A Song That Captures the 80's

This entry answers the question, "Which song best represents the 80's?" I post it here because I did a google search for that string and found poor matches. So I see opportunity for traffic to this site by creating this entry.

Which song best represents the 80's?

There are many great songs from the 80's, but the one that is currently in my head is Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division. The reason that I am so enamored by this song is on the surface because I like the song and it is a part of my skater youth. But deeper is, this song is not popular among the uninitiated. People that were into pop music would not have listened to the stations that would have played this song, nor would have hung out with kids that would have been listening to this kind of music. But this song is one of the most recognizable songs among the skater community, along with any number of Depeche Mode, Smiths and Cure songs.

The song is not political. The lyrics don't make much sense. The melody is trite and repetitious. Love Will Tear Us Apart, by all rights, should have never been released. But it was. Further, it was received well at the time by the target audience. The song became the anthem, and the Joy Division / Dead Kennedy / Misfits tshirts became the mode of recognition among the dour initiated.

I did a search on Youtube for the song and found covers to resolve first. This brought me to tears of joy. I watched the cover videos and they suck; my emotions ran high. It is a mark of supreme influence that cover bands could do such a horrible job of representing the original, and become so watched on Youtube. Let me say this again for it is the point of all of this. The song is so compelling that people do elaborate covers of it 20 years later, and those covers outperform the original, even though the covers make no effort to capture the original intent of the song.

The original scene of Joy Division was dark, anti-parent, anti-establishment, pro-skater, pro-tshirt, punk. The new renditions are slow, easy listening, coffee house, green party, pro-choice, vegan. The new artists pay only so much respect as to sing the original words, but do nothing to illicit the feel of the original.

Watch the original and then watch the covers. Tell me what you think. Were you moved to tears too? Did the song make you miss your youth? What song best represents the 80's for you?