As part of a music community, I recently did a 1984 deep dive and I made a list of my favorite 25 albums and songs. Since this website is dedicated to protest music I previously recorded a video featuring the top 10 protest albums and I’m now following it up with the top 10 protest songs. Like much of the music of that era, it was heavily affected by the Cold War. The music also tackles other societal issues such as civil rights and environmental concerns.
For the ten protest songs, you’ll need to watch the video, but below I’ll post my ranked list of the Top 25 songs of 1984, which includes non-protest tunes.
- Daniel Johnston – True Love Will Find You In The End
- The Special AKA – Nelson Mandela
- Madness – Michael Caine
- Nena – 99 Luftballons
- The Smiths – How Soon Is Now
- Prince – When Doves Cry
- Hüsker Dü – Pink Turns To Blue
- The Replacements – Unsatisfied
- Sade – Smooth Operator
- Bruce Cockburn – If I Had A Rocket Launcher
- R.E.M. – So. Central Rain
- Meat Puppets – Lake of Fire
- Iron Maiden – 2 Minutes To Midnight
- Depeche Mode – Somebody
- Violent Femmes – I Hear The Rain
- Echo & The Bunnymen – The Killing Moon
- Minutemen – History Lesson Part 2
- Leonard Cohen – Dance Me To The End of Love
- U2 – Bad
- Psychedelic Furs – The Ghost In You
- Cocteau Twins – Pandora (for Cindy)
- Run-D.M.C. – Rock Box
- John Prine – People Puttin’ People Down
- Ramones – Daytime Dilemma (Dangers of Love)
- George Michael/Wham – Careless Whisper
Also, check out the playlist featuring the protest music of 1984.