The Eighties Online

What song was playing when you had your first kiss? What about your first slow dance?

How about during your first time?

Chances are, it was a power ballad – you know, those songs that double as the soundtrack to your life?

Those anthems that make you want to throw a lighter in the air and start singing along at the top of your lungs.

Now at the brand new arena rock cabaret in the center of Times Square, Power Balladz, you can do just that - celebrate the best music of the 70s, 80s, and 90s and unleash your inner rock star.

POWER BALLADZ is the arena rock experience you’ve been waiting for - part hilarious comedy, part interactive game show, and 90 minutes of wicked rock featuring some of the greatest anthems ever written by man, woman, or beast.

The formula is simple – take some awesome rock singers, give them a full band, tons of lights, a killer fog machine, a video projection screen, and lots of leather and long hair.

Just as the 1970's will be recalled for punk's anti-fashion statements, so the 1980's will be remembered as much for the artists return to dressing up as much as the music they made. Duran Duran, Adam Ant, Spandau Ballet, Soft Cell, Simple Minds, The Human League, Thompson Twins and Depeche Mode were just a few of the bands to spring from the new romantics and 80s fashion movement.

Arguably, David Bowie was the biggest influence on this new fashion movement. Bowie's 80s hit "Fashion" became something of an anthem. The London Clubs gave the likes of doorman Steve Strange and cloakroom attendant Boy George their first leg up on the 80s fashion and music movement.

Instead of guitars, these new bands preferred synthesizers and drum machines. The new synthesizers were now less expensive and inspired many artists, such as Gary Newman's late 1970s British hits.

Britain's youth was favoring the new instrument over the previously dominant six-string guitars.

In America, Talking Head's David Byrne attempted to merge new wave and black music, doubling the size of the quartet with an influx of funk musicians.

The 80s was a decade when the impact of dance culture on music and vice versa led to some exciting results as it started with the impact of "Thriller" and closed with "Happy Mondays".

In the 80s, punk music had subsided to become the less-threatening New-Wave movement, which along with the new romantics like Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet, dominated the early days of the decade.

Like in the 1960s, many music producers emerged with their own unique sound, such as Trevor Horn, whose work with Frankie Goes to Hollywood was especially influential.

The synthesizer became the decade's most prevalent sound, with many groups replacing guitars with synths. One particularly notable exceptions was U2, which started the 1980s decade supporting Talking Heads and ended the decade a supergroup.

A new evolution of Heavy Metal swept the UK eve3n before the rise of the "hair-bands" from the US. The metal explosion finally reached critical mass with the emergence of the many heavy metal hair-bands coming out of Los Angeles, California.

New music opened to new markets with the fall of the Berlin wall and both live music and the new compact disc medium took popular music to far away places including China.

"Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was a superbly produced pop single with a highly effective guitar hook and was the seventh hit in the U.K. for the west country synth-pop duo who took their name and a good deal of their lyrical inspiration from a book on primal scream therapy.

The first US hit from Tears for Fears went straight to number one as did the follow up single "Shout", which was more mainstream pop than their gloomy earlier material and was therefore somewhat more US friendly.

In 1985 acts from the UK would hold the number one spot on the billboard singles charts for an impressive 25 weeks. And with 24 albums on the charts in the mid-1980s, 1985 ended up being a top year for 80s music. This was all part of the British Invasion of the US music charts that reached it's peak in 1985.

In 1986, however, there were only eight weeks of singles from UK British artists topping the singles charts and only two albums from UK artists on the album charts.

Hungry Like The Wolf was the fourth top 20 hit in the group's native UK and the song that introduced Duran Duran to America, ushering in a string of hits and hordes of female admirers.

This potent, extended sexual metaphor was a timely and unique combination of tough rock-guitar licks and frenetic beats, worthy of post-disco dance floors. It also turned out to have an extended shelf life once the world embraced Duran Duran as a pop sensation.

Director Russell Mulcahy took Duran Duran to picturesque Sri Lanka to shoot the adventurous video for the song, which most memorably features the thrilling tension of lead singer Simon LeBon pursued through a by a painted she-wolf in heat.

The quintet, which was originally made up of Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, Andy Taylor and Roger Taylor with the addition of Simon LeBon, fast became teen idols around the world, especially as the MTV audience devoured the exotic video.

The video was considerably more exciting and action-packed than much of the competing material at the time. In 1984, "Hungry Like The Wolf" won the Grammy for Best Video Shortform and made a noteworthy contribution towards Duran Duran's second honor that year, for Best Video Album.

Pet Shop Boys frontman Neil Tennant worked for U.K. pop-music magazine Smash Hits and also for Marvel Comics when he met future musical partner Chris Lowe in an equipment shop.

The training in superheroes and teen idols was good for the duo, as their first single, 'West End Girls' eventually connected it's charisma to a worldwide audience.

The song has many disparate influences from Tennant's rap-like delivery to it's relative grittiness. the lyrics dealt with the seediness of London's East End and the interaction of it's ruffians with the ladies from the post West End.

After there had been a favorable club reaction but poor chart action, the song was reworked a year later by producer Stephen Hague, who lightened the Communist references, fattened up the sounds, and gave the song an overall polish.

the second time around proved to be the charm as the updated version shot to the to of the charts in both America and the U.K., where 'West End Girls' was the first of four #1 hits from the album Please.

The song's title has since inspired the names of at least two bands and a television show, and a steady stream of remixes that have helped keep this 80s dance classic alive in the clubs.

For a great many artist's, re-invention is the name of the game. David Bowie is the master of this particular skill, but failed British 1960's teen Shane Fenton's rebirth as mysterious glam-rocker Alvin Stardust is perhaps a better reference point for the transformation of Billy Idol.

Born William Broad in London, England, he renamed himself Billy Idol while a member of The Bromley Contingent, cult followers of the Sex Pistols, played for a while with the punk band Chelsea, and the went on to be the frontman of Generation X.

When he found it difficult to hit the big time in Britain, Billy relocated to NYC in 1981 and teamed up with KISS manager Bill Aucoin and guitarist and songwriter Steve Stevens.

As a solo act Billy contrived a new image that was part metal, part punk, and totally MTV friendly.

Conveying a rebelliuos personality with some slick bondage chick videos which played heavily on his over the top variation of the Elvis-James Dean sneer, Billy Idol was an ideal heavy rotation favorite, gettin his first US Top 30 Hit with "Hot in the city".

Without a doubt, Madonna was the biggest and brightest female pop star of 80s music and is still greatly respected and admired today for her talent and fashion insight. Here is a quick look at some of her most popular singles.

1) “Borderline”: This song was one of the first hits Madonna experienced off of her debut 1983 album. In true Madonna style, this song was a bit different from the albums other cuts like “Holiday” and “Lucky Star” because it had a more diverse melody and flow.

2) “Like A Virgin”: Madonna has often brought forth bold statements about society and life through her music and this song was certainly one of her first bold musical statements. With its catchy melody and dark warmth, the song is a beautiful piece of art. Thus, when Madonna’s voice brought the lyrics to live along with the unforgettable music video she filmed, this song became an 80s iconic artistic moment frozen in time.

3) “Papa Don’t Preach”: Again, Madonna took possibly controversial lyrics of the time and turned them into a message the whole world understood with this song. It was an amazing way to address the issue of teen pregnancy in a time where it wasn’t socially acceptable to address it openly.