This is the best solution to the prisoner's dilemma I've seen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0qjK3TWZE8

Ah Mr. Cobb, Sir, a provocative post to say the least! First, kudos to you - this is not an easy exercise. And three observations, and then on my picks: 1. What was the weighting you used (since combined < > 80sish + Personal)? It looks like your weight for 80sish is higher than Personal, I'd probably have it the other way around since these are your favorites. 2. Instead of the Billboard 100, I would have looked at the (official) UK Singles chart http://www.theofficialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1980/ But that's probably because I leaned a bit more Alternative or post-punk than New Wave, perhaps on the cusp, with short-lived bouts of disco-curious. 3. Have you listened to Nouvelle Vague (a french group doing covers of 80's new wave - here's the definition of French cool in their video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekQZPozjCX8 ) - I got to see them in San Fran in Feb.…great show! Many of your picks are currently on my iTunes "Really Stuck in the 80's" Playlist (except for Dexy's Midnight Runners, Shannon, Sheila E, Kenny Loggins, Billy Joel, and a few others) Coming up with my list was too hard. I had to resort to bands with sample tracks, rather than favorite songs, and I had to stop at 16 or could have spent a day or two on this: Altered Images (I could be happy) Echo & the Bunnymen (A Promise) B-52's (Private idaho) Cult (She Sells Sanctuary) Pretenders (Brass in Pocket) Madness (One Step Beyond) The Cure (Caterpillar) Tons of Joy Division & New Order (Love will tear us apart, Ceremony) Depeche Mode (It doesn't matter) Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (talking loud and clear) Haircut 100 The The (perfect) Pixies (Where is my mind) Public Image Ltd. (Rise) Siouxsie and the Banshees (Happy House) The Smiths (How Soon Is Now) Talking Heads (Crosseyed and Painless) And I compiled this list for a friend a while back (she wanted to get unstuck from the 80's) - so these appeal to my 80's sensibilities and are really really good (the first part of the list is entirely Canadian new music which I also really dig): Broken Social Scene ('Swimmers) Caribou ("Melody Day") Faunts ('Parler de la pluie et du beau temps') Feist (maybe you've heard '1234') Great Lake Swimmers ("See you on the moon" is fun) Holy F**k ('Lovely Allen' or 'Royal Gregory') Hot Hot Heat ( 'Middle of Nowhere') Immaculate Machine ("Jarhand" and "Broken Boat" ) The New Pornographers (from Vancouver, try 'My Rights vs. yours' really good!) Plants and Animals (the whole Parc Avenue album is good, esp. 'Feedback in the Field' and 'New Kind of Love) Plaster (from Montreal, try 'Would You..?') Shout Out Out Out ('Forever Indebted') Stars (lovely 'Elevator Love Letter' and 'Take Me to the Riot', wow!) Sunparlour Players ('If the creeks don't rise') Wolf Parade ('Shine a light') Arcade Fire (they are making it big in the states now) And some non-Canadian bands I'm a diggin' - Editors - Elbow - The Mountain Goats - Death Cab for Cutie - The Flaming Lips - Kings of Leon - Jason Crigler ('Different Clothes,' 'Books on the shelf,' amazing story) - Headlights ('everybody needs a fence to lean on') - Yeah Yeah Yeahs ('way out') - Yo La Tengo - Ladytron - Camera Obscura - Bloc Party ('signs') - Pinback ('it's good to see you') - Shout Out Louds (esp. 'Very Loud' and 'Tonight I have to leave it') - Styrofoam (try 'Snow Crush Killing Song'…I know, right?) - Sigur Ros (iceland, very groovy, maybe acquired, it's hard to pick just one, try 'Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur') - Silversun Pickups (at least 'Lazy Eye') - Stellastarr* - Stereolab, try 'Lo Boob Oscillator' c'est formidable. Cheers, -Ron