Mark Hollis/Talk Talk is/are timeless and 80s simultaneously to me.
Completely obvious, but still fkn amazing.
‘There’s a club if you’d like to go
You could meet somebody who really loves you
So you go and you stand on your own
And you leave on your own
And you go home and you cry
And you want to die’
… this verse still gets me every time too.
Temple of Psychic Youth
From the 80s or from the future?
I dip into the later stuff here & there, I saw them in Leeds just before George Best came out, I’d met a girl who was taught by one of them at a Julian cope gig & she got me to go. I’d never seen such fast rythm guitar & immediately adapted my guitar style 
They were amazing & made a massive impact on me. Seamonsters is the pinnacle album for me, every minute of it is amazing. But that was just into the 90s so a bit late for this thread
That’s cool
Actually, I think it’s Take Fountain which I’ve spent the most time with which I believe actually came out in the 00s but won’t digress further out of the 80s…
Ok, one example from each category.
mega hit
unnoticed beauty (but still a pop song as implied)
may have been sampled from
Peter Gabriel
Album : Birdy
Right. I don’t count it in the 80’s since it basically opened the march for the 90’s, but Debaser is one of my favorite albums.
I didn’t always like 80’s music, I did when I was a kid because then it was just “music” but in my teens I kind of hated it until I got older and found more music to appreciate. Now I really, really like 80’s music…
I went overboard… and I still deleted like 8 other songs. That last one was inspired by @Jeanne. Not what I’d normally recommend but had to throw in some metal there too.
I’m amazed no ACDC or Guns & Roses yet… 87 I played the shit out of Appetite for Destruction.
Suprised nobody’s mentioned this gem yet. From the Welsh art school lads who finally became Underworld! Can’t say any of their other work from the 80s was all that, though. This one is pure nostalgic magic. The imagery it evokes is intense.
Metalica, Megadeath, Anthrax and Slayer all did their best work in the 80’s.
Music today wouldn’t be the same without them…
Not enough punk rock in here
One of YMO’s most evocative tunes, with an adorable video
My secret guilty pleasure, TM Network, from Japan.
The song is called “Resistance”
Their best work, in my opinion was their breakout album, Childhood’s End (1985)
My Mum used to play SADE Diamond Life a lot…
so that always reminds me of her and my childhood.
Between the vocals/horns Smooth Operator is pretty classic 80’s
get the sound track to Donnie Darko. also, the bootleg soundtrack to Valley Girl. they never made an official one. so many great tunes on it though.
was never a huge siouxsie fan but i could listen to this song FOREVER.
there’s of course, lot’s of 80s hiphop and endless pop… and endless variations on metal, industrial, speed metal etc…