Various Artists: Like, Omigod! The '80s Pop Culture Box (Totally)

One of Rhino Records' most endearing qualities as a reissue label is the way it treats trash and treasure with equal care, bestowing deluxe treatment upon everything from its critically worshipped Nuggets series to a box set celebrating lite-rock pariah America. Most of Rhino's high-profile releases seem to have been assembled by fans, which proves particularly useful when the collections' subjects are languishing in relative obscurity. The popular music of the 1980s, on the other hand, is so rife with obvious touchstones and flashback-show staples that compiling examples for posterity has more to do with licensing than quality control. The ambitious Like, Omigod! The '80s Pop Culture Box set throws in a few obscurities here and there, but its primary emphasis is on chart-toppers, staples, novelties, and the decade's more distinctive first half. Far more entertaining when heard in the right company—Billy Vera & The Beaters' excruciating "At This Moment" benefits from the mockery of a small crowd—the collection's seven discs and 142 songs are packed with conversation pieces and argument-starters. Just as compelling are its exclusions: Licensing battles surely kept out the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Prince, Madonna, Journey, Stevie Wonder, Huey Lewis, Van Halen, every Jackson sibling, and even compilation-staple "Weird Al" Yankovic. That's to be expected, but a high volume of kitsch (The Afternoon Delights' "General Hospi-Tale," Buckner & Garcia's "Pac-Man Fever") also keeps the set from salvaging anything by the likes of Ready For The World, Sly Fox, The System, Level 42, UB40, Eddie Murphy, Chris DeBurgh, The Fat Boys, Double, T'Pau, Howard Jones, Murray Head (no "One Night In Bangkok"), Sheriff (no "When I'm With You"), Men Without Hats (no "Safety Dance"), Herbie Hancock (no "Rockit"), and countless others. To be fair, no '80s box could ever be definitive, even without licensing headaches, but a more philosophical problem lies in Omigod!'s status as the anti-Nuggets, a set that wallows in huge hits and moldy cheese from an era already picked over by low-budget compilations and hundreds of early-'80s radio shows. Still, unlike too many of modern-rock's '80s revisionists, Omigod! pays more than lip service to black music, and its diverse contents stand in stark relief next to today's narrow, demographically targeted radio playlists. That's both a blessing and a curse: Even disc six, which is packed with great tracks (Animotion's "Obsession," a-ha's "Take On Me," Dead Or Alive's "You Spin Me Round," The Dream Academy's "Life In A Northern Town"), forces listeners to skip over the dire likes of Mr. Mister, Billy Crystal, and Don Johnson. But Omigod! couldn't celebrate the '80s without reveling in giddy junk culture. Appropriately, the packaging is lovingly assembled, with an assortment of kitsch ephemera and liner notes by such qualified luminaries as former Spy editor Jamie Malanowski. If nothing else, Omigod! is supreme mix-disc fodder, once listeners crop it down to a two- or three-disc set that doesn't include Starship's "We Built This City."