Can Hollywood Still Write Hit Songs?

Or is TikTok where 21st century cinema lives?

The publication of my debut book Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves is fast approaching. As previously noted, it’s a data-driven history of popular music covering the period from 1958 to 2025. But what’s also fun is that at the end of each chapter, I include a blurb about the best and worst songs from each era. Here, for example, is what I wrote about Michael Damian’s “Rock On,” one of the worst number one hits of the late 1980s:

It feels like soap opera star Michael Damian wanted to deliver a grand message on this song. But all he does is paint vague, nostalgic images of the 1950s and then intone, “Rock on!” There’s nothing wrong with that on the surface. But Damian’s seriousness makes it feel like a parody gone wrong.

Damian’s song is very 1980s in how it became popular. First, Damian had a leading role in the long-running soap opera The Young and the Restless. Second, it was featured in the 1989 teen film Dream a Little Dream. This is doubly illustrative of how movies and television shaped the hits of the 1980s. But do they still have that power today? Let’s find out.

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Can Hollywood Still Write Hit Songs?

By Chris Dalla Riva

When I interviewed Bowling For Soup’s Jaret Reddick a few months ago, I asked him why his music is laden with references to pop culture figures. Here’s what he told me:

Because I’m a kid of the 1980s. Back then, everything from movies and clothing and songs was bigger than life. We also didn’t have instant access to those things. So, when you got access to it, like going to the movie theater, it was an event. Songs and music videos were the same way. It was this big, grandiose thing when a new video from your favorite artist would premiere … I think that’s why I make those references so much.

Reddick is getting at something important. When MTV was ascendent in the 1980s, it not only shaped music videos but how music interacted with image everywhere, including Hollywood. Movies, like Flashdance, were made to run like 100-minute advertisements for new songs rather than as pieces of cinema. Television shows, like Miami Vice, were much the same. But music’s relationship with the visual arts is much longer and more interesting than just the MTV era.