Most Overrated Act To Get More Than Two Songs On Pitchfork's Best Songs Of The 80s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8w7CCq036o

i never really got into whitney houston

One thing that constantly surprises me about millennial's music taste (and the Pitchfork list is definitely written by them, for them) is their total rejection of REM.

It's hard to believe that they only got one song on the entire 80s list, when they were arguably the most influential American rock band of the entire decade.

i don't know if they're rejected per se

rem would have soooo much more mystique if they'd split in 97, hard to miss a group that only half-went away

that said rem underperforming on critics lists says more about what critics feel the need to celebrate than what "the kids" are into

lest we assume the kids were really into los lobos albums in the 80s

REM is probably my favorite band, but what is there to say about them in 2015? it's better to open discussion more widely

if only the same applied to the stupid Pixies...

13 year old me thought their La Bamba cover was cool. I probably didn't really start getting into Los Lobos until I was at least 20-ish, though.

(alright, just in case this turns into The Defense Of Los Lobos, I love the latin playboys and How Will The Wolf Survive, I'm just trying to note the obvious that "critcs picks" != the pulse of the nation's youth)

(I know)

Haha I was just thinking about how Los Lobos got shut out of this poll. Will The Wolf Survive would be high on my 80s song list.

And I'm primarily basing my REM theory on a cd I burned for my young cousin who has cool music taste but hated Murmur. REM just stuck around too long, it's true. The kids just know them as this lame band of old dudes.

That never stopped me from getting into the Stones, but I wonder if I'd be even more into the Stones if they'd stopped at, say, Some Girls.

Whitney Houston - great voice, but never liked any of her hits

also, who the hell is Frankie Knuckles?

Dude had a few top 40s in the early 80s, wrote "I've had the time of my life" - kids are really into him now, I think there might have been a reissue

his duet with Ann Wilson is sweet.

Alfred I am not making some "lol rando 80s details" joke I am describing the specific career details of franke k. Please respect that.

also, who the hell is Frankie Knuckles?

Get out. Get out now.

No need for this much '80s Bowie on here. Dude owned the '70s, but the '80s are mostly known for Bowie being terrible. Certainly no need for Modern Love *and* Let's Dance. GNR didn't need two, either. Love the Replacements, but they could have gotten away with one, also, esp. to make room for one or two of the glaring omissions (which would be a great name for a new wave act).

And if there had to be two Bowie songs, "Ashes to Ashes" over "Modern Love."

'Chilly Down' over 'Let's Dance'.

Would knock off both Guns N Roses songs for some Devo tracks.

I couldn't find a playlist on spotify (I'm sure there must be people who made it into a list already but search function sucks or it takes some time to update). So here's a link, I'm sort of busy so this might take two days but half of the list is there already:

https://open.spotify.com/user/moteldemoka/playlist/491iIVQpdjtGOa8keqt0mP

bowie. i mean "let's dance"? really?

By the way, Luther Vandross should be on this list as it appears twice in the list once as Luther Vandross and the other as Change.

I love Frankie Knuckles but I love dozens of 80's house songs made by other people a lot more. I have no idea why he ended up with multiple songs on this list, unless it was a straight up "let's not forget to tack on a couple of songs by this guy who just died" thing.

im not a pixies fan, but there was definitely something magical about frank's scream and kim's stage presence/playing that is pretty undeniable, posers.

why would anyone vote diana ross. the album diana, 1980, the singles from it - im coming out, upside down, my old piano. classic songs ffs

hell, tenderness is a great track too

http://www.completedogsguide.com/images/dog-breeds/largepic/Golden-Retriever1.jpg
http://www.completedogsguide.com/images/dog-breeds/largepic/Golden-Retriever1.jpg
http://www.completedogsguide.com/images/dog-breeds/largepic/Golden-Retriever1.jpg
http://www.completedogsguide.com/images/dog-breeds/largepic/Golden-Retriever1.jpg
http://www.completedogsguide.com/images/dog-breeds/largepic/Golden-Retriever1.jpg

all the diana ross hate ITT is embarrassing. you should all be embarrassed

otm, wtf

otmmmmmmmmmmm^^^

fuck the pixies

fuck the smiths

fuck rem

and completely fujuuuuuuuuuuck guns n roses I mean seriously gtfo with that complete bullshit

ok the smiths were ok I guess but guns n roses is like the worst band

pixies are F/G, i'm not crazy about them

smiths EX+

rem are VG+

guns and roses i feel like a total herb for not liking them (although the intro to "welcome to the jungle" is Classic)

It's kind of comforting and familiar to be able to cast a knee-jerk vote for New Order in every poll like this.

Think I'm gonna say Pixies, for reasons no one will agree with. Partly for the weird critical over-rating of them, treating a creepy schtick band with a good sound into something MAJOR; partly because they are the mainstreaming of a certain kind of trash-horror ironic aesthetic, and for that reason I kinda hate them. I mean, to pick up on a comparison upthread, he Cure are an immensely limited band and only really have two songs, but their miserableness feels earned and their two songs (the funereal one and the fast aching one) are both really good. This is no doubt some authenticity bullshit, but Robert Smith seems to have a personality, call it a self if you will; the various Pixies just seem to have comic books they like....

I'm a fan, but I think more than one Frankie Knuckles track is excessive. I would gladly swap “Baby Wants to Ride” for "Father Figure."

I wonder how PF would've even policed a one-track-per-artist filter when putting together the final results. I don't think anyone would've been happy if Purple Rain had been the only Prince song in the top 200, but who's happy about him having four either?

Guns n Roses. no contest. I could make a case for Joy Division too probably in second place. Everyone else on the list is cool although some of them are certainly over-represented. I love Prince as much as everybody else but 5 songs including the top spot feels like overkill.

Should have limited songs to one per artist and Raspberry Beret should have been the Prince pick.

You're probably in a small club thinking Raspberry Beret should be the lone representation of Prince, especially when Pop Life comes from the same album.

Tears For Fears by a million miles.

Ok, it's a personal favorite and I'm not being serious. Purple Rain at #1 and nothing else from Prince would have been okay with me. If there's a rule that only the top voted song for the artist places I don't see what's so polemical about that particular choice. They can eventually release the list including duplicated artists.

Will pitchfork release the rest of the votes? Would be good to see what placed below the 200s

Regarding "pop life" this might sound like heresy but I absolutely love the lo-fi and miserable Yo La Tengo cover (under the DUMP alias) whereas the original Prince version just sounds ok to me.

They don't usually release the full list, but they used to release the ballots. Do they still do that? Dunno.

Purple Rain is like the most NOT-80s song Prince released in the 80s. Might as well have come from 1970.

The tears for fears record from Donnie Darko is overrated but dudes...everybody wants to rule the world is a 10/10 classic masterpiece

Not the best metric but their most popular song on spotify is 'kickstart my heart' with 21M plays. For comparison GnR version of 'knockin on heavens door' has 38M. Sweet child o mine has 86M.

Not hair metal but kind of influenced it, Cheap Trick's most famous song only has 8M. People are idiots.

I'm sure "The Flame" has more than eight million.

And yet still no-one will defend Bono and the lads.

Making a case for G'n'R has proven quite sufficiently unrewarding, thanks. I'm done with the pro bono work for this week. (See what I did there?)
I think U2 made some superlative rock records over the course of a decade or so, but there's no point trying to establish a reasoned debate on that. Between the singer's attempts to make the world a better place and the whole iTunes debacle, all people want to do nowadays is dump on them from a height. So it goes.