I’ve spent a lifetime chasing songs — from smoke-filled clubs to cavernous arenas where the lights go down and something close to magic hangs in the air. The 1980s were a special time to be doing that. Music back then wasn’t afraid of emotion. Songs were dramatic, romantic, vulnerable, and unapologetically big.
Power ballads ruled the airwaves. FM radio was king. And singers weren’t scared to let their voices crack if the moment demanded it.
That’s why, when I first heard Benson Boone, I felt something familiar.
Not nostalgia — recognition.
Boone isn’t trying to recreate the ’80s. He’s doing something rarer: writing songs that carry the emotional DNA of that era. The kind of tracks that once lived between Journey, Bryan Adams, early U2, and those late-night radio hours when heartbreak sounded poetic instead of disposable.
Here are three Benson Boone songs that would have been massive hits in the 1980s — not because of production tricks, but because they understand how feelings used to be allowed to breathe.
1. “Beautiful Things” — A Classic 80s Arena Ballad in Spirit
The first rule of an ’80s power ballad was simple:
start small — then open the sky.
“Beautiful Things” follows that blueprint perfectly.
The song begins with restraint, almost like it’s gathering courage. Then the chorus arrives with emotional force, not as spectacle, but as release. That dynamic contrast — quiet verses giving way to soaring emotion — defined countless rock ballads of the decade.
Think Foreigner. Think Bryan Adams. Think that moment when the entire arena raises their hands without being asked.
Lyrically, the song taps into a fear the ’80s explored endlessly: the terror of loving something so much you’re afraid of losing it. Gratitude mixed with anxiety. Hope shadowed by uncertainty.
Back then, these themes dominated radio because people were living them.
If “Beautiful Things” had landed in 1986, it would’ve been on constant FM rotation — the kind of song you hear while driving at night, windows down, thinking about everything you haven’t said yet.
It’s an arena song without ego. Emotional without melodrama. And timeless in the way only great ballads ever are.
2. “Ghost Town” — Moody 80s Pop-Rock at Its Finest
The 1980s mastered a very specific emotional tone: atmospheric loneliness.
Not devastation — absence.
“Ghost Town” lives comfortably in that tradition.
This song feels like walking through empty streets after midnight, neon lights humming while something important lingers just out of reach. That sense of emotional space — of silence being as powerful as sound — defined much of the decade’s most enduring music.
The production feels open. The melody floats. Boone doesn’t over-sing — he inhabits the emotion.
That restraint would have made this song a late-night radio staple in 1984 or 1985, played by DJs who spoke softly before introducing it.
“Ghost Town” echoes the spirit of artists like Don Henley, early Tears for Fears, and mid-era U2 — music that trusted listeners to feel rather than be told what to feel.
In the ’80s, this would’ve been the song people associated with specific memories: a breakup, a move, a moment when life quietly changed direction.
Those are the songs that last.
3. “In the Stars” — The Kind of Power Ballad the 80s Did Best
Every era has its emotional centerpiece.
For the 1980s, it was the power ballad — especially the ones rooted in loss.
“In the Stars” belongs squarely in that lineage.
This is not a song about heartbreak as drama. It’s grief as reality. And that honesty would have hit hard in a decade that embraced emotional sincerity in pop music.
The melody swells naturally, the arrangement giving Boone space to let the emotion guide the performance rather than overpower it. His voice trembles just enough to feel human — something the best singers of the ’80s understood instinctively.
Back then, songs like this weren’t rushed. They were allowed to sit. To ache.
“In the Stars” would have been the track playing during a movie’s end credits in 1988 — lights still down, audience quiet, nobody quite ready to stand up yet.
That’s the mark of a real ballad.
Not tears — reflection.
Why Benson Boone Feels Timeless Instead of Trendy
What separates Benson Boone from much of modern pop is his willingness to be sincere.
The 1980s didn’t fear big emotion. Songs weren’t ironic. They weren’t self-protective. They believed — unapologetically — that music could help people survive difficult moments.
Boone writes from that same place.
He doesn’t chase nostalgia. He doesn’t mimic synth tones or drum machines. Instead, he channels what made the decade powerful: emotional honesty, strong melodies, and vocals that sound like someone trying to tell the truth.
That’s why these songs feel like they could exist in any era.
If Benson Boone had emerged in the 1980s, these tracks wouldn’t have been novelty hits. They would’ve been slow-burn classics — songs rediscovered years later and spoken about with quiet reverence.
The kind people say, “They don’t make them like that anymore.”
Sometimes, though, they still do.
You just have to listen closely.
