21 of the Best Movie Theme Songs of the ‘80s

Whatever happened to theme songs, man? When was the last time you remember a movie that wasn’t explicitly a musical having a theme song? Barbie had a pretty fun soundtrack, but you’d be hard-pressed to call any of its tracks the “theme,” and Ryan Gosling’s vocal demands technically make it a musical anyway. Lady Gaga did a song for Top Gun: Maverick, apparently? Does anyone remember that?

More importantly, does anyone remember it better than the music in the first Top Gun? That movie had not one, but two excellent theme songs, in addition to a memorable score. “I don’t think anything tops the ‘80s themes,” Redditor ECrispy told r/Movies recently. “For me, the undisputed number one is Harold Faltemeyer, for ‘Top Gun Anthem’ and the ‘Axel F’ theme. Either one of them would be enough to secure his place. These themes basically define the movies and their sequels and are instantly recognizable.” 

Those are instrumental themes, but they also acknowledged that, “a not quite very distant second, as Lt. Col. Frank Slade would say, is the Ghostbusters theme, which is also a song.”

They then asked, “What’s the most iconic ‘80s movie theme?” and their fellow Redditors provided quite a soundtrack in response.