Recommendations of the Editorial team
It was the end – the end of the 1970s – and everyone was more than a little impatient to begin what would come next. Musically, the new decade began as if someone had fired a starter pistol.
It’s fitting that “London Calling” by The Clash, which is on our List of the best albums of 1980 is number one, is also number one on our list of the best albums of 1980. Listening to the albums that come next on the list, you can clearly feel how the past is being left behind to invent the future. Each style of music fragmented and evolved in ways that would have been difficult to imagine just a few years earlier. Specifically, punk and new wave, which evolved into synth-pop, post-punk, goth, the New Romantic movement, the two-tone ska revival, the beginnings of indie rock, and much more. Funk and disco were streamlined. Metal became harder, faster and sharper. Rap was born.
Meanwhile, the classic artists who shaped rock, country, and R&B continued to thrive, either responding to the changes around them (Pete Townshend, Genesis), staying true to their principles (Van Morrison, Neil Young), or becoming even weirder than they were in the ’70s (Bob Dylan).
The result was arguably the best year for great albums ever. If you went into a record store on October 8, 1980 and only had enough money for one record, you were faced with a difficult decision, because Prince’s “Dirty Mind” (number three) and Talking Heads’ “Remain in Light” (number four) were both released on the same day. This kind of consumer crisis happened all the time in 1980. July 18th was a particularly tough day for grumpy punk fans, who had to choose between Echo and the Bunnymen’s “Crocodiles” (#72) and Joy Division’s “Closer” (#10). Headbangers had a hard time on April 14th, the day Iron Maiden’s self-titled debut album (#41) and Judas Priest’s “British Steel” (#18) were released.
It was really hard to narrow our list down to 80 titles (sorry, Making Movies by Dire Straits and Give Me the Night by George Benson). But it was a joy to rediscover so much great, groundbreaking music.