I'm worried that I'm one of the few kids who might have, so I'd feel better if more did! ;)

See, my alltime favorite music is stuff like Huey Lewis, Lionel Richie, Phil Collins, lots of arena rock and power ballads, etc. This typically seems to have dated the worst in terms of Eighties music. Were there any youth who listened to this kind of suburban early-mid '80s pop once it began aging?

Once the energetic, urban dance styles became hot, everything else was probably less cool by comparison. Maybe because that tended to be specifically geared to younger teens, whereas my stuff was more across the board. I'd guess something like "High on You" by Survivor was kinda lame by 1989. That's not to say kids couldn't have liked it, but if you put it next to Bobby Brown, New Kids or Janet Jackson, there was no question as to what was cooler!

P.S. I actually did like alot of dance songs from then, but even those also tended to be more clean cut and mellow. Like "Shattered Dreams" or "Never Gonna Give You Up".

Many of the songs you're talking about charted so I'm sure other kids liked it.  I think it depends on how old you were in the 80's.

^ True. I was only 7 and 8 in 1989 lol, but I still remember alot of it. There was actually a decent amount that I didn't know about until the '90s though (from watching videos on VH1 or being around more friends).

I guess I'm primarily talking about the under 15 crowd.

See there, I was 19 in 1989 and I would NEVER listen to Survivor.  Now, "Eye of the Tiger" came out when I was like 12 or so and I was all over that song! 

See there, I was 19 in 1989 and I would NEVER listen to Survivor.  Now, "Eye of the Tiger" came out when I was like 12 or so and I was all over that song! 


Yeah I had some babysitters around your age back then. I should've paid more attention at the time! More often than not I was shy if they were girls/young women though, lol.

Early on my tastes primarily were from what my parents listened to, especially my mom. I guess you're right that generally it wasn't too cool to listen to 1983 music in '89, but I was way too young to care or even realize I was outdated. ;D Some of the songs I actually thought were new, like if I heard it on the radio some years later.

Well, you bring up a good point.  I was always influenced by what my Mom listened to.  (This is why I know EVERY SINGLE Barry Manilow tune, even though I can't take him!)  Anyhoo, I always listened to my mom's records as a kid which included doowop, motown and disco.  It was not out of the ordinary for an 10 year old me listening to something much older than myself.  In turn, I do the same with my daughter, trying to expose her to the music I like.

See there, I was 19 in 1989 and I would NEVER listen to Survivor.  Now, "Eye of the Tiger" came out when I was like 12 or so and I was all over that song! 

Eye of the Tiger was my little brother's favorite song when he was eight!

Eye of the Tiger was my little brother's favorite song when he was eight!
So was I immature or was he precocious?

   Now, there was a song (Eye of the Tiger) you could crank-up and bust your muscle poses in the mirror to... 8)

I don't think most kids (depending on their age) would really know what they were listening to.  I know as a kid, I only listened to what was on the radio and what I remember was alot of pop songs

I'm worried that I'm one of the few kids who might have, so I'd feel better if more did! ;)

See, my alltime favorite music is stuff like Huey Lewis, Lionel Richie, Phil Collins, lots of arena rock and power ballads, etc. This typically seems to have dated the worst in terms of Eighties music. Were there any youth who listened to this kind of suburban early-mid '80s pop once it began aging?

Once the energetic, urban dance styles became hot, everything else was probably less cool by comparison. Maybe because that tended to be specifically geared to younger teens, whereas my stuff was more across the board. I'd guess something like "High on You" by Survivor was kinda lame by 1989. That's not to say kids couldn't have liked it, but if you put it next to Bobby Brown, New Kids or Janet Jackson, there was no question as to what was cooler!

P.S. I actually did like alot of dance songs from then, but even those also tended to be more clean cut and mellow. Like "Shattered Dreams" or "Never Gonna Give You Up".
I;m sure Bobby Brown and Janet Jackson had their share of non-teen fans too in the mid to late 80's. Your right about thew New Kids though they were mainly liked by young people though. I remember hearing "When I Think Of You" by Janet Jackson when it was a current song when I was like 6 or 7 years old though.

I'm sure a song like "Don;t Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin was liked by everybody of all ages back then because it has a real catchy appeal I think that young people would like and I think older people would like a song like that too.

Thats funny I was thinking about that the other day on if it was acceptable to still like music from 1983 in 1989.

I think music from 1989-1991 was domiated by urban dance music sort of the way 2003-2005 was dominated by rap music.

"Shattered Dreams" I don;t think qualifies as even a  clean cut dance song but your right about "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astely. I think "Shattered Dreams" has sort of more of an unplugged synth-pop sound to it.

I;m sure Bobby Brown and Janet Jackson had their share of non-teen fans too in the mid to late 80's. Your right about thew New Kids though they were mainly liked by young people though. I remember hearing "When I Think Of You" by Janet Jackson when it was a current song when I was like 6 or 7 years old though.

I'm sure a song like "Don;t Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin was liked by everybody of all ages back then because it has a real catchy appeal I think that young people would like and I think older people would like a song like that too.

Thats funny I was thinking about that the other day on if it was acceptable to still like music from 1983 in 1989.

I think music from 1989-1991 was domiated by urban dance music sort of the way 2003-2005 was dominated by rap music.

"Shattered Dreams" I don;t think qualifies as even a  clean cut dance song but your right about "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astely. I think "Shattered Dreams" has sort of more of an unplugged synth-pop sound to it.


Yeah I agree with that. Funny you mentioned about "Don't Worry Be Happy" because that was one of my dad's favorite songs back then, lol. Another one was "Walk of Life" by Dire Straits.

"When I Think of You" is probably my favorite Janet Jackson song. Good point, because I remember alot of people liked her at the time. My mom and even this one teachers' assistant at my school did. Strangely enough I don't recall New Kids songs being on the radio, although they had to be. Even though I wasn't too into them in general, I liked "I'll Be Loving You Forever" and still do.

"Make It Real" by The Jets was another one of my favorites from 1988, although it might not count as teenpop. I liked Whitney Houston and that period's Michael Jackson too, so actually I guess I liked more of that music than I realized. ;)


As for early '80s music being liked by kids around 1989...it probably was iffy depending what song it was. Something like "Shake it Up" might've been kinda cool, but not Journey or Lionel Richie. I also remember this 16-year old babysitter who took me and a couple friends from school miniature golfing around then. I remember "Higher Love" by Steve Winwood came over the loudspeaker system in the adjoining arcade, and she was really into it. His music is pretty suburban and laid back, although she was a little older too.

Back in 1989, I went back and forth between the Top 40 stations (for all the current music) and the AC stations (for older songs), and I would continue to do this for a number of years.  :)

^ Same here. :) Yeah, adult contemporary tends to change slower and play more older songs.

Three specific artists that I can remember were specifically aimed at the teenage market in the 80s, although it didn't meant that if you were an adult you couldn't enjoy them nor couldn't enjoy them NOW.  Tiffany and Debbie Gibson were both popular as they gave appearances at mallls as I recall.  New Kids on the Block were hugely popular with teenage girls, although they came out just a wee bit too late to be overly popular with me.  I just remember lots of screaming teenage girls when they made an appearance ala The Beatles.

I was 11 in 1980 - 20 in 1989 so I guess I would primarily be who you are asking about (at least in the earlier 80s.)  I remember being into disco alot even in the early 80s, because that is what was played at school dances and I loved to dance.  The first that I recall really liking pop music that was on the radio was in 1984, some really good songs that I am still fond of today were being played.  But also don't base your question on just me either, I grew up in a very small, rural town where new trends tended to take 3 to 5 years to finally reach our area, so my experiences are probably delayed if developed at all because of where I grew up.  Had I listened to a bigger city's radio stations, perhaps my tastes in music would be different.  Heck I didn't even know what alternative music was until a couple years ago.  ;D

I listened to a lot of soft or mid-tempo '80s songs while growing up in the '80s. My mom was into people like Dan Hill, Atlantic Starr, Lionel Richie (we loved "Dancin' on the Ceiling"), Whitney Houston, and of course earlier '80s and late '70s stuff. I actually have a memory from painting our hallway one summer (in the mid-'80s) and listening to Crosby, Stills and Nash on the radio - Suite Judy Blue Eyes and Teach Your Children Well. Now, whenever I do painting or housework, for some reason, I get the urge to hear those songs while doing those activities. It's amazing what will stick with you.

I was 10 in 1980 and of course 19 in 1989.

I recall in the early eighties liking stuff like REO Speedwagon, Hall and Oates, J. Geils, Huey Lewis, Men at Work, Journey, etc.

Then around '84-'85 I started getting hooked on Hair Metal and that was my attention the rest of the 80's and into the 90's.

But my mom was into the oldies 50's-60's so I would hear alot of that growing up and have an appreciation and soft spot in my heart for alot of that.

I find myself enjoying some of the new country music now a days as well, although I don't have any country albums, I find myself watching CMT at times. :)

I'm more talking about actual literal kids (i.e. preteens) in the late '80s or after. I know most of the Brat Pack generation would love that stuff, so I'm not really talking about them. People closer to my age I guess. It seems generally like the worst thing you can do is be barely out of date. Like...listening to a song from five years ago is usually cheesy.

For example, I could see a 13 year old New Kids fan or a 16 year old grunge fan being embarrased they once liked the '80s as little kids. Was any of that medium pop or rock still acceptable to listen to once new styles began coming out?

P.S. One '80s song I know for a fact that ALOT of people still liked way afterwards (kids, teens as well as older people) was Don Henley's "Boys of Summer".

It wasn't called "Adult Contemporary" for nothing.

Of course millions of kids did listen to Lionel Ritchie and Hall & Oates, if that was their preference (or if that's all there was in the house!).  MTV/VH1 programmed a great deal of the stuff and kids certainly watched it. 

Case in point, Bonnie Tyler "Total Eclipse of the Heart."  She was all but forgotten in the U.S.  It had been five years since her Top 10 smash "It's a Heartache," which fell squarely in the Adult Contemporary market, being neither Bee Gees nor Aereosmith.  Yet "Total Eclipse of the Heart" went soared to #1 on the Hot 100 within weeks of its release and sold six million copies.  Being a kid myself at the time, I can tell you kids used their allowance money to buy a healthy number of those singles, as well as the album "Faster than the Speed of Night."  Even metalhead kids with Ozzy and Judas Priest t-shirts bought TEOTH.  Of course, it didn't hurt to have Jim Steiman write it and work it up with his over-the-top production style, but a strangely captivating video in heavy rotation on MTV was the biggest factor in its success with kids.

Of course millions of kids did listen to Lionel Ritchie and Hall & Oates, if that was their preference (or if that's all there was in the house!).  MTV/VH1 programmed a great deal of the stuff and kids certainly watched it. 



Agreed.  I watched MTV quite a bit in the early 80's and videos from Richie, Hall & Oates, Phil Collins etc were in decent rotation.

I listened to quite a bit of it in the 80's and often program tracks into my mixshow such as:

"Sussudio" - Phil Collins
"Higher Love" - Steve Winwood
"All She Wants To Do Is Dance" - Don Henley
"Carribean Queen", "Loverboy" - Billy Ocean
"Missing You" - John Waite
"That Was Yesterday" - Foreigner
"Shattered Dreams" - Johnny Hates Jazz
"Out Of Touch", "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)", "Method Of Modern Love" - Hall & Oates
"Take My Breath Away" - Berlin
"True" - Spandau Ballet

Agreed.  I watched MTV quite a bit in the early 80's and videos from Richie, Hall & Oates, Phil Collins etc were in decent rotation.

I listened to quite a bit of it in the 80's and often program tracks into my mixshow such as:

"Sussudio" - Phil Collins
"Higher Love" - Steve Winwood
"All She Wants To Do Is Dance" - Don Henley
"Carribean Queen", "Loverboy" - Billy Ocean
"Missing You" - John Waite
"That Was Yesterday" - Foreigner
"Shattered Dreams" - Johnny Hates Jazz
"Out Of Touch", "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)", "Method Of Modern Love" - Hall & Oates
"Take My Breath Away" - Berlin
"True" - Spandau Ballet



Whoa, I love all those songs. :)


I agree with MaxwellSmart that videos played a huge part in the success of almost any type of artist. So it would've made sense that kids/teens (and older people, on a more casual level) would've gotten into a variety of sounds and artists that they may have not paid as much attention to otherwise.

Some artists that started out as New Wave chose midtempo sounds.  If you listen to early Spandau Ballet you hear a much edgier postpunk/ new wave sound.  "True" arose out of their "New Romantic" leanings, which evolved into a blue-eyed soul/pop sound. 

Similarly, OMD went from a synth-pop sound ("Enola Gay") with experimental/electroacoustic leanings ("Junk Culture") to midtempo pop.  Even though some fans felt betrayed by songs like "So In Love" and "If You Leave," I loved them just the same.  Then they went too far and made a stab at soul music on the "Pacific Age" album.  Sorry, OMD just didn't have the chops for soul.  Squeeze did.  Style Council did.  OMD did not.  Human League most certainly did not.

Human League was another band that started off as experimental electronic pop ("Reproduction," "Travelogue") and then Ware and Marsh left to form Heaven 17, while Oakey took the name with a new line up and a goal of going to the top of the charts with an all-electronic record.  They succeeded with "Don't You Want Me" and the "Dare" album.  "Don't You Want Me" quickly surfaced on AOR stations.  Later they inserted a James Brown cover--"Rock Me Again and Again and Again and Again and Again and Again (Six Times)" into the "Hysteria" album, and the worst was yet to come.  Their label prostituted them to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.  The band recorded Jam/Lewis' song "Human," which commenced to #1 in the U.S.  "Human" was truly midtempo schlock.  Though Jam/Lewis wrote it with Human League in mind, it could have been recorded just as easily by James Ingram or Ready for the World for chrissakes! 

Some artists that started out as New Wave chose midtempo sounds.  If you listen to early Spandau Ballet you hear a much edgier postpunk/ new wave sound.  "True" arose out of their "New Romantic" leanings, which evolved into a blue-eyed soul/pop sound. 

Similarly, OMD went from a synth-pop sound ("Enola Gay") with experimental/electroacoustic leanings ("Junk Culture") to midtempo pop.  Even though some fans felt betrayed by songs like "So In Love" and "If You Leave," I loved them just the same.  Then they went too far and made a stab at soul music on the "Pacific Age" album.  Sorry, OMD just didn't have the chops for soul.  Squeeze did.  Style Council did.  OMD did not.  Human League most certainly did not.

Human League was another band that started off as experimental electronic pop ("Reproduction," "Travelogue") and then Ware and Marsh left to form Heaven 17, while Oakey took the name with a new line up and a goal of going to the top of the charts with an all-electronic record.  They succeeded with "Don't You Want Me" and the "Dare" album.  "Don't You Want Me" quickly surfaced on AOR stations.  Later they inserted a James Brown cover--"Rock Me Again and Again and Again and Again and Again and Again (Six Times)" into the "Hysteria" album, and the worst was yet to come.  Their label prostituted them to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.  The band recorded Jam/Lewis' song "Human," which commenced to #1 in the U.S.  "Human" was truly midtempo schlock.  Though Jam/Lewis wrote it with Human League in mind, it could have been recorded just as easily by James Ingram or Ready for the World for chrissakes! 
I can't believe Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis actually worked with a band like Human League since Jimmy Jam annd Terry Lewis have always been more noted for working with Janet Jackson in the 80's and 90's I think. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis also worked with Alexander O' Neal I believe.

I actually can;t see James Ingram or Ready For The World do a song  like "Human" but I could see a hip-hop soul act like PM Dawn do "Human"

I can't believe Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis actually worked with a band like Human League since Jimmy Jam annd Terry Lewis have always been more noted for working with Janet Jackson in the 80's and 90's I think. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis also worked with Alexander O' Neal I believe.

I actually can;t see James Ingram or Ready For The World do a song  like "Human" but I could see a hip-hop soul act like PM Dawn do "Human"

Sure, something like PM Dawn.  I was just saying it was a generic pop sound with no distinction as a Human League song.  The "Hysteria" album did have some good songs on it, such as "Louise" and "The Lebanon," but they record company wanted another "Don't You Want Me," which they didn't get.  So they sent the band to Minneapolis to work with the hitmakers.  The problem is the band thought Jam/Lewis were working for them; the truth is they were being sent to work for Jam/Lewis.  So the band got disgusted with the producers just trashing the band's ideas and laying down their own schlocky tracks.  So Human League got abandoned the recording halfway through and went back to London.  Jam/Lewis finished up the record their way, thus you had a Human League record "Crash" that just sounded like Philip Oakey's voiced mixed into a generic studio soul-pop tracks---which is what it was!
::)

I listened to 50 60 and 70 stuff.  I was 7 in 89. 

I can't believe Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis actually worked with a band like Human League since Jimmy Jam annd Terry Lewis have always been more noted for working with Janet Jackson in the 80's and 90's I think.
What was worse, IMO, was the second single from the Jam/Lewis produced "Crash" album.

Remember "I Need Your Lovin'"?  Human League should have turned in their New Romantics membership cards for that one.

See, my alltime favorite music is stuff like Huey Lewis, Lionel Richie, Phil Collins, lots of arena rock and power ballads, etc. This typically seems to have dated the worst in terms of Eighties music. Were there any youth who listened to this kind of suburban early-mid '80s pop once it began aging?


When I was a kid I liked the "New Romantics" trend very much, and as a teenager I enjoyed New Wave, Punk and Post-punk.