I Am a Material Boy, Oh Oh!

So, I'm an 80s child, so for some reason, I feel like I'm supposed to be *extremely* knowledgeable when it comes to 80s culture. I am, however, not.
Fact is, I barely remember watching He-man on TV, and although I loved those screaming fluorescent pants my mother made me, I'm pretty sure I only ever owned one pair. Care Bears were awesome, I remember Smurfs, and I know now that there were some pretty great movies made then (Ghostbusters/Indiana Jones/Back to the Future is what I'm talking about...not all that Stallone crap).
Sure, we had a compact disc (yes, also an 80s invention) with MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This," and I am pretty sure somebody in our house wore polka dots. I can remember a few things: girls LOVED banana clips, shoulder pads were a fad, MacGyver rocked my Sundays, and my Wayfarer look-alikes were suh-WEET...when I was 4.
But let's face it: I don't know who Corazón Aquino is (TIME's Person of the Year the year I was born), I never even knew who Ronald Reagan was during that decade, and I don't even get the joke about how David Squier dying by a stroke.
However, for all of the times 80s music was awful, some of it was actually really artistic. But, hindsight is not only 20/20, it also leads to some pretty awesome creations. So, that was my lengthy introduction to Scott Bradlee covering--in ragtime, no less--some of the most popular 80s hits: