1980s

Billboard magazine (browse the 1980s)

Billboard year end charts

Metal

Dwight Schrute playing air guitar
Dwight Schrute and Motley Crue, pre-raise, pre-sale
Motörhead: Ace of Spades
Iron Maiden, “The Number of the Beast” (1982)
Judas Priest
- “Living After Midnight” (originally released 1980)
- Live Festival (1983)
Eddie Van Halen
- Eruption
- “How is Eddie Van Halen Linked to Metal?”
Metallica
- “Enter Sandman” (Monsters of Rock tour, Moscow, 1991); original music video
  - For Wagner and Rivera, Play it Again Metallica (NYT, 4/5/2006)
  - The Man Who Came up with Rivera’s Enter Sandman Theme
  - Rivera’s final game entrance at Yankee Stadium (9/26/2013)
  - Metallica at Yankee Stadium for Mariano Rivera Day (9/22/2013)
- detailed history of the band
- Beavis and Butthead listen to “One” (…And Justice for All LP released 1988)
- Dog playing drums to “Enter Sandman”
Metal dude (Shotaro Nakamura):
- “Enter Sandman”
- “Crazy Train“
Motley Crue, “Wild Side” (1987), “Girls, Girls, Girls” (1987)
Twisted Sister
- “We’re Not Gonna Take It” (1984)
- Twisted Sister Wikipedia page
Guy gets owned at talent show; 8 years later
Shit gets real during High School talent show (3:17)
Chris Fitzpatrick for ASB Class President (SNL)
Ronnie Dio interview (devil horns origin), joined Black Sabbath in 1979
Heavy Metal Parking Lot (1986); Where are They Now (2006)
Aural Amphetamine: Metallica and the Dawn of Thrash (2008)
The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time (Rollin Stone)

Hard Rock

Aerosmith, “Dude (Looks Like a Lady)” (1987)
AC/DC, “Highway to Hell” (original recording 1979)

Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC)

PMRC on wiki (w/filthy 15)
PMRC’s Filthy Fifteen: Where are they Now? (rollingtone.com, 9/17/2015)
25 Years After
Senate Commerce Committee testimony (1985)
- Record labeling: hearing before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States Senate, Ninety-ninth Congress, first session, on contents of music and the lyrics of records, September 19, 1985. Susan Baker (10-12), Tipper Gore (12-17), Frank Zappa (51-64), John Denver (64-), Dee Snider (72-82), Filthy Fifteen (89, from RS 9/12/1985)
- Frank Zappa; Zappa on Crossfire (1986)
- Dee Snider’s PMRC Senate Hearing Speech (Al Gore at 15:15); Dee Snider on censorship and his testimony
  - Dee Snider talks Trump, taking back ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ and drag bans: ‘My band would not be allowed to perform in Texas’ (2023)
- Rock Lyrics Record Labelling (PMRC full hearing on CSPAN)
Parental Advisory Forever (Newsweek, 2015)
“Future Changed Rap for a Generation. He Doesn’t Know How to Feel About It” (rollingstone 1/17/19)

Charity Rock

Band Aid, “Do They Know it’s Christmas” (Nov. 1984)
USA for Africa, “We Are the World” (Jan. 1985); with vocalist identifications and lyric subtitles; Lyrics (along with personnel); Wikipedia page; Bob Dylan rehearsing with Stevie Wonder
Greil Marcus, “Number One with a Bullet” (1985) (go to p. 105), Wesleyan access only
Japanese game show “We Are the World“
Live Aid
- Live Aid/Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) scene comparisons
“We Are the World 25 for Haiti” (Feb. 2010); personnel listing
SNL parody of “We Are the World 25” (Feb. 27, 2010)

Pop

Whitney Houston
- Whitney Houston singing in church as a young girl
- On getting booed at Soul Train Awards
  - Arsenio Hall Show (7:07)
  - documentary excerpt
- cousin Dionne Warwick, “Walk on By” (1960s)

Michael Jackson

“Beat It” (1983) (4:41, 4:48)
Pepsi commercial (1984)
Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan
“Bad” (1987)
Michael Jackson and Prince on stage with James Brown (August 1983) (same gig, but lower quality video)
“Working Day and Night” (live in Bucharest, 1992, HBO; 4:40)
Oprah interview (moonwalk 45:15, beatbox 47:45)
Best Moonwalk Ever? (extended solo dance sequence, Billie Jean)
“Who Invented the Moonwalk?”
crotch grab
- compilation
- Justin Bieber crotch grab count
- Jay Z and Kanye West, “Otis” (2:35)
Richard Pryor, “White and Black People” (from Wanted, 1978)
“Too Big to Cancel,” Can We Still Listen to Michael Jackson? (The Guardian, March 1, 2019)
Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson: Wedding and a difficult interview (1995)

Prince

“When Doves Cry” (1984): extended version; short version
Questlove Remembers Prince (rollingstone.com, 4/25/2016)
Prince inducts Parliament Funkadelic into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1997)
Prince: A Musical Portrait
“The Prince We Never Knew” (Sasha Weiss, NYT magazine, 9/8/2024)

Electronic Dance Music

“Genres, Subgenres, Sub-Subgenres and More: Musical and Social Differentiation Within Electronic/Dance Music Communities” (Kembrew McLeod)
GRAPHICS
- Ishkur’s guide to electronic music
- How Music Travels: The Evolution of Western Dance Music (explanation and comments)
Documentaries
- Pump Up the Volume: The History of House
  - part 1: Time to Jack (On and On: 33:10)
  - part 2
  - part 3
- I Was There When House Took Over the World
  - part 1
  - part 2 (tracklist in comments)
- House: first news report in Chicago (1986)
- Frankie Knuckles, Powerhouse opening night (1986) (interview: 1:50)
- Frankie Knuckles (redbullacademy 2011)
- Detroit: Blueprint for Techno
- High Tech Soul: The Creation of Techno Music

1985

8 songs of the Billboard top 10 are from the UK (May 25, 1985)
“How Will I Know,” Whitney Houston

Alternative/Indie/Punk

Sonic Youth
- “Expressway to your Skull” (from 1991: The Year Punk Broke) (aka “Madonna, Sean, and Me”)
- “Expressway to your Skull” (1991 live)
- “Expressway to Your Skull” (live Prospect Park, Brooklyn, 2010)
Pixies
- “Gigantic” live (1988); lyrics and interview explaining them (1:15)
- David Bowie on the Pixies (3 things about them, 0:25)
Nirvana
- “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (1991); lyrics w/Kurt Cobain interview on the Pixies; Kurt Cobain Rolling Stone interview (1994); wikipedia page
“The Trouble with Indie Rock” (Carl Wilson, slate.com, 10/18/2007)

Misc.

Synth Britannia (BBC 4 doc, 2009)
“Love is a Stranger” (Eurythmics, 1982)
Madonna
- “Like a Prayer,” Madonna (1989)
- “Express Yourself” (1989)