Pitchfork - The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s

I own seven of these albums..not an 80s guy I guess.

 

Some people are getting quite carried away here

 

Influence isn't the ONLY factor, just a factor. But it's a significant factor, and if your experiment was to actually happen, it would result in the albums of that weekend being of inherently less importance than the albums of previous years.

 

Right, so you'd have to rate them all fairly low?

Also, if you were writing reviews for a magazine, so that reviews had to be done in a timely manner, you'd never rate anything highly, because the album is automatically less important for not having influenced anything yet?

 

Elvis could sing. And Elvis was Elvis.

 

No Bryan Ferry?
No Midnight Oil?
No Oingo BOINGO !?!?

 

No not necessarily. Influence is an important factor in a retrospective review, but far from the only one.
The thing is, it's pop/rock music. It's impossible to judge these albums "purely on their musical merits" because they barely have any.

 

I think it’s incredibly hard to compile a list like this. I would have a tough time, honestly, ranking 200 albums in an order even I could agree with myself. Still, the 80’s with no Police, Journey, Petty, Squire, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard and many others... Like any attempt at such a list, it’s as auspicious for it’s omissions as it’s inclusions. Just depends on who you ask.

 

"Not necessarily" doesn't cohere with "inherently less important," unless importance isn't necessarily a factor in rating/ranking, in which case you were throwing out a red herring rather than answering the question I asked. In other words, you would have been focusing only on a metric that need not have any affect on one's rating/ranking.

At any rate "it's pop/rock music. It's impossible to judge these albums 'purely on their musical merits' because they barely have any"? I'm just curious, for one, that if you feel that way, why would you be spending time on a board that devotes so much time to discussing pop-rock music?

 

If I was going to the moon with only 1.000 records, any record on this list would go with me...and the only one on the list that I would miss would be Ace of spades by Motorhead...

 

I'm starting to think the eighties is the underrated decade. I'm finding I'm listening to the 1980s music more than the 1960s.

 

Didn't see Redd Kross - Neurotica (1987) in there. Pitchfork reviewers always seem like trend-chasing squares to me.

 

Me too. I grew up in the 80's and hated the music. Loved the 60's back then.
Just shows I'm 20 or 30 years behind the times
Partly this is due to me picking up cheap but well mastered CD's from the 80's.

 

This decade will be underrated in 40 years from now.

 

80s? 1960s Ruled

 

I hated 90 percent of these.

 

Glammy/hair metal ruled the charts in the 80s and there's not one here (no, GnR doesn't count). Heck, Quiet Riot bounced Thriller from Billboards's number one. (not that QR deserves to be here but others do) That & zero from Petty & Police is a head-scratcher.

 

I think it's just trendy to listen to retro 80s music for a certain demographic living in urban metropolitan cities. For those of us that lived in the 80s, there was a lot of cheese and crap.
The 80s changed a lot. There is a big difference between early 80s pop and late 80s pop and trends. I still cringe when I hear Bon Jovi hits from late 80s. I also cringe when hear Buck Fizz.



My own personal view on 80s is that in the early 80s (new wave e.t.c) there was a lot of experimentation in pop music that was a direct result of new technology and dropping prices (comparatively to 70s) of technology in music and artists and producers were using it and it somehow found it's way into top 40 charts.

I agree with this. Just waiting to see the Drake revival when I am in a old folks home one day.

 

What do you mean? I dont get it. Petty partnered with Dave Stewart and released some very good records and the Police were defunct by 84 but Sting release some of the best pop jazz records in the 80s.

 

Can't believe I watched that video just for the gimmick.

 

I think he meant that Petty or the Police didn't make Pitchfork's list?

 

Some good points. I do think that every decade has it's fair amount of cheese and outright garbage, but I think the '80's had more than it's fair share--and I think you're spot on that the increased availability of more affordable new technology is a big reason why.
Also, MTV had a visual impact that makes watching a lot of '80's videos a truly cringe-inducing experience these days.

Yes, there was some great music that was created in the '80's--even in the much maligned late new wave style--but you just have to look harder for it than you do for other decades.

 

Yes, MTV I guess did make a very big impact. Sometimes I wonder whether bands like Spandau Ballet or ABC or Duran Duran would have been as big as they did without the visuals. Who knows.

I have developed a new appreciation for some bands from the 80s which I dismissed back then as a bunch of posers. The Trevor Horn productions and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Human League, Thomas Dolby, Pet Shop Boys.. quite innovative records when you think about it. Also the Laurie Latham productions with Paul Young et la.

But ultimately, I like to view that music as a little slice of history that existed at one point but is long gone and not important anymore. It's good for a good old dwabble in nostalgia land -- but not good to stay in it too long.

 

I'm saying there's no Police (Synchronicity - Ghost in the Machine) or Petty represented in this list, which is just silly.

 

No Steve Windwood or Stevie Ray.