# 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:** 3
**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, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/41 "2023-04-26T11:22:45Z")
Although, it’s worth noting that one of the great things about the 80s musically is that so many legendary and/or successful acts of the 70s and 60s were still around (or made comebacks of a sort) and putting out new music. ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/42 "2023-04-26T11:30:20Z")
Theres a little slice of music that ranges about 79-81 that kind of doesn’t fit in either decade. Without looking up the dates, I’d say Genesis’s _Abacab_, Peter Gabriels _Security_, The Police’s _Ghost in the Machine._…I think _Breakfast in America_ fits nicely in there. As for MTV [Its Raining Again](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZUE4_PtOk0) ---
**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, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/43 "2023-04-26T12:03:55Z")
Diamond Life - Sade ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/44 "2023-04-26T12:44:22Z")
May I present a post which I created back in…Christ, August '20-- _ **almost 3 years ago??!?** _ Anyway, it’s about the Eighties-est **songs** , but the Eighties-est songs will be found on the Eighties-est albums: > [@What's the "Eighties-est" song?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-eighties-est-song/919247): > > Yes, this is clearly a ripoff of… ummm, I mean an homage to this thread: [‘What’s the “Seventies-est” song?’](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-seventies-est-song/533777). I enjoyed but didn’t reply to it, because my choice would have been “Chevy Van” which was already cited about 3 or more times by the time I got there. Anyway, I was watching ‘Tuff Turf’ on Amazon Prime last night, which is one of the eighties-est movies ever, and it had a very 80’s soundtrack, which got me wondering. I won’t require a specific genre for this, unlike the “Seventies-est s… ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/45 "2023-04-26T13:02:46Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > **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. I wore out two Footloose cassettes from playing them so much as a child. So I guess that’s my definitive 80s album ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/46 "2023-04-26T13:13:34Z")
Agreed. I was going to post just what EinsteinsHund said. If anything, Supertramp is a quintessential 70’s band - in style, sounds, looks, impact, success etc. After Breakfast In America, from 1979, they were close to a spent force. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/47 "2023-04-26T13:27:52Z")
Your list hits the gist, so to speak, and you clearly speak from authority (I was an 80’s kid, myself, with a keen interest in popular music). It seems there are two different approaches here with the replies. Plenty of acts mentioned, like AC/DC, ZZ Top, Guns n’ Roses, Dire Straits etc. did their biggest albums in the 80’s, sure, and were played everywhere. But do they define the 80’s, except to people who go back to those times when hearing these? They don’t really have the sounds or the styles of the 80’s, which is a big part of why they have endured. As great as they are, I can’t personally agree they define the 80’s. Then there are the acts / albums that SCREAM the 80’s, in having been wildly popular and current then, and having the production sheen, the echo’y drums, the very period-specific synth sounds, and the puffy, permy mullets that define the 80’s music, and only that. Madonna, Duran Duran, Def Leppard etc., to me, define the 1980’s. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/48 "2023-04-26T14:12:19Z")
The _Footloose_ soundtrack was the first soundtrack that sprang to mind for me as well. I do concur with @The_Other_Waldo_Pepper that GnR’s _Appetite for Destruction_ is pretty much one of the very top of the iconic rock albums of the 80s, along with Van Halen’s _1984_. _1984_ and Van Halen in general do scream 1980s, so that would be my #1 pick on the rock side of things for the rock album that defines the 1980s. U2’s _The Joshua Tree_ is one of the most celebrated and popular 1980s albums, but it doesn’t really _ **define** _ the decade- U2 didn’t look or sound particularly iconically 80s in the way that say… Madonna or David Lee Roth did. On the pop side of things, the top two would have to be Michael Jackson’s _Thriller_, and Madonna’s _Like a Virgin_. Those two albums were absolutely definitional as far as the decade goes in terms of albums. The thing is though, that typically it’s the singles that are most iconic, not the albums. I mean, people tend to think of Simple Minds’ “Don’t You Forget About Me” as an iconic 80s song, but nobody actually considers the album (_Breakfast Club Soundtrack_) as anything special. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/49 "2023-04-26T14:36:43Z")
Can’t Slow Down (Lionel Richie). At the 1984 Olympics closing ceremonies the only pop performance was Richie performing _All Night Long_. ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/50 "2023-04-26T15:09:40Z")
Tina Turner’s “Private Dancer” got a lot of airplay. SAW (Stock Aitken Waterman) were highly influential, too, although I can’t name any albums. ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/51 "2023-04-26T16:57:35Z")
The 70s were wildly different musically from the first half, coming down from the acid-drenched 60s, like a light switch, it was “easy listening” and lots of singer songwriters, and taking it easy with sunshine on our shoulders. Disco was a further departure. Punk was even yet a further departure from departure, but the 80s still featured “Corporate Rock” in a big way. Foreigner and REO Speedwagon, for two odious examples. Even now, there is an oldies station playing “More Than a Feeling” and “Hot Blooded” 20 times a day, interspersed with endless Public Service Announcements. Yum. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/52 "2023-04-26T17:09:49Z")
INXS - Kick (1987) had tons of hits, music videos, and radio play ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/53 "2023-04-26T17:13:29Z")
Remain In Light - Talking Heads ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/54 "2023-04-26T17:19:45Z")
Stop Making Sense by the Talking Heads, both the album and the concert video was the height of culture and professionalism in the 80’s. Maybe not everyones cup of tea, but it was flat out one of the greatest performances of all time, not just the 80’s. And I see that @Ike_Witt ninjaed me with a Talking Heads album while I was typing. Remain in the Light was great as well. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/55 "2023-04-26T17:22:17Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > The Clash _London Calling_ Did you check the copyright on the back? 1979! But of course one of _the_ albums of the 80s! And Einstürzende Neubauten „_Kollaps_“ or „_Zeichnungen des Patienten O.T._“ Prince, as mentioned, and also _Parade_. > [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > the 80s must include Depeche Mode and the Cure Fully agree! And Soft Cell’s _Tainted Love_ too! (What? A single is not an album?) Not my style, but Simply Red was played at every party I went for a while (time to go to the kitchen and grab a beer…). And Tracy Chapman, at the end of the decade (another beer?). And Bowie’s _Let’s Dance_, of course. Saw him in the Serious Moonlight Tour in the Waldbühne (cooooool!), in the Glass Spider Tour in front of the Reichstag (well, OK) and in some festival in Denmark (cooool again). ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/56 "2023-04-26T17:24:07Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Did you check the copyright on the back? 1979! But of course one of _the_ albums of the 80s! There’s a curiosity: It was released in December 1979 in the UK and January 1980 in the US. That’s why that album regularly turns up on both best albums of the 70s and 80s lists. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/57 "2023-04-26T17:35:08Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > in the Glass Spider Tour in front of the Reichstag (well, OK) Well, even if you liked it not as much as the other Bowie concerts, it was a historical event when two years before the fall of the Wall, thousands of East Berlin youths went near the Wall to listen and got of course pestered by Vopos and the Stasi. One of the first open and public signs of massive social unrest in the GDR. (of course you, @Pardel-Lux , know that, but I wanted to add an interesting historical point to the story) Here’s the story: [https://medium.com/@PaulDance\_/david-bowie-and-the-berlin-wall-how-one-concert-helped-change-history-d61dcb92bb79](https://medium.com/@PaulDance_/david-bowie-and-the-berlin-wall-how-one-concert-helped-change-history-d61dcb92bb79) ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/58 "2023-04-26T17:45:11Z")
Yes of course, but if you look at the picture in your article you see the problem with that concert: the stage was too low, the audience stood on a flat ground, the acoustics were atrocious. Politically and symbolically and all that I am with you all the way, only musically it was disappointing. Specially compared with the other performances in good settings. /hijack 😉 ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/59 "2023-04-26T17:51:11Z")
Yeah, I can believe that, I was at the Reichstag in the same year (as a mere tourist, not for a concert), and such a huge open field is always a crappy place for a concert acoustically. And if they really pointed the speakers somewhat Eastern as alleged, which was to the back of the stage, it was probably even worse. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184/60 "2023-04-26T17:53:56Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Anyway, it’s about the Eighties-est **songs** , but the Eighties-est songs will be found on the Eighties-est albums: The Eighties-est song ever is _I Believe in a Thing Called Love_ by The Darkness. Yeah, I know… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-which-define-the-1980s/983184.md?page=4)