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At the
height of the cold war, in the
decade that spawned MTV,
yuppies and Compact Discs, these were the albums
that ruled the charts
Any decade,
that could be dominated simultaneously
by hard rock
and rap is hard to characterize. But
one way to attempt it is by browsing the albums that made the greatest
impression on the public during those ten years.
Following
are the twenty-five albums that spent the
most time at Number One on american "Billboard" magazine's albums chart
during the Eighties. Comprising albums from Pink
Floyd to Bon Jovi, from Phil
Collins to Beastie Boys, it
is obviously far from enough to give a fair overview of the entire musical
evolution during the ten years, but it does provide an insight into what
in particular pleased a 1980s mass audience.
One trend
that seems to shine through is the mix of different styles and genres,
like Beastie Boys' crossover sound
from tough, AC/DC-inspired guitar to rap, which brought the hiphop-sound
to a new audience of white teenagers.
The
Eighties were also a time of crass comercialism and higly calculated marketing
efforts such as Whitney Houston and
Milli Vanilli, and one unifying element
still stands today: MTV.
The
music-video channel went on air in august 1981 via sattelite from U.S.A.
and was joined by MTV-Europe broadcasting from London in august 1987. For
better or worse it has since been an ever increasing factor of chartsuccess.
-Jacob
Top
25 albums of the 1980s
Michael
Jackson: Thriller
Prince
and the Revolution: Purple Rain
Dirty
Dancing Original Soundtrack
Police:
Synchronicity
REO
Speedwagon: Hi Infidelity
Men
At Work: Business As Usual
Pink
Floyd: The Wall
Whitney
Houston: Whitney Houston
George
Michael: Faith
Whitney
Houston: Whitney
Music
from ´Miami Vice´
Foreigner:
4
Footloose
Original Soundtrack
U2:
The Joshua Tree
Dire
Straits: Brothers In Arms
John
Cougar: American Fool
Asia:
Asia
Rolling
Stones: Tattoo You
Bon
Jovi: Slippery When Wet
John
Lennon and Yoko Ono: Double Fantasy
Bruce
Springsteen: Born In the U.S.A.
Phil
Collins: No Jacket Required
FIne
Young Cannibals: The Raw and the Cooked
Milli
Vanilli: Girl You Know It's True
The
Beastie Boys: Licensed to Ill
Sources: Billlboard OnLine,
various issues of Rolling Stone, Q, Vox, Mojo, NME, LIFE and TIME, the
Rolling Stone Record Guide, Verdensrock. |
