Posted on 03/08/2015 7:18:56 PM PDT by the OlLine Rebel
I don’t know all about Billboard, but they sure seem pretty accurate to me by my personal observations at the time. Reflected pretty well what was hot. Some songs I am shocked they are THAT high on the chart, but not that they were popular.
Someone mentioned VH1, which is interesting. Not too bad a list, not too far from reality. And also useful because it ranks up to 100 for the decade, easily segwaying into a 64-count bracket. I know it’s pretty legit if it doees NOT include “Smiths” and “Ramones” on it, Internet fringe legends, endlessly mentioned as the greatest ever by fringe element only found on the net. As I say, “who?”
Bottom line, I don’t think I will change how I approach it. I really didn’t like that a song I never heard, “In a Big Country” (#17 for a week?), was voted “greatest ‘80s” in a basically fun poll like this over the #1 song of 1980 (which WAS a big hit). How they picked what songs got on the top 64 I have no idea.
BTW, since some people are so sure they hate the ‘80s, I would love to do the ‘70s next. I would like it anyway, but especially when I see the bellyaching about how nothing was good on this list, and proves the ‘80s stink, etc!
Every one of the songs you used was *very* popular. I’m only referring to the way Billboard normalizes radio play with sales. Back in the days before Apple, Pop music got LESS radio play in December, since many stations switch to Christmas-dominated formats temporarily, but almost half of sales came in the Christmas season. Their weekly top 100 was a balance of airplay and sales.
But the way they normalize for Christmas sales made January light-pop have an advantage. By the late 1980s, light-pop songs peaking in January held the top spot on the annual charts almost every year: Careless Whisper (1985), That’s What Friends Are For (1986), Walk Like An Egyptian (1987), Faith (1988). My Prerogative was #2 for the year in 1989, despite being #1 for a single week in January.
Eventually, Billboard seems to have recognized the urgency of the problem, and started keeping better track of when singles were actually sold, so middle-aged people replacing their Bon Jovi albums with “Careless Whisper” weren’t counted.
Interesting, because I never heard Christmas songs played on any top 40 station until this past decade (if that; often it is general-pop which includes long-old things). I’d say that is post-Apple. Maybe to compete with XM and the like.
I’m hearing a few Christmas-only stations since the 1990s; I didn’t mean to refer only to those. But EVERY pop station used to play lots of Christmas songs when I was growing up in the northeast. Usually, they were dreadfully low quality (Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time) and often pro-charity but strangely anti-Christmas (John Lenin’s Happy Christmas [spelling deliberate], Do They Know its Christmas?, In a Ghetto)
Not here. I’m still not sure the pure top 40 stations do it (I just press buttons all the time when I don’t like a song) today. I never had anything like that until at least into the ‘90s. The stations which do it for sure are the “light” stations, which do pop but aren’t strictly top 40 “hip” stations, rather “adult contemporary” which includes 40-yo hits.
But after 1963, the appearance of new Christmas songs each season came to a screeching halt. One might occasionally hear a new song such as Snoopy's Christmas (1966), but after 1963, most Christmas tunes played on Top 40 stations in December were "oldies."
I would have no reason to doubt. More and more our society became all about being “hip” and “cool” and either singing Christmas songs properly or coming up with new ones became UNcool.
My point was simply that I never heard a format change just for Christmas on our top 40 stations back in the day, nor do I remember that on the “light” stations. It’s only been maybe the last 20, definitely the last 15 that the light stations definitely took it up. Top 40, though, still doesn’t seem to get into it, not much.
TOURNAMENT OF CHART-TOPPERS 1980S PING LIST
(This is a temporary ping list, so don’t worry!)
Full disclosure: my pick is “Centerfold”, even if I hate the theme, I love the music.
Bump to the top - vote!
7 1985 “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” Tears for Fears
Centerfold
Tears, I guess. Not strong on either.
And what happened to the Rick Roll? Was really wanting that on top. :)
Centerfold is the better song but, as a representative of the 1980s, it seems inappropriate as the song of the decade. While I’m not a big fan of Everybody Wants To Rule The World, it’s a better representative of the decade - one in which we saw just how much everyone wants to rule the world.
One of my favorites of the decade.
Personally, “Money For Nothing” would be choice for top song of the decade.
It was technology contemporary.
It was a huge seller (both as a single and an album).
It was politically incorrect (”That little faggot..”) to the point that it is now banned in Canada and bleeped in restaurants.
It chants “I want my MTV” at the end, signifying both the massive change in pop culture as well as the music industry that was the original MTV at the time.
It is both modern for its time and ancient for the current day and that, if anything else, should be representative of the 1980s as a decade.
Centerfold
Centerfold
Tears for Fears.
Tears for Fears
I just did a very quick count and man it’s tight with only a 1 vote differential.
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