I realize that not everyone has access to the Sundance Channel on their cable or satellite TV systems and that I'm a bit self-indulgent when it comes to my own personal entertainment options. Still, after having the pleasure of watching the first episode of Spectacle: Elvis Costello With..., I think some promotion in this space is well-deserved.

If you remember the days when VH-1 (or, way back, MTV) featured a significant amount of historical and cultural music programming, then you will simply devour the frank music discussion and spontaneous performance featured on this refreshingly free-wheeling program. In the first episode, music legends and significant '80s music players Costello and Elton John sit and talk music with a live audience, interspersing organic live performances throughout. This format alone may not seem particularly groundbreaking, but when the host is Elvis Costello and the guests are of the caliber of John and the other artists hinted at in show promos, the content by itself should command the target audience's complete attention. Let's just hope that audience shows up in numbers adequate to keep it on the air for awhile. To be safe, I'd suggest absorbing as much of this musical nutrition while you still can.

• Elvis Costello Profile
• Top 8 Elvis Costello Songs of the '80s

Even music fans of my generation who are quite fond of '80s music tend to believe that the era was typified by flashy extremes, from new wave to image-conscious MTV pop to the granddaddy of all '80s flashpoints, hair metal. The truth, of course, is that every musical decade experiences undulating variables of quality and trash, substance and emptiness, introspection and harebrained perpetual adolescence. Still, the dominant view of the '80s as a particularly vapid period for music - even at the time - led many to embrace the gentle neo-folk musings of singer-songwriters like Suzanne Vega as the last hope for pop music.

I believe the music world would have maintained its lively ebb and flow without the emergence of some of these similarly styled back-to-basics performers, but I do have to admit that the change of pace of Vega's unique sound was more than welcome circa 1985. And although this artist's oeuvre has been unfairly shrouded by the almost exclusive popularity of "Luka" and "Tom's Diner," a song like "Gypsy" offers a telling portrait of a multi-faceted, deliberate, and highly original approach to acoustic, singer-songwriter material. Even better, Vega should serve as a fervent reminder that literate, serious music was no less common during the '80s than any other rock era; the shine and distracting sparkle of spandex just sometimes made it feel that way.

Album Cover Photo Courtesy of A&M Records

I'm as impressed by guitar virtuosos as the next '80s music lover, as players like Dokken's George Lynch, Yngwie Malmsteen and the late Randy Rhoads certainly had no problem driving a hard rock band's guitar sound all by themselves. Still, there's something significant to be said for the dynamic and organic nature of guitar partnerships within bands, the kind that lend unquestionable immediacy to recordings, not to mention mystery and excitement to live shows.

I can't say I was fully conscious of my attitude on this issue as I was listening to Judas Priest's "Headed Out to the Highway" last week, but I was alert enough to notice the light bulb flickering over my head. The use of multiple guitarists in bands, sometimes called dual or twin guitar, has been a major factor across the years, from the Beatles to the Rolling Stones to lesser-known groups like Thin Lizzy. But I think the practice had a particularly rewarding decade during the '80s, especially with the rise in popularity of arena rock and heavy metal for a new generation. For further exploration of this particularly exhilarating phenomenon of instrumental synthesis, please check out my list of the Top '80s Songs Featuring Multiple-Guitar Interplay. It could be a much larger list, I'm certain, with far different entries, but I'll wait to hear specifics from my fellow '80s music connoisseurs out there. I don't expect to be let down.

On many occasions, the best new wave songs drew distinctly if also off-centeredly from artists directly involved in the original thrust of punk rock that helped launch the new form. That wasn't always the case, of course, as new wave emerged as both a refinement and hybridized mainstreaming of the freewheeling punk approach, which meant its ingredients and impulses held much variety. Still, this 1981 track from Iggy Pop, one of punk rock's most influential pioneers as a member of the seminal band the Stooges, stands as a pleasant, sleeper example of a multi-faceted new wave triumph.

I'm also particularly enamored with "Pumpin' for Jill" at the moment because I discovered it through one of my favorite network TV shows of the moment, Chuck, which used the tune to great effect in its November 10 episode. I love those kind of discoveries, and this particular one also has the capacity to remind us how ironically consistent the career of the unpredictable Iggy Pop has been across the decades. When it comes to '80s music, I'm happy to report, there's "always more where that came from."

Album Cover Photo Courtesy of Virgin Records