Have you looked into all those 'Karaoke Revolution' games for Wii? Karaoke games always tend to have those typical 80s tunes.

you won't find something that's all 80s aside from that Singstar game for the ps2. Band Hero seems to fit the bill nicely, it's got a fair selection from the 80s and the modern equivalent to that style of pop music.

as for the downloads they're usually available in packs (5-6) or individual songs. cheaper to buy the packs.

the other noticeable difference between the titles is the difficulty scaling and player feedback. in RB you have clear indications that your performance is starting to suck, with enough time for the player to register that things are going bad and make attempts to rectify the situation. in GH when you start to suck it's over before you register that the background flashed some red.

being that Band Hero is supposed to be a more family friendly version of Guitar Hero i have to assume the difficulty is smoothed out a little, i've been getting my ass handed to me in GH5 recently.

Do you know the actual nuts and bolts of downloading new songs works? Can I download them through my Wii's internet connection somehow? Or do I download them on my computer and put them on an SD card or something?

depends on whether or not you want to pay for them haha

but yeah the simple and legit way is to use wiipoints online and download them directly to your machine same as old school wiiware games or any other pay download content.

not really sure on how to pirate stuff for the wii although i've heard that it's just a matter of using a USB flash drive and a software hack.

Ah cool. Well I suppose I could look into both. :D