Favorite 80's band?

[Runesong]

Sorry I don't seem to have the option of creating a poll..

Adam and the Ants?

Big Country?

Soft Cell?

The Cure?

Billy Idol?

Head East?

The Fixx?

Duran Duran?

The Talking Heads?

Missing Persons?

Devo?

Flock of Seagulls?

Scorpions?

Psychadelic Furs?

The Police?

The Smiths?

Madness?

Thomas Dolby?

All of the above?

[Scottie72]

1. Definitely The Cure

but and it is a BIG BUT, they are not exclusively an 80's band. Hell they just released an awsome Concert DVD, and are planning on releasing a new CD in 2004.

[durutti]

36. My Favorites

The Cure, Joy Division, Killing Joke, Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, Siouxsie, New Order, and (of course) Durrutti Column.

[thom1102]

39. New Order...

ooohhhh...:drool: I LOVE new order! How about Howard Jones?

[Bridget Burke]

37. Many of the above, plus

Los Lobos

The Blasters

Romeo Void

[wtmusic]

2. How could you leave out

Tears for Fears?

[Runesong]

6. And Howard Whats-his-name..

Not being mean, just a curse of being named Howard.. You know who I'm talking about.. Whao-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-whao-oh-oh. Howard Jones! (my wife just saved me!)

[Kolesar]

41. When I first heard of Howard Dean, I always thought of Howard Jones

It just seemed so funny to me.

You folks are naming a lot of bands that started recording in the 1970s like the B-52s and Devo

[salin]

21. Yep Tears for Fears... and hellooooooo... REM... and for bop: SQUEEZE

also Oingo Boingo for fun.

[KamaAina]

3. Uh, U2??

Also not exclusively '80s, but still...

[suegeo]

12. Yep

It is U2 for me!

[TheZoo]

4. Hall & Oates

Followed by The Police & Yes.

On edit: Can I add the Beatles? ("The Beatles Movie Medley" (1982) and "Twist And Shout" - #23 (1986))

[last_texas_dem]

13. I second Hall and Oates

One of my favorite all-time musical acts. I like their seventies stuff even more, but their eighties music is superb. The "Voices", "Private Eyes", and "H2O" albums were released in a three year span, and, to me, the eighties doesn't get much better than those.

[MotorCityMan]

5. Go Gos's. Definitely.

They are just fun. Have seen them 4 times live (including the obligatory reunion tour two years ago), and had a blast every time.

A very close tie for second would be the B-52s and the J. Geils Band.

[Deja Q]

7. B52s, Duran Duran, and all the one-hit wonder bands...

[Sufi Marmot]

22. Dexy's Midnight Runners!!!

Don't laugh - you've probably never heard anything they've done except for "Come On Eilieen" - Listen to Searching For the Young Soul Rebels and then get back to me. The great lost band of the 80's, they were about 5-7 years ahead of their time: Too-Rye-Ave predated the whole Celtic Rock (Waterboys/Hothouse Flowers/Sinead, Pogues, etc.) craze of the late 80's - early 90's. They imploded due to Kevin Rowland's cocaine habit and general flakiness, such a shame...

-SM

[rogerashton]

8. There were bands in the '80's?

n/t

[dani]

9. so many to choose from

but right now I'm feelin like... The Human League.

[PittPoliSci]

10. IRON MAIDEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MAIDEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TheBigGuy]

11. Bronksi Beat (but there where so many bands i liked back then)

Depeche Mode was pretty good too, early on.

Gang of Four

The The

ABC

New Order

etc etc etc

[YellowRubberDuckie]

15. The 80s rocked, period...

...but I'm going to have to say I loved Boy George. And I had the biggest crush on Def Leppard. My sister was totally into Poison. I personally think that the One Hit Wonders were great too.
Duckie

[Scottie72]

20. Well Depeche Mode

is also not exclusively an 80's band. I am rather surprised at the comment of DM was good early on. I am a HUGE DM fan and realy anything pre "Black Celebration" from DM is kind of campy.

There best work definitely was between in the late 80's to early 90's. They are still around and producing music.

Currently Dave Gahan is on tour supporting his first solo effort, and they are going to be getting together to discuss plans for recordning a new album. Thus is they do record a new album it will probably be ready for release sometime late 2004 early 2005.

[kid shelleen]

14. Ditto the Cure

Umm, ABC...Echo & The Bunnymen...Psych Furs...Wire (sort of)...Elvis Costello..Hoodoo Gurus...The Damned (kinda)...The Lords of the New Church, and many more.

[arwalden]

16. When In Rome, Level 42, Eurythmics, Depeche Mode, Army Of Lovers

and New Order.

-- Allen

[ScreamingMeemie]

17. Thompson Twins and The Dream Academy....

My personal faves...

I thought Paul Young was hotter than hell, but didn't much care for his singing.

[Terwilliger]

18. oh helll...I dunno

U2 I guess

[NightTrain]

19. Stray Cats, Dead Kennedys

n/t

[RetroLounge]

23. Hmmm. So many to choose from

Cindy Lauper
Billy Idol
REM
Cure
U2
Lets Active
Marshall Crenshaw
Echo & The Bunnymen
Big Country
Icicle Works
Wall of Voodoo
Psych Furs

[tarkus]

24. King Crimson's 1980's incarnation. No contest. No text either.

[Fenris]

25. The Smiths

Rife with substance and with a nearly unique style. Completely unmatched during the 80s, in terms of originality and consistency. Note-driven guitar parts (a la the Byrds) over a flawless, solid rythm section. Lyrics could be heartfelt, and at the same time, cynical and harsh. Can be credited with saving British rock from both the synth-driven hordes of New Wave and the acrid armies of pop-metal that permeated the airwaves during the 1980s.

Honorable Mention:

Joy Division

The first band that could be considered "industrial" rock. Combined punk guitars with dance beats and eclectic bass riffs to create a surging, swelling style of music that was unheard of in the early days of post-punk. Dark, depressed lyrics sung in a semi-monotonous voice by vocalist Ian Curtis. Curtis' untimely death cut the band's career tragically short. The band quickly regrouped as New Order, and went on to greater success. Trent Reznor owes his career to Joy Division and other inventive post-punk outfits.

[short bus president]

26. RUN DMC?

Or are we only talking about the stuff they play on the "80s stations?"

[jafap]

33. are there 80s stations somewhere?

The only ones I heard, back before I got totally sick of radio were "from retro to right now" (BTW I hate the word "retro" since it comes from a "non-retro" point of view) or "the best mix of the 80s, 90s, and today" all of which played the "drops of Jupiter in her hair" song et. al. every two hours. And why is it that for every hour you listen to a radio station you have to hear at least three minutes of commercials for the very station you are listening to? Hello - I am already listening to this station.
For a while there, I was happier on the pure sixties station.
Of course, I am a fan of the 1980s glam bands - REO, Styx, Journey, Def Leppard, AC/DC, Dokken, Night Ranger, Bryan Adams, Huey Lewis, Molly Hatchet, Rush, Asia, Triumph, Pat Benatar, Joan Jett, Heart etc.
In the 1980s in the Twin Cities the radio played alot of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Bob Seger and Boston too.

edit - I forgot to mention people like The Boss, Queen, Aerosmith, and Sammy Hagar/Van Halen. Of course, Aerosmith may have taken the 80s off, but Dream On and Walk this way still got lots of airplay.

[incontrovertible]

27. the real answers?

Best band in the 80s would have been My Bloody Valentine. Light years beyond any other contender. Don't take my word for it, look up some critical overviews of the decade.

In terms of mainstream music:

Early R.E.M easily outstripped everything else amongst their contemporaries. Early U.2. came closest to them. The Police's first albums were exceptionally brilliant.

The best "heavy metal" band was Queensryche, followed by Metallica.

Best postmodern band was The Cure.

Most important band of the entire decade was, without doubt, Jane's Addiction.

[HalfManHalfBiscuit]

28. Black Flag

Case closed.

[Amaya]

29. The Cure>>

[Fenris]

30. Cool picture

I always loved Robert Smith's hair.

:hi:

[Spirochete]

31. Oingo Boingo

Cold Chisel
Wall of Voodoo
Alan Parsons
Molly Hatchet
Night Ranger
Eurythmics
B52's
Gamma

[CanuckAmok]

32. Killing Joke and Foetus.

Yup.

Also, Sisters of Mercy, Ramones, Dead Kennedys, Police, Rough Trade, Black Flag, Yello, Cabaret Voltaire, Duran Duran, and, most importantly, The Clash. I know some are 70's bands, but their strongest work was around '79-'81.

[devarsi]

34. Too Many To Pick One, sooo...

Oingo Boingo
Pretenders
Van Halen (with Dave Lee Roth)
Violent Femmes
Fishbone (live)
Any Ska Band (Specials, English Beat, etc)
Janet Jackson
Joe Jacksen (no relation)
David Bowie
Berlin

plus everything mentioned in above posts

I loved the 80's musically.

In the early 80s I had a 6" electric blue mohawk with red lightning bolts along the sides, five safety pins in my ear, and a wardrobe courtesy of Arrdvarks Odd Ark in Venice and the Army Surplus in Santa Monica.

Two years later, there was nothing in my closet that wasn't black or white, and I had a obviousl dyed, slate grey flat top on which you could shoot pool...

Now I've got three kids that can't ever picture me being an insane youngster. Too bad, cause I was a punk before you were a punk, I was a punk before youuuuu

[Kamika]

35. U2

OK, they arent only 80s but they were the biggest of the 80s

[YellowRubberDuckie]

38. Here in oklahoma...

we have a station called The Spy that plays new wave stuff, past and present. It's actually an alternative station...They are very unique. Where most stations have 100 songs top in rotation, The Spy has 2000. THey don't play the same crap over and over and over like the other stations.
Duckie

[RandomKoolzip]

40. The Minutemen, Husker Du, Squirrel Bait, Fugazi, Mission of Burma,

Black Flag, Glass Eye, The Misfits, 5UU's, Minor Threat, Metallica, Butthole Surfers, Sun City Girls, Skeleton Crew, Any Trouble, The Descendents, Joe Jackson Band, Gang of Four, Essential Logic, The Replacements, Danzig, etc. etc.

Far too many more to elucidate here.....

[Kolesar]

42. They Might Be Giants--boy---They Might Be Giants---boy

I loved REM, The Cure and U2, but TMBG "aged very well".

They even have their own theme song

They might be giants (boy)
They might be giants
They might be rain
They might be heat
They might be frying up a stalk of wheat

They might be giants (boy)
They might be giants
They might be brain
They might be washed
They might be dr. spock’s back-up band

edit:typo

[Jack The Tab]

43. Lets Active or Modern English

But not simply for that "melt with you" crap. ME had some really incredible albums.

Lets Active I bought on a lark when I was a teen and was blown away. Particularly the Big Plans album.

[ProfessorGAC]

44. Too Many To Name. But, . . .

. . .Head East? They were assembled in 1975 in central Illinois. My guitar player knew all those guys personally when he was in a road band in 1975. They're a 70's band.

I like the rest of your list, but i would add:
Joe Jackson
The Talking Heads
The Fixx
Oingo Boingo
The Porfessor

[kmla]

45. OMG, where do I start?

I was lucky enough to work at a PROGRESSIVE college radio station in the early 80's - eventually becoming the program director. I had too much fun at that place. Some of my faves include:

Martha and the Muffins
Spandau Ballet
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
The Church
The dB's
Human League
Elvis (Costello, not Presley)
Todd Rundgren (holdover from the 70's)
The Clash
Madness (or any ska band)
Wang Chung
Tom Tom Club
T' Heads
Romeo Void
The entire Valley Girl Soundtrack
Dave Bowie
Haircut 100
Falco
The Style Council
Bryan Ferry/Roxy Music
Bow Wow Wow

I could go on for days...

[XNASA]

46. The Clash

They were the greatest band in the world at the time.

They were the only band that mattered.

Here are some others who pale in comparison, but are worth noting:

Talking Heads
Japan
The Smiths

Sandanista!!!!!

[northernsoul]

47. you have excellent taste, my friend

however I believe that Dexy's Midnight Runners somehow missed the list. Put 'Come on Eileen' back to back with 'Our House' by Madness and then 'Tainted Love', and you've got the soundtrack to my summer of 1983 - I was only 10 or so then, so I had good taste at a young age. It's been all downhill from there.

[primavera]

48. Peter Gabriel

I pretty much liked all 80s groups, even including the sappy commerical ones, but have a special fondness and respect for Peter Gabriel: anyone who writes songs about Stephen Biko is an artist after my own heart.

[bbernardini]

49. The Tubes

Classis stuff.

[kmla]

50. What do you want from life?

...An autographed picture of Randy Mantooth, and Bod Dylan's new unlisted phone number...

[CanuckAmok]

51. "...A New Monza!..." n/t

[mvd]

52. The Bangles

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, The Go Gos, The Cars, The Police, and Blondie are some others.