80s Sight + Sound, a Time-Life CD/DVD set from 2006, captures some of the pop sensibilities of that decade. Several of the most popular groups–Duran Duran, Roxy Music, and Blondie–are included. Also, one of the most popular artists–Billy Idol.
In the 1980s, I watched a lot of MTV because I liked many of the creative music videos of that era. Of course, that mode of music marketing crashed and burned a decade later. But the DVD in this set offers some of the most popular music videos of that time. I’ve always liked Pat Benatar’s “Love Is a Battlefield” and J. Geils Band’s “Centerfold” (although my favorite J. Geils Band song is “I Do.”)
Do you remember these songs from the 1980s? Any favorites here? GRADE: B+
| Compact Disc | |||
| 1 | Duran Duran– | Rio | |
| 2 | Naked Eyes– | Always Something There to Remind Me | |
| 3 | The Human League– | (Keep Feeling) Fascination | |
| 4 | Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark– | If You Leave | |
| 5 | Roxy Music– | Avalon | |
| 6 | Pat Benatar– | We Belong | |
| 7 | Kim Carnes– | Bette Davis Eyes | |
| 8 | Corey Hart– | Sunglasses at Night | |
| 9 | Kim Wilde– | Kids in America | |
| 10 | Blondie– | Call Me | |
| 11 | Stray Cats– | Rock This Town | |
| 12 | Billy Idol– | Rebel Yell | |
| DVD | |||
| 1 | Duran Duran– | Hungry Like The Wolf | |
| 2 | Culture Club– | Do You Really Want to Hurt Me | |
| 3 | Pat Benatar– | Love Is a Battlefield | |
| 4 | Billy Idol– | White Wedding | |
| 5 | Stray Cats– | (She’s) Sexy + 17 | |
| 6 | J. Geils Band*– | Centerfold |
I know all of these. My favorite is Avalon by Roxy Music. My least favorite is Pat Benetar whom I’ve always disliked. I like J. Geils but I prefer there more r & b stuff over Centerfold. Never cared much for Stray Cats. An okay collection. I would give it an B-.
Steve, I’m a Roxy Music fan, too. Love “Avalon.”
This is not for me, don’t even remember most of the names.
I prefer rocky and bluesy music, maybe a bit of country or soul included.
Wolf, I’ll be posting about music that you prefer in the weeks ahead!
I remember all of these songs and artists—but, in almost all cases, the artists in question had other songs that I liked far more than the ones on this CD. Also, why two Pat Benatar and two Stray Cats songs when acts like Duran Duran (who John & the twins saw in concert last week in New Orleans) and Culture Club had more (and, imho, better) hits?
Deb, maybe Time-Life got a Buy One Song, Get One Free deal from Benatar and the Stray Cats. I’m sure John and the Twins enjoyed that Duran Duran concert. Their music was in Heavy Rotation on MTV and local radio during the 1980s!
I never got much interested in music videos and honestly don’t remember any of these, although I do like some of the music quite a lot. I loved “Avalon” (my favorite here), and pretty much everything by Roxy Music. Also loved “Rio” and “Hungry Like the Wolf” (my # 2), but probably couldn’t name even one other song by Duran Duran. Third place goes to Blondie’s “Call Me”, and I like a lot of their stuff. “Call Me” was used at the beginning of Paul Schrader’s excellent “American Gigolo”, which I saw recently, and it’s a perfect fit for this movie. For me, none of the other artists here are good enough to love or bad enough to hate. Well, maybe an exception for Pat Benatar.
Michael, both Steve and I join you in our preferences for Rox Music. Blondie had a lot of time on MTV in the 1980s mostly because of Debbie Harry.
“Call Me” was composed to be the theme of AMERICAN GIGOLO…I think the first time that they were hired to do soundtrack music. That would be my favorite on the album.
Pity about Showtime/Paramount cancelling both AMERICAN GIGOLO and LET THE RIGHT ONE IN the tv series after one season, as both, particularly the latter, were fine.
“Always Something There to Remind Me,” “We Belong,” “Rio,” and “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” have heavy replay on one of the local “Hits of the 80s, 90s, and Today” stations here. Re the J. Geils song, I wonder how many millennials even know what a centerfold was?
Fred, with all the porn on the Internet now, the “centerfold” is a historic artifact.
Sorry, you’ve lost me with almost all of these. I’m a troglodyte.
Jerry, don’t despair! I have some troglodyte music posts scheduled in the upcoming weeks!
What Jerry said. I do know some of these songs but none are favorites, though the Naked Eyes is OK.
Jeff, Time-Life thought that bundling a music CD and a music DVD together would sell. After a few years, this format faded away.
I know them all but only because my kids were playing them. My holes come after they moved out. In the late nineties and since.
Patti, there’s a Big Hole in my music knowledge of contemporary pop songs.
I turned 12 in 1980, so 80’s music was the music in my formative years. Love it! I was driving around the other day and three songs in a row were 80’s hits and I felt like I was transported back in time.
Carl, music has that same effect on me. When I hear songs I grew up with, it brings back a lot of memories!
Mostly crap! I’d like to know one–just one–music video where the action going on on the screen had something to do with the music!
Bob, that’s why so many MTV videos are distant memories today. No one cares about them much anymore.
Well, “The Metro” by Berlin. At least a few Michael Jackson videos, as OTT as they tended to be…though one could sympathize with a Michael Jackson frustrated at not being able to do something to quell pointless gang violence at the beginning of the “Beat It” video than one could believe in his dancing the combatants into line by the end of it…
I turned 16 in 1980, and certainly preferred the Top 40 emerging at that time to that which had dominated stations in the latter ’70s, but while I liked some hit-making bands, I liked a lot of the less consistently popular bands more (which included Roxy Music). Bands with the strongest roots in various sorts of ’60s innovation, including those, like War, who were veterans of the ’60s (as was at least one member of the Police…and, of course, the Bangles and the Go-Go’s, though CBS clearly hated the Bangles and made sure all their singles were written by others), the B-52s and R. E. M. among those who would also top charts eventually. Sade and Salt-n-Pepa. Klymaxx…and the bounciness of the Human League. And those who mostly made college charts (Human Sexual Response), or eventually fluky Big Hits (Chumbawamba) or stuck to their indy roots and built an audience that way (Bad Religion) or didn’t and paid a price (Husker Du). As did their fellow Minnesotan and Warner labelmate Prince.
Oddly enough, the one listenable song I recall from Duran Duran, as with Madonna Ciccone, was their closest thing (?) to a religious song, “Save a Prayer” (much as with her “Like a Prayer”).
Todd, when August 1, 1981 rolled around I became a MTV addict. Loved the videos! Loved much of the music. But, my music mainstay was the Canadian radio stations I listened to while I drove to and from work. Their playlists were much more adventurous than the U.S. TOP 40 stuff.