1980s
17 albums
Remain in Light
Brian Eno and David Byrne loops of interlocking funk and African polyrhythm, with Once in a Lifetime asking how did I ge...
The Queen Is Dead
Morrissey wit and Johnny Marr jangle peaked together on There Is a Light That Never Goes Out and Bigmouth Strikes Again....
Ace of Spades
Lemmy roar over double time bass and thrash ahead of its name, the title track a lifestyle manifesto. Motorhead sat betw...
Master of Puppets
Eight tracks of technical thrash about manipulation, war and addiction with no filler and no compromise. It became the f...
Appetite for Destruction
Sunset Strip danger translated into the best selling debut album in US history, with over 18 million copies at home. Wel...
Thriller
The best selling album ever released, with estimated sales above 65 million copies worldwide. Seven of nine tracks becam...
Like a Prayer
Her artistic leap: gospel choirs, live drums and personal lyrics about family and faith. The Pepsi pulled title track vi...
Purple Rain
Half soundtrack to the film, half autobiography, it spent 24 weeks at number one and sold over 25 million copies. When D...
Raising Hell
Walk This Way with Aerosmith smashed rap into rock radio and MTV, and the album became the first rap release certified p...
Straight Outta Compton
Six young men from Compton turned police harassment and street life into a record the FBI complained about. It brought g...
Doolittle
Quiet verses into roaring choruses, surrealist lyrics and Black Francis scream against Kim Deal cool counterweight. Deba...
The Joshua Tree
U2 absorbed American roots music into wide open delay guitar landscapes: Where the Streets Have No Name and I Still Have...
Graceland
Simon recorded with South African musicians including Ladysmith Black Mambazo in the apartheid era, drawing both praise ...
Back in Black
Released months after singer Bon Scott died, Back in Black introduced Brian Johnson and opened with tolling bells as a t...
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Chuck D and Flavor Flav delivered radical politics over the dense sample collages of the Bomb Squad, layering sirens, fu...
Hounds of Love
Recorded in her own home studio, the album paired a side of singles with The Ninth Wave, a suite about a woman adrift at...
Daydream Nation
A double album on which alternate tunings and feedback became songs. Teen Age Riot opened with a vision of an indie rock...