Forty years ago there was a decade that had an outsized influence on all pop culture moving forward. The music of the 60s may have still gotten persistent airplay in the 80s but music from the 40s was almost completely outdated, and we all assumed pop culture would… I want to say keep up the 20 year cycle but all kids think their music is the best music and will last forever without realizing that it’s kind of weird when it actually happens. Not all of it, of course, because radio-filler drek and flash-in-the-pan earworms have a lifespan measured in minutes and it’s always a bit of a relief when realizing it’s been months since hearing whatever it may have been, but ignoring the generic and deservedly forgotten, the musical katamari of the 80s is still rolling along with a surprising vitality.
A Second Shot Of 80s Greatness
Synth Riders is one of the best music games out there and last year came out with a DLC pack that strongly implied the existence of more to come in the form of 80s Mixtape Side A, and today the promise of the A side is being lived up to with the release of the B side. “Tapes” were a barely-tolerable physical media that had the advantage of being easily portable and recordable despite the format’s unreliability, allowing people to create and share songlists with friends while the recording industry labeled them filthy pirates. Unlike the mixtapes of old Synth Riders has fully licensed its music for digital distribution into the game’s expansive library, and although the A side’s five songs were nowhere near enough to give a cross-section of the richness of 80s music, the additional seven tracks on the B side start filling in the details-
Queen - “Don’t Stop Me Now”
Wham! - “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”
Toto - “Africa”
Simple Minds - “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”
The Cure - “Just Like Heaven”
Daryl Hall & John Oates - “Out of Touch”
Rick Astley - “Never Gonna Give You Up”
Synth Riders Dips its Toes into the ’80s with Mixtape Side A DLC
Synth Riders has started excavating the offerings of the 80s with a five-song collection in its 80s Mixtape - Side A DLC release
While the official press release refers to that last song as a rickroll, it was more than big enough in the 80s to legitimately earn its spot on the list even without the meme status. Queen is always welcome in any format, Simple Minds' Don’t You Forget About Me is an easy classic, you can’t go wrong with The Cure, and even the poppier songs like Wake Me Up or Out of Touch are solid. They’re available as of today at $1.99 apiece or $10.99 for everything, with one disclaimer- While you can play in acid-washed jeans, that aquanet big-hair look just won’t fly in a VR helmet.
Synth Riders is one of the best music games out there.
