The quintessential 80s pop song?

[Multicore]

Not your favorite! or a good one! or any of that... What represents the zeitgeist of the new rapacious 80s egocentric philistine consumerism best? I vote for

a-ha -Take on Me.

I'm not offering it as an object of derision. I also love the song. Why? Because at my local dive bar, the only bar I have attended since the city allowed bars to operate after the initial 2020 plague, it is always on the playlist when I am there. As a result I have developed a mime routine for the extraordinary falsetto in this song. We tend to go early these days and the new bar tender is reluctant to turn on the disco ball for me, which is a little sad, but probably for the best.

The video features a teenager strumming a guitar but I can't hear it in the music. Can you?

 

[GD Fan]

Tough question, in no small part due to the squishy definition of what constitutes 'pop'. Maybe The Cure's Just Like Heaven or INXS Need You Tonight? If Van Halen of the era qualifies perhaps Jump?

 

[JSmith]

JSmith

 

[Gary_G]

 

[Chrispy]

This one works, and has particular meaning to me

 

[RayDunzl]

What represents the zeitgeist of the new rapacious 80s egocentric philistine consumerism best?

 

[Eulipian]

Either this

or this

 

[ryanosaur]

The Cars, You Might Think

 

[Reddoc]

This one works, and has particular meaning to me

Perfect! Ultimate '80s pop for those of us who grew up back then downunder!

 

[JSmith]

downunder!

JSmith

 

[GDK]

I would like to cast a vote for the Buggles if I may

 

[JaMaSt]

Oh, don't make me take a retro tour thru the '80s!

 

[JaMaSt]

Tough question, in no small part due to the squishy definition of what constitutes 'pop'. Maybe The Cure's Just Like Heaven or INXS Need You Tonight? If Van Halen of the era qualifies perhaps Jump?

This was your 666 post!

You gotta post a link to a song. Them's the rules.

 

[GD Fan]

This was your 666 post!

You gotta post a link to a song. Them's the rules.

Clearly I have a devil of a time finding better things to do with my spare time...!

OK fair enough, how about this one:

 

[Inner Space]

What represents the zeitgeist of the new rapacious 80s egocentric philistine consumerism best?

I share your view of the 1980s, but yet ... in a total-zeitgeist way, the song I associate most would be "Drive", by The Cars. It was used - to heartbreaking effect - over documentary footage of a famine in Ethiopia, which went 1980s-viral and sparked Band Aid and Live Aid, which were definite oases of giving, among all the taking.

 

[muza_1]

 

[MAB]

J. Geils Band
Centerfold
1981

 

[MAB]

He really cashed in on it with Valley Girl in 1982...

And of course Joe's Garage.
But it seems you already knew that.

 

[JaMaSt]

 

[Doodski]