The eighties – hate them or love them, but they’re surely hard to ignore. Eighties fashion, typical 80’s bands and 80’s hairstyles – even those who are too young to remember get drawn into this crazy decade as 80’s music is still popular all over the world.
In 1988, the 80’s music style that was just breaking through in earlier years had made quite some inroads. To be listed in the Top 20 hit list of 1988 list below, bands could be from anywhere in the world but the songs had to fulfill all of the following criteria:
- Be pop or dance songs – not rock, R&B or any other genre;
- exemplify the 80’s music style: be fresh, bold and full of spunk (not purely instrumental songs);
- artists were chosen only among 80’s bands, with the eighties being the decade of their biggest hits;
- only one hit song per 80’s solo artist or band was included per year for variety sake.
Eighties Movies, 80’s TV Shows and Other Events of 1988
To really get the feel for a decade, let alone a year, it makes sense to take a look at related areas like movies, TV shows and world events. 1988 brought the Wonder Years, Roseanne and Murphy Brown and MTV declared rap commercially viable with its show Yo! MTV Raps. Ending TV series this year were Magnum, P.I., Cagney & Lacey and Hotel.
Though not quite as busy as 1987, 1988 also saw over 200 new movie releases, dominated by action or light comedies like Rambo III, Crocodile Dundee II, Die Hard, Midnight Run versus Coming to America, Beetle Juice, A Fish Called Wanda, Twins, the Naked Gun, Cocktail and the animation sensation Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The biggest hit of the year came at the end: thought-inspiring Rain Man with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise in the lead roles.
Other important events of 1988 were:
- The Soviet Union introduced the concept of perestroika, economic restructuring, egged on by Premier Mikhail Gorbachev.
- The Iran–Iraq war ended after approximately one million casualties.
- One of the worst air show disasters took place at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
- A peaceful candle demonstration in Bratislava was the decade’s first mass demonstration against communism in Czechoslovakia.
- George H. W. Bush became president-elect after defeating Ronald Reagan and Benazir Bhutto Pakistan’s Prime Minister, the first woman to head an Islam-dominated state.
- The Summer Olympics were held in Seoul, South Korea.
- The Netherlands became European football champions after defeating the Soviet Union 2:0.
- Super Mario Bros. 3 was released in Japan.
Top 20 Eighties Songs of 1988
Hits that stick out from the 1988 playlist are Michael Jackson’s controversial “Dirty Diana,” Kylie Minogue’s “The Loco-motion” and Prince’s “Alphabet Street.” Bobby McFerrin summed up the motto of the 80’s: Spend, indulge, invest in the future and don’t worry, be happy. Here’s the Top 20 of 1988, in alphabetical order:
- “Alphabet Street” – Prince
- “China in Your Hand” – T’Pau
- “Dirty Diana” - Michael Jackson
- “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” – Bobby McFerrin
- “Father Figure” – George Michael
- “Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car” – Billy Ocean
- “Got My Mind Set on You” – George Harrison
- “Groovy Kind of Love” – Phil Collins
- “Kokomo” – the Beach Boys
- “A Little Respect” – Erasure
- “The Loco-motion” – Kylie Minogue
- “Prove Your Love” – Taylor Dayne
- “Say You Will” – Foreigner
- “Shattered Dreams” – Johnny Hates Jazz
- “She’s Like the Wind” – Patrick Swayze featuring Wendy Fraser
- “Sign Your Name” – Terence Trend D’Arby
- “Together Forever” – Rick Astley
- “The Twist” – Fat Boys
- “What Have I Done to Deserve This” – the Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield
- “Where Do Broken Hearts Go” – Whitney Houston
With 1988, the eighties were almost drawing to a close and the many hits in new genres prove that other bands were ready to take the reign, alternative rockers Midnight Oil with “Beds are Burning” for example, or reggae/dub band UB 40 with “Red Red Wine” and hip hop sensation Salt-N-Pepa with hits like “Push It.”
For more ultimate 80’s hits like “La Isla Bonita” or “Take My Breath Away,” check the previous years 1987 and 1986, respectively. Or find out about the end of the decade with 80’s hits of 1989!
Simone Preuss - Simone is a freelance writer, editor and translator who decided to go solo after a successful career in publishing. That was more than ...
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