MovieChat Forums > The Secret of My Succe$s (1987) Discussion > Eighties movies had the greatest songs e...

Eighties movies had the greatest songs ever!

posted 17 years ago by LogiesRun
29 replies | jump to latest

I just recently compiled a CD for myself of 80's movie songs. It really made me realise how brilliant movie songs were in the 80's. Included were The Secret Of My Success ( of course), Danger Zone from Top Gun, Stir It Up from Beverly Hills Cop, Bit By Bit from Fletch, Shakedown from Beverly Hills Cop 2, Sweet Freedom from Running Scared, Back In Time from Back To The Future and more. Would anyone else agree that today's movie's just don't seem to have particularly memorable songs anymore?

[–] Any_Dream_Will_Do 17 years ago

It's true. If you look at the Oscars in the 80's, movie songs that were nominated for Best Song were also huge chart topping hits. Today Best Song nominees are almost never known by the public. I think it has to do with the fact that MTV was born in the 80's. All of a sudden putting music together with visuals was exciting and hip. So the music and film worlds came together and cross promoted each other. You can name so many hit 80's soundtracks. I don't know why it's so lackluster today. I guess it's because 80's artists were older and did power pop. Today artists are younger, more sexual, and more hip hop and angry/whiny rock. Hollywood is scared of/can't relate to the music scene today and so doesn't use the popular music of today in it's films.

[–] phil-dawg 17 years ago

didn't hustle & flow win the 2006 Oscar for best original song written for a motion picture? that's pretty 'popular music of today'

[–] databaseuser 17 years ago

Yes but was it a ubiquitous chart-topping hit? No, I don't think so.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] scott-sw 17 years ago

Although not a chart-topping hit, this is my favorite soundtrack song and one of my favorites of all time--by a group I grew up listening to. It still has the same fresh energy and punch 20 years later that it had back in 1987. It still gets me pumped, and I am not tired of it in the least. One of THE best ever. My dying wish is to hear Night Ranger perform it live.

[–] corrupt200 16 years ago

I also like "Price of Love" by Roger Daltrey

"We share the same biology regardless of ideology"-Sting, 1985

[–] Fluke_Skywalker 16 years ago

Yeah sadly the catchy pop soundtrack has all but faded from existence today; much like the montage. BTW, where in the heck are the montages Hollyweird!? Not menage [we know you still have plenty of them] montage .

Movies like 'Hustle & Flow' [never seen it, but I'm familiar with it] and 8 Mile [see 'Hustle & Flow'] spawned hit songs, but they were films where the lead characters were supposed to be rappers so that makes sesne. What's missing are the great mood setting, background songs [and montage music. Grrrr]. Take a look @ all the Summer blockbusters this year and there might not be a hit song among them. The only big movie(s) that had a big soundtrack of late that spring to mind are 'Spider-Man 1 & 2'... 'Hero' [from 1], 'Ordinary' and 'Vindicated' [from 2].

I'll add another on the list of great 80's movie songs, "Glory of love" by Peter Cetera.

’Cause there’s thunder in your heart... Every move is like lightning!

[–] mcfly-31 16 years ago

I think because so much marketing goes into today's films, and today's box-office returns are so huge, they feel no need to tie it into a hit song. Back then (the 80s, and even 90s), a hit song could aid a film's success because it got constant airplay. Thus, made the people want to check out the film. But that was in the day of struggling to keep a film afloat until $100 mil. Nowadays the average "big" opening is about $50-60 mil.

Plus I just don't think that the popular genres of today could have a theme song that fit. Superbad, Iron Man, Pirates, Pixar stuff...could you imagine *anything* fitting into a song that would describe those films? "Say You, Say Me", "Power of Love", "Danger Zone" (maybe for Iron Man). Remember when powerful stuff like "Somewhere Out There" was even written for *animated* movies (An American Tail)???

[–] mikekaraoke23 15 years ago

i disagree mcfly loads of 80s movies didnt need songs to make a film a success like ET or short circuit or the goonies or crocodile dundee or starwars or teenwolf or willow all big hits but the songs were great the soundtrack songs wasnt always on every min of the day but was on quite alot. i mean rocky 4 made 5 hundred million

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[–] CCRider01 13 years ago

"I think because so much marketing goes into today's films, and today's box-office returns are so huge, they feel no need to tie it into a hit song. Back then (the 80s, and even 90s), a hit song could aid a film's success because it got constant airplay. Thus, made the people want to check out the film. But that was in the day of struggling to keep a film afloat until $100 mil. Nowadays the average "big" opening is about $50-60 mil."

Films also cost a LOT more to make and have much larger marketing budgets. Factor inflation, piracy, and more entertainment options (video games, 500 TV channel universe), and an average film today probably makes LESS profit in its theatrical release than in the 1980's. DVD/BluRay and International box office can certainly offset this, but they still had VHS tapes in the 1980's. Also $50-60 mil openings are not your typical film.

[–] Niversas 15 years ago

great movie, great soundtrack

[–] Chelle-the-Belle 16 years ago

All I can say is.....it's all about the 80's!!!! :) This movie has an amazing soundtrack! Watched this over the weekend and I instantly recognized one of the instrumental melodies (sounded a lot like a particular Chicago song). My smart movie/music buff boyfriend informed me that David Foster worked with Chicago, therefore the similarities. And then later in the film, I heard a bit of the St. Elmo's Fire melody, too. Great piece of work and a wonderful movie!

p.s. The last memorable movie song I can think of? Celine Dion "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic. And that was was back in '97, I think.

[–] corrupt200 15 years ago

Last memorable movie song I can think of is "What Would Brian Boitano Do?"

"We share the same biology regardless of ideology"-Sting, 1985

[–] Chelle-the-Belle 15 years ago

LOL....and along those same lines....another quite memorable one...."I'm So Ronery" from Team America: World Police. :)

[–] todd gaines 15 years ago

You're absolutely right. Especially this movie.

[–] Padwanna 15 years ago

Yeah man, the 80's had some classic tunes. Who can't forget Highway to the Danger Zone! Phoar... wicked tune! :) I don't get why people are so down on 80's music. It defined an era, and had it's fair share of wicked cool tunes, just like any other decade.

Padwanna!

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The internet has the ability to turn sane people into ranting fools!

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] FridayOnElmStreet 13 years ago

"Eighties movies had the greatest songs ever!"

Very true!

[–] Max06 12 years ago

^ This. Great songs, great memories.

[–] gkpete 12 years ago

Agreed.

[–] dana5570 8 years ago

I miss songs from 80s movies SO much. I remember it was exciting to hear a song on the radio and find out it was from a movie. Nowadays, not so much :(

[–] jdforyou1983 (1469) 3 years ago

I agree

[–] moviechatterer (13320) a year ago

Todays music isnt fit to be put into a movie i guess

[–] aavfreak (2863) a year ago

I'm thinking that a lot of it may be due to the way we consume our music now vs then. Most of the music was provided through a narrow channel. In the 80s you either heard it on terrestrial FM radio or you bought a physical copy of the album from a store. Much of it was heard in public settings, stores, etc...

Not only was music consumption different then, but it had different meaning and significance to our culture as a whole. Movie soundtrack was part of that.

[–] moviechatterer (13320) 8 months ago

I always thought back then the music in the movies was far better than the shit the radio was pumping out and was in "the charts" . More upbeat , guitar based rocky type stuff usually - just look at the OP's list.

A big house party in an american movie would have cool music , not fooking nsync , 5ive, backstreet boys , Take That , etc etc
or even worse R&B

[–] BOandBarbecue (2264) a year ago

yes. 80s songs have good feeling when you listen to them. good feels.

[–] Beau_Buffet (327) a month ago

The music is awful, awful, awful, except for two exceptionally great classics:

Walking On Sunshine, and the revolutionary Oh Yeah.