{"id":797789,"date":"2026-08-01T17:41:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T17:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/797789\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T17:41:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T17:41:12","slug":"4-of-the-best-rock-songs-turning-40-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/797789\/","title":{"rendered":"4 of the Best Rock Songs Turning 40 This Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

You know a 1986 rock song when you hear it. The vocal deliveries and lyrical content are equally intense and dramatic. The guitars are loud, and the synthesizers are louder. Most importantly, every single snare seems to have been dropped into the bottom of a cavernous well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was a beautiful time in rock \u2018n\u2019 roll history, and it produced some of the best contributions of all time to the rock canon. Indeed, 1986 is the birth year of some of our favorite rock songs, including these four.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tVideos by American Songwriter\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cAddicted To Love\u201d by Robert Palmer<\/p>\n

\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Play\"\/<\/p>\n

English rock singer Robert Palmer released \u201cAddicted To Love\u201d<\/a> in 1986, and both the song and accompanying music video have become quintessential symbols of the 1980s. The song is catchy in a sinister way, hiding dark, almost dystopian undertones that are reflected in the stone-faced models in Palmer\u2019s music video. Few rock songs can say their music video is as ubiquitous as the track itself, but Palmer\u2019s 1986 rock hit is among those that can.<\/p>\n

\u201cShot In The Dark\u201d by Ozzy Osbourne<\/p>\n

\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Play\"\/<\/p>\n

Ozzy Osbourne<\/a> was well into his post-Black Sabbath solo career in the mid-1980s, and he was producing some certified bangers. \u201cShot In The Dark\u201d closed out his fourth solo album, The Ultimate Sin. The song is classic 1980s Ozzy: intense and dark, with just enough melodic qualities to keep it mainstream-sensible. \u201cShot In The Dark\u201d marked a career milestone for Osbourne as his first single ever to chart on the Billboard Hot 100.<\/p>\n

\u201cSledgehammer\u201d by Peter Gabriel<\/p>\n

\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Play\"\/<\/p>\n

It was hard to go anywhere in 1986 without hearing Peter Gabriel\u2019s smash hit \u201cSledgehammer\u201d<\/a>. The song topped the charts in the United States and hit the Top 5 around the world, including Gabriel\u2019s native United Kingdom and throughout Europe. \u201cSledgehammer\u201d was another 1986 rock hit with a beloved music video, practically sweeping the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards for Video of the Year, Best Male Video, Best Concept Video, and Most Experimental Video, among others.<\/p>\n

\u201cLivin\u2019 On A Prayer\u201d by Bon Jovi<\/p>\n

\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Play\"\/<\/p>\n

Finally, any conversation about 1980s rock \u2018n\u2019 roll is incomplete without mention of Bon Jovi. This New Jersey band came to define that dramatic, theatrical kind of glam rock that dominated the 80s scene. \u201cLivin\u2019 On A Prayer\u201d<\/a> came out in the fall of 1986, cementing its place in the rock \u2018n\u2019 roll canon when it became the band\u2019s second consecutive No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, which was preceded by \u201cYou Give Love A Bad Name\u201d.<\/p>\n

Photo by Paul Natkin\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You know a 1986 rock song when you hear it. The vocal deliveries and lyrical content are equally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[20278,88,216,2156],"class_list":["post-797789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1980s","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-rock-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}