The [your name here] Awards!

I love "Epic".

1989

Best Film
Do the Right Thing
Drugstore Cowboy
Batman
Born on the Forth of July
Sex, Lies, and Videotape

Winner:

Worst Film
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
Meet the Feebles
Wizard, The

Winner:

Best Television Show
Cheers (Season 7)
A Different World (Season 2)
Miami Vice (Season 5)
NewHart (Season 7)
The Wonder Years (Season 2)

Winner:

Best Video Game
Batman (NES)


Batman for the NES was loosely based on the 1989 movie but could just as easily be seen as a standalone Batman game.  It was notable for giving the character a pretty impressive arsenal of moves and tactics as well as just being really stylish in general.  The Ninja Gaidan style wall jumps in it are really cool and the music in the game is particularly noteworthy as chiptune stuff goes.

Duck Tales (NES)


A game based on the cartoon Duck Tales probably shouldn't be this well remembered, but it has transcended its source material in many ways.  For one thing, it offered five distinct levels to work though each with different enemy sets and it also had an interesting assortment of collctables and different endings... but let's be honest, the real reason everyone remembers it is because watching scrooge McDuck bounce around on his cane like a pogo stick is kind of awesome.

River City Ransom (NES)


River City Ransom is a game that overachieves in a number of ways.  They could have easily just made this a simple Double Dragon style beat em up, but they instead added a lot of other innovative mechanics on top of this. The game was played in a sort of proto open world and there are some RPG elements where you buy items along the way. 

Super Mario Brothers 3 (NES)


With their Super Mario Brothers games (from a U.S. perspective) Nintendo just seemed to keep topping themselves and this third game was kind of their NES masterpiece.  The game was much bigger and with much tighter controls than its direct predecessor and it had significantly more features.  Set over seven unique and rather large worlds it's just a feature packed gift that keeps on giving.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade)


The TMNT arcade game, which would later be released as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II for the NES (and should not to be confused with that crappy first NES turtles game), was yet another fun coin-op beat em up that acted as a predecessor to the likes of the X-Men arcade game and the Simpsons arcade game.  It's not the most creative game in the world and its successors like Turtles in Time would definitely be an improvement over it, but this was the first game to provide quality foot soldier fighting.

Winner:

Best Hit Song
"Bust a Move" by Young MC

Hip Hop ad existed in some form or other for over a decade by 1989 but in the world of major crossover chart hits it was still kind of in its infancy when songs like Bust a Move started to make breakthroughs.  Bust a Move was clearly meant to present a very lighthearted and inviting side of the genre.  Its lyrics of encouraging dudes to muster the courage to talk to girls on the dance floor were relocatable and it assembles some pretty cool sampled beats.  Also I love how the song just abruptly opens with a "bust it!" 

"Like a Prayer" by Madonna

Madonna was at the height of her ability to combine her interest in shocking people with her ability to make actual good pop music around 1989 and 1990 and Like a Prayer is probably her masterpiece.  On a simple musical composition level it's a great fusion of pop and gospel with some really good hooks and its lyrics (which combine sex and religion in a pretty daring way) manage to be provocative without feeling too much like they're a cry for attention. 
 
"Smooth Criminal" by Michael Jackson

"Smooth Criminal" was actually one of the last singles released off of the Bad album and was one of the lower charting of all of them, but it holds up better than a lot of them.  This is in part because this is one of the few times that Michael Jackson has managed to actually sound somewhat convincing as a sort of cool and dangerous dude.  That killer bass line probably helps. I think the fact that he never comes out and says exactly what happened to "annie" helps set a mood and lets you fill in the story yourself.

"Stand" by REM

The members of R.E.M. have said that "Stand" was written almost as a dare in which they'd try to write the stupidest and most inane lyrics they could think of in order to replicate something along the lines of the kind of thing The Monkees or The Kingsmen would have written. Whether the lyrics make sense or not the song is definitely an earworm and the way it changes key and tempo at the end is quite effective.

"Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses

"Welcome to the Jungle" and "Its So Easy" were the first singles off of Appetite for Destruction, but they didn't get much crossover traction, then when "Sweet Child of Mine" became a huge hit in 1988 the floodgates opened and a bunch of other hits like "Jungle," "Paradise City," and "Patience" made the year end 100 in 1989. Any of those three could have gotten nominated in this slot but clearly "Welcome to the Jungle" is the GnR song to rule them all.  That guitar intro is an iconic sound of the 80s and the song's lyrics about L.A.'s seedy underbelly actually paint a very vivid picture.

Winner:

1988

Best Film
Unbearable Lightness of Being, The
Akira
Fish Called Wanda, A
Die Hard
Accidental Tourist, The

Winner:

Worst Film
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Poltergeist III
Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, A
I'm Gonna Git You Sucka
Willow

Winner: 

Best TV Show
Cheers (Season 6)
Miami Vice (Season 4)
NewHart (Season 6)
St. Elsewhere (Season 6)
The Wonder Years (Season 1)

Winner:

Best Video Game
Bionic Commando (NES)


The NES was filled with games about jumping around, so it was kind of novel for a platformer to be made where the jumping is omited entirely and replaced with a cool grappling hook type system.  That's what set Bionic commando apart, that and it's somewhat dark storyline involving a neo-Nazi takeover the player must resist against.  The nazi symbolism was taken out of the U.S. version, but the bad guy at the end still looked like Hitler and you could still blow his head up

John Madden Football (PC)

The dominant football game of the late 80s was probably Tecmo Bowl on the NES, but it was EA's football series which premiered on the Apple II, Commodore 64, and MS-DOS PCs in 1988 which would obviously become the bigger and more influential series.  Where Tecmo Bowl used a left to right sideline perspective and focused on the maneuvers of the players, Madden used a top down perspective which focused more on the strategy of the game.

Mega Man 2 (NES)


It's generally agreed that the second Mega Man game is the best of the series, and yet the differences between the first few games is fairly subtle.  The first sequel didn't even include a huge game-play improvement so much as it just felt better and worked better and had more flair. 

Ninja Gaidan (NES)


The NES version of Ninja Gaidan was radically different from the arcade version and in many ways more memorable because of it.  The game didn't involve many protracted fights, rather it focused on being a blazing fast platformer where you had to kill before being killed and use the occasional special move.  that was enough for a fairly memorable game, but what really made it a classic was the presentation.  The story was about as dumb as your average NES game but it was presented with great style via some really well done cutscenes of the time.

Super Mario Brothers 2 (NES)


The story of how the game the west knows as Super Mario Brothers 2 is pretty well known at this point with Nintendo having converted a game called Doki Doki Panic into a Mario game in lieu of the Japanese sequel to the original game.  It's certainly the black sheep of the series but that doesn't change the fact that it's a damn good game just the same with an interesting vegetable tossing system, multiple characters, and interesting bosses.

Winner:



Best Hit Song
"Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman

It's pretty well established that the 80s were the era of the big hair, big music, big music videos, just general maximalism at every turn.  So how did a minimalist folk song about poverty become a major hit?  I guess the answer is just really effective writing.  The song manages to paint a pretty bleak picture but still leaves room for hope even if it's probably false hope.  Also the song does really come alive during that chorus where the drums and second guitar kick in.
 
"Never Tear Us Apart" by INXS

"
Never Tear Us Apart" is a song that's interesting for a number of reasons none the least because it's pretty different than the sound I normally associate with INXS.  Its driving synthesizor riff is hooky but also kind of ominous and the songs lyrics have a vague over the top quality that really stands out.  Also love the way the guitar pops in after the pregnant pause after the title is invoked.  The saxaphone solo might have been a bit too much but it's still a very neat and atmospheric little track.

"Red Red Wine" by UB40

I've always had a bit of a weakness for fratty whiteboy ska/reggae and UB40 are certainly sort of up my alley even if they probably shouldn't be.  Their cover of this obscure Neil Diamond track proved to be quite the surprise hit for them.  The song was actually released in 1984 and was a minor hit then, but then made a crazy comeback in 1988 and actually shot up to number 1.  The only real difference is that the 1988 version brought back the "red red wine ooh make me feel so fine" toast that had been omitted in the earlier version and I like to think that put it over the top.

"Sweet Child o' Mine" by Guns N' Roses

Slash has been outspoken in thinking that "Sweet Child of Mine" is Guns N' Roses' worst song, and I might even agree with him, but as far as power ballads go it was actually still clearly better than most. That opening riff is wildly memorable for a reason and Axl Rose actually manages to seem pretty sincere when he sings the slightly corny lyrics.  On Appetite for Destruction the song serves as a sort of escape from the dark debauchery of the rest of the album and it stands out for a reason.

"The Way You Make Me Feel" by Michael Jackson

The most successful single off the "Bad" album was probably "The Way You Make Me Feel," which seemed to do the impossible: convince the listener that Michael Jackson wanted to have sex with an adult female.  The song is actually pretty effective in its simplicity.  There's little in the production here that breaks the usual mold of an 80s pop song, Jackson just sells it better than most.  

Winner:

INXS were great.

For the millionth time: the "best hit song" category is not an attempt to nominate the very best music of a given year, it is only nominating from the pool of the 100 highest charting songs of the year as determined by Billboard in this list: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1988
None of the songs you listed are on there.

1987

Best Film
Full Metal Jacket
Robocop
Wings of Desire
Au Revoir, Les Enfants
Last Emperor, The

Winner:

Worst Film
Less Than Zero
Bad Taste
Beverley Hills Cop II
Jaws: The Revenge
Hobgoblins

"Winner":

Best TV Show
Cheers (Season 5)
Miami Vice (Season 3)
Moonlighting (Season 3)
NewHart (Season 5)
St. Elsewhere (Season 5)

Winner:

Best Video Game
Contra (NES)


Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start.  That is the most famous cheat code in video game history largely because this game is really hard.  It's maybe not quite as hard as something like  Ghosts n' Goblins but it's up there.  There is however a reason why people kept playing it. The game's frantic shootouts were really acomplished for their time and there's a lot ot the game that's easy to take for granted like the ability to shoot in eight directions.

Double Dragon (NES)


The side scrolling beat em' up by which other side scrolling beat em' ups are judged.  The game is very simple: you punch people, you kick people, occasionally you pick up weapons and hit people with them... not exactly what you'd call a deep game.  Still there was a purity to... I don't know, I don't think I can intellectually sum up the appeal of this thing but it's a cool game that was very popular.

Mega Man (NES)


The original game that set the template for a very successful series.  Capcom would definately improve on this original game but it's still a very good looking and challenging game with a compelling and unique format.  Interesting fact: Megaman's Japanese name is Rockman, as in rock and roll.  This is why his sister is named Roll.

Mike Tyson's Punch Out (NES)


Ah, Punch Out.  This game doesn't have the long history of sequels that other Nintendo classics do but that's in part because there was really not much they could do to improve on the original.  It's gameplay had little to do with the realities of boxing but was instead a very elaborate rock, paper, scissors game wrapped in the trappings of a fantasy sports game filled with colorful characters, with the most colorful of course being Mike Tyson himself as one of the most famous bosses of the era.

Zelda II (NES)


Zelda II, a bit like Mario 2, is kind of the oddball of its franchise.  It has an overworld but you don't really fight on it and instead flash into these side scrolling sections.  The game is also a whole lot harder than most of the other Zelda games and doesn't even really have you going up against Gannon.  An odd Zelda game to be sure, but an interesting one, and one that still has that Nintendo shine.

Winner:

Best Hit Songs
"Don't Dream It's Over" by Crowded House


Crowded House was a New Zealand pop/rock band (kind of hard to place exactly what genre they were) and while they weren't exactly a one hit wonder they maybe don't have the largest long term legacy today.  This is their most famous song and it's certainly a pretty good tune to be remembered by.  I don't love Neil Finn's vocals on the verses but the song has a great chorus that really sets a mood.

"Land of Confusion" by Genesis

I've never really done the deep dive into the music of Genesis but there are definitely stray songs of theirs that I like.  This and "In the Air Tonight" are probably their most famous songs and this one in particular stands out in no small part because of its incredibly freaky and politically charged puppet show video.  While the song is distinctly eighties in its arrangement the damn thing has become pretty relevant given the recent election.  

"Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi


Bon Jovi are often called a hair metal band, but their music was never really heavy metal at all and while they certainly had "big hair" they didn't really come from that L.A. scene that gave birth to bands like Motley Crue and Poison.  As is often noted, they were from New Jersey and the influence of that state's other most famous musical son Bruce Springsteen is readily apparent on this, their most famous song. The story of Tommy and Gina is a little derivative but they punch it up a lot with some cool guitar licks and that talk box effect certainly makes it stand out. 

"Walk Like An Egyptian" by The Bangles


"Walk Like An Egyprian" is actually pretty strange pop song, a fact that it hides pretty well and which is pretty easy to miss.  The chorus about walking like an Egyptian is a complete non-sequitur really and the verses are these rambling stream-of-conscious things that are filled to the brim with lyrics.  It's a pretty dense recording, I'm nor really sure how anyone went about writing the damn thing but the results are certainly interesting.

"With or Without You" by U2


The Joshua Tree wasn't exactly a breakout album for U2 as they'd certainly had hits before it but it was the album that launched them from being merely popular to being one of the biggest bands in the world.  "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" was also a pretty big hit in 1987 but I lean towards the slightly less metaphysical "With or Without You" which has this way of escalating as it goes in a pretty compelling way.

Winner:

They're pretty corny, but they have four or five songs I like as guilty pleasures.

1986

Best Film
Platoon
Aliens
Blue Velvet
Hannah and Her Sisters
Fly, The

Winner:

Worst Film
Friday the 13th: Part VI- Jason Lives
Highlander
Poltergeist II: The Other Side
Delta Force, The
Karate Kid Part 2, The

"Winner":

Best TV Series
Cheers (Season 4)
Miami Vice (Season 2)
Moonlighting (Season 2)
NewHart (Season 4)
St. Elsewhere (Season 4)

Winner:

Best Video Game
Castlevania (NES)


The game that started a franchise.  There are some annoying things about this game in retrospect, namely how much of a pain in the ass stairs are in it and how ridiculously hard the last couple bosses are.  Really it's not that impressive of a side scroller when you're just looking at its base gameplay, but it makes up for a lot of it with style.  The castle looked really cool, the assortment of monsters you fought along the way looked cool, it had a fun B- monster movie vibe.  

Kid Icarus (NES)


This game is pretty weird game, certainly one of the odder of Nintendo's first party NES titles but it's become something of a cult hit just the same.  It has an interesting mix of gameplay types in it and its levels had a verticality to them that was a bit unusual at the time.  It was never really a personal favorite of mine but it has probably earned its place in video game history just the same. 

Metroid (NES)


The original Metroid was really ahead of its time in a number of ways.  Its non-linear world structure was really novel at the time and since the game didn't have an in-game map you kind of had to make maps of your own on graph paper or something to really keep your bearings.  It's also a game where the player was given a lot of interesting weapons and abilities to use and there was something uniquely cinematic and interesting about the world of the game.  A classic for a reason. 

Rampage (Arcade)


I distinctly remember having access to this arcade cabinet at some sort of youth center or something my parents used to drop me off at when I was little and I loved it at the time.  Today the game, which let you play as these kaiju monsters as they fucked up a city, seems a little shallow and gets old after a little while but it's still pretty cool.  It had a lot of neat little brutal touches like the fact that you can straight up eat the little people who would run around you or hide in buildings.  The fact that you transformed into a little naked person when you died was also a neat touch, as was the fact that you could scoop up and eat said naked person if one of the other players died.

The Legend of Zelda (NES)


This is widely acknowled to be one of the supreme classics of videos games.  Personally, I think it's at least a little over-rated what with it's sometimes oblique design that made the game nearly unbeatable unless you knew the exact map points to interact with.  Still there's some really cool stuff about this game, especially once you get into its famous dungeons.  At the very least it laid the groundwork both for a very famous franchise and also what is basically a genre unto itself.

Winner:

Best Hit Song
"Kiss" by Prince

I don't think anyone thinks this is Prince's best hit, but it's probably in most people's top fifteen or twenty (there are a lot of awesome songs to pick from).  Really it's odd how well this song works given how many individual elements don't really work great on their own.  Prince's voice here is at its most falsetto and screechy and the lyrics are a bit simplistic.  The production is also a bit dated but it does have that driving funk beat that carries it as well as some very canny elements like that guitar stumming filling in the pause right before the title word.
 
"Manic Monday" by The Bangles

Sort of skirting my "one song per artist" rule here because Manic Monday was actually written by Prince, and this is something that becomes unmistakable once you know it.  This is closer to the kind of production that Prince was famous for than his other famous ghostwriting gig (Nothing Compares 2 You) and the "that's my fun day" chorus is very much in line with his usual hook writing.  But I shouldn't give all the credit here to the purple one.  The Bangles totally sell the song even if I don't think they exactly made it their own.  

"Papa Don't Preach" by Madonna

Oh Madonna, even when you are seemingly doing the conventionally accepted thing in a song it becomes controversial.  The lyrics here always seemed a bit odd to me.  The ways this scene would usually seem to play out is to have the preaching papa insisting that the girl keep her baby when she doesn't want to and yet the song flips the script, we don't even get to hear what the papa's opinion is because the protagonist has already made up her mind and doesn't care what he has to say.  There's something sort of subversively feminist about that.  Being pro-choice does of course mean that it's up to the woman to decide these things and that's exactly what this character is doing and isn't letting some man tell her what to do even if she already agrees with what he's going to say.

"Tarzan Boy" by Baltimora

And my 80s cheese-fest guilty pleasure of choice this year is this Italian disco song from a one hit wonder with a truly ghetto music video.  Pay zero attention to the lyrics, they're dumb.  This is all about the beat and that monster hook based around Tarzan's famous yodel.  You listen to this earworm once and you'll have it stuck in your head for a week.  There's no intelectual justification for this one, it's just fucking catchy.

"West End Girls" by The Pet Shop Boys

The Pet Shop Boys are one of those acts that were kind of a big deal but which I've been kind of avoiding for years but have recently been belatedly discovering.  This was one of their most famous songs and was a pretty important recording.  The song was actually inspired by early hip-hop songs, especially Grandmaster Flash's "The Message" and was an attempt to fuse that with what was going on in the British synth pop of the time.  They don't really rap on it you kind of can hear that influence on the song what with it's gritty street lyrics and general vibe.  It's got plenty of corny production elements to it, but it's general seriousness does still mostly hold up. 

Winner:

1993

Best Film: Dazed and Confused
Groundhog Day
The Remains of the Day
Schindler's List
Short Cuts

Winner:

Best Song

"Cemetery" by The Headstones


You will never here a more fun song about fucking a corpse.

"Christian Woman" by Type O Negative


This might be Type O Negative's most famous song and while it's no "Everyone I Love is Dead" it certainly is a pretty cool track. Definitely got a driving heaviness to it, but there's also something ethereal going on here. Of course the key to everything is Peter Steele's awesome vocals. I love the dude's voice, what can I say?

"Fully Completely" by The Tragically Hip


They may not get much recognition in the states, but in Canada, The Tragically Hip are a huge deal. I'm not the biggest fan of their later work, but those first few albums are really tight. "Fully Completely" has some really cool lyrics, but I think what works best is Gord Downie's wailing vocals. The arrangement is also really nice and on the whole the song just works really well.

"Heart of Darkness" by The Headstones


Drug addiction is a reoccurring theme in rock and Metal music. "Heart of Darkness" doesn't do much to change the formula, but it is a very blunt exploration of the topic that avoids being too morose and is also very candid about the ways in which addiction effects those around you. The song is easy enough to listen to that I think it's pretty accessible, but also substantial enough to not just be a fun listen.

"Locked in the Trunk of a Car" by The Tragically Hip


A lot of the Hip's best songs are simply just neat little stories, and this one is particularly cool. The song weaves different ideas about dead bodies. It's obviously some dark subject matter, but it's also surprisingly fun to listen to. The song also has a great atmosphere and really builds nicely.

1992

Best Film: Hard Boiled
Malcolm X
The Player
Reservoir Dogs
Unforgiven

Winner:

Best Song

"Be Quick or Be Dead" by Iron Maiden


Maybe not quite on the level of classic Iron Maiden, but "Be Quick or Be Dead" is still a pretty awesome song. There's a tremendous energy here and the guitar shredding is awesome. The lyrics also do a good job capturing a certain epicness and the song gets you banging pretty easily.

"Black Sunshine" by White Zombie


"Gripping the wheel his knuckles went white with desire. The wheels of his Mustang exploding on the highway like a slug from a .45
True Death: 400 Horsepower of maximum performance piercing the night. This is Black Sunshine". Also that bass is fucking killer.

"Rooster" by Alice in Chains


"Dirt" is easily my favourite Alice in Chains album. There are a ton of great tracks to choose from, including the title track, "Junkhead", "Angry Chair", "Would?", and "Them Bones". Ultimately though, I'm going with "Rooster". Musically speaking, it's awesome. I love the arrangement, I love the way the song builds, and I love the guitar work in particular. On another level, it's interesting that the song is both about the Vietnam War, but is also intensely personal and focused on the experiences of Jerry Cantrell's father. As a result, the song is less overtly political and is more an expresison of pain. It's beautifully done too.

"Symphony of Destruction" by Megadeth


Was "Countdown to Extinction" Megadeth's last great album? Possibly. It certainly was the last to future songs that could stand among the band's best work. I really like "Sweating Bullets" and "High Speed Dirt" is pretty good too, but "Symphony of Destruction" is king. The song has some really cool lyrics, presents a strong apocalyptic view, and the "stop and start" quality works nicely. The metallic sound is also pretty damn cool.

"Walk" by Pantera


When it comes to "Vulgar Display of Power", I was torn between this and the much more aggressive "Fucking Hostile". Ultimately, I'm going with the restained rage of "Walk". The lyrics aren't very complex, but they are quite biting. This is a song that has teeth. Crucial to this is Dimebag Darrell's epic shredding. I could listen to that infamous riff for hours.

Winner:

Also,

Metroid is a good choice, but I would have given it to Zelda.

LOL.

Rick Rubin took the Aerosmith song and made it a billion times better. If only one version of Walk This Way had to exist it would obviously be the RUN DMC one. Just on a pure technical level it's an improvement. Rubin had Steven Tyler and Joe Perry re-record their parts cause it didn't meet his standards. And it's his tweaks that Aerosmith continues to play to this day. That has to count for something.