Take a look at this. I didn't start following popular music until 1984ish, at the age of 11. Young kids are susceptible to liking whatever happens to be on the radio, and so it probably is not a surprise that my favorite period of music is the mid-1980s. I think though I can make a good case that this music actually was very good for the most part, and has aged quite well. The charts were dominated by Madonna, Prince, Cindy Lauper, Wham!, Huey Lewis, Springsteen, and Phil Collins. I liked all of those at the time. Ok, much of Phil Collins is unlistenable now. And I am really sick of Springsteen, whose enduring popularity has been driven by baby boomers. Cindy Lauper would have been more popular than she was, but she didn't hit until age 30, and she didn't go out of her way to sell out. Huey Lewis had some dopey songs, but the Ghostbusters theme could not have been pilfered without him. Wham! is one of the stupidest names ever concocted for a music act, but George Michael was the true King of Pop, thanks in part to a spectacular voice.
The second British invasion was at the heart of this era. In one chart from May of 1985 8 of the top ten were by acts of British origin. This dominance occurred even with huge bands like The Cure and Depeche Mode not charting in the top ten until much later.
1986 saw the emergence of Bon Jovi and the so-called hair metal, which would plague radio for the next five years, until its demise thanks to the fleeting popularity of grunge. Which brings me back to my first sentence. I knew that pop music had taken a turn for the worst in the late 1980s, but I didn't remember it being that bad! That list is plain embarrassing! And really, pop music never recovered.
