Quintessential 80s "teen movie" song?

[short bus president]

I'm going with "Don't You Forget About Me" from The Breakfast Club.

Other nominations?

[Kathy in Cambridge]

1. YES!

The Simple Minds!

And Molly Ringwald!

[supernova]

12. First one I thought of also

is Don't You Forget About Me.

Still a great song. It wears well.

[SweetZombieJesus]

2. That Thompson Twins song at the end of Sixteen Candles

I still like that song.

I'd nominate something from Pretty In Pink, but I fuckin hate Pretty In Pink. Ducky got reemed.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

5. Hold Me Now???

I Can't remember!

[SweetZombieJesus]

9. Nope, it wasn't Hold Me Now

Hold Me Now sucked.

Edit: The name of the song is "If You Were Here". I just like the synth in it.

Honorable mention: Don't Dream It's Over by Crowded House

[Kathy in Cambridge]

6. Hold Me Now???

I Can't remember!

[bicentennial_baby]

3. In Your Eyes

by Peter Gabriel, from Say Anything

[ibegurpard]

26. I second that one.

Also, "Don't You Forget About Me" from "Breakfast Club". I still love that movie :P

[tarkus]

33. Yeah, just because P. Gabe beats all.

[LibDemAlways]

4. How about the theme song from

"St Elmo's Fire" - yet another brat pack movie.

[SweetZombieJesus]

8. St. Elmo's Fire was the worst fucking 80s movie of them all

Is it any surprise that Joel Shumacher was behind that turd?

[ibegurpard]

28. I agree

And Joel Schumacher should be banned from Hollywood. He destroyed the Batman franchise.

[aquaman]

7. Pretty in Pink..

From the great band Psychedelic Furs for the movie with the same title.

[SweetZombieJesus]

11. Booooooooo!

I hate that fuckin movie. The Furs song is good, but that movie sucks big time. I actually broke up with a girl because she made me watch it and went on and on about how romantic it was. If being a social climbing idiot who abandons the one unique, cool guy who loves her for a rich twat named Blaine is romantic, count me out.

[short bus president]

13. Best laugh I've had all night, SZJ!

"It's funny, because it's true."

[aquaman]

14. Not a fan of the movie either but the Furs rock.

Sure nuff.

[BigMcLargehuge]

21. Here here!!!!

All of Hughes effluent is like that. I can't stand any of them.

[SweetZombieJesus]

22. Have I complimented you on your handle yet?

You and ThirdWheelLegend have my favorite screennames here. Anyone who'd get their screenname from Space Mutiny gets 1 million cool points from me.

[BigMcLargehuge]

23. I am now 1 million cool points richer :)

I'm saving up to be The Fonz.

Incidentally, I love your screen name... When I see you arguing in the religion threads it makes me smile to think the fundies have to read "SweetZombieJesus" every two seconds... Makes me laugh each and every day.

It's also nice to meet someone else who HATES at least one J. Hughes movie. I know I am in the minority, but I always saw his flicks as celbrating the clique-ee, fashion obsessed, brain damaged, idiots, I always hated in high school. Sadly I was in high school when the full body of his work hit the screens so people automatically assume I think 16 Candles or The Breakfast Club were defining moments with direct relation to my teen years.

They were in only one way, they made it really easy to choose slasher films over teen comedies when buying a movie ticket.

[SweetZombieJesus]

Well, my generation is OBSESSED with the 80s

I graduated in 98, and whenever I'm around people my own age it's 80s this and 80s that, and the nostalgia makes me sick to my stomach. Apparently I was in some alternate shitty dimension during their beloved 80s, because I hated the fucking 80s. They're not as bad as now by a damn sight, but they weren't this golden age of pop culture that my idiot friends make them out to be. Anyone who remembers Punky Brewster fondly should be flogged.

[ibegurpard]

27. Someone actually LIKES Punky Brewster?

I didn't like it when it was on and I like it even less now. There was LOTS of shit in the 80s. All the stuff, at least music-wise, that everyone associates with the 80s was considered alternative music at the time. The mainstream pop stuff was nauseating (particularly the hair bands). :puke:

[short bus president]

29. Punky Brewster?

I wouldn't kick her out of bed for eating crackers. Have you seen her lately?!?

[ibegurpard]

35. Whether she's hot or not now is irrelevant

That show sucked major ass.

[SweetZombieJesus]

Well, my generation is OBSESSED with the 80s

I graduated in 98, and whenever I'm around people my own age it's 80s this and 80s that, and the nostalgia makes me sick to my stomach. Apparently I was in some alternate shitty dimension during their beloved 80s, because I hated the fucking 80s. They're not as bad as now by a damn sight, but they weren't this golden age of pop culture that my idiot friends make them out to be. Anyone who remembers Punky Brewster fondly should be flogged.

[SweetZombieJesus]

24. Well, my generation is OBSESSED with the 80s

I graduated in 98, and whenever I'm around people my own age it's 80s this and 80s that, and the nostalgia makes me sick to my stomach. Apparently I was in some alternate shitty dimension during their beloved 80s, because I hated the fucking 80s. They're not as bad as now by a damn sight, but they weren't this golden age of pop culture that my idiot friends make them out to be. Anyone who remembers Punky Brewster fondly should be flogged.

[NashVegas]

42. '80s Culture

Should more accurately be called a subculture.

On the surface, there was Punky Brewster and Loverboy, but percolating underneath there was a rejection of A & E that, at Moz put it in "Panic," "says nothing to me about my life."

John Hughes very smartly tapped into that. The movies themselves were mediocre, but at a time when MTV and rock radio were all about Whitesnake and Winger, you could go to the movies and hear New Order.

Among the 18-20 somethings during that decade who were making the subculture, I think you'll find Wings of Desire was more of a touchstone than anything Hughes ever did.

Whenever I run into someone who says "the '80s SUCKED for music," my standard response is: "not my fault you were listening to the wrong shit."

Some of the other things you may have missed in the '80s that were good:

Student activism leading to the abandonment of Apartheid in SA.
St. Elsewhere
Hackey sack and Balloon sneakers (terrific combination).
Angular "anti-rock" haircuts.
The Replacements
Rob Reiner making great movies (Spinal Tap, Princess Bride, Stand By Me) from difficult source material.
Growing popularity of A Confederacy of Dunces
Growing popularity of Tom Robbins
Alternative newspapers and Project Censored
Alternative & DIY club scenes, hardcore shows at VFW posts.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
MTV's "The Cutting Edge" hosted by Peter Zaremba of the Fleshtones.

The kids in your class need to go out and find and make their own culture, stop waiting for one that the entrenched commercial establishment will allow you to have.

[ScreamingMeemie]

32. Saw that movie six times in the theater, because I was young and stupid

But then, it was on Tuesday dollar nights. Now, I can't even watch the first 15 minutes.

[ErasureAcer]

36. If you mean OMD's "If You Leave" song...I agree

The big breakfast club song was good too though.

[Davis_X_Machina]

10. "Footloose"... n/t

[short bus president]

41. Footloose... mixed feelings

I thought the movie was OK. Great John Lithgow role. But some years ago, I was forced into seeing the Broadway show of the same name. I couldn't get to halftime to get out of there fast enough.

[donco6]

15. I Wear My Sunglasses at Night

[Rick Myers]

16. I think you nailed it!!!

That was my first thought!!!

[SweetZombieJesus]

17. The fucking Breakfast Club

You just KNOW that Claire was only going to date Bender for a while to piss off her parents, and Emilio's character will dump Ally Sheedy the minute his football player buddies see him with her. And what the fuck did she need a makeover for? She looked fine before, god dammit.

And Anthony Michael Hall got screwed AGAIN. No justice for him until Weird Science.

[Ein]

18. Everybody's Working For The Weekend

First one that comes to my mind anyways.

[SweetZombieJesus]

19. Loverboy = Best 80s cheese band, bar none

No one eclipses Loverboy in the "So Bad They're Good" category.

[ScreamingMeemie]

30. Just saw them in Traverse City...and man did I feel old, because they

looked so old, as did all of us standing around watching them. Of course now, I am in the negative cool point department.

[short bus president]

31. NO WAY!

No one who fries up some good okra can ever go negative on the cool scale. You'll still be cool when you're like 90 and wrinkly. There's much more cool than you may realize in food.

[XanaDUer]

20. Hi. Check your PM inbox.

:)

[shanti]

25. prolly something from *valley girl*

i loved that movie and there were so many songs that i can't remember just one. lots of psychedelic furs, etc.

[ArmchairActivist]

34. Yep...

"Melt with you" by, um, Modern English, was it?

I graduated HS in 1984, and I pretty much hated all that crappy music and all those crappy movies with the exception of Valley Girl. (And Fast Times, of course...)

-AA

[newyawker99]

43. Congrats ArmchairActivist!! 100 posts

A :toast: for your first milestone!! :-)

[0rganism]

37. Thinking outside the brat pack box..."Eye of the Tiger" from Rocky III?

I agree with The Breakfast Club/DYFAM pick, I'm just trying to come up with anything that isn't a brat pack special.

[short bus president]

39. Oh, yeah! Survivor, baby!

That may have been the first song to ever stick in my head. I was maybe 8 years old when that movie came out?

[SmileyBoy]

38. That song from 'Better Off Dead", I forgot the name...

It was towards the end.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

40. OOOOOOH YEAH...

That freaking cool song OOOH YEAH from Ferris Beuller's Day Off, which is my FAVORITE 80s movie. :bounce: See, I graduated in 97, and I LOVE the 80s :loveya:...From Punky Brewster to Care Bears to Strawberry Shortcake, Breakfast club to Footloose to Pretty In Pink. My best friend in high school were always watching some eighties movie. Then I got an 87 Chrystler, and she wouldn't drive her brand new Grand AM anymore because I had a car from the 80s. I wasn't that obsessed, but I can see all the other stuff. Oh, and don't forget "I had the time of my life" from Dirty Dancing.
Duckie