Best Albums of the 1980s

Listed below are the best albums of the 1980s as calculated from their overall rankings in over 57,000 greatest album charts.

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summaryThe best artists of the 1980s were The Smiths, Prince, Pixies, The Cure, Talking Heads, U2, Metallica, Kate Bush, R.E.M. and The Stone Roses.
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Collector's summary (top 416) (filtered)Log in or register to discover the great albums that are missing from your music collection!

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Buy album United States
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Year of Release:
1986
Appears in:
Rank Score:
34,256
Rank in 1986:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Year of Release:
1989
Appears in:
Rank Score:
26,296
Rank in 1989:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Year of Release:
1989
Appears in:
Rank Score:
23,261
Rank in 1989:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Year of Release:
1985
Appears in:
Rank Score:
18,252
Rank in 1985:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Year of Release:
1980
Appears in:
Rank Score:
15,335
Rank in 1980:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Year of Release:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
10,326
Rank in 1988:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Year of Release:
1984
Appears in:
Rank Score:
8,045
Rank in 1984:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Year of Release:
1985
Appears in:
Rank Score:
7,172
Rank in 1985:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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  • #Sponsored
Year of Release:
1986
Appears in:
Rank Score:
7,059
Rank in 1986:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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  • eBay
  • iTunes
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  • #Sponsored
Year of Release:
1983
Appears in:
Rank Score:
6,487
Rank in 1983:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 416. Page 1 of 42

Best Albums of the 1980s composition

Year Albums %


1980 118 12%
1981 120 12%
1982 106 11%
1983 98 10%
1984 102 10%
1985 83 8%
1986 95 10%
1987 85 9%
1988 98 10%
1989 95 10%
Artist Albums %


The Cure 10 1%
Iron Maiden 8 1%
Depeche Mode 8 1%
The Smiths 8 1%
Rush 8 1%
U2 7 1%
The Fall 7 1%
Show all
Country Albums %


United Kingdom 416 42%
United States 389 39%
Australia 40 4%
Mixed Nationality 27 3%
Canada 23 2%
Germany 21 2%
Argentina 11 1%
Show all
Compilation? Albums %
No 965 97%
Yes 35 4%
Live? Albums %
No 977 98%
Yes 23 2%
Soundtrack? Albums %
No 988 99%
Yes 12 1%
Best Artists of 1995
1. Radiohead
2. Oasis
3. The Smashing Pumpkins
4. Pulp
5. Björk
6. GZA/Genius
7. Alanis Morissette
8. PJ Harvey
9. Elliott Smith
10. Mobb Deep
11. Pavement
12. Foo Fighters
13. Garbage
14. Raekwon
15. Tricky
16. The Flaming Lips
17. No Doubt
18. Death (Metal)
19. Blur
20. Guided By Voices
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