A survey of pop music featured on '80s film soundtracks can certainly be an exercise in overindulgence, but if you're OK with that from the start, moderate treasures can be plentiful and welcome treats for the determined explorer. As a hockey fan, I'm a sucker for the 1986 Rob Lowe-Patrick Swayze vehicle Youngblood, the entertaining if occasionally hokey and dated story of a young hockey star finding his way and learning to be a man. Yeah, I know, that doesn't sound remotely original, but it's definitely the kind of movie tailor-made for the inspiring pop/rock of Mr. Mister. That group's "Something Real (Inside Me/Inside You)" makes a prominent appearance in the film and manages to stand up still today as an utterly decent and mostly unembarrassing example of the era's sonic excesses. I'm not going to try and sell you an argument that this is deeply profound stuff for the ages, but in the case of both the film and the song, you could do exponentially worse when it comes to the spending of your entertainment time and dollar. One warning: montage-phobic individuals should sprint for the exits.

• Sample or download "Something Real" here.
• Top 10 Songs of 1985
• Top 10 '80s Songs Featured on '80s Film Soundtracks

Album Cover Image Courtesy of Buddha

Fans of mainstream rock and AOR during the '80s may not have always had a tremendous amount of quality to choose from, but such worthy music most certainly exists, as this track deftly proves. As a founding member and drummer of Traffic, Jim Capaldi made an immediate mark on the late-'60s rock music scene as both a songwriter and occasional singer. But the depth and longevity of this artist's solo career may come as a surprise to classic rock fans who never got a chance to hear this music on '80s rock radio.

Capaldi may have adapted well to the synthesizers, big production and power rock guitars popular during the era, but his most impressive contributions on "Love Used to Be a Friend of Mine" stem from his far-reaching songwriting skills and his explosive, underrated lead vocals. This happens to be one of several tracks from Capaldi's 1988 release Some Come Running that could have been a major Top 40 hit as well as a mainstream rock staple. Unfortunately, though I listened to a very good classic rock radio station constantly during that period, I somehow failed to become familiar enough with these tunes to help support Capaldi's surely modest sales. Well now, it might just be time to rectify that, even if it is already five years after this great artist's early death.

• Listen to "Love Used to Be a Friend of Mine" online.
• Compare prices on Jim Capaldi solo CDs here.
• Official Jim Capaldi Music Website

Album Cover Image Courtesy of Island Records

Any day on which a musician closely associated with the '80s dies is a mighty sad one on this site, but March 1, 2010 was particularly nasty in taking away from us the man behind one of the greatest, most recognized bass lines of the decade. I don't know if he wrote the bass part or had any particular creative hand in the song, but Tom "T-Bone" Wolk - long-time bass player for '80s pop duo Hall & Oates - has always played an anonymous but major role in the pair's smash 1982 hit "Maneater." Unfortunately, Wolk's death at 58 from an apparent heart attack might be the first chance for many '80s music fans to put a name with the bass (or face, for that matter).

Wolk served as stabilizing force and for many years as the band's music director, but many of us will always remember him fondly as the lanky dude with the hat from that song's music video as well as the clips from so many of the duo's other signature '80s hits. Sometimes it's all too easy to forget that our pop music legends have deep and dear supporting casts that help create the magic, but Wolk certainly deserved his day in the spotlight long before today's remembrances. Maybe we can all make up for it a bit by banishing "dude with the hat" from our customary descriptions of this beloved '80s musician.

• Top 10 Hall & Oates Songs of the '80s
• "Maneater" - Fun With Misheard '80s Lyrics
• '80s Instrument Spotlight - the Saxophone
• Top '80s Music Artists That Should Already Be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Album Cover Image Courtesy of Amazon.com

I'm such an equal-opportunity music lover that I'm not sure you'd catch me making the claim that the '80s was the absolute best era of music. Still, I'm not surprised that a recent Music Choice poll shows that nearly a third of respondents prefer the pop music of that decade to any over the last 40 years. I'm heartened by the fact that children of the '80s still deeply love the music of their era, and I'll also be among the first to argue that genres such as new wave, synth pop and even hair metal have received far more than their share of derision over the years.

So now is as good a time as any to celebrate not only the joy produced by artists like Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, and Lionel Richie but also to point out the persistent permanence of such music. In many cases never anticipated to outlast the popularity of legwarmers or the Rubik's Cube, '80s music from its most popular to most underrated artists continues to influence the ever-fickle world of pop culture. That's a hell of an accomplishment for a decade that gave us Loverboy, Poison and Milli Vanilli. OK, I won't bother to defend the latter, but even Bret Michaels & Co. had their moments two decades back.

More '80s Music in Spotlight
• Top 10 New Wave Artists of the '80s
• Top 10 Hair Metal/Pop Metal Songs of the '80s
• '80s Music Genres - A Capsule View