And as the decade wore on, rap's wave turned into a tsunami that changed the face of pop music. New Wave stalwarts like Talking Heads and Devo found new grooves while transcendent artists like Marvin Gaye and Paul Simon offered up some of the best work of their careers. Pop on most any '80s playlist and you’re bound to hear the same cycle of kitchy, seemingly alien vintage pop: Synthy goth songs, lite hip-hop, the occasional punk infusion and a whole lot of hair metal.īut the '80s sound was so much more than the sum of its eccentricities, and there's a huge difference between an ''80s song' and a 'song from the '80s.' This is the decade that gave us Prince and Madonna, MJ and NWA.
'80s nostalgia usually focuses on the decade at its most outlandish: big hair, Day-glo shirts, scrunchies, Boy George, New Coke… call it the Wedding Singer effect.
