Artist	Song
Housemartins	Caravan Of Love
New Order	Love Vigilantes
Modern English	I Melt With You
The Cure	Pictures of You
The Smiths	Panic
James	Laid
Morrissey	The More You Ignore Me
The The	This is the Day
Joy Division	Love Will Tear Us Apart
Clash	London Calling
Echo and the Bunnymen	Lips Like Sugar
Psychedelic Furs	Pretty In Pink
Simple Minds	Don't You (Forget About Me)
Bauhaus	Ziggy Stardust
Love And Rockets	All In My Mind
The Stone Roses	Mersey Paradise
Raincoats	No One's Little Girl
Pulp	Like A Friend

Comment:

Notes:

1. The Housemartins - Only together for three years (1986 to 1988), they were a hugely influential band to 1990s jangle-pop groups like The Barenaked Ladies

2. New Order - Born from the ashes of the pioneering postpunk group Joy Division (see below), New Order virtually invented techno. They are akin to the Radiohead of this genre.

3. Modern English - Nothing else in their collection sounds remotely like this. MTV made this song a mega-hit, but they were definite one-hit wonders. Everything else they made sounded like somber dirges.

4. The Cure - You can't do a mix from this time period and NOT include The Cure. This song is featured n a Kodak commercial now, despite its rather sad message (obsession).

5. The Smiths - These guys rule. Between 1983 and 1987 The Smiths released almost 20 singles and 7 albums. Morrissey (see below) was the front man before going solo.

6. James - Some would call James just a bad Smiths cover band, but this is his best-known song. It was re-recorded as the theme for the recent American Wedding movie.

7. Morrissey - Never achieved Smith-success, but is still pretty popular in England

8. The The - Despite having one of the worst band names in the history of pop music, The The, which is just another name for the musician Matt Johnson, made some weird music in the 1980s. Occasionally, a pop-nugget like his one would come along.

9. Joy Division - Joy-less is more like it. It was a great group, no doubt, but a little too alt-synth for my tastes. But, hey, they did turn into the greatness that is New Order.

10. The Clash - The precursors to the whole damn movement! Though the Sex Pistols will forever be known in the pop-ethos as the founders of punk, it was the Clash that turned it into a rawking-good art form.

11. Echo & The Bunnymen - Gloomy drum-machine quartet owned the way-early `80s

12. Psychedelic Furs - Thank the stars for the Brat Pack! Molly Ringwald, et al. made some bands huge hits, like the Furs. This was easily their biggest hit and theme song of the hit movie of the same name.

13. Simple Minds - You've no doubt heard this song before, from The Breakfast Club

14. Bauhaus - Later to become Love & Rockets (see below), they were heavy and grungy. This is a cover of the popular David Bowie tune, and far superior in my opinion.

15. Love & Rockets - Unlike Bauhaus, Love & Rockets was fun and light, owing more to The Smiths than Jo yDivision.

16. The Stone Roses - Actually came along much later (1990s) but this song is such an obvious throwback to the old style, it deserves a place in this collection.

17. The Raincoats - One of the few female-front Brit bands from this genre. A personal favorite of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, he single-handedly made them famous again in the mid-1990s just by mentioning them as an influence.

18. Pulp - These guys made music for more than a decade, all throughout the 1980s, before anyone paid them the slightest attention. Now they are (still) huge.

-=the end=-

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