If you want to understand why pop music looks the way it does now, you have to look at 1989. It was a chaotic mess. Honestly, the 1989 billboard top 100 reads like a fever dream where hair metal, freestyle dance, sociopolitical rap, and aging classic rockers all crashed into the same party and nobody knew who was in charge.
It was a pivot point. The 80s were dying, but the 90s hadn't quite figured out how to start yet.
You had Milli Vanilli topping the charts before the world knew they weren't actually singing. Paula Abdul was a juggernaut. Meanwhile, Public Enemy was "Fighting the Power" and Bobby Brown was making everyone learn how to dance to "Every Little Step." If you look at the year-end chart, the number one song wasn't even a pop song in the traditional sense. It was "Look Away" by Chicago. Think about that for a second. A power ballad by a band that started in the 60s beat out Madonna and Prince.
The Year of the "New Jack" Revolution
Music changed because of Teddy Riley. You can't talk about the 1989 billboard top 100 without talking about New Jack Swing. It was that specific, jerky, hip-hop-meets-R&B sound that defined the late 80s. Bobby Brown's Don't Be Cruel album was everywhere. It was inescapable. "On Our Own" from the Ghostbusters II soundtrack was a massive hit that year, sitting high on the year-end list.
It felt fresh. It felt like the streets were finally taking over the top 40 in a way that radio programmers couldn't ignore anymore.
But it wasn't just Bobby. Janet Jackson dropped Rhythm Nation 1814 in late '89, and while many of its singles peaked in 1990, the title track and "Miss You Much" were absolute monsters on the 1989 charts. "Miss You Much" actually ended up as the number five song of the entire year. Janet wasn't just Michael’s sister anymore; she was an architect of a new industrial-pop sound.
Pop Princesses and the End of the Mall Era
Tiffany and Debbie Gibson were starting to fade, but they paved the way for a new kind of polished pop star. Paula Abdul was the queen of 1989. She had three number-one hits that year: "Straight Up," "Forever Your Girl," and "Cold Hearted." People forget how big she was. She was a choreographer first, and you could see it in the music videos. That was the era of the "video star." If you couldn't dance on MTV, you basically didn't exist.
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Then there was Madonna.
"Like a Prayer" was released in 1989, and the controversy was nuclear. Pepsi dropped her. The Vatican condemned her. And yet, the song is arguably one of the greatest pop records ever made. It sits at number 25 on the year-end 1989 billboard top 100, which is actually lower than you’d expect, mostly because it was such a massive burst of energy that burned hot and fast in the spring.
The Milli Vanilli Asterisk
We have to talk about the elephant in the room. Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan.
Milli Vanilli had three number-one singles in 1989: "Baby Don't Forget My Number," "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You," and "Blame It on the Rain." Their album Girl You Know It's True was a behemoth. Looking back at the chart now, it feels strange. You're seeing names on a list for performances that—well—weren't theirs. It was the peak of the "image over substance" era that the 90s would eventually rebel against with grunge. But in '89? We were all buying it.
Rock Was Having an Identity Crisis
Hair metal was still huge, but it was getting softer. The songs on the 1989 billboard top 100 from the "rock" world were mostly ballads.
- Poison had "Every Rose Has Its Thorn."
- Warrant gave us "Heaven."
- Skid Row brought "18 and Life."
These weren't the aggressive anthems of the early 80s. They were slow-dance songs for prom. Even Mötley Crüe went more melodic with "Dr. Feelgood." The genre was bloating. It was becoming a caricature of itself, which is exactly why Nirvana was able to blow the doors off the hinges just two years later.
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But then you had the "old guard." The Rolling Stones came back with "Mixed Emotions." Tom Petty released Full Moon Fever, giving us "Free Fallin'" and "I Won't Back Down." It was a weird time where your dad's favorite bands were competing for chart space with Tone Lōc.
Speaking of Tone Lōc, "Wild Thing" was the number four song of the year. It was a massive moment for rap's commercial viability. It used a Van Halen sample and turned it into a pop-culture phenomenon. Along with Young MC’s "Bust a Move," it proved that hip-hop could be "fun" and "safe" enough for suburban radio, even while Public Enemy was doing the heavy lifting for the genre's soul.
Why the Top 10 Percent Matters More Than the Rest
When you look at the bottom half of the 1989 billboard top 100, you see a lot of "one-hit wonders" and songs that haven't aged well. Does anyone regularly blast "The Living Years" by Mike + The Mechanics anymore? Probably not, unless they're in a specific mood. But that song was the number six hit of the year.
The year was heavy on sentimentality.
"Wind Beneath My Wings" by Bette Midler (Number 7) and "Right Here Waiting" by Richard Marx (Number 11) dominated the airwaves. It was a year of big emotions. If a song wasn't making you dance till you sweated through your neon shirt, it was trying to make you cry about your long-lost friend or your dad.
The Technological Shift in Tracking Hits
1989 was one of the last years before SoundScan changed everything. Back then, Billboard compiled the charts by calling record stores and asking what was selling. It was... subjective. Clerks would sometimes just report what they thought should be selling or what they wanted to promote.
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This is why the 1989 billboard top 100 feels a bit "glossy." Once SoundScan (actual barcode data) was implemented in 1991, we realized that country music and heavy rap were much more popular than the "phone-in" charts suggested. In 1989, the chart was a reflection of what the industry wanted us to hear as much as what we were actually buying.
The Forgotten Gems of '89
While the top of the chart was crowded with Chicago and Richard Marx, some of the most influential music of the year was bubbling just under or sitting in the middle of the pack.
- The Cure - "Lovesong" made it to number two on the weekly charts and showed up on the year-end list. Goth was hitting the mainstream.
- The B-52's - "Love Shack" was a massive comeback. It brought 60s kitsch into the late 80s and somehow made it work.
- Neneh Cherry - "Buffalo Stance" was years ahead of its time. It blended fashion, attitude, and a proto-trip-hop beat that still sounds fresh today.
How to Use This Knowledge Today
If you’re a songwriter, producer, or just a music nerd, 1989 is a masterclass in "transition." It shows how a genre reaches its peak saturation (hair metal/synth-pop) and how the "next big thing" (New Jack Swing/Alternative) starts to leak through the cracks.
Actionable Steps for Music Fans and Historians:
- Listen Beyond the Top 10: If you only listen to the top 10 of the 1989 billboard top 100, you’ll think it was a year of slow ballads. Dig into numbers 40 through 80. That’s where you’ll find the Depeche Mode, the Tears for Fears (The Seeds of Love), and the early signs of the 90s.
- Study the Production: Listen to the drum machines. 1989 was the year the Roland TR-808 and the LinnDrum started to be processed in ways that sound "modern."
- Watch the Videos: To understand why "Cold Hearted" or "Straight Up" were hits, you have to see the visual component. 1989 was arguably the peak of MTV's power to dictate what a "hit" looked like.
- Compare to 1992: Take the 1989 year-end list and put it next to 1992. The shift is jarring. It is one of the fastest evolutions in musical history, and 1989 was the starting line for that change.
The 1989 billboard top 100 isn't just a list of songs; it’s a time capsule of a world that was about to change forever. The Berlin Wall fell that year. The 80s were over. And the music was trying, desperately, to figure out what was coming next.