Pop Culture Time: Movie Music of The 1980's: Intro To The Series /Fantasy Films

One of the many things I came up with in my head was the pop culture style blog posts and it’s been a while since I done one.  I was stuck between my favorite movies/music of the 1980’s and couldn’t decide so I decided on merging the two together to talk about : movie songs. 

You see it’s always been a trend for singers to create a song for a movie that they choose, it can help to make both sides popular and if done well it can last for a good amount of time in pop culture. The 1980’s was one of the best decade’s for this, mainly thanks to the inno0vation of films in general. The film makers became smarter and used the songs like never before, burning them in the imaginations of fans ever since. 

This was no easy list to make in a general format, so instead I split it up.  I will spend a post on a certain type of movie: Fantasy, Horror, Action, etc.   It’s the best of both worlds, so please don’t be disappointed if a song you like is not on here, it’s based off my opinions and tastes. 

I'm going to do Fantasies first. But what makes a fantasy movie? It usually needs magic in it, but it can be full of action too.  Usually unbelievable stuff needs to happen that can't be explained, and shouldn't be explained either. Movies like "The Terminator" does not fit here because it's a multi genre film, and while it has time travel involved, so does many fantasy films.  Movies like Harry Potter know are good examples of this, and the 80's had plenty of them. I choose the three best movies of the period that I considered to have good music in them. They are not the best or worst, just memorable song wise.

Best 80's Fantasy Film Theme Songs:

Highlander 

Singer/Group: Queen

Song/Songs: Princes of The Universe, Who Wants To Live Forever?, A Kind of Magic

Movie Plot:  The world has been filled with men who are unkillable, The Immortals, for thousands of years. Their goal: To fight to the death and as a result they will win a prize that’s only meant for the winner, as the popular phrase states: “There can be only one.”
 Stars: Sean Connery, Christopher Lambert, Clancy “Mr. Krabs” Brown

To start off,  Highlander is one of the most bat shit crazy films I have seen. The plot’s extremely creative yet bizarre, and it makes total since that the film’s writer was probably high as a kite when he wrote this movie.  The plots basically just like how I described it, but it’s just fun to watch. It does not make any real life since but it’s a fantasy film what do you expect?  Plus it’s rather enjoyable to hear Sean Connery do his “Egyptian” accent, which sounds totally Scottish.  The guy gave no effort but it’s Sean Connery after all, the man can do what the fuck he wants.

While the film’s idea is unique and it had a major star attached,  the film needed more. The producers decided the film needed a fanatical rock based soundtrack, and that’s where Queen came in.  They were still big at the point and had a ton of fans and respect based off their Live Aid performance which was considered “one of if not the best ever” by the critics.
 

The group produced not one, not two, but eight songs!  Hard to believe but they produced a whole CD worth of stuff for just one movie.  I choose three songs to mention but I only like two of them.

First is the main film’s theme, “Princes of the Universe.”  In a short word: It’s Awesome. 

It has come to define the series as one of great quality when the sequels are really not worth a shit, trust me on that.  This song opens the film, and in the music video the band goes all out, you can tell they are having fun.  It may sound like a traditional Queen song, but it’s nowhere as cheesy as their earlier stuff. While I like their music it can get cheesy at times, this song avoided and is rather heavy sounding for a Queen tune. 

One part I find ironic yet funny, near the end Freddie Mercury says “Bring on the girls!” Knowing his history it’s totally hilarious but he sounded like he didn’t have any trouble saying that. Plus he straddles the microphone a little too much.

The next two songs are ballads, especially “Who Wants.”  That song is used during the saddest part of the film (which I won’t give away) because it’s quite good and very emotionally well done. 

The song helped to make it much better, but it's just kind of a dreary song, even though it's well done. It's really ironic when you listen to it after finding out what happened to Freddie Mercury, a cruel irony if there ever was one.

Then comes the last ballad “A Kind of Magic” which is played at the end of  the movie, and I very much enjoy it.  It’s a ballad but yet a very happy one, which is very rare.  The song later headlined their album from 1986 which used the same name and went on to be a hit. Very well deserved.

If I ever was to buy an album with the best of Queen,  “Princes of the Universe” and “Kind of Magic” needs to be on it, or I’m not buying. The other song is great but a little too emotional for me.

As for the movie, it's a fun watch. Give a chance if you like 80's action/fantasy films.

Mad Max Beyond ThunderDome

Artist: Tina Turner

Song: “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)

Movie Plot:  Mad Max has moved on from the events of “The Road Warrior” and is roaming around the desert. He later finds a group of kids who need rescuing, but soon gets  more than her expected in the “BarterTown” ran by Aunty Entity (Turner) who puts Max to the test for his life.
Starring: Mel Gibson/Tina Turner

1984 was the year for Tina Turner. 8 years earlier she finally had enough of the abuse and general douchebaggy behavior of Ike Turner, so she ran off from him and quit the “Ike and Tina Turner Review” which was dragging.  She had a hard few years re-inventing herself, as she desired to do rock-ish pop instead of the old jazzy style music of old.  Finally she hit it big again after the hit song “What’s Love Got To Do With It,” and she could not be stopped. She had several hits and was big again, and she was even able to be in movies, her dream.

She finally got a starring role in Mad Max 3, and was one of the better parts of it.  The film lacked compared to the previous films, and stalled the series for 20 years.  If you watch the series, stay with the first two films. But thanks to her performance and Mel Gibson being in the film, it saved it from being utter crap.

As for the Song, it’s a very well done chorus based piece, with Tina singing lead.  It kind of helps to watch the movie beforehand but it does not really matter, without the music video you could imagine Tina singing about just a group of kids in general wishing for a better world. That’s what the song is about really, the kids from the movie.  Tina even manages to wear her costume and  look somewhat presentable in it, not a lot of people can do that.  There’s an extended edit that goes 6 minutes, but I usually watch the music video. Both work fine.

Song= Not one of Tina’s better songs but a solid song on it’s own right.
 Movie= Skip it, unless your a fan of the series or desperate for punishment.

Neverending Story

Artist:Limhal

Song: “The Neverending Story”

Movie Plot:  A young boy is picked on for being not very sociable and his love of reading, which is not considered cool.  He later finds an interesting designed book and steals it out of a bookshop, and is soon hooked.  The story inside attracts him and the film switches back between him and the hero of the story Atreyu, who is on a journey to save the world of Fantasia from “The Nothing” which is out to destroy the world and it’s innocence. The boy reading then finds out the definition of audience participation first hand.
Starring: No one Important

First off, this flick is one of my childhood favorites, It promoted the power of reading and how it helps to grow your imagination. Before Spongebob ever came along this was one of the main pieces of entertainment that promoted using your imagination. It’s a really dark but creative and well done flick for a German made film. It's like the Wizard of Oz on crack, it's that out there but yet it's fun. The sequels suck hard, especially the third one, which is just a crappy attempt at capturing the name for money. Even Jack Black couldn’t save it from utter suckage and that’s rare, it’s that bad.

As for the song, it was done by Limhal of the band Kajagooogoo (The band sucked as much as their name did.)  They had one crappy song that was a hit, and he was kicked out of the group afterwards unfairly, but the joke was on them because the band went down afterwards while the guy had this song which was a major worldwide hit.

I know what you’re thinking: “The Guy Looks Gay,” and your right, he is as its common knowledge, but to give the guy credit he never shamed from his ways of doing things, so props there. 

Most people actually think the woman singer was Limhal but that's not true, she was a back0up singer of his, but if you just hear the song you never know. Singing wise it's well done. 

But to be honest, this song is nothing more than an electronic pop song of the time which could probably hit now. But it was well done, it has a soul while most other songs of today lack, and it helped to make the movie bigger than it was expected.  This was a case of  someone finding a popular hitmaker for a song and expects them to crap a song out fast. But this managed to be a well liked and appreciated song and along with the movie is a piece of the 80’s that will be remembered among most people who were born back then.  I was a few years late of course but I still appreciate this song for what it is, a time relic of the year 1984.

The only thing I dread about a remake of the movie is who will cover the song. I am willing to bet  Justin Bieber will get it and ruins the song for everyone. Let’s just hope this never happens.

The song= Classic 80's Pop
The Movie= Classic 80's Kid Flick. Stay away from 2 and 3.

Anyways, I am creating a series off this stuff and I intend to do a whole set of posts around this.  Each post will be at least 1 type of film, like tomorrow’s could be horror, and the next day action.  I believe this series could be a good one, just wait and see I guess. I appreciate the read and I hope I did a fine job here, if not I will keep working.