Pick a week, any week, and the 1980s come flooding back one song at a time. What was number one the week you were born? The week of that summer you still think about? This is a time machine organized by the calendar: choose a week, and see the song sitting at the top of the chart for every single year of the decade, along with the radio and MTV moments that happened alongside it.
This Week in 80s Music is a year-by-year guide to what was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 during any given calendar week from 1980 to 1989. Each page takes one week of the year and lists the chart-topping song for all ten years of the decade, plus the radio, MTV, and release milestones from that same week. It turns the calendar into a doorway back into the exact sound of a specific moment.
How it works
Each page fixes on a single week, like the week of July 20 or the week of Labor Day, and walks it through the decade year by year. For every year from 1980 to 1989, you get the number one song on the chart nearest that date, drawn from the Billboard Hot 100, along with the texture around it: how long the song held the top, what it knocked off, and the milestone moments that happened that same week.
The result is a snapshot of how fast pop radio moved. Pin one week and you might find Billy Joel, then Duran Duran, then Richard Marx sitting in the same slot just a few years apart. It is the whole decade seen through a single recurring square on the calendar.
The milestones matter too. Some of the biggest moments in pop history landed in these exact weeks: MTV signed on the first week of August 1981, the first MTV Video Music Awards aired the week of September 14, 1984, and the Live Aid and Farm Aid benefit concerts fell in the summer and early fall of 1985. Each week page notes what was happening around the songs, not just which record sat on top.
Mid and late summer
The heart of summer, when one song became the season. Start with the week of July 20 and the week of July 27, then move into August: the week of August 3, which includes the week MTV signed on, followed by August 10, August 17, and August 24.
The turn into fall
Summer closes and the fall hits arrive. See the week of August 31, the Labor Day weekend chart, then September 7 and September 14, which includes the week of the first MTV Video Music Awards. Continue through September 21, September 28, and the week of October 5.
The honest bottom line
Pinning a single week can make the chart look almost random, because it is. There is no grand story in the fact that a Bond theme, an a cappella novelty, and a Guns N' Roses ballad all held the same week in different years. The number one song was decided by whatever the whole country happened to be buying and hearing at that exact moment, nothing more. But that randomness is the charm. These pages do not pretend the chart was destiny. They just hand you the real record of what was playing, so you can find the one song that was yours, in the week that was yours, and let it pull the rest of that time back.
FAQ
What is This Week in 80s Music? It is a year-by-year guide that takes a single calendar week and lists the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 for every year from 1980 to 1989, plus the milestones from that week.
How do I find the number one song for a specific week? Choose the page for that calendar week. Each page shows the chart-topping song nearest that date for all ten years of the decade, so you can find any year at a glance.
Which chart do these pages use? They use the Billboard Hot 100, the national chart of the best-selling and most-played singles in the United States, taking the issue dated closest to each target date.
Do the pages cover the whole decade? Yes. Each week page covers all ten years, from 1980 through 1989, giving the number one song for that same week in every year.
What else do the pages include? Beyond the number one songs, each page notes the radio, MTV, and release milestones from that week, such as the MTV launch or the first Video Music Awards.
Explore the rest of the Bubble: 80s Radio and 80s One-Hit Wonders.
Every week in here is reconstructed from the record, method.