Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s
by 
Romanelli 
- Chart updated: 10/28/2025 21:15
- (Created: 12/04/2011 20:38).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
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Produced by Mark Van Hecke. The Violent Femmes were discovered playing outside of a venue by Pretenders guitarist James Honeyman-Scott in 1981. They've gone on to record many albums and have levels of success, but nothing has ever matched the magic of their debut album. When they were on, they made acoustic punk a reality, and never better than on "Blister In The Sun", "Gone Daddy Gone" and "Add It Up". Their legacy rests mostly on this exceptional classic album that made the music of the 80's much more bearable.
[First added to this chart: 12/10/2011]
Year of Release:
1983
Appears in:
Rank Score:
8,119
Rank in 1983:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
76
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1983-IRS
Produced By MITCH EASTER & DON DIXON
1. Radio Free Europe
2. Pilgrimage
3. Laughing
4. Talk About The Passion
5. Moral Kiosk
6. Perfect Circle
7. Catapult
8. Sitting Still
9. 9-9
10. Shaking Through
11. We Walk
12. West Of The Fields
In a way that was not as loud, shocking, or outwardly visible, Murmer, the first album from R.E.M., did to classic rock what Nirvana's Nevermind did to 80's metal. This is the birth of what would become a whole branch of alternative rock. Leading the way was "Radio Free Europe", which had been released as a single two years earlier. Murmer is full of songs and sounds that were unheard of in 1983. Peter Buck's guitar work (no solos allowed) was fresh and new, and Michael Stipe's lyrics were strange and cryptic...when they could be understood. All together, Murmer was a unique album, and although it sold almost nothing, it would go on to become a classic. And for good reason. This is a great album.
R.E.M. would have to wait until 1986 to have any kind of mainstream success, but by that time, their sound was starting to take hold. They broke up in 2011, but what they were in the beginning shouldn't be forgotten. Murmer is simply a fantastic album. [First added to this chart: 12/12/2011]
Produced By MITCH EASTER & DON DIXON
1. Radio Free Europe
2. Pilgrimage
3. Laughing
4. Talk About The Passion
5. Moral Kiosk
6. Perfect Circle
7. Catapult
8. Sitting Still
9. 9-9
10. Shaking Through
11. We Walk
12. West Of The Fields
In a way that was not as loud, shocking, or outwardly visible, Murmer, the first album from R.E.M., did to classic rock what Nirvana's Nevermind did to 80's metal. This is the birth of what would become a whole branch of alternative rock. Leading the way was "Radio Free Europe", which had been released as a single two years earlier. Murmer is full of songs and sounds that were unheard of in 1983. Peter Buck's guitar work (no solos allowed) was fresh and new, and Michael Stipe's lyrics were strange and cryptic...when they could be understood. All together, Murmer was a unique album, and although it sold almost nothing, it would go on to become a classic. And for good reason. This is a great album.
R.E.M. would have to wait until 1986 to have any kind of mainstream success, but by that time, their sound was starting to take hold. They broke up in 2011, but what they were in the beginning shouldn't be forgotten. Murmer is simply a fantastic album. [First added to this chart: 12/12/2011]
Year of Release:
1983
Appears in:
Rank Score:
10,179
Rank in 1983:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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[First added to this chart: 03/13/2013]
Year of Release:
1983
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,518
Rank in 1983:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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[First added to this chart: 02/27/2015]
Year of Release:
1983
Appears in:
Rank Score:
5,583
Rank in 1983:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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[First added to this chart: 07/21/2014]
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1983 – A&M
Produced By DON BARNES, JEFF CARLISI & RODNEY MILLS
1. If I’d Been The One
2. Back Where You Belong
3. One Time For Old Times
4. See Me In Your Eyes
5. Twentieth Century Fox
6. Long Distance Affair
7. I Oughta Let Go
8. One Of The Lonely Ones
9. Undercover Lover
Once upon a time, there was a Southern rock band called 38 Special. They were from Florida, and boasted as their lead singer Donnie Van Zant, the brother of legendary Lynyrd Skynyrd frontman Ronnie Van Zant. Their three albums in the 1970’s were straight ahead Southern rock fare, but with the dawn of the eighties, something changed. With each album in the decade, the band abandoned a bit more of their Southern roots and became more of a straightforward arena rock act. It made them more popular, which they rode through the eighties, but by the end of the decade, their sound had become so homogenized and hit oriented that they were barely even a rock band anymore. Which is too bad, because they had the ingredients to be a great Southern rock act.
Tour De Force is their sixth album, and their third of the eighties. It is a picture of what 38 Special was becoming. The record opens with a pair of hits: “If I’d Been The One” and “Back Where You Belong” are solid enough rockers, and kept the band on the arena circuit. The band continued to rock through most of the rest with average results…but even rocking is something they would abandon fairly soon. All in the name of making hits. The songwriting on Tour De Force is average at best, but at least they still sound like their hearts are in it. Eventually their star faded in the nineties, and they’ve not released an album since 2004’s Drivetrain. Van Zant left the band in 2013 with an inner ear injury, leaving Don Barnes as the only remaining original member. Coming soon to a bar near you. [First added to this chart: 09/28/2024]
Produced By DON BARNES, JEFF CARLISI & RODNEY MILLS
1. If I’d Been The One
2. Back Where You Belong
3. One Time For Old Times
4. See Me In Your Eyes
5. Twentieth Century Fox
6. Long Distance Affair
7. I Oughta Let Go
8. One Of The Lonely Ones
9. Undercover Lover
Once upon a time, there was a Southern rock band called 38 Special. They were from Florida, and boasted as their lead singer Donnie Van Zant, the brother of legendary Lynyrd Skynyrd frontman Ronnie Van Zant. Their three albums in the 1970’s were straight ahead Southern rock fare, but with the dawn of the eighties, something changed. With each album in the decade, the band abandoned a bit more of their Southern roots and became more of a straightforward arena rock act. It made them more popular, which they rode through the eighties, but by the end of the decade, their sound had become so homogenized and hit oriented that they were barely even a rock band anymore. Which is too bad, because they had the ingredients to be a great Southern rock act.
Tour De Force is their sixth album, and their third of the eighties. It is a picture of what 38 Special was becoming. The record opens with a pair of hits: “If I’d Been The One” and “Back Where You Belong” are solid enough rockers, and kept the band on the arena circuit. The band continued to rock through most of the rest with average results…but even rocking is something they would abandon fairly soon. All in the name of making hits. The songwriting on Tour De Force is average at best, but at least they still sound like their hearts are in it. Eventually their star faded in the nineties, and they’ve not released an album since 2004’s Drivetrain. Van Zant left the band in 2013 with an inner ear injury, leaving Don Barnes as the only remaining original member. Coming soon to a bar near you. [First added to this chart: 09/28/2024]
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1983 – SIRE
Produced By TALKING HEADS
1. Burning Down The House
2. Making Flippy Floppy
3. Girlfriend Is Better
4. Slippery People
5. I Get Wild: Wild Gravity
6. Swamp
7. Moon Rocks
8. Pull Up The Roots
9. This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody)
For their fifth album, Talking Heads went at it without producer Brian Eno, with interesting results. Speaking In Tongues turned out to be their breakthrough album, boasting hit singles and fine dance beats throughout. Strangely enough, the cassette version was the one to have…it’s six minutes longer with extended versions of the better songs. The LP and CD versions are shorter, but that’s okay…this is still a pretty fine album. David Byrne is at his quirkiest, Jerry Harrison plays some really funky guitar, and the rhythm section of Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz is as tight as can be. There are also a lot of synthesizers, but to their credit, they don’t crowd the album and the sound is not your typical eighties cheese. Leaving plenty of room for groove.
And groove is what Speaking In Tongues does. The first three songs are glorious, made up of everything that made this a great band. “Burning Down The House” is an irresistible dance hit. “Making Flippy Floppy” is weird and amazing as the title suggests, and “Girlfriend Is Better” is just a fantastic song. But that’s not all there is to this. “Swamp” is all quirky goodness, and “This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody)” is one of their very finest songs. But there’s a significant drop after that…the other four songs, while upbeat and danceable, are also pretty forgettable. Their previous album, Remain In Light, was a tough act to follow, and they did a pretty good job of that. The live Stop Making Sense was next, and things started to slowly unravel…Talking Heads were done five years later. This is one of their better albums. Quirky, imperfect, and glorious. [First added to this chart: 10/19/2025]
Produced By TALKING HEADS
1. Burning Down The House
2. Making Flippy Floppy
3. Girlfriend Is Better
4. Slippery People
5. I Get Wild: Wild Gravity
6. Swamp
7. Moon Rocks
8. Pull Up The Roots
9. This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody)
For their fifth album, Talking Heads went at it without producer Brian Eno, with interesting results. Speaking In Tongues turned out to be their breakthrough album, boasting hit singles and fine dance beats throughout. Strangely enough, the cassette version was the one to have…it’s six minutes longer with extended versions of the better songs. The LP and CD versions are shorter, but that’s okay…this is still a pretty fine album. David Byrne is at his quirkiest, Jerry Harrison plays some really funky guitar, and the rhythm section of Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz is as tight as can be. There are also a lot of synthesizers, but to their credit, they don’t crowd the album and the sound is not your typical eighties cheese. Leaving plenty of room for groove.
And groove is what Speaking In Tongues does. The first three songs are glorious, made up of everything that made this a great band. “Burning Down The House” is an irresistible dance hit. “Making Flippy Floppy” is weird and amazing as the title suggests, and “Girlfriend Is Better” is just a fantastic song. But that’s not all there is to this. “Swamp” is all quirky goodness, and “This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody)” is one of their very finest songs. But there’s a significant drop after that…the other four songs, while upbeat and danceable, are also pretty forgettable. Their previous album, Remain In Light, was a tough act to follow, and they did a pretty good job of that. The live Stop Making Sense was next, and things started to slowly unravel…Talking Heads were done five years later. This is one of their better albums. Quirky, imperfect, and glorious. [First added to this chart: 10/19/2025]
Year of Release:
1983
Appears in:
Rank Score:
5,103
Rank in 1983:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 7. Page 1 of 1
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Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s composition
| Year | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
|
|
| 1980 | 14 | 14% | |
| 1981 | 7 | 7% | |
| 1982 | 11 | 11% | |
| 1983 | 7 | 7% | |
| 1984 | 8 | 8% | |
| 1985 | 5 | 5% | |
| 1986 | 10 | 10% | |
| 1987 | 11 | 11% | |
| 1988 | 14 | 14% | |
| 1989 | 13 | 13% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
 |
|
|
| Talking Heads | 3 | 3% | |
| Bruce Springsteen | 3 | 3% | |
| R.E.M. | 3 | 3% | |
| X (US) | 3 | 3% | |
| U2 | 3 | 3% | |
| The Jesus And Mary Chain | 2 | 2% | |
| AC/DC | 2 | 2% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s chart changes
| Biggest climbers |
|---|
| Up 2 from 33rd to 31st Pleased To Meet Me by The Replacements |
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 1 from 31st to 32nd This Is The Voice by Agent Orange |
| Down 1 from 32nd to 33rd Surfer Rosa by Pixies |
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Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s ratings
84/100 (from 29 votes)
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this chart. | Show all 29 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 80/100  | 02/06/2025 15:30 | BorderFreeAndrew | | 81/100 |
| 85/100 | 01/31/2025 14:12 |  SomethingSpecial | | 85/100 |
| 70/100 | 01/23/2022 16:11 |  IlMala | | 95/100 |
| 80/100 | 10/22/2020 01:13 | leniad | | 85/100 |
| 85/100 | 09/05/2020 14:13 | MasterOfPuppets | | 91/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some charts can have several thousand ratings)
This chart has a Bayesian average rating of 83.9/100, a mean average of 81.4/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 83.2/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 13.4.
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80/100
From BorderFreeAndrew 02/06/2025 15:33
Nice to see Adam Ant's "Friend or Foe" so high (a seriously underrated album), along with several other forgotten classics that tend to be ignored when most people make an 80's chart.
#307441 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
80/100
From leniad 10/22/2020 01:13
Respect
#259555 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
70/100
From 0129114 06/24/2020 03:52
some solid picks m8.
#254351 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
80/100
From 
Liedzeit 11/24/2018 10:49
Liedzeit 11/24/2018 10:49
It is nice to see an 80s chart as chart of the day for a change. And what a pathetic decade it was if even someone like you who obviously knows a lot of stuff cannot come up with better records than these. TW are okay but as no. 1? The first decent LP enters at place 23, in my opinion.
#225586 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
90/100
From 
ForegroundNoise 11/24/2018 09:24
ForegroundNoise 11/24/2018 09:24
Really like your notes!!
#225581 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From 
buzzdainer 07/16/2016 15:13
buzzdainer 07/16/2016 15:13
I love your take on the eighties! I really appreciate your #1 pick, as supergroups tend to be written off as inferior to the works of their individual members--an assumption that the Traveling Wilburys blew out of the water. Full Moon Fever, Disintegration, Doolittle, and The River are all great albums, too. Also really nice to see Blue Earth in your top ten, as I've been a huge fan of the Jayhawks for many years and love that album. Excellent work overall, especially on your notes!
#171403 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
85/100
From BraddlesHendo 12/01/2014 14:31
Great albums I guess some I wouldn't play so much. We have quite a few similar choices
#128418 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
75/100
From 
tgarritsen 01/13/2014 15:59
tgarritsen 01/13/2014 15:59
Interesting number one pick.
#100555 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
85/100
From guigs13 01/10/2013 01:33
Nice chart!
#60879 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From davidhuret 12/11/2012 09:04
Good choice at #1.
#57461 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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| Best Ever Artists | |
|---|---|
| 1. The Beatles | |
| 2. Radiohead | |
| 3. Pink Floyd | |
| 4. David Bowie | |
| 5. Bob Dylan | |
| 6. Led Zeppelin | |
| 7. The Rolling Stones | |
| 8. Arcade Fire | |
| 9. Nirvana | |
| 10. The Velvet Underground | |
| 11. Neil Young | |
| 12. Kendrick Lamar | |
| 13. Miles Davis | |
| 14. The Smiths | |
| 15. The Beach Boys | |
| 16. R.E.M. | |
| 17. Kanye West | |
| 18. Pixies | |
| 19. Bruce Springsteen | |
| 20. Jimi Hendrix |
