G: If by “most ’80s” you mean songs that instantly summon the decade—not necessarily the biggest-selling songs, but the ones the internet has collectively turned into concentrated 1980s essence—I’d put these near the top:

1. a-ha — “Take On Me” (1985) — synth riff, huge chorus, iconic rotoscoped video. Almost comically concentrated ’80s.
2. Tears for Fears — “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” (1985) — glossy synth-pop production that now functions as shorthand for “it is 1985.”
3. Bon Jovi — “Livin’ on a Prayer” (1986) — hair, arena rock, talk box, enormous singalong chorus.
4. Cyndi Lauper — “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” (1983) — probably the purest version of the brightly colored MTV side of the decade.
5. Duran Duran — “Hungry Like the Wolf” (1982) — New Romantic fashion + synthesizers + MTV exotic-adventure video = extremely ’80s.
6. Michael Jackson — “Beat It” (1982/83) — pop, rock guitar, choreography and MTV all colliding at exactly the right historical moment.
7. The Human League — “Don’t You Want Me” (1981) — if somebody asks what early-’80s synth-pop sounded like, this is practically a demonstration recording.
8. Journey — “Don’t Stop Believin’” (1981) — arena rock that has somehow become even more culturally ubiquitous since the ’80s.
9. Whitney Houston — “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” (1987) — enormous vocals over bright, synthetic late-’80s pop production.
10. Rick Astley — “Never Gonna Give You Up” (1987) — even before the meme resurrection, that Stock Aitken Waterman production was almost laboratory-grade late ’80s.

If I had to reduce it to the five songs most likely to make someone say “Jesus Christ, this is the eighties” within ten seconds, I’d go:

Take On Me → Everybody Wants to Rule the World → Girls Just Want to Have Fun → Hungry Like the Wolf → Livin’ on a Prayer.

And notably, that is a somewhat different question from “the ten best songs of the ’80s.” Prince, Springsteen, U2, Madonna, Talking Heads, etc. become much harder to exclude from that list.

G: [Non-text content: thoughts; content_type=thoughts]

G: [Non-text content: reasoning_recap; content_type=reasoning_recap]

G: Ah—yes. “Most ’80s” movies, specifically weighted toward the fun cultural memory of the decade: exuberance, synths, teenagers with implausible freedom, shopping malls, practical effects, quotability, big concepts, excess, optimism, etc. I checked current retrospective lists and, more importantly, discussions where people were explicitly asked for the quintessentially ’80s movie rather than simply the best movie. There is a remarkably strong John Hughes consensus in those discussions. citeturn0reddit35turn0reddit40turn0reddit41

My synthesized top ten would be:

1. Back to the Future (1985) — probably #1 overall. DeLorean, Huey Lewis, skateboards, suburban California, teenage wish fulfillment, mad-scientist gadgetry, and an enormously cheerful Spielberg-era blockbuster sensibility. It even lets the '80s compare itself favorably with the '50s. Multiple “quintessential ’80s” discussions independently land on it. citeturn0reddit36turn0reddit40

2. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) — If Back to the Future is the decade's fantasy, this may be the decade's attitude. Wealthy suburbia, synths, art, sports cars, enormous adolescent autonomy, breaking rules without meaningful consequences, and a parade spontaneously forming around you because you're that goddamned charming. It repeatedly comes up as the quintessential '80s film. citeturn0reddit35turn0reddit40

3. Ghostbusters (1984) — Possibly the purest example of the weird thing Hollywood could do then: take four comedians, ghosts, New York, a gigantic marshmallow man, an effects budget and an extremely catchy pop song—and somehow produce a mainstream blockbuster rather than a niche comedy.

4. The Goonies (1985) — The childhood version of the '80s. Bikes, unsupervised kids, suburban development, pirate treasure, elaborate practical sets, slightly dangerous adventure, and adults apparently accepting that children will disappear for an entire day. It remains a recurring nostalgia pick. citeturn0reddit35turn0search7

5. Top Gun (1986) — The glossy adult fantasy of the '80s. Fighter jets, motorcycles, aviators, volleyball, synthesizers, Kenny Loggins and an almost preposterous confidence that being extremely cool constitutes a coherent personality.

6. Beverly Hills Cop (1984) — Eddie Murphy at full strength, synth soundtrack, California conspicuous consumption, action-comedy and a protagonist who succeeds largely because he's smarter, faster and more charismatic than everybody attempting to stop him. It also represents an enormous piece of '80s entertainment that a Hughes-heavy list otherwise misses.

7. The Breakfast Club (1985) — Less carefree than the others, but almost impossible to omit because John Hughes's teenager essentially became the remembered American teenager of the 1980s. Current retrospectives still treat Hughes's teen movies as one of the decade's defining cinematic developments. citeturn0search5turn0search8

8. Dirty Dancing (1987) — Oddly, it's set in 1963, but culturally it belongs completely to 1987: Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey, gigantic soundtrack, dance-as-liberation, romance and one of the decade's great crowd-pleasing endings. It's still routinely singled out as an iconic '80s rewatch. citeturn0news33

9. Big Trouble in Little China (1986) — This is where we get into “they really don't make movies like this anymore.” Martial arts + supernatural fantasy + action + comedy + Kurt Russell playing a hero who doesn't quite realize he's actually the sidekick. It comes up constantly when people ask for concentrated '80s movie flavor. citeturn0reddit42turn0reddit44turn0reddit45

10. The Princess Bride (1987) — Visually it doesn't scream 1980s because it's a fairy tale, but spiritually it's right there: sincere and ironic simultaneously, endlessly quotable, romantic without becoming syrupy, adventurous without becoming grim. It remains one of the decade's canonical crowd-pleasers. citeturn0news33turn0search5

But if we're doing the same exercise as the songs…

Meaning five movies you show somebody to communicate “the entertaining cultural memory of the 1980s”, rather than five greatest films made between 1980–89:

Back to the Future
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Ghostbusters
The Goonies
Top Gun

That's a hell of a time capsule.

And I think your qualification about “not necessarily the depressing bits” materially changes the result. A straight best-of-the-'80s internet aggregation starts dragging in Raging Bull, Blade Runner, The Shining, Platoon, Scarface, Blue Velvet, etc. Rotten Tomatoes explicitly distinguishes some of those critically important/cult films from the mainstream cultural experience. citeturn0search1turn0search4

They're excellent movies. But they aren't what somebody means when they says “I want to spend two hours in the fun version of the Eighties.” For that, the five above are awfully hard to beat.

G: [Non-text content: thoughts; content_type=thoughts]

G: [Non-text content: reasoning_recap; content_type=reasoning_recap]

G: Yes. If we allow the darkness back in, I think the list gets more interesting and actually more representative of the decade. The bright version of the ’80s is only half of its cinematic personality. The other half is corporate greed, Cold War dread, urban decay, alienation, cocaine, consumerism, nuclear anxiety, and the suspicion that all the shiny new stuff might be covering something rotten.

That distinction shows up in retrospective lists too: alongside the blockbusters, films like Blade Runner, Blue Velvet, The Thing, Scarface, and Heathers repeatedly appear as defining works of the decade. citeturn0search0turn0search2turn0search3

So if the question becomes:

What 10 movies most completely communicate what the cultural imagination of the 1980s was like—good, bad, exciting, frightening and ridiculous?

I'd change the list to:

1. Back to the Future (1985) — Still #1. It's almost the decade's self-portrait: consumer technology, suburban prosperity, teenagers, MTV music, nostalgia, optimism and the belief that if you seize control of your own destiny, you'll end up with a nicer house and a Toyota pickup.

2. Blade Runner (1982) — The dark technological ’80s. Corporations bigger than governments, omnipresent advertising, Asian economic influence, artificial humanity, environmental degradation, neon everywhere. Remarkably, it wasn't a hit originally; its later cult growth turned it into a pop-cultural cornerstone. citeturn0search0

3. The Breakfast Club (1985) — I'd actually move this up now. Ferris represents the fantasy of being an '80s teenager; Breakfast Club represents the anxiety underneath it—social tribes, parental expectations, pressure to succeed, loneliness and the desperate importance of peer acceptance. Contemporary retrospectives still single it out as integral to the decade. citeturn0search1

4. Wall Street (1987) — This becomes nearly mandatory once we're allowing the unpleasant parts. Yuppies, finance, conspicuous wealth and the strange moment when a movie condemning greed accidentally gave ambitious young men an icon in Gordon Gekko. The '80s association between yuppie culture, money and consumerism is historically quite real. citeturn0search4turn0search7

5. Top Gun (1986) — The triumphant Reagan-era counterpart to Wall Street: American confidence, military hardware rendered sexy, individual excellence, competition, Ray-Bans, motorcycles, synths and Kenny Loggins. You could practically teach a seminar on the decade from the beach-volleyball scene alone.

6. Ghostbusters (1984) — Because the list needs the decade's extraordinary ability to make something utterly insane into mainstream mass entertainment. It's also surprisingly '80s economically: four guys respond to being fired by starting a small business, advertising it aggressively and monetizing the supernatural.

7. Scarface (1983) — Now this belongs. Cocaine, Miami, immigration, organized crime, grotesque displays of wealth and the pursuit of the American Dream mutating into pathological acquisition. Like Wall Street, its cautionary protagonist became an aspirational cultural icon—which itself tells you something fascinating about the decade. Scarface likewise grew enormously in stature after its original release. citeturn0search0

8. Die Hard (1988) — The late-'80s action movie almost perfected: corporate skyscraper, Japanese multinational ownership, expensive suits, cocaine-snorting executive, terrorism, consumer luxury—and an ordinary blue-collar American running barefoot through all of it blowing shit up. Retrospectives routinely put it among the decade-defining blockbusters. citeturn0search1turn0search4

9. Heathers (1988) — This replaces The Goonies for me once darkness is permitted. It's essentially the decade beginning to satirize its own teen-movie mythology: popularity, consumer culture, teenage conformity, adults who understand absolutely nothing, suicide, cruelty—and enormous shoulder pads. It's routinely identified as one of the decade's defining cynical cult movies. citeturn0search0

10. Blue Velvet (1986) — And this completes the picture. Perfect American suburbia on top; violence, sexual pathology and corruption underneath. Time Out rather nicely describes it as the Reagan-era nightmare beneath white-picket suburbia. citeturn0search2

And that produces a really neat 5 + 5

If somebody wanted a ten-film crash course in the cultural mythology of the American '80s, I'd almost deliberately divide it:

And I actually like that list substantially better than my previous one.

Because there's an interesting through-line: the bright and dark '80s movies are frequently talking about the same things.

Money. Status. Technology. Individualism. Consumer goods. American power. Reinvention. Getting out from underneath authority.

The happy movies say, "Look what you could become."

The darker movies ask, "Okay—but what happens if everybody actually believes that?"

That's much closer to the full cinematic personality of the decade than simply neon + synthesizers + teenagers having a fantastic time. History's overview makes essentially the same broad distinction: the decade really did produce an extraordinary run of lighthearted blockbusters while simultaneously producing filmmakers such as Lynch and Scorsese making much darker examinations of the culture around them. citeturn0search4