‘Wonder Woman 1984’ ‘80s Songs

Dec 26

Written By Lu

‘80s Music in ‘Wonder Woman 1984’

The new Wonder Woman movie is out and as an ‘80s girl I was excited to see what songs they featured and how they addressed the music of that era. While the movie embraces leg warmers, fanny packs and bright shirts with the collar up, from a tunes perspective, it was a disappointment.

Spoilers about “Wonder Woman 1984” below.

New Wonder Woman Movie Set in the ‘80s

I was hopeful that the movie would have an awesome soundtrack when an earlier trailer featured New Order. Also, the movie has the year in the title, how can it not have ‘80s music in it? Seemed obvious.

It’s a tricky balance when it comes to ‘80s music, I didn’t want it to be Valley Girl (2020) with song after song crammed into a story and obvious ‘80s moments like a character named Mickey (so they could sing…you guessed it, “Oh Mickey”). But with Cobra Kai’s ability to subtly play the ‘80s for nostalgia (check out those moments here), it was disheartening to see where “Wonder Woman” went with the me decade.

Did You Hear These ‘80s Songs?

When Diana Prince goes to a big party you can faintly hear “Welcome to the Pleasuredome” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

But then that’s all I noticed.

Admittedly, the movie wasn’t holding my interest, so it’s possible I just didn’t hear a song. I waited for the end credits and paused the screen: let’s see which ‘80s songs I missed during the movie.

These are the song credits at the end of “Wonder Woman 1984:”

“Welcome to the Pleasuredome,” Frankie Goes to Hollywood

“M.E.,” Gary Numan

Mozart song

Classical song

“I Won’t Leave You,” Clinton Shorter (was in another movie as well, “Pompei”)

“Cars” Music Video, Gary Newman (misspelled in the final credits)

“Rio,” Duran Duran

(Additionally there is a Hans Zimmer score)

THAT’S IT! For a 2 1/2 hour film called “Wonder Woman 1984” there are 4 ‘80s songs.

Why Are There Few ‘80s Songs in the New Wonder Woman?

The producers embraced part of the ‘80s to help create the Steve Trevor fish-out-of-water storyline (he is surprised by planes, art, clothing, food) but then ditched the awesome thing about the decade: the music. Sure there are some stinkers in the era, but The Cure, New Order, U2, Madonna, Prince added to the movie would’ve been epic. I’m beginning to think the producers just wanted some ‘Steve marvels at eating Pop Tarts’ type of scenes and just picked the ‘80s. They had no intention of honoring the decade at all, they just need some way to make Steve seem out of sorts in a different world.