Band or singer that best represents the music of the 80s

[Moon Ronin]

Best decade of music.
The least discriminating and more diverse than any other, before or after.
It also resulted in lots of One-Hit-Wonders, which makes it hard to provide a singular answer to your question.

Many one hit wonders, John Parr's St Elmo's fire comes to mind when I think about 80s one hit wonders

[Moon Ronin]

The never ending storrrrrieeee.

[dancj]

Elton's is called "Don't let the Sun go Down on Me."

I just keep learning

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Just occurred to me....Huey Lewis & The News. They had lots of hits in the 80's, including "The Power of Love" from the Back To the Future soundtrack.

Oh, yeah, speaking of Prince, he closed out the 80's with songs from the soundtrack from Batman.

[Mormel]

The Huey Lewis song is titled "The Power Of Love"... not to be confused with either the Frankie Goes To Hollywood song by the same name, or the Jennifer Rush song, both of which were released in the previous year 1984.

Another fun trivia tidbit: Huey Lewis & The News' song dropped out of the Dutch Top 40 in the same week that Jennifer Rush' song entered the chart (2 November 1985).

[WestPhillyPunisher]

The Huey Lewis song is titled "The Power Of Love"... not to be confused with either the Frankie Goes To Hollywood song by the same name, or the Jennifer Rush song, both of which were released in the previous year 1984.

Another fun trivia tidbit: Huey Lewis & The News' song dropped out of the Dutch Top 40 in the same week that Jennifer Rush' song entered the chart (2 November 1985).

WHOOPS! I just noticed! Thanks for bringing that to my attention!

[Samurai Jack]

Gary Numan was who I thought of instantly. I feel like he played a key role in the early New Wave hits of the 80s and later experimented with different genres of music.

[Surf]

Many one hit wonders, John Parr's St Elmo's fire comes to mind when I think about 80s one hit wonders

Now that's a separate discussion.

So, if we were to put the top 20 1-hit wonders of the 80's, into a battle arena, drop down a single Klingon-ish type weapon in the middle and the strongest song at the end would get to represent the 80's in a first contact, montage sizzle reel of human civilization sent out to alien life... Well I wold definitely be in the battle dome with a poster board sign pulling for St. Elmo's Fire.

[Nine Crocodile]

Gary Numan was who I thought of instantly. I feel like he played a key role in the early New Wave hits of the 80s and later experimented with different genres of music.

He's an underrated innovator. It was like it wan't cool to admit you liked his music. I just tend to place him in the late '70s because that's when he had his biggest successes.

[Iron Maiden]

Just occurred to me....Huey Lewis & The News. They had lots of hits in the 80's, including "The Power of Love" from the Back To the Future soundtrack.

Oh, yeah, speaking of Prince, he closed out the 80's with songs from the soundtrack from Batman.

I also like "I Want a New Drug", "Heart and Soul", and "Heart of Rock and Roll"

I think they had a a retro sound, almost from the 1950s or 60s esp when they would be backed up with the Tower of Power horns group. I guess that was some of the appeal of the 1980's ....there was a lot of variety out there.

[GOLGO 13]

80s was one of the best era's for music and movies. MJ and Madonna were two of the biggest singers in the 80s like them or not! You don't think of the 80s without those two singers.


Had a soft spot for this movie theme also!

Yes, unfortunately both of them turned out to be abhorrent human beings but they are 80's trash.

The song turned out to be the only saving grace from MM: BeyondThunderdome.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I also like "I Want a New Drug", "Heart and Soul", and "Heart of Rock and Roll"

I think they had a a retro sound, almost from the 1950s or 60s esp when they would be backed up with the Tower of Power horns group. I guess that was some of the appeal of the 1980's ....there was a lot of variety out there.

Don't forget "Bad Is Bad" and "Hip To Be Square". They turned out a lot of cool songs.

[Iron Maiden]

Oh yeah, those too. I still have the "Sports" CD somewhere in my car. I also liked the one that was dedicated to Viet Nam veterans called "Walking on a Thin Line"

[PaulBullion]

Gotta be Cameo. They actually celebrated the death of real drum sets on their first electronic only beats album in the liner notes!

[Ragged Maw]

FOUR F**KING PAGES IN, and absolutely NO mention (until right now) of Eurythmics!? I thought cocaine raised you all better than this!

.......And no, I wont post Sweet Dreams as that would be too predictable. That being said.....