The Greatest Songs of the 80's

I usually ignore "Greatest of" lists because I tend to find them to be very self-selective. The basis for the rankings on these lists tend to be as subjective as, "Well, this is what I like." But half the people voting will have no idea what they're in fact voting for. I lived through the 80's and, quite frankly, I'd have a hard time coming up with a personal list of the greatest songs from that decade, but if I did, I guarantee you that it would look remarkably different than a list of songs generated by someone half my age. So, it was with some reservations that I flipped on this special on VH1 the other day to watch.

I happened to catch the top 13 songs (out of 100) and I couldn't disagree with any of the songs being on the list - but in the top 13? Maybe only a couple of them belonged there. Tops. And there were some definite omissions (presumably they ranked lower in the top 100).

I remember watching lists like this from earlier time periods and invariably the greatest song of the 1980's would ALWAYS be Thriller. This time it was Living on a Prayer from Bon Jovi. It got me to thinking about the nature of these kinds of polls and how we are influenced by current events into how we think about the past.

Clearly Jon Bon Jovi is still a very vibrant and sexy singer to most of his fans. Does this play into the fact that Living on a Prayer is now the #1 song versus Thriller - from a guy who has most recently been linked with alleged child molestation? Surely that was a factor in most people's decision to vote. One interesting fact given on the VH1 show was about the Journey song, "Don't Stop Believing" that was in the Top 5. They noted that the song set a record for Amazon downloads after it aired as part of the soundtrack for Laguna Beach. Did that have an effect on it being in the top 5?

Now, I don't want to sound bitter. As I said above, I doubt I could come up with a list myself and quite frankly, I don't care where songs rank on a hypothetical list. I know what I like and to heck with the rest of you. But I was wondering why we constantly feel the need to come up with these lists?

Culture seems so intent on justifying itself and we seem intent on justifying our beliefs in our culture that these lists keep appearing for everything. Its not enough to read a book and like it; we seem obsessed with making sure that others like it as well - as if our opinion on matters isn't important if it doesn't have the backing of millions of anonymous people as well.

But we humans have been at this justification game for a long time, asking questions to certify that we are on the right path with the right opinions and the right decisions. Even Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment.

He answered that the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, mind and soul. And the second was like the first, to love your neighbor as yourself. That in these commandments was the law and the prophets - meaning everything that God had been trying to tell them for years.

Here is God's answer to our need for Greatest lists - its simple, "Love God and love everyone else." God's answer to the greatest songs of the 80's - He loves all the musicians equally. God's answer to the greatest novels of the 20th century - He loves all the writers equally. God's answer to the greatest philosophers of all time - He loves them all equally. Every single one of us is precious in God's sight and every time we love God or love one another, God approves. Everything else is either a variation on that, or its not. God doesn't need 100 top commandments, He only has two.