There are two obvious troubles of compiling a collection for the 80s music. One is that the length of songs in this decade are significantly longer than the previous decades, which make it difficult to stuff them into the limited space. The other is that the eighties is the era that has too much for everything. Many music styles were at their peak, in both number and creativities, which make it even more difficult to pick samples form each gene.

A glance at this collection, you can see that the producers tried their best to cover everything in this decade and selected only the most outstanding tracks as representatives for each gene. There are many new wave hits here, including Devo's "Whip It", The Vapors's "Turning Japanese", and The Fixx's "One Thing Leads To Another". Many top-rated pop/rock songs are also presented, such as Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl", Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want To Have Fun", and Daryl Hall & John Oates's "Maneater". There are some heavy metal tracks and power ballads here, such as Quiet Riot's " Cum On Feel The Noize", Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It", and Night Ranger's "Sister Christian". There are also tracks to represent the rise of post-disco club/dance trend, such as Laid Back's "White Horse", New Edition's "Cool It Now", and Timex Social Club's " Rumors". Other highlights are movie theme hits and some rock gems, including Joey Scarbury's "Theme From Greatest American Hero (Believe It Or Not)", John Parr's "St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion)", Afternoon Delights's "General Hospi-Tale", Bertie Higgins's "Key Largo", and Martin Briley's "The Salt In My Tears".

However, there are some critics about this collection. First is that many good artists were left out due to the limited space. Some outstanding bands such as A Flock of Seagulls, Autograph, Ratt, Spandau Ballet, and New Order aren't here. The producers also avoided long tracks and chose the shorter edited version instead, such as Bob & Doug McKenzie's "Take Off" has no conversation part, and The Art of Noise's "Paranoimia" is not a full 7-minute version. For some artists, the producer did not select their biggest hit but smaller one. For instance, they chose "What You Need" for INXS instead of "Need You Tonight", and "Since You've Been Gone" for The Outfield instead of "Your Love".

Nevertheless, this album can really respresent the changes in pop cultures during the eighties. Make it the perfect choice for anyone who want the good collection of every bit of the 80s.