The DAN ZONE

While many of this decades songs and artists are heavily influenced by 80s new wave and pop punk sounds, like Kelly Clarkson (My Life Would Suck Without You), Katy Perry (Hot n Cold), Miley Cyrus (See You Again), Cobra Starship (Good Girls Gone Bad), Good Charlotte (I Don’t Wanna Be in Love), and 3OH!3 (Don’t Trust Me), so much great stuff goes ignored by popular radio—and by people my age who have spent the whole decade complaining that ‘today’s music sux.’ This is a list of some of the pure- unadulterated-80s-sounding-melt-in-your-mouth-sugary-delicious-synthpop-new-wave hybrid music that has been in heavy rotation on my iPod this decade:

Annie—“Chewing Gum” and “I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me” borrow the layered vocal styling of Bananarama with some super catchy electro pop hooks.

Berlin—Terri Nunn formed a new version of her 80s band, mostly for touring, but they’ve released some EPs and one album of new music this decade. The new lineup does a great job of tapping into some classic Berlin sounds with songs like “With a Touch” and “Shiny.”

Birthday Massacre—sort of like Book of Love with a touch of the harder sounds of this decade’s Evanescence. One of their CDs even has a spot-on cover version of Tiffany’s cover version of “I Think We’re Alone Now.”

Blaqk Audio—all-out synthpop reminiscent of early Depeche Mode.

Boytronic—this synthpop band’s fantastic music went unnoticed in the 80s, when the band went through two lineups. In this decade, members from each of the two original lineups have come together to reform and released a fantastic new synthpop album called Autotunes.

Tina Cousins—after a more euro trance debut album, this fantastic dance vocalist released Mastermind, a great electro pop album with cover versions of Ultravox’s “Hymn” and Black’s “Wonderful Life.

Dangerous Muse—One single so far. “Give Me Danger” is Depeche and Erasure-like and the duo is really cute.

Dragonette—electro pop perfection from beginning to end on their album Galore. New album due out this month!

Hilary Duff—while her album Dignity is loaded with the 80s feel, it’s her gem “Beat of My Heart” that reminds me of something in the style of bubblegum girl new wave like Altered Images.

Electric Lovers—only a few singles so far, but this male-female duo released something right out of the 80s with “Could This Be.” Video reminds me of Eurythmics.

Elegant Machinery—pure synthpop in the style of early 80s Depeche Mode.

The Epoxies—this band has studied some serious 80s music. My favorite is the track “Synthesized” which is like a mating of Berlin’s “Masquerade” and SSQ’s “Synthecide.”

Jenn Frederick—“I Shoulda Been Blonde” is a perfect slice of female synthpop that samples “Enola Gay” by OMD.

David Guetta—he’s had more recent dance pop success, but his album Guetta Blaster has two brilliant dead ringers for early 80s Depeche, “In Love with Myself” and “The World is Mine.”

HelloGoodbye—part pop punk, part synthrock, this band caught my attention with the infectious “Here (In Your Arms)”, 80s synthpop perfection with a classic 80s teen movie throwback video (including 80s short shorts!).

Paris Hilton—say what you will about her, she released a perfect pop album for girls and gays who just want to have fun. The only song I don’t like is the main single “The Stars Are Blind.” “Grease” is sampled in “I Want You,” but my favorite tracks are “Screwed,” “Not Leaving Without You,” and in particular, the Dave Aude remix of “Nothing in this World,” which, whether intentional or not, combines the synth line from The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” with the electronic bass of Anything Box’s “Living in Oblivion.”

Infernal—love, love, LOVE this euro dance duo. Their first album has an absolutely stunning cover version of Ultravox’s “Vienna,” and both of their albums are new wave synthpop throwbacks. They do a cover of Laura Branigan’s “Self Control” and their song “I Won’t Be Crying” samples Depeche Mode’s “Strangelove.”

Kill Hannah—“Crazy Angel” is a melodic synthrock gem, although most of their other stuff is harder on the album Until There’s Nothing Left of Us that it comes from. Their newest album Wake Up the Sleepers is much more synthrock.

Lasgo—they began this decade as a vocal euro trance act, but their second album, Far Away, is loaded with electro pop 80s throwbacks, including “Only You,” a song that steals the riff from Silver Pozolli’s 80s classic “Around My Dream,” a cover version of The Thompson Twin’s “Hold Me Now,” and “True,” a ‘new wave’ ballad that simply must be an homage to Camouflage’s “That Smiling Face.”

Blake Lewis—I mentioned this American Idol castoff in one of my other blogs, and I still insist his 80s throwback music is delicious.

Little Boots—a recent discovery, she is synthpop perfection, and even does a cover version of Freddie Mercury’s “Love Kills,” originally from Giorgio Moroder’s 1980s reworking of the silent film Metropolis. Plus, she duets to Human League-esque perfection with lead singer Phil Oakey on the track “Symmetry.”

Metro Station—Sure they’re super pop. But their entire debut album is like fun 80s synthdance with a taste of guitars.

Dannii Minogue—Kylie’s sister is even less known in the U.S. than Kylie, but she recorded a brilliant electro dance track in the earlier part of this decade called “I Begin to Wonder” that sounded so much like Dead or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round” that it was also released as a mash-up. Dannii’s music in general is awesome electro pop and so is sister Kylie’s last release, X.

The Modern/Matinee Club—somewhere along the line, this fantastic synthpop band changed their name to Matinee Club, but kept the 80s throwback perfection. Male/female vocals play off each other like Animotion! They also do a cover of Bowie’s “Modern Love.”

Morningwood—not succeeding in getting much radio attention, this duo has a great 80s throwback with their song “Nth Degree.”

Neuropa—these guys have been recording since the 90s. They know how to do everything right when it comes to synthpop in the style of Erasure.

Nouveau Riche—Love this electronic dance duo, who even do a cover of the Flirts “Calling All Boys”…sung by the male member of the group!

Bobby O—resurrected from the 80s, this mega producer releases his first album in years, with Outside the Inside. If you remember his sound, particularly that of The Flirts’ “(Don’t Put Another Dime in the) Jukebox,” you’ll love this album.

Kelly Osbourne—I’m not talking about her cover of Madonna’s “Papa Don’t Preach.” A few years later, she teamed up with 80s songwriter Linda Perry for the synthrock album Sleeping in the Nothing, which pretty much rips off one 80s song after another at every turn, and sounds very much like a cross between Berlin and Missing Persons. Standouts are the Visage “Fade to Grey” ripoff “One Word” and the Ministry “Effigy” ripoff “Entropy.” Also, the CD single of “One Word” has a near exact cover of the Human League’s “Sound of the Crowd.”

The Protocol—never got a full album from them, but they had a couple of singles, and the Bimbo Jones mix of their song “Where’s the Pleasure” reminds me of early “Planet Earth” Duran Duran.

Provision—this synthpop duo picks up the sounds that ended the 80s, like Red Flag and Anything Box. Fantastic.

James Roy—with one album and a couple of singles, this solo artist definitely studied his Depeche Mode and Erasure.

The Saturdays—this girl group first did a synthpop cover of Depeche Mode’s “Just Can’t Get Enough,” but their track “If This is Love” blows that one away, fully sampling Yazoo’s classic “Situation” and overlaying it with a new melody and lyrics.

September—everything from 70s disco to 90s house is emulated by this unapologetic dance artist. You’ll even find a sample of Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes” in one of her songs.

Shiny Toy Guns—after a lineup change, this band’s newest album is short on the synthrock tracks (although there are a few), but their first album is a gem. The singles “You Are the One” and “Rainy Monday” are 80s kickback perfection. They also do a great cover of Peter Schilling’s “Major Tom.”

Jessica Simpson—she dipped into 80s vibes with two tracks on her A Public Affair album. First, she does a hot alternate interpretation of the Dead or Alive classic “You Spin Me Round.”

The Sounds—Often compared to Blondie, this band has three great albums, with rocking hooks and just a taste of synths for that early 80s sound.

Britney Spears—the Japanese import version of her album Blackout has a bonus track called “Everybody” that meshes Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams” perfectly, including Annie Lennox’s vocals! Not to mention, the track “Heaven on Earth” is a fantastic synthpop dance track.

Gwen Stefani & No Doubt—this seems obvious, but some of their best ‘new wave’ inspired songs were not the hits. Check out Gwen’s “Danger Zone” and “Wonderful Life.”

Stefy—if you love 80s new wave bands with female vocals, you’ll love The Orange Album.

TheSTART—their synthpop album “Ciao, Baby” is 80s fun with vocals similar to Gwen Stefani.

TV Eyes—listen to their song “She’s a Study” and you’ll SWEAR you are listening to an actual 80s song.

Utada—this Asian artist’s song “Devil Inside” got a remix by Richard Vission that harkens back to hi-NRG Stock Aitken Waterman produced Dead or Alive.

The Veronicas—these Australian twins released a pop punk album first, but the Claude Le Gache dance remix of “4Ever” blew me away. For their second album, they went total synthrock. “Untouched” is phenomenal sexy female synthrock.

That list of synthpop artists aside, some of the best artists of this decade with an 80s alternative rock sound include:

The Bravery

Client (especially their dance remixes)

Cut Copy

The Editors (their dance mixes by Cicada)

The Faint

Friendly Fires

Galvatrons

Jupiter One

The Killers

Klaxons

La Roux

Ladyhawke

Moving Units

New Young Pony Club

The Presets

The Ting Tings

Van She

VHS or Beta (does it get any more 80s than a band name like that???).

Also, search out EVERYTHING remixed by Cicada, who seem to be going for a classic mellow U2 guitar sound with a dance beat on all their remixes.

And finally, after floundering in a sea of techno and grunge in the 90s, many 80s artists have finally refound their voices with great albums and remixes capturing the sounds they made famous in the 80s, including Bananarama, the B-52’s, Andy Bell of Erasure, Duran Duran, Heaven 17, Information Society, Cyndi Lauper, New Order, Pet Shop Boys, U2, and Kim Wilde.

So, if you’ve been longing for something new that sounds like classic new wave, this list is a pretty good place to start.