# Albums which define the 1980s **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [April 25, 2023, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184 "2023-04-25T23:57:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2023, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/1 "2023-04-25T23:57:27Z")
What albums do you think ‘define’ the 1980s? As in, you listen to it today and you just think, ‘That’s the 80s? I’ll start with No Jacket Required by Phil Collins. A bunch of hits in heavy radio and MTV rotation and more drum machine than you can handle. Yup, the 80s sexy sax which is in every ballad of the era, is present. Guest vocals from Sting? Yup! You could insert just about any song from the album into a Miami Vice episode. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/2 "2023-04-26T00:00:18Z")
[Born in the USA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_in_the_U.S.A.) album by Springsteen, 1984 ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/3 "2023-04-26T00:01:07Z")
I see your No Jacket Required and raise you [Slippery When Wet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_When_Wet), the iconic Bon Jovi album. You could not go anywhere in the mid to late 80s without hearing at least one of those songs getting airplay, in a movie, or at a club. Moreso, it was full of the 80s hair metal that was it’s own thing - as was the movement to take ‘harder’ (for values of hard) rock and tone it down to acceptable levels for middle-America. ---
**Author:** ![xanthous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/53a042/32.png) [@xanthous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xanthous)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/4 "2023-04-26T00:07:31Z")
Let’s Dance by David Bowie Oh, and Rio by Duran Duran Those two go hand-in-hand for me for that decade (or, well, really for the first half of that decade). ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/5 "2023-04-26T00:09:57Z")
Two John Hughes soundtracks; _The Breakfast Club_ and _Pretty in Pink_. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/6 "2023-04-26T00:09:58Z")
_Sign o’ the Times_ or _Purple Rain_ by Prince. Pick one or the other, or both. I’d say- _Sign o’ the Times_ ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/7 "2023-04-26T00:11:03Z")
[Top Gun](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Gun_(soundtrack)) Soundtrack Jingoistic movie staring Tom Cruise, shot with the MTV-aesthetic. Fits in nicely with Rambo and Red Dawn as a piece of Reagan-era “America, Fuck Yeah!” cinema. Musically you got… Kenny Loggins - populated a shitload of 80s movie soundtracks Harold Faltermeyer - trying to follow up his Beverly Hills Cop work Berlin - first rose to fame as a new wave act Miami Sound Machine Loverboy A forgettable Cheap Trick soundtrack song, like a lot of their 80s output. Doesn’t get much more 80s than that. ---
**Author:** ![xanthous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/53a042/32.png) [@xanthous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xanthous)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/8 "2023-04-26T00:12:44Z")
Maybe it’s because the first half of the 80s was young-mid teenagerhood for me and the second half was college life, but those two albums feel decades apart to me yet they’re really not! ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/9 "2023-04-26T00:13:16Z")
Best LP of the 80s. https://www.youtube.com/embed/k30XeJNAbt4?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&list=PLdlKjfbzZGdnN_prwsxZUf745SVUz88MX ---
**Author:** ![EnolaStraight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@EnolaStraight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnolaStraight)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/10 "2023-04-26T00:20:24Z")
The Rolling Stones…Tattoo You ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/11 "2023-04-26T00:24:18Z")
**Appetite For Destruction** : the first side kicks off with _Welcome To The Jungle_ and wraps up with _Paradise City_, and the second gives us _Sweet Child o’ Mine_. (Where do we go? Where do we go now?) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/12 "2023-04-26T00:38:58Z")
**Thriller** , of course. And if we’re talking soundtracks, the _Footloose_ soundtrack is the first one that springs to my mind. Neither of these are anywhere near my own personal favorites, and I didn’t own them. I could give a long list of my _personal_ 80s albums. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/13 "2023-04-26T00:40:52Z")
Thomas Dolby - “The Golden Age of Wireless” Science! ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/14 "2023-04-26T00:42:22Z")
George Michael – _Faith_ Def Lepard – _Hysteria_ ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/15 "2023-04-26T00:44:10Z")
Prince’s _Batman_ soundtrack was great as well. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/16 "2023-04-26T00:50:28Z")
For reference, Billboard’s best performing albums in the U.S. for each year of the 1980s, from [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_200_number-one_albums) and not independently checked. No opinion is to be implied or may be inferred beyond the matters expressly so stated herein: 1980: Pink Floyd’s _The Wall_ 1981: REO Speedwagon’s _Hi Infidelity_ 1982: Asia’s _Asia_ 1983: Michael Jackson’s _Thriller_ 1984: Michael Jackson’s _Thriller_ (!) 1985: Bruce Springsteen’s _Born in the U.S.A._ 1986: Whitney Houston’s _Whitney Houston_ 1987: Bon Jovi’s _Slippery When Wet_ 1988: George Michael’s _Faith_ 1989: Bobby Brown’s _Don’t Be Cruel_ ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/17 "2023-04-26T00:52:29Z")
1984 Tears For Fears / _Songs from the Big Chair_ ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/18 "2023-04-26T00:54:54Z")
1984 - Van Halen Brothers In Arms - Dire Straits I’ll also endorse Born In The USA. Thriller was a monster, mainly because of Quincy Jones’ production. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/19 "2023-04-26T01:00:01Z")
Madonna’s Like a Virgin. First album I bought with my own money. I am not ashamed! ---
**Author:** ![DoubleG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@DoubleG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoubleG)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/20 "2023-04-26T01:25:53Z")
Joshua Tree - U2 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184.md?page=2)