[1980s Western Music] Nostalgic 80’s Best Hit Songs
The 1980s brought changes to music history and had a huge influence on later musicians.
Cyndi Lauper, Culture Club, Madonna, Earth, Wind & Fire…
Even those who didn’t live through the era can sink into a sense of nostalgia that feels familiar somehow.
Compared to modern songs, the classics of the ’80s often boast purer song quality and stronger musical structure—or, seen another way, the larger market meant bigger budgets, letting you enjoy luxuriously produced sounds.
Find a favorite track and really dive into it!
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- Dance music in Japanese (J-pop) that people in their 50s used to listen to. Nostalgic classic hits.
[1980s Western Music] Nostalgic 80’s Best Hit Songs (21–30)
Every Breath You TakeThe Police
If there are people who have never heard this track, that would be a huge loss in their musical lives (lol).
It’s such a masterpiece that it makes me want to say so.
To borrow the words of Rolling Stone, I think it’s the greatest rock song of all time.
Sting’s calm, steady vocals and the sound get stuck in your head after just one listen.
The lyrics are divisive, but this song will continue to be sung for generations to come.
AfricaTOTO
Formed in 1977, this band became a major commercial rock icon with a huge breakthrough in the 1980s.
All members were also studio musicians with high technical proficiency, and they broke through with songs that incorporated various genres often categorized as AOR.
JumpVan Halen
This is a signature song by the American hard rock band Van Halen, whose intro captivated everyone.
Some fans thought adding synthesizers would take them away from hard rock, but their new appeal exploded, and the song effectively became a massive hit.
The guitar solo is awesome, and the upbeat lyrics—seen as breaking out of one’s shell and taking flight—gave me a real boost.
We Are The WorldUSA For Africa
This is the song “We Are the World” by USA for Africa, released in 1985.
USA for Africa, which featured a lineup of prominent artists such as Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, and Stevie Wonder, was a charity project aimed at relieving the famine in Africa, a major social issue at the time.
It remains a beloved song around the world to this day.
ManeaterDaryl Hall & John Oates
They are a duo representing the United States, consisting of Daryl Hall and John Oates.
With their distinctive pop sound infused with elements of Black music such as soul, they became hugely popular in the 1980s.
They are also very popular in Japan and performed there five times during the 1980s alone.
Karma ChameleonCulture Club
This is a single released from the album Colour by Numbers by the British band Culture Club.
Released in 1983, it became the band’s biggest hit, reaching number one in 16 countries worldwide.
The message conveyed through the music video is also noteworthy.
The Final CountdownEurope
They are a pioneering and hugely popular Nordic metal band that had a massive hit in the 1980s.
The image of Nordic metal as “melodic tunes and high-pitched vocals” owes much to their success.
They reunited in the 2000s and are still active today.