1989 Survey Mix

This is the first in a series of survey mixes designed to give more context to the music of the 1980s. The frustrating thing about we typically deal with cultural history is to focus on specific niches and canons, but in doing that, we lose track of parallel and overlapping cultural trends. I hope to create a set of collections that will give you – and me! – a better understanding of chronology for the music of this era, and to highlight a lot of music that for whatever reason usually gets cut out of retrospectives today.

I’ve decided to start with 1989 and move backwards towards 1980 because it feels a lot more interesting to me that way – the end of the ’80s isn’t nearly as canonized as the start, and before making this, I felt like I had a more vague grasp on what came out in 1989 despite that being a pretty crucial year for me in terms of becoming a young music obsessive. (I was the sort of kid who would make a point of listening to American Top 40 with Casey Kasem every Sunday morning.)

Also, you know, there’s the Taylor Swift factor. There’s been a lot of half-baked writing about how much today’s biggest pop stars are drawing on the ’80s, but I think if you really go through this survey you will find that those artists may be inspired by the blockbuster aesthetics of the ’80s but sound very much like right now, and the artists who really sound like 1989 tend to be the more indie/alt/undergournd artists.

Thanks to Rob Sheffield, Sean T. Collins, Paul Cox, Chris Conroy, Tom Ewing, Douglas Wolk, and Ivan Onosov for their assistance in curating this mix. If you have ideas about what absolutely needs to be included in future ’80s surveys, please let me know. The 1988 survey should be out sometime in October.

NOTE: EVERYTHING HAS BEEN RE-UPPED SINCE THE FIRST UPLOADS MAXED OUT.

DOWNLOAD DISC 1

Madonna “Express Yourself” / Nine Inch Nails “Head Like A Hole” / Prince “Electric Chair” / Digital Underground “The Humpty Dance” / Roxanne Shanté “Feelin’ Kinda Horny” / Janet Jackson “Miss You Much” / Al B Sure “Nite and Day” / Aerosmith “What It Takes” / The Cure “Lovesong” / Liza Minnelli “Losing My Mind” / E-Zee Possee “Everything Starts With An E” / Ministry “Burning Inside” / Red Hot Chili Peppers “Higher Ground” / Big Daddy Kane “Warm It Up, Kane” / Special Ed “I Got It Made” / YZ “Thinking Of A Master Plan” / A Tribe Called Quest “Description Of A Fool” / Soul II Soul “Back to Life”

DOWNLOAD DISC 2

Neneh Cherry “Buffalo Stance” / Beastie Boys “Shadrach” / Biz Markie “Just A Friend” / De La Soul “Eye Know” / Fine Young Cannibals “She Drives Me Crazy” / Michael Penn “No Myth” / Roy Orbison “You Got It” / The B-52’s “Love Shack” / Pixies “Here Comes Your Man” / Love & Rockets “So Alive” / 3rd Base “The Gas Face” / Public Enemy “Fight the Power” / 2 Live Crew “Me So Horny” / Superchunk “Slack Motherfucker” / Tom Petty “I Won’t Back Down” / Lyle Lovett “Cryin’ Shame” / Lenny Kravitz “Let Love Rule” / Babyface “Whip Appeal” / The Bangles “Eternal Flame”

DOWNLOAD DISC 3

Depeche Mode “Personal Jesus” / Technotronic “Pump Up the Jam” / Young MC “Bust A Move” / Native Tongues posse “Buddy” / Ten City “That’s the Way Love Is” / Chris Isaak “Wicked Game” / Syd Straw “Future 40’s (String of Pearls)” / Indigo Girls “Closer to Fine” / Beat Happening “Cast A Shadow” / Debbie Gibson “Electric Youth” / Adamski “N-R-G” / Meat Beat Manifesto “God O.D.” / EPMD “So Wat Cha Sayin’” / Emmylou Harris “Heaven Only Knows” / Pere Ubu “Waiting for Mary” / Morrissey “The Last of the Famous International Playboys” / The Verlaines “Whatever You Run Into” / Blake Babies “From Here to Burma” / Kate Bush “This Woman’s Work”

DOWNLOAD DISC 4

The Stop the Violence Movement “Self-Destruction” / Consolidated “Consolidated” / Nitzer Ebb “Hearts and Minds” / Public Image Ltd “Disappointed” / The Stone Roses “I Wanna Be Adored” / The KLF “Kylie Said to Jason” / Billy Joel “We Didn’t Start the Fire” / 10,000 Maniacs “Trouble Me” / The Replacements “Achin’ to Be” / George Strait “Ace in the Hole” / k.d. lang “Full Moon Full of Love” / Guns N’ Roses “Patience” / Neil Young “Rockin’ in the Free World” / Lou Reed “Busload of Faith” / Def Jef “Poet with Soul” / Chubb Rock “Ya Bad Chubbs” / Black Box “Ride On Time” / Kylie Minogue “Hand On Your Heart” / Orbital “Chime”

DOWNLOAD DISC 5

Spacemen 3 “Revolution” / Mudhoney “Here Comes Sickness” / Mötley Crüe “Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S.)” / Bailter Space “Grader Spader” / Fugazi “Margin Walker” / New Order “Round and Round” / Jody Watley “Real Love” / Nice & Smooth “Early to Rise” / Jungle Brothers “Doin’ Our Own Dang” / Malcolm McLaren “Deep in Vogue” / Lil Louis & The World “French Kiss” / Frazier Chorus “Dream Kitchen” / Milli Vanilli “Girl You Know It’s True” / Cyndi Lauper “I Drove All Night” / Sugarcubes “Regina” / Snapper “Death and Weirdness in the Surfing Zone” / XTC “The Mayor of Simpleton” / The Cult “Fire Woman” / Warrant “Heaven”

DOWNLOAD DISC 6

Roxette “The Look” / Phil Collins “Two Hearts” / David Byrne “Marching Through the Wilderness” / Elvis Costello “Veronica” / Wire “Eardrum Buzz” / Lush “Thoughtforms” / Natalie Cole “Miss You Like Crazy” / Mary Chapin Carpenter “Never Had It So Good” / Don Henley “The End of Innonence” / Divine Styler “Ain’t Sayin’ Nothin’” / Queen Latifah “Wrath of My Madness” / Erasure “Stop!” / Crucial Robbie “Proud to be Black” / Phish “You Enjoy Myself” / The Sundays “Here’s Where the Story Ends” / Throwing Muses “Dizzy” / Straitjacket Fits “She Speeds” / Cannanes “Vivienne” / Richard Marx “Right Here Waiting”

DOWNLOAD DISC 7

Soundgarden “Big Dumb Sex” / Jesus and Mary Chain “Head On” / Dolly Parton “Why’d You Come In Here Lookin’ Like That?” / Clint Black “Killin’ Time” / The The “The Beat(en) Generation” / Hugo Largo “Hot Day” / Galaxie 500 “Strange” / Tears for Fears “Sowing the Seeds of Love” / LNR “Work It to the Bone” / Rhythm Device “Acid Rock” / Low Profile “Pay Ya Dues” / Gang Starr “Words I Manifest (Remix)” / Ice-T “You Played Yourself” / MC Lyte “Cha Cha Cha” / Clement Irie “DJ in My Country!” / Pet Shop Boys “It’s Alright” / Slint “Darlene” / Faith No More “Epic” / Operation Ivy “Knowledge” / Nirvana “About A Girl” / Sebadoh “True Hardcore”

DOWNLOAD DISC 8

Queen “I Want It All” / Cher “If I Could Turn Back Time” / Tone Loc “Wild Thing” / LL Cool J “Big Ole Butt” / Schooly D “Gangster Boogie” / Frankie Knuckles “Tears” / Maurice “This Is Acid” / Starlight “Numero Uno” / Bonnie Raitt “Nick of Time” / Daniel Lanois “The Maker” / The Neville Brothers “Yellow Moon” / Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ “Honeysuckle Blue” / Half Japanese “Daytona Beach” / Yo La Tengo “Barnaby, Hardly Working” / Mekons “Memphis, Egypt” / Robyn Hitchcock and The Egyptians “Flesh Number One” / Pavement “Box Elder” / Guided by Voices “Liar’s Tale” / The Vaselines “Sex Sux (Amen)” / Skid Row “I Remember You”