There are a bunch of different rooms on Turntable.fm for playing and hearing 80s music. The one I’ve been hanging out in lately is I (heart) the 80s, which is usually one of the more active/busy rooms going each day. (And is the main reason for my Turntable.fm addiction.)
What’s interesting is how the crowd changes from day to day, and sometimes even from hour to hour. Sometimes you’ll be in a room and you’ll have a hard rock/metal crowd, while other times it’ll be more of a new wave/Brit crowd. If you’re in the room with a new wave crowd and you bust out Dio or Dokken … well, best of luck. It’s probably not gonna go over too well.
But one thing I’ve noticed is that there are certain songs that seem to do well and get lots of love no matter what kind of audience is in the room. Here’s my list of 13 songs that always seem to do well in ’80s rooms.
1. Everybody Wants To Rule The World – Tears for Fears
2. West End Girls – Pet Shop Boys
3. In The Air Tonight – Phil Collins
4. Jump – Van Halen
5. Wanted Dead Or Alive – Bon Jovi
6. The Boys Of Summer – Don Henley
7. Take On Me – A-Ha
8. Thriller – Michael Jackson
9. Africa – Toto
10. Come On, Eileen – Dexy’s Midnight Runners
11. Don’t Stop Believin’ – Journey
12. Oh Yeah – Yello
13. Don’t You (Forget About Me) – Simple Minds
So if you ever find yourself in an 80s room and want to please the crowd, give one of those a try and see what happens.
