of late in polls and lists.

SOTT at number 3 here too. not sure if ILX has kicked this list around yet in this thread as it's impossible to open/read in full.
http://www.spin.com/2015/05/the-300-best-albums-of-the-past-30-years-1985-2014/5/

Hopper's "Gypsy" blurb is great.

also applaud anytime a song was prominently sampled in a post-'80s hit and the blurber managed NOT to mention it.

I enjoyed deej and Tim F's blurbs quite a bit.

thanks alfred, though I will at least try to claim I wasn't fishing for compliments. Comment above more born of frustration that these tentpole features often have really fascinating writing - not just fascinating as in "good" but fascinating as in it tells you about the strengths and weaknesses of modern crit (e.g. see below) - but then all we tend to talk about is whether X song ought to have made the cut. Ultimately I think a much more interesting question is "what do these blurbs say about modern perspectives on the 80s" and etc. Especially when the voting process that leads to the final list makes the actual song choice as meaningless as any other qualitative population sampling.

also applaud anytime a song was prominently sampled in a post-'80s hit and the blurber managed NOT to mention it.

yeah in general I think the "let's connect this with modern stuff and trends" imperative often came across quite hamfisted or even worse ass-backwards (justifying past masterpieces by reference to contemporary stuff that isn't fit so much as to gather up the crumbs from under the table of etc.). That kind of thing can be really interesting in a think piece but it's really hard to pull of successfully in a capsule review. Best case scenario you sound glib.

I didn't do it but I don't think the songs I had to write about lent themselves to the approach anyway.

it's like edm but old

i'm still reading through the blurbs but tim's on "teardrops" is wonderful and so is meaghan garvey's on "how will i know"

I enjoyed Katherine St. Asaph's blurbs, I enjoy her writing on The Singles Jukebox as well.
And for what it's worth, I thought the Madonna picks were spot on-but I suppose her position in the 80s has never been subject to reappraisal.

the "how will I know" blurb is so surprisingly dark! I love it.