Back to the Eighties: A View to a Kill

Original video located here. Accessed 31st October 2022

Song title: A View to a Kill

Artist: Duran Duran

Year: 1985

Why I like this song:

Duran Duran was, for most people, they pretty much defined much of the sound, and image, of the 1980s. Personally, when i was a kid, I knew little of Duran Duran beyond them being something of a joke: By the time I caught up to them, the tools that gave them their success looked like very old news. The videos, the synthesizers, the clothes and the make-up and a sensation amongst the teens that would make the boy bands of the late 90s/early 2000s envious.

Getting past that however, Duran Duran did have some great songs at their disposal so i went with this one: The theme to the James Bond of the same name. Yes this song plays to their strengths - big drums, prominent bass, and the synthesizers - but it's the fact that it's a Bond theme pushes it over the edge. And as a result it can hold it's held high as being one of the best Bond themes.

Back to the Eighties: Sounds of Then

Original video located here. Accessed 30th October 2022

Song title: Sounds of Then

Artist: GANGgajang

Year: 1985

Why I like this song:

I've always felt that the eighties were a golden era for Australian pop music so expect a lot more to come.

As for the song, well it's summer anthem. It perfectly illustrates the Australian summer both lyrically and musically (it's amazing what a delay pedal can do). I have enjoyed listening every summer and I anticipate to keep on doing so with more summers to come.

Back to the Eighties: Veronica

Original video located here. Accessed 29th October 2022

Song title: Veronica

Artist: Elvis Costello

Year: 1989

Why I like this song:

It's the meeting of minds: Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney joining forces to write a song together. And what do they come up with? The most cheerful-sounding very written concerning dementia.

It's certainly a strange combination but that's what make it so appealing

Back to the Eighties: Make Me Lose Control

|Original video located here. Accessed 28th October 2022

Song title: Make Me Lose Control

Artist: Eric Carmen

Year: 1988

Why I like this song:

I remember this song fondly as I recall it being played a lot on radio at the time. It may be easy to dismiss this being part of the 'cliche' interpretation of eighties pop with the 'big' production sound and the nods to 60s music. But to me, this song represents living in late eighties suburbia like nothing else

Also those harmonies are fantastic.

Back to the Eighties: Crockett's Theme

Original video located here. Accessed 27th October 2022

Song title: Crockett's Theme

Artist: Jan Hammer

Year: 1984

Why I like this song:

Can't get more eighties with this - what with it's use of synthesizers, the guitar part and it's association with one of the most defining TV shows of the era.

Personally I like this song as it gives off a vibe of 'make-out' music. Yes whilst the seventies had Barry White and Marvin Gaye, the eighties had this XD

Back to the Eighties: Kickstart My Heart

Original video located here. Accessed 26th October 2022

Song title: Kickstart My Heart

Artist: Motley Crue

Year: 1989

Why I like this song:

Yes i will admit this song is a product of it's time and the me of today may dismiss it as cheesy but somewhere inside me there is a seven old boy who thinks this is the greatest thing ever. And in this case he won out.

I guess it goes to show that a chorus with a lot of "WHOA!" and "YEAH!" can do gangbusters.

Back to the Eighties: The Homecoming Queens Got a Gun

Original video located here. Accessed 25th October 2022

Song title: The Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun

Artist: Julie Brown

Year: 1985

Why I like this song:

And now, an exercise in black humour - my preferred brand of humour.

Granted this song hasn't aged well in the post-Columbine world we live in but I still find it funny because a) Julie's performance as a valley girl and b) some of the lines here are gold.

e.g.: "An hour later the cops arrived / By then the entire glee club had died (no big loss)"

Back to the Eighties: 99 Luftballoons

Original video located here. Accessed 24th October 2022

Song title: 99 LuftBalloons

Artist: Nena

Year: 1983

Why I like this song:

When I think of eighties music, it is defined by synthesizers, simple but effective guitar, prominent bass and pounding drums. I will certainly admit that perception may be cliche but this songs delivers such elements in spades. And it gets even more eighties by throwing in a narrative involving Cold War paranoia.