Music, Memory and 80s Film Classics

Music has always been an integral part of the film making process. Get the music wrong and a film can be ruined (think Ladyhawke), whereas the right music accompaniment can elevate a mediocre movie into the realm of the 'classic'.

Sound, like smell, are our most powerful triggers for memory. A song or piece of music can remind us of a film long after the plot, characters and visuals have been forgotten. With that theory as a jumping off point, I've created a list of the top 10 movie songs from the 1980s. Rather than using popularity or record sales as a basis for comparison, to be included in the list the songs must be:

• indicative of the era
• inexorably tied to the movie

Although dated, what sets these songs apart is the fact that, for many people, they cannot be heard without thinking about the film they were in. To make it a little harder, I've avoided using songs in which the title of the movie is mentioned. Unfortunately, that rules out the following sonic masterpieces:

Footloose, Kenny Loggins

Ghostbusters, Ray Parker Jr

The Goonies Are Good Enough, Cyndi Lauper

St Elmo's Fire, Man in Motion

The Never Ending Story, Limahl

Flash, Queen

Fame, Irene Cara

So counting down from 10, click the jump to see the Not-At-All-Arbitrary, All-Time Most Memorable, Memory Inducing Film Songs From The 80s:

Obsolete Media And The Pop Culture Collector

One of the obvious drawbacks of being a pop culture collector is the pervasive accumulation of stuff. The problem with having loads and loads of stuff is that, invariably, it is boxed away, never to be seen. As much as I love my stuff, I rarely get to see it. So, in order to resolve this conundrum, I've started posting images of stuff that I reckon might be of some interest to people who can't get enough of 70s and 80s nostalgia. The first batch of items belong to the Original Soundtrack or vinyl based film media family, and can be viewed by clicking on the FILM ON VINYL tab at the top of the page. It's smoke and dust free!

It Was Inevitable: Adult Read-Along Records

Once there was this thing called vinyl records. Vinyl was sort of like CDs, except bigger, and blacker, and when you played them they had this crackling fireplace quality that made everything you heard sound warm and 'authentic'. 

Unlike MP3s, when you held a 12 inch record in your hands you felt like you owned something real, substantial. Its fragility made you treat them with care and respect, holding the edges like it was some kind of precious artefact from your youth. Which, retrospectively, it was.

It was only a matter of time before I started making Read-Along record imagery for more adult films. Because irony, right? So here is Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket as a Read-Along Adventure. Insert hilarious iconic film quote here:

'Member This?: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome And The Read-Along Record

In the 70s and 80s, movie soundtracks, novelisations and trading cards could help you relive the events of your favourite film during the years before its release on home video. The Read-Along Record took it one step further. Using audio from the film (dialogue, sound effects, music), they would create an interactive audio/visual experience unlike any other medium.

Unfortunately, very few films made the transition to the Read-Along format. Continuing with the theme of rectifying past pop culture merchandising oversights, I've mocked-up a Read-Along Adventure based on one of the greatest Australian movies of all time – Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

Beyond Thunderdome was the first of the original Mad Max trilogy that was clearly attempting to broaden its fan base to include children. Even with its M rating for course language, cartoonish violence and the occasional child buried alive, a Read-Along Adventure based on it wouldn't have been too much of a stretch of the imagination back in 1985.