Photos of What It Meant to Be a 1980s Pop Star

Different times

October 03, 2025 Add Cracked to Google

If you think about pop music today, you probably have a concept of what a pop star should look like, by modern standards. But pop music in the eighties wasn't at all like today's pop landscape. There wasn't a standardized way to present yourself as a pop sensation, and new sounds were appearing out of nowhere every other week, constantly changing what people were listening to back in the day.

Pop stars could dress in flashy colors and wear clothes no one else would, or they could just wear a suit and leave all the aesthetic heavy lifting to the hair. There were no rules as long as you could dance to the music, and the artists who changed the world thrived in that context. And we were all here for it.

So, here are some photos of what it meant to be a 1980s pop star, big, small, or extremely groundbreaking.

Whitney Houston

She got seven consecutive number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. And that hair.

Tears For Fears

They got the name from a Psychology book called Prisoners of Pain. There should be a band called Prisoners of Pain out here somewhere.

Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson was so big that he was recently crowned as the highest-paid dead celebrity of 2025 by Forbes.

Rick Astley

That hair kept him at the top during the '80s, but the internet gave him a new purpose that changed his legacy forever.

Prince

Considered the best guitar player of all time, he merged rock with pop and other genres to revolutionize music forever. However, he was so jealous of Michael Jackson that it hurt.

Pet Shop Boys

Neil Tennant was still working as a journalist when he started the band, and interviewing The Police gave him the chance to meet their future producer, Bobby Orlando.

Janet Jackson

It wasn't easy being Michael Jackson's sister, but Janet got seven Top 5 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, making her the only artist ever to achieve this from a single album.

George Michael

Pretty hard not to be a star looking like that, really. But, just in case, he composed Careless Whisper when he was 17, when he was riding the bus to his job at a cinema.

Elton John

He was already a big star with a unique career in the 80s, but he kept going and trying new outfits just for the love of the game.

Tina Turner and David Bowie

With the odds and the public opinion against her, Tina Turner released her Private Dancer album in her forties, breathing new life into her already amazing career. And David Bowie couldn't stand still, so he was still finding new sounds and collaborating with other great artists around him.

Cyndi Lauper

An icon that defied all aesthetics and gifted the world with Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

Culture Club

They almost cut their song Karma Chameleon from the album because they thought it sounded too much like a country song. History would have been very different if they had.

Billy Idol

Blonde hair, leather outfits, and catchy, sensual songs were all it took to make a star that knew no bounds. His name comes from a school report that described him, “Billy is idle.”

A-ha

The singer, Morten Harket, holds a record for the longest note held in a UK Top 40 pop song for Summer Moved On at 20.2 seconds.

The Human League

The women joined after Philip Oakey saw two women dancing in a nightclub and invited them to the band, creating a powerful vocal dynamic that set their songs apart.

Lionel Richie

He was the moment in the 80s and was responsible for the charity song We Are the World. He co-wrote it with Michael Jackson and recorded it alongside dozens of artists under producer Quincy Jones.

Eurythmics

Their hit Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) was originally going to be a slow song about struggles and band breakups, but the decision to change the tone changed their careers.

Duran Duran

They were responsible for making the ‘80s look like the ’80s, and they took the name of the villain from Barbarella, Dr. Durand Durand, for their band.