4 Songs That Resonated With Teens More Than Adults in the Early 1980s

Teens are a great audience to have. Especially if you make unique, ahead-of-the-curve music that might not resonate with older listeners who already have established tastes. The following songs from the early 1980s had big fans among teens at the time. Today, they’re still all absolute classics among 80s kids. Let’s take a look!

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“Take On Me” by a-ha (1984)

This 1984 hit synth-pop jam was a massive hit worldwide. The younger listeners at the time definitely had a hand in that. “Take On Me” was a hefty hit for Norwegian outfit a-ha, peaking at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, among other charts. And the band would go on to enjoy a lucrative career in their native Norway and much of Europe, thanks to the dedicated youths who loved their music.

“Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” by Eurythmics (1983)

Nobody had their collective thumbs on the pulse of new movements in music quite like teens did in the early 1980s. New wave was a thing in the late 1970s. But teenage listeners really helped popularize the new genre by embracing it in the 80s. “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” by Eurythmics was one such song that resonated with the youths of the era. And it’s a synth-soaked classic, even today.

“Jump” by Van Halen (1983)

Van Halen converted a whole generation of young listeners into lifelong metalheads and guitarists. Their track “Jump” was just one song that really converted the masses to metal. A more pop-leaning metal tune with a synth rock, hard rock edge, this song quickly became Van Halen’s most successful single release of their career, peaking at No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart.

“Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper (1984)

Cyndi Lauper was big with teens in the 1980s, though plenty of her songs in the early part of the decade resonated with adults as well. “Time After Time” was just one of Lauper’s big hits at that time, peaking at No. 1 in the US and reaching the Top 10 on countless other charts. This ultra-memorable love song just sounds like the 1980s, and 80s kids today likely feel that pang of puppy love whenever they hear it.

Photo by Erica Echenberg/Redferns