Many of the songs on this record were inspired by the general fear of nuclear war that had defined Dylan's generation. But songs such as "Masters of War," "Talkin' World War III Blues," and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall," written in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis, became much more than reflections on the Cold War world. As the anti-Vietnam War movement grew in the late 1960s, this music became intimately associated with the struggle for peace.

The fourth album from an iconic American band, Willy and the Poor Boys is chock-full of CCR classics including "Down on the Corner,"the anti-Vietnam anthem "Fortunate Son," and "It Came Out of the Sky," a song that seemed to warn of a war far more destructive than the one in Southeast Asia.

Released during the early years of President Reagan's administration, Computer Games is both whimsical and foreboding—kind of like the 1980s. Take "Atomic Dog," for instance. Once that thumping bass kicks in and Clinton's ensemble croons and barks those familiar lyrics, you're transported to a dark yet sensual netherworld. Yep, like the '80s.

Have you considered that Prince's iconic "party like it's 1999" song, released in 1983, was actually a Cold War apocalyptic anthem?

Perhaps one of this Irish band's most political albums, War commented on the state of the world in the early 1980s, a world that seemed to U2 to be increasingly defined by warfare and its repercussions. It includes some of their most memorable and poetic songs, like "Sunday Bloody Sunday," "New Year's Day," and "Surrender."