The entirety of the eighties feel like they existed under the supreme rule of Madonna, but even in 1985 she still hadn't achieved full dominance. The same year she released her signature song and first number one, "Like a Virgin", she was still willing to sing back ups with The Thompson Twins at Live Aid and was deemed unworthy of the ghastly "We Are the World" (Lionel Richie or Quincy Jones or whoever apparently felt that Cyndi Lauper fulfilled the female-pop star quota). She also surprised many when she was deemed worthy of the cover of People Magazine, including the photographer of that shoot, who initially mistook her for a prostitute.
Judged solely on the
quality of its music, 1984 wasn’t necessarily the best year of the eighties. It
did have an unusually high number of blockbuster releases. While 1982 could
claim Thriller, and 1983 had Synchronicity, An Innocent Man, and Pyromania, 1984 was the year of such single-spewing juggernauts as
the Footloose soundtrack, Born in the U.S.A., Eliminator, Sports, Can’t Slow Down, Like a
Virgin, Private Dancer, She’s So Unusual, Purple Rain, and yes, 1984.
So you can’t fault Michaelangelo Matos for making the year the subject of his
new book Can’t Slow Down: How 1984 Became
Pop’s Blockbuster Year.
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