We did the best we could in capturing as much of the best music of the decade as possible, and as diverse a selection at that.
We also included two “deeper listening” album suggestions, in essence expanding our list to 450. We made one exception, which will become obvious as you go deeper into the list, but simply put, no other artist had a decade quite like that. If we’re simply counting all of the new sounds that were born, the ’80s were simply overwhelming.Īs with other best-of-decade lists, our summary of the best albums of the 1980s is limited to two albums per artist. Hip-hop rose to prominence, about a half-dozen metal subgenres were born, and punk begat post-punk and so on. The top 40 was rife with heavy hitters-Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince and even ’70s rockers like Springsteen-while elsewhere, technological advancements were bringing about new evolutions in synth-pop, dance music and industrial. If the ’70s was one of the most consequential decades for popular music, the ’80s is perhaps the only other decade that can give it a run for its money in terms of both innovation and pop cultural visibility.
And today, we reach the main event: The Best Albums of the 1980s. All month we’ve been teasing on social media that it’s ’80s month, and we’ve been sharing articles that have either highlighted some of the best music of the ’80s, or even simply music that reminds us of the ’80s.
