Customer Reviews

Now 80: That's What I Call Music (Snys)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

WOW!!!!! What a wonderful trip down memory lane...you remember, the time when MTV ACTUALLY PLAYED THESE VIDEOS!!!! and you didn't NEED a satellite dish or a more expensive cable deal in order to watch videos on MTV!!! Each one of these songs is a gem. I truly enjoy the full-length longer version of the Simple Minds classic "Don't You Forget About Me" I truly hope that this will start a new market for the NOW compilation franchise as to where they will branch out and do more 80's cds and find a way to always have an extended version/remix version of an 80's fave on it.

The "Now" series of CDs has become very popular over the past few years. Although I'm not much of a fan of the regular "Now" CDs, I was glad to see that an 80s version had been released. Growing up in the 80s, these songs contained on this CD remind me of listening to my car stereo. This great CD is loaded with some classic 80s songs as well as some good overlooked tracks as well.

Favorites such as Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" and Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl" highlight the line-up. Some of the lesser-known songs include Bob Seger's "Shakedown" and Herbie Hancock's "Rockit". I do think some of the songs could have been replaced with better material. Almost every 80s compilation I've seen undoubtedly has Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf" included, and this CD is no different. I would have liked to have seen the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star" included here.

Overall, I do like this CD, but I wish some different songs could have been added. Hopefully, there will be a second disc released in this series.

if they release something like NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL 80's SYNTH-POP, or NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL 80's 12" MIXES, then i'd buy it. But this collection is ok too, especially if you're new to 80's music and love the NOW series. But for avid 80's fans though, most of this stuff will be in your collection already, and New Wave fans have the extensive JUST CAN'T GET ENOUGH series.

But anyway, apparently this disc has the extended version(almost 7 minutes long) of Simple Minds' DON'T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME. I noticed it as i was seeing which songs i might want to download(legally here at amazon mp3 downloads of course). It said album only though so i wasn't able to, but i won't hold it against the cd. 4-stars...i guess.

What else is there to say? 80's music is the best catagory of music ever! It is the best decade as well...Music...clothes get the point! Best 80's compilation cd!!!!! Awsome cd...best choice of music...

The NOW series of music compilations keeps on finding new ways of (re)packaging and compiling music. In addition to the on-going series of current hits (NOW 27 was just released this week), there have been various NOW Christmas music compilations, NOW Dance music compilations, etc. It shouldn't surprise anyone then that a new series is being launched, focusing on the 1980s.

"NOW This Is What I call the 80s" (20 tracks, 80 min.) brings a very generous serving of the biggest and best known hits from 2 decades ago, starting off with Michael Jackson's irresitable Billy Jean. If you were a commercial radio listener of that era, none of these tracks will come very much as a surprise, although some lesser-played songs are a joy to rediscover, such as Herbie Hancock's 1983 hit Rockit (how ironic that Hancock would win a grammy for best album 25 years down the road!), Steve Miller's Abracadabra (his last true mainstream hit, still enjoyable after all these years), and the Fixx' One Thing Leads to Another, just to name these few. Other songs have been so overplayed in the last 20+ years that I can't hardly listen to them anymore (the Police's Every Breath You Take; Duran Duran's Hungry Like the Wolf; etc.).

Even with a playing time of 80 min., there are lots and lots of artists that should be on here but are not for whatever reason, none more so than Madonna and Prince, but also Whitney Houston, Phil Collins, Elton John, George Michael, Peter Gabriel, Lionel Richie, just to name these. Incidentally, the NOW series originated in the UK, where last Fall in 2007 it also launched a 1980s series, but the initial release of that series there was a triple CD, and as such a much better reflection of the era, even if it focuses more on UK hits than on US hits. If the US edition of this series is anywhere the success of the many other NOW releases here, you can bet your last dollar that more volumes will be forthcoming here in the not too distant future.

It's a great collection for those who don't already have a collecion of 80s CDs. As for me, I have almost all of these songs three or more times on other CDs that are more entertaining. This CD hardly covers the 80s properly at minimum.

Great CD which I have played through several times.
If you are interested in 80's UK Music, our UK Now 80's version released last year is a 3CD box set and available from the amanzon.co.uk site.

When I ordered this set, I got it due to the overall quality of the "Now..." series as far as song selections and especially the sound quality. Like many others have said, most of the music here can be found on other collections but a few songs stood out for me, so I thought I would chance it although I own 90% of this music in a remastered format already. This disc was made in 2008 and I figured the songs would have the latest mastering available at the time. Boy, was I wrong. For example, Billy Joel's 'Uptown Girl" sounds like it was from the first cd release and not the remastered version. Several of the other songs sound the same way. Little bass, alot of tinny treble and just no real quality. You hear the difference of volume levels, crispness, sound quality of the master tapes, and whether songs were remastered or not throughout this disc. It is so sad as all these songs are remastered now and as I stated, I expected them to be of 'sound quality' here.

How can this cd differ so much from '80's Hits' of the same series as far as sound quality? The sound quality of the '80's Hits' compared to this one is like night and day but yet made by same company and part of the 'NOW' series.

Another note is that many of the songs are single versions, which I sort of expected but was hoping for album versions of a few. No dice. The only real gem here is Simple Minds with the extended version of 'Don't You Forget About Me". Overall I was disappointed with this disc.

I love the 80's.
I was a teenager in the 1980's,I listened to all the music that's on this CD.

It brought back may wonderfull memories of my teenagaer years.If you loved the music from the 1980's This is the CD to add to your collection.

I grew up listening to the songs on the album.
If you are a fan of music from the 80's, then this
is the cd for you. This is by far the best compilation
album I've listened to.