Kittylicious

Worst Songs of the 80s

Saturday, December 17, 2011 8:35:19 AM

American magazine "Rolling Stone" asked their readers about who they think made the worst songs of the 1980s.

Here's the result of the survey:

1: Starship - We Built This City

2: Europe - The Final Countdown

3: Chris De Burgh - Lady In Red

4: Wham! - Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go

5: Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance

6: Falco - Rock Me Amadeus

7: Bobby McFerrin - Don't Worry Be Happy

8: Toni Basil - Mickey

9: Taco - Puttin' On The Ritz

10: Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up

I must admit that there's a couple of the songs that surprised me a bit, but I guess that's what happens when you ask people who reads a rock magazine.

Take number one on the list, "We built this city" by Starship. The single version reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and also number one on the U.S. Top Rock Tracks chart and number twelve in the United Kingdom.

Number two on the list is by the Swedish band "Europe". Their song reached No. 1 in 25 countries, including the United Kingdom, and was certified gold in the United Kingdom in 1986.

I just wonder how songs that are rated to be the worst of a decade could have made it number one on any billboards. I would have found it more reasonable to put songs on the list that just didn't make it anywhere, you know? But perhaps that's just me.

Blueberry and White chocolate CookiesMusic Challenge ~ Week 23

Comments

Spaggyj # Saturday, December 17, 2011 9:01:38 AM

I agree. Surely a bad song would have flopped?
Safety Dance rocks. So does Final Countdown.

Mad Scientistqlue # Saturday, December 17, 2011 9:09:28 AM

The respondents were all still in diapers when these songs hit the charts. It's because these songs hit the charts that they know them in the first place. The truly bad songs were dead and buried before half the respondents were even born!

Mad Scientistqlue # Saturday, December 17, 2011 9:17:41 AM

Just as a side note! I had the good fortune of working as an usher to the Chris De Burgh concert when he came to South Africa. "Lady In Red" was definitely the most popular song from that particular performance!

Dark FurieFurie # Saturday, December 17, 2011 9:52:36 AM

Speaking as someone who once spent years making sure that people dance and drink (club owner not psycho with a basement full of kidnapped party-goers) I can say that the top four worst songs of the 80s there are guaranteed to fill a dance floor every single time, usually as part of a "classic megamix". Hell, the top three can still get me tapping my feet now.

Maybe the fact that "bad" meant "good" in the 80s really confused the readers of the magazine, either back then or now and they're not sure if they bought or voted for the best or worst.

Mad Scientistqlue # Saturday, December 17, 2011 10:13:57 AM

Damn! That theory actually makes a lot of sense.

Dark FurieFurie # Saturday, December 17, 2011 1:33:24 PM

Annoying when my nonsense does that, isn't it?

Martin K™Aqualion # Saturday, December 17, 2011 3:50:01 PM

Sometimes I think, come on, the eighties were not that long ago, only about 25 years. But when I think about it I understand that for young people 25 years is of course a long time. In 1985, when I was 16, 25 years ago was 1960. 1960! That was long time ago in 1985, so 1985 is actually a long time ago in 2011, and it is me who is getting old and losing track of time.

The song list doesn't surprise me. When ever they make a compilation of 80s music it is always the same 80 songs, and the above will be among them. People seem to have forgotten The Smiths, The Cure, The Clash etc. who were the actual pioneers in that decade. You never find a Cure song on a compilation even though they made quite a few good pop songs.

FlaRin # Saturday, December 17, 2011 3:53:03 PM

"We built this city on sausage rolls". The only way I remember that song

There was *a lot* of crap out in the 80s. How come Kid Creole & the Coconuts aren't in that list, for instance? Nick Berry. Hayzee Fantayzee (or whatever they were called)? Hundreds of *much* lesser artists than these featured...we should start a real list

'The politics of dancing'. Who the fuck was that by???

FlaRin # Saturday, December 17, 2011 3:55:03 PM

Ooooh! Oooooh!!! Joe Dolce!!! 'Shaddap a your face'!!!

<falls to the floor squealing with anguish>

Martin K™Aqualion # Saturday, December 17, 2011 4:03:34 PM

This is my particular hate-song of the 80s. I hated it then, and I still do. Absolute rubbish.

FlaRin # Saturday, December 17, 2011 4:06:59 PM

I see your Opus, and raise you a Re-Flex...

KittyliciousZaphira # Saturday, December 17, 2011 4:15:35 PM

Oh lord have mercy on us!

I have to add this:

Martin K™Aqualion # Saturday, December 17, 2011 4:27:00 PM

@Zaph: That is actually a good song - if you play it without sound.

This is similar. Also crap.

FlaRin # Saturday, December 17, 2011 7:07:10 PM

Ha!

1986
<shudder>

Mad Scientistqlue # Saturday, December 17, 2011 7:57:32 PM

And just to show that the eighties isn't dead yet, I saw a kid in town today with a mullet and hair that stood up like he'd just got out of bed!

(and you could see that he spent a lot of time to get it that way too!

)
He even had his jeans pulled up to his waist.

Martin K™Aqualion # Saturday, December 17, 2011 9:32:26 PM

Yeah, Bundesliga hair. In Europe the mid-eighties dickhead fashion (in 2011 they call it 'hipster') seems to be gaining terrain again. I don't get it. Why would you spend two hours in front of the mirror to look ugly? What is the idea of defying fashion when you end up being stuck in contra-fashion hell and looking like an idiot on top of that? I don't get it.

Mrs. HermitessHermitess # Saturday, December 17, 2011 10:18:33 PM

I remember ALL of those songs and they were all very popular in my part of the world so I'm surprised any of them are on there really.

ahh the 80s.... what a decade

FlaRin # Sunday, December 18, 2011 1:37:08 PM

KittyliciousZaphira # Sunday, December 18, 2011 8:18:50 PM

I wonder if everything from the 80s are going to get right back...

FlaRin # Sunday, December 18, 2011 8:21:54 PM

Let's hope this doesn't...

Martin K™Aqualion # Sunday, December 18, 2011 8:38:28 PM

OMG, Baltimora... I had a sort of girlfriend in ninth grade who was crazy about them. At that time, I was engaged in a garage-band playing our own version of rockabilly songs. I knew it would not be a lasting relationship when I saw her record collection.

FlaRin # Sunday, December 18, 2011 8:42:30 PM

Pussy Cat - how about a post for 'really good songs of the 80s'??

There was some bloody good stuff, too

@Martin, haha - the record collection as a mark of character. Been there too

FlaRin # Sunday, December 18, 2011 8:48:11 PM

...but in the meantime...

...scary teeth...

KittyliciousZaphira # Sunday, December 18, 2011 9:09:43 PM

Great idea. Let's work that out.

Freya RedFreya # Monday, December 19, 2011 4:24:22 AM

A sign of a good song is that later generations know it or a least know of it. I only know two of all the songs listed : "Wake me up" and for some reason "Mickey" ?? I have heard of Sigue Sigue Sputnik, because they are noticeable for obvious reasons.

I have heard of these.

Martin K™Aqualion # Monday, December 19, 2011 9:22:00 AM

Sweet Dreams is one of my favourite songs ever. Impressive, because it's made on a simple 8-track digital synth-mixer, like the ones that come default with most laptops these days. Eurythmics are iconic.

FlaRin # Monday, December 19, 2011 10:27:14 AM

Originally posted by Puss:

Let's work that out

Wanna make a separate post, or hi-jack this one?

Martin K™Aqualion # Monday, December 19, 2011 12:27:23 PM

Allow me to start the high-jacking.

This is perhaps my favourite 80s song. I can't say why. I've got no story with this one. I just simply like it. From time to time it will come on the radio, and every time I have to sit back and smile.

FlaRin # Monday, December 19, 2011 3:53:22 PM

She's a Kiwi, the girl from the Thompson Twins

This was one of my more favourite releases :

\\edit : when I was playing synths (I had a Moog Source and a Crumar Performer), I wanted to be Thomas Dolby, for a little while

ersi # Monday, December 19, 2011 8:32:18 PM

Worse than songs of the 80's are the desperate attempts by the original artists to recast them in this century. But it's understandable in some ways. The fans are only 20-30 years older, it's like yesterday.

FlaRin # Monday, December 19, 2011 9:11:35 PM

...and I *loved* this :

\\edit : having sought it out and posted it here, I find that I still DO love it!!

Gavin Tripp-Sheedygarlingmatthews # Tuesday, December 20, 2011 1:45:21 PM

Love that song. Never knew who it was. Overlap! Perhaps you sren't from an alternative dimension after all.

FlaRin # Tuesday, December 20, 2011 1:53:42 PM

That's either disturbing or reassuring. Perhaps reassuringly disturbing, or....<falls over, having tripped on tentacle #8>

Gavin Tripp-Sheedygarlingmatthews # Tuesday, December 20, 2011 2:10:45 PM

Lends antigrombitonappendage.

r♡serose-marie # Thursday, December 22, 2011 11:57:38 AM

Originally posted by FlaRin:

"We built this city on sausage rolls".

Ahahahhahaha!

There's coffee all over my desk now!

Ah - 80's music. It seems no other decade has managed to come up with such love-or-hate discussions.

Martin K™Aqualion # Thursday, December 22, 2011 2:43:46 PM

Like this one too.

'...yesterday's favorite
Don't you hate it...'

Sorta subject related, right?

Stardancer # Sunday, January 22, 2012 2:34:57 AM

Arrived at this post a little late due to technical difficulties

, but I've always wondered what the heck a "Wang Chung" is.

FlaRin # Sunday, January 22, 2012 9:28:38 AM

Wang Chung is the first note in the Chinese classical music scale, and also means 'Yellow Bell' in Chinese.

You're welcome

\\edit : and in fact I believe it was originally 'Huang Chung ' : in Chinese philosphy, the 3 main powers of the Universe are huang chung, lin chung and t'ai ts'ou. Huang chung represents the sequence of heaven, lin chung represents the sequence of earth and t'ai ts'ou represents the sequence of man.

I think

(my reference is here ).

Dark FurieFurie # Tuesday, January 24, 2012 10:51:05 AM

Wang chung is what asian-american teenage boys who only speak English but want to sound mysterious do during puberty.

Stardancer # Wednesday, January 25, 2012 3:33:06 AM

:slapsforeheadwhilerollingeyes:

I shoulda known better than to walk into that one.

FlaRin # Wednesday, January 25, 2012 6:28:54 AM

Welcome to Pedante's Inferno

Stardancer # Thursday, January 26, 2012 3:18:54 AM