Listening to the Billboard Top 100 Charts (1946 - Present)

"Their early work was a little too new wave for my taste. But when Sports came out in '83, I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. He's been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humor."

Is it wrong that I agree with Bateman?

Has there ever been a year where a song's music video was more important to it's popularity and cultural impact than 1984?

Wikipedia doesn't seem to mention this song in Grand Theft Auto Vice City - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_... - which is honestly my main connection to the song.

In terms of Youtube views, it looks like Peter Schilling's version (8.7 M) of Space Oddity/Major Tom gets creamed by David Bowie (43 Million) and Chris Hadfield (38M). To be fair, Chris had to actually sing his version aboard the International Space Station to get his numbers.

Part of the point of me listening to every top 100 song from 1945 to today is to check how my own subjective highly variable impressions are against the public at large. For instance,"Careless Whisper." I know the song, I've heard it a bunch of times, but if you were to ask me I'd say it probably wasn't that big in 2018 for a song that was #1 in 1985, but youtube shows me that 313 MILLION people have watched it - so my own internal subjective assessment on this is way way way off.

For me it is absolutely 100% impossible to separate this song from the music video. That's pretty rare, and I'd say unheard of these days but 1985 is another matter. Is there any way to objectively measure how important a song's music video is to it's cultural impact? I can't think of any.

Jump is an awesome song. In fact... if I had to place money on which 1980's song would be used in the 2080's to invoke the 1980's, jump is definitely on the list.

Not a whole lot of 1910 songs that are broadly recognizable today; https://popculturemadness.com/Music/...

MST3K Episode: 1008- Final Justice

Mike: Hi everyone, Mike Nelson here on the Satellite of Love. This is Tom Servo, and Tom's got something to say.
Tom: Thank you, Mike. Mike, folks, in 1984 the techno-megagiant band named Yes released a song in which they assured us that the (singing in high-pitched voice) "Owner of a lonely heart is much better than the owner of a broken heart."
Mike: Yeah, great song! I remember that one.
Tom: As do we all, Mike. As do we all. But my point is simply this: They introduced a profound topic and then barely scratched the surface. They told me nothing! How does the (singing) "Owner of a lonely heart" (normal voice) compare to, say, the (singing) "Owner of a broken gas fireplace?" (Normal voice) Or for that matter, to the (singing) "Owner of a perfectly functional cheese slicer?" (Normal voice) As the (singing) "Owner of a lonely heart" (normal voice) how do I stack up against the (singing) "Owner of a pencil?" I mean, come on, Yes!
Mike: I don't think it's up to Yes to come up with every possible permutation of--
Tom: Well they brought it up, Mike, and there's so much more to consider. What about the (singing) "Owner of a parcel of land in Montana" (normal voice) versus the (singing) "Owner of a pie?"
Mike: (to Cambot) We'll be right back.
Tom: I mean, how does the (singing) "Owner of a jar" (normal voice) stack up against the (singing) "Owner of a split level?"
[commercial sign]

Ghostbusters is the first song I can think of where I became musically aware of a song coming to exist. That is, I I can recall hearing it for the first time and knowing I liked it and wanted to hear it again (and again and again and again to my Dad's dismay), and that's not true for any other song before it. In my mind's memory, Jump has always existed - it is eternal and constant. I have no memory of it coming to exist, it's just always been there. But due to being able to recall memories of loving the Ghostbusters film and soon after hearing the song on the radio and being reminded of the Ghostbusters film and wanting to pretend to be a Ghostbuster, the Ghostbusters song has a start date in my mind in a way no song before it does.

I have not commented much but I like this thread and always read your updates, keep them coming! It is annoying though that the video embeds do not work due to site restricted playback.

I'm liking Prince songs a lot more than I would have first thought; never had anything against the Artist, but just never got exposed to him a whole lot. Now I'm kind of excited to see if any of the dozens of unreleased Prince music videos Kevin Smith talked about ever get released.

Once again we see the power of niche songs! Want a song about breaking up with a romantic partner? You've got 10% of all songs to choose from. Want a song about someone tragically loosing their life? That's less common but still pretty common. Want a song about nuclear war? You've got this one and or Weird Al's Christmas at Ground Zero.

Class! Wow, there are very very very few top 100 songs explicitly about class conflict. Makes sense in that doing so would anger one side or the other and virtually by definition you need a broad base of appeal to make the top 100. But I'd say this is probably the most popular and explicit song about class conflict I've heard so far in the top 100, and I can't recall any more recent hits that would replace it off the top of my head. Can you?

It's not fair of me to forever assosiate this song with this scene;

It's not fair, but I do it.

Thriller was #78?? HOLY CRUD!!!

Shock! Dismay! Surprise!

I remember this on MTV. I remember how often it was played over and over and over again until the DJ's started making jokes about it. I would have guessed it was a top ten hit at least.

But you know.... it makes sense. I really don't hear it nearly as a lot of Jackson's other work. I really think it was popular for the music video audience, and that didn't translate into sales I guess.

jrralls wrote:

Want a song about nuclear war? You've got this one and or Weird Al's Christmas at Ground Zero.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHyl...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHmH...
Maybe not so many nuclear war songs but tons and tons of Cold War songs and references to the Cold War in songs. From Ozzy's "Crazy Train" to Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Two Tribes" to the Fixx "Red Skies at Night" and Metallica's "Blackened"
Jesus Jones "Right Here Right Now" is a capstone to the Cold War. I wish "watching the world wake up from history" lasted a little bit longer...

Would have sworn the title to this was "Ain't that America" rather than Pink Houses, but oh well.

Fun fact: MTV Ran a contest where they painted a house pink for a contest winner;

jrralls wrote:

Class! Wow, there are very very very few top 100 songs explicitly about class conflict. Makes sense in that doing so would anger one side or the other and virtually by definition you need a broad base of appeal to make the top 100. But I'd say this is probably the most popular and explicit song about class conflict I've heard so far in the top 100, and I can't recall any more recent hits that would replace it off the top of my head. Can you?

I can't really think of any recent hits either. Some older stuff from the 70s maybe early 80s was about class conflict, like Money from Pink Floyd.

This song is 100% insuperable from the music video for me.

LeapingGnome wrote:
jrralls wrote:

Class! Wow, there are very very very few top 100 songs explicitly about class conflict. Makes sense in that doing so would anger one side or the other and virtually by definition you need a broad base of appeal to make the top 100. But I'd say this is probably the most popular and explicit song about class conflict I've heard so far in the top 100, and I can't recall any more recent hits that would replace it off the top of my head. Can you?

I can't really think of any recent hits either. Some older stuff from the 70s maybe early 80s was about class conflict, like Money from Pink Floyd.

I don't see that song as about class conflict so much as about greed which is part of of, but not the entirely of, class and class struggles.

I didn't discover this song until about 25 years after it came out. I'm sure I heard it many times before then but it didn't really become part of my internalized song library until I associated it with a very specific time and place. Odd how that happens.

I'm not sure I've ever wanted to BE a fictional character as much as I wanted to be Marty McFly as a seven year old in 1985.

Chess is near the top of my list of musicals I want to see but haven't. It's getting a very limited revival in London but I'm not at a phase of life where going to the UK to see a play is really practical. Ah well.

Material Girl was only at #58? Another shocker. For me this is probably one of the top 5 Eighties songs, in that it is used to represent the decade.

Summer of '69 was recorded in '84, so it's like someone making a song today about the far gone days of 2003 and I just can't see anyone writing such a song and having it be a huge hit because the feelings it bring up resonate with people to the degree that this did. 1960-1980 was just such a red hot period of cultural change that I don't expect to see anything like it, culturally, in my lifetime.

#92! Wow. Definitively another song that has had long legs and a way bigger cultural impact than its chart position would indicate. I wonder if there is a pattern to these songs. They probably have to be

1) About a subject that doesn't have a ton of songs about it. It doesn't have to be the only popular song about it's subject, but it probably can't be a generic love song either.

2) Associated with a specific time and place or film/tv show?

Anything else?

3) Have a catchy recognizable hook that can be played for 10-30 seconds.

Don't forget that the Billboard 100 is mostly the lowest common denominator. It is music that most people can listen to but not their favorite or the best with few exceptions. Plus there is weird crossover with questions like, "Everyone who listens to U2 will enjoy Michael Jackson. But will everyone who listens to Michael Jackson enjoy U2?"
Ballads tend to have crossover appeal more than dance or uptempo songs. I am constantly flabbergasted by looking at classic bands most successful songs (chart topping) because they are very skewed towards ballads and songs that appeared in commercials, movies or TV.
When Prince passed, everyone was lauding him for "Purple Rain" the song not the album. Not only is that far from his best song, I find it lethargic, it is not even his best ballad. (Seven, Diamonds and Pearls, or Nothing Compares 2 U if that counts)

Part of the point of listening to the billboard top 100 is that it is the songs that have the widest crossover appeal.