If you were breathing during the ’80s, you will remember these songs and videos. If you weren’t alive, use this chance to learn about the songs coming to Classic Rock stations after they get done with their rotation of ’60s folk and ’70s disco-funk.
You may recognize some tunes from this thing they used to call the radio, which plays random songs and ads you don’t control, no matter how many buttons you push, though you could use these things called telephones to call the DJ to request a song, win prizes or try to get on live air to say something horrible, clever or horribly clever.
This era is actually important, in a musical sense, because ’80s rock and pop stars were the first to deal with music videos and MTV, so they broke a lot of ground in terms of visuals. It’s hard to go from “here’s some live footage of a concert” to “which Hollywood director should we hire for our $3 million shebang that *might* hold a candle to Thriller?”
Check it out:
The clip from Top Gun still cracks me up. How did we ever think that movie was cool?
The Red Pen of Doom 
Reminds me that we don’t have enough saxophones in pop music today.
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Or cowbell. 🙂
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OMG dr. Green also played in TopGun, I totally forgot! but, somethings are better forgotten, like many of the trousers. My youngest son (8) loved all the guitars, he said there should more of that in today’s music. And he’s right.
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Geez I can’t type today. Epitome of cool..that was what Robert Palmer was!
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RIP Robert Palmer. At one time he was epitome cool. Notice the cool songs that came from 1987 (when I graduated hs)?
Incidentally my son still thinks Top Gun is cool. But yea, the mullets, over-permed hair and parachute pants were de rigueur for hair bands of the day. It’s fun looking at the end of the 80’s because you can see the grunge coming. Little teensy shreds of it.
Awww they included that song by Nightranger. My stupid college boyfriend dedicated that song to me at a party before he left for college (1 year older than me). Nice song for your girlfriend saying you’ll think of her when your’e out trying to nab college chicks.
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Ahh, the memories. Everyone looks so young (or alive). I never noticed how many ugly rockers there were back then. But, hey, some women would kill for hair like that. 😉
And had to laugh at the really big Ray Bans. I skipped those and went right to the Oakleys.
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Big hair and Raybans were the thing. Mullets. Parachute pants. All classic.
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