The 1980s were jammed with one-hit wonders riding the new wave tidal wave behind fresh digital music technology and a heavy dose of synthesizer experimentation. 

On its surface, the decade seemed to exist in a neon bubble overflowing with frivolous party songs, prepackaged nostalgia and self indulgence. Let’s be honest, you know you were focused on the “Fight for Your Right (to party)” and declaring to your parents “We’re not gonna take it,” whatever “it” was.

Maybe you sat in front of a candle trying to write the perfect love sonnet to the musings of “Careless Whisper,” only to realize Wham had beaten you to it.

We pledged to “Don’t Worry be Happy” and were encouraged to “Party All the Time.” In fact, we spent a lot of time imagining how to “Party Like it’s 1999.”

Our parents were the hippies who protested for civil rights and implored the world to give peace a chance. But dig a little deeper and you’ll find our decade was not without its messages and causes.

The 80s had a hefty bag of dissent and resistance thrown over its shoulder as the decade lumbered through the final stretch of the nuclear arms race, conflict in Northern Ireland, Aparthied, famine, economic disparity and more.

I’ll call them the “Cold War Classics,” the political soundtrack as we charted a path through the Reagan years on what felt like a menacing world stage and a propserous but often strife-ridden daily life at home.

Teens are ripe for causes. Impressionable, thoughtful, idealistic. It’s not difficult for someone like Sting to stir the emotions as he tries to remind us we’re all the same in “Russians,” leaving us with the hope that Russians love their children too. We’ve learned since, they do, of course, and looking back it’s easy to see how much propaganda fueled the anxiety on both sides.

“American Soviets” had Reagan and Gorbachev playing chess, while “99 Luftbaloons” and “Red Skies” highlighted our fear that war was always just a button away. 

“The Wind of Change” brought the rock ballad into the sphere of protest as the Scorpions refelected on the thawing cold war in 1991. The tune even fueled conspiracy theories that the CIA somehow contributed to the lyrics, though there appears to be no truth to the story.

The conflict in Northern Ireland was memorialized and kept in the spotlight on moving songs like “Invisible Sun,” “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” and “Belfast Child.”

Race – as always – played prominently in the 80s, whether here at home with U2’s tribute to MLK in “Pride (In the Name of Love)” or Peter Gabriel’s “Biko,” later recorded by Simple Minds to honor anti-apartheid activist Stephen Biko. Simple Minds also celebrated the freeing of Nelson Mandela with “Mandela Day.”

“Fight the Power” became an anthem for Black Americans in 1989 as part of Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” and pushed back on the American narrative long before today’s questioning of our whitewashed history with lines like “Most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps.” 

Seven years earlier Grandmaster Flash sent a message with “The Message,” painting a sobering picture of the poverty-stricken, tenuous lives so many Americans lived in a growing time of prosperity for others. Tracy Chapman brought her own subtle power to the growing economic disparity with “Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution”.

Prince captured a wide range of the 80s struggles in “Sign ‘o the Times,” including one of the more powerful lyrics of the decade: “A sister killed her baby ’cause she couldn’t afford to feed it, and yet we’re sending people to the moon.”

Lesser known, but intensely poignant tunes like “Black Boys on Mopeds,” “Between the Wars,” and “Two Tribes” fed the activist fervor.

Then there were the general anti-war tunes of the decade, picking up where previous decades left off. “Put Down that Weapon,” and “Civil War” put a rockin’ edge on the topic, but the best war protest song of the 80s is one misunderstood – or at least ignorantly misused – to this day. 

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Cold War Classics

• American Soviets, C.C.C.P.
• 99 Luftballoons, Nina
• Pride, U2
• Sunday Bloody Sunday, U2
• Sign O’ the Times, Prince
• Biko, Peter Gabriel
• Invisible Sun, The Police
• Mandela Day, Simple Minds
• Belfast Child, Simple Minds
• Beds are Burning, Midnight Oil
• Put Down that Weapon, Midnight Oil
• The Message, Grandmaster Flash
• Between the Wars, Billy Bragg
• Fight the Power, Public Enemy
• Russians, Sting
• Talkin’ Bout a Revolution, Tracy Chapman
• Wind of Change, Scorpions
• Civil War, Guns N’ Roses
• Born in the USA, Bruce Springsteen
• Black Boys on Mopeds, Sinead O’Connor
• Gun Shy, 10,000 Maniacs
• Two Tribes, Frankie Goes to Hollywood
• Red Skies, The Fixx
• Cult of Personality, Living Colour
• Do They Know it’s Christmas, Band Aid
• We Are the World, USA For Africa

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Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” is an anthem. But depending on your point of view, it is either a patriotic chorus screamed out as we hoarsely immitate the Boss, or a piece reflecting on the plight of veterans returning home from the Vietnam war. The patriotic slant is easier for people to swallow, so they wave the flag and belt it out, but they tend to look foolish to those who have paid close attention to the lyrics.

On the more melancholy side of things, one of my favorites is the 10,000 Maniacs’ “Gun Shy,” when Natalie Merchant implores all the chest-thumping young men eager to prove themselves to think twice about their definition of manhood. When she reaches the final line and drops, “They’re so good at making soldiers but they’re not so good at making men,” you can’t help but stop and contemplate that message.

In 1984, Band Aid – the super group of British and Irish musicians – recorded the now favorite holiday classic “Do They Know it’s Christmas,” to raise money for Ethiopian famine relief.

Only a few months later, USA for Africa brought 46 artists together to do the same with “We Are the World”.

There is one protest song, though, that rises above all others in its cult status. Living Colour’s “Cult of Personality” pounded a hard-rocking message you couldn’t possibly escape. And little did the band know that their message from 1988 would be so appropriate in 2024. And the message aside, the song is built to test the limits of your speakers no matter when or where you hear it. The chance to rock out and be thoughtful at the same time should never be taken lightly.

Maybe the 80s don’t get the same credit for it’s protest vibe as the classics like “Fortunate Son” and For What It’s Worth” did for the late 60s, but for what it’s worth, the decade packed quite a message into 10 very formative years for many of us.

Enjoy the Cold War Classics playlist and let me know if we missed anything or brought back any great memories.