Far Out 40: The 40 best songs from 1983
It is worryingly easy to write off an entire decade’s worth of music as sonic garbage. The premise of categorising an entire ten years worth of musical creation as one style or genre is something that has been ingrained into our thinking by society. We need only look at the proliferation of decade-focused radio stations or club nights to understand how a wide spectrum of auditory achievements can be reduced into a singular gloop. But one decade that has suffered at the hands of this notion more than most is the 1980s.
The decade has long been the butt of jokes in the world of film, fashion and music. Truthfully, there are a lot of reasons for this to be taken as gospel too. However, when you break down the decade into single years and really dive deep into the collection work made during those precious 12 months, you can start to find hidden gems among the mire of sugary pop and unwelcome shoulder pads. One such year that we felt deserved revisiting was 1983.
Of course, within the year, there were countless iterations of the aforementioned uglier side of music. Lionel Richie’s ‘All Night Long’ may have entertained dancefloors during the decade, but it has no place on a true muso’s playlist. Likewise, if you’re hoping for entries from Madonna or Culture club below, you will be sadly disappointed. Those records may have topped the charts and provide a warmth of nostalgia when they grace the airwaves today, they provide very little in the way of artistic value.
Instead, as part of our Far Out 40 playlist, we will be focusing on the purer side of musical mutation from the year. We have entries from Eurythmics, Spandau Ballet, David Bowie, who, even during a period of pop adjacency, managed to craft tunes that could be hummed on building sites but still pack a punch of creative integrity. We’ve even found room for Frankie Goes To Hollywood staple ‘Relax’ owing in no small part to its cultural heritage.
However, the rest of the playlist leans heavily on the power of rock and roll. The 1980s are often considered a bit of a wasteland for rock music, with hair metal dominating the charts and essentially rendering the foundations of the genre a crumbling mass, weighed down by hairspray and stuffed crotches. But the decade also saw the green shoots of a new genre called indie, with entries in our playlist from Echo and the Bunnymen, Aztec Camera, New Order and the genre’s founding fathers, The Smiths.
America had also begun to change its ways with Talking Heads, R.E.M., Violent Femmes and more showcasing their own indie style. Punk also proved to be a contributing factor in the year, with songs from both Minor Threat and Suicidal Tendencies. Hip-hop was also starting to find a spot on mainstream radio, and we’ve reflected on those moments with tracks from Grandmaster flash and Run-DMC.
The truth is, the 1980s are often seen as the wilderness years of music because the scatter-gun nature of making records meant that no singular thread can be tugged at when trying to decode the decade. Instead, we get a tapestry of music makers all trying to grow the roots of a brand-new genre. 1983 shows that more keenly than most years from the era, and below we have a perfect playlist to prove it.
The 40 best songs from 1983:
- ‘Let’s Dance’ – David Bowie
- ‘In The Neighbourhood’ – Tom Waits
- ‘Relax’ – Frankie Goes to Hollywood
- ‘Time After Time’ – Cyndi Lauper
- ‘Radio Free Europe’ – R.E.M.
- ‘Pink Houses’ – John Mellencamp
- ‘White Lines’ – Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel
- ‘Burning Down the House’ – Talking Heads
- ‘Modern Love’ – David Bowie
- ‘This Is Not A Love Song’ – Public Image Ltd
- ‘It’s Like That’ – Run-DMC
- ‘Hand in Glove’ – The Smiths
- ‘Shipbuilding’ – Elvis Costello
- ‘Institutionalised’ – Suicidal Tendencies
- ‘Rebel Yell’ – Billy Idol
- ‘Oblivious’ – Aztec Camera
- ‘Hootenany’ – The Replacements
- ‘The Cutter’ – Echo & The Bunnymen
- ‘Out of Step’ – Minor Threat
- ‘Age of Consent’ – New Order
- ‘Perfect Circle’ – R.E.M.
- ‘Two Hearts Beat as One’ – U2
- ‘This Charming Man’ – The Smiths
- ‘This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) – Talking Heads
- ‘Blue Monday’ – New Order
- ‘Legs’ – ZZ Top
- ‘True’ – Spandau Ballet
- ‘Between the Sheets’ – Isley Brothers
- ‘What is Love?’ – Howard Jones
- ‘Sweet Dreams’ – Eurythmics
- ‘She’s In Parties’ – Bauhaus
- ‘Kiss Off’ – Violent Femmes
- ‘Second Skin’ – The Chameleons
- ‘Mutiny’ – The Birthday Party
- ‘I Love L.A.’ – Randy Newman
- ‘Stay Here’ – Swans
- ‘The Walk’ – The Cure
- ‘Wrapped Around Your Finger’ – The Police
- ‘Diane’ – Hüsker Dü
- ‘Photograph’ – Def Leppard
