The 200 Best Songs of the 1980s: A Staff-Voted Ranking
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Pitchfork
Summary
A comprehensive, staff-voted ranking of the 200 best songs from the 1980s, spanning genres from house, hip-hop, college rock, techno, bubblegum pop, post-punk, heavy metal, and hardcore. The list is part of a recurring series where the publication polls its staff and contributing writers to tabulate the defining tracks of each decade, offering insight into how musical perceptions evolve over time.
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Twitter / XThe 200 Best Songs of the 1980s: A Staff-Voted Rankingpitchfork.comKey quotes
· 3 pulledA great deal of today's music looks to the '80s for inspiration, but there are so many different ideas of what '80s as a descriptor can mean.
Every time we do one of these lists we learn something about how perceptions of decades change over time, and how the musical ideas from a given era filter through to later.
From house to hip-hop, college rock to techno, bubblegum pop to post-punk, heavy metal to hardcore—here are our favorite tracks of the 1980s.
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