Hi all - Lord knows I hardly am here anymore, much less post.  But since I still have an account here, and it's been on my mind a long time, I wonder if anyone has any interest in polling for best song of the '80s?

I already have an idea in place, which isn't perfect, but I think it's the best I can do for a decade of songs.

See, it really sticks in my craw that some ages ago, on another now-extinct site, we had such a play-off of best '80s songs - which ended in an incongruous choice for best song.

That has ticked me off ever since, and I'd love to pitch my own poll, starting with better parameters than that other thing did.

Bottom line:  how about having a play-off of the best songs from the '80s?

There are so many of them that it would be impossible for me to name the best one. :-\\

There are so many of them that it would be impossible for me to name the best one. :-\\


Agreed.

No no, it would be a play-off system based on genuine official hits topping the years, already tabulated.

No guessing and trying to come up with something.  It would be based on unquestioned chart-toppers.  (No apologies to the fringe lovers who think only #100s should be on top!)

It's quite difficult to determine such a list, as although there are certain top 100 songs of the decade list and it could easily be made into a NCAA-tournament style bracket (with perhaps an extra round with the higher songs getting byes), it could work out if everyone just rings in. But then since different people have different charts they go buy (US/Canada/UK/Australia), it then makes it more difficult with regards to what qualifies as a nominee, though I wouldn't mind if just one system is used, provided that links to each of the songs are provided. You could do the same with other decades. That said my proposal to this is that I'd use VH1's biggest hits of the '80s. I find it a nice mixed list with most of the popular genres represented and would find that it works fine, and it provides more artists generally with their best songs (though Michael Jackson has two), meaning that while the song is important, it increases the emphasis on the artist as well.

http://rb101182.hubpages.com/hub/Top-100-Songs-of-the-80s

The tournament structure is as follows:


8 rounds, progressing from 100 to 64 to 32 to 16 to 8 to 4 to a winner (with a consolation game for third place). The top 28 songs identified get a first-round bye.
A total of one week per round, making this last around two months total with voting to begin on Friday evenings and end ending on the following Thursday evening, with the next round starting the next evening.
Since the early rounds have numerous songs, only links to the song should be provided instead of the video.
One vote per each matchup in each round. Just post your votes in this thread in a list format. Separate threads may be created for each round.


Somebody (possibly me) could just make a bracket maker and plop each song down. It should

Thanks for the ideas.  I was simply going to use Billboard rankings, for each year, as the baseline.  The complexity would be seeding with 64, instead of 60 or 70.  I thought I'd just rank the #7 songs by poll of those 10 and wing it from there with play-off brackets.

I've participated in these types of "contests" before, no videos or clips needed.  That's nice, but most of us know the top songs of the decade, and finding/making links adds a whole other dimension of time I don't really have myself.

My main thing is I want it to feature the serious top hits, not technical hits that peaked at 17 for 1 week or that some single critic thinks are great....

I don't think Billboard US is a problem for others, as these serious hits are basically universal.

But anyway, it was an idea, just for fun.

If one used that more generalized VH1 list, the brackets could start right away by just chopping it off at 64.  Forget the rest.

There are so many of them that it would be impossible for me to name the best one. :-\\


Same for me. The 80s were quite the transitional time from being more like the 70s (1980) to the early 90s (1989). Of course, most of my favorite 80s songs are from 1989. ;)

Bottom line:  how about having a play-off of the best songs from the '80s?


Sounds like fun, regardless of how you pick the top 64.  (By the way, did you catch the answer to your video game question from a few years back?)

Sounds like fun, regardless of how you pick the top 64.  (By the way, did you catch the answer to your video game question from a few years back?)


Thank you, FooBar, and yes, I did see that reply!  Was so happy.  I checked it out on my own from there.

If we get enough response maybe I'll start up something.  It was certainly fun whenever I've voted on these things, even if I didn't like the selections too much (and I've done this for more than just music).  Interesting to see how people vary with the consensus, if you will.  Using a rock-solid baseline such as Billboard ensures it won't be too whacked out nor that opinions get in the way.  Especially when we are talking about genuinely "typical" or "representative" cultural landmarks.