The Top 22 Rock Bands Of The 1980s
The 1980s was a revolutionary year for music history, especially the rock music genre. Today, we are talking about an unforgettable period with legendary artists and bands who still make a name for themselves and continue to produce albums and give concerts.
The Best Rock Bands Of The 1980s
Many bands in this period inspired many artists after them and fundamentally shaped today’s understanding of rock music. In these times when we live in the 2020s, the artifacts revealed with the breezes of the 1980s salute the past and try to tell us how the future will be shaped.
In this article, we will share our selection of 22 rock music bands that were founded in the 1980s and left a lasting impact on music history. Let’s take a look at them together.
1. Guns N’ Roses
The USA-based rock music band Guns N’ Roses founded in 1985 with their debut album, Appetite For Destruction. The band is one of the rare bands that made their name known to the world with the first album.
This debut album reached No.1 in the US music charts one year after its release. This has the reputation of being the first best-selling album of a band or an artist in the USA, with 28 million copies sold all over the world and 18 million only in the USA.
Guns N’ Roses released their last album with the original line-up in 1993, “The Spaghetti Incident?“. After that there were many line-up changes, and they tried different things until their long-awaited and also the last album, “Chinese Democracy,” in 2008.
Guns N’ Roses have been talked about a lot throughout their careers and described as the most dangerous band in the world, have put their names on the unforgettable list with the images they have created and the works they have produced.
The band currently continues to perform live concerts in different countries.
2. Metallica
Metallica is the most legendary metal band ever, with albums and live concerts since the day they were showed up. Metallica is around 42 years old and is often considered the thrash metal that started with them.
Their first big success was with Metallica‘s third album, Master Of Puppets, one of the heaviest heavy metal albums ever. Each album has a different theme, taste, and style regarding lyrics, vocals, and instruments.
Metallica has released eleven studio albums. As of 2023, they sold more than 125 million albums worldwide and 58 million albums only in the United States. And this made the band one of the most commercially successful bands ever. Metallica has inspired many metal bands, and they are known as a thrash metal band and have pioneered the birth of many others, each of which is better.
3. Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen and his brother Alex Van Halen founded a legendary music band called Van Halen. On vocals, they had David Lee Roth between 1978-1986, Sammy Hagar between 1986-1996 and Extreme vocalist Gary Chreone between 1997-2000. And on the bass, Michael Anthony.
Their self-titled first album includes “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love” and “Eruption“, which are among the band’s greatest hits. These legends had amazing live performances. Eddie Van Halen was and still is one of the greatest guitarists of all time. All of the vocalists are famous people in their own carreers and made a huge impact on this genre.
Van Halen is a wonderfully entertaining band that you can’t get enough of listening to.
4. R.E.M.
R.E.M. band, which has one foot in the past and one foot in the future, and to which Kurt Cobain said, “I wish I could make music like them,” was founded in 1980.
R.E.M., which has a discography suitable for every mood, is one of the rare bands that can appeal to all kinds of audiences. They have written unforgettable songs such as Nightswimming, Everybody Hurts, Radio Free Europe, The One I Love, and their most well-known song, Losing My Religion.
After an incredible 31 years of legendary music career, excellent albums in their discography, and live concerts, the band decided to disband in 2011, touching the lives of countless fans worldwide.
5. Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi was formed in 1983 after signing a contract with Mercury Records, releasing their debut self-titled album the following year.
Their third album, Slippery When Wet in 1986, was their breakthrough, and they became well-known for songs like You Give Love a Bad Name and Livin’ on a Prayer.
Through the 90s, Bon Jovi kept their large following with their stadium concerts and gained a new generation of fans with the song It’s My Life and the album Crush after a five-year break with solo projects.
They are currently in the middle of creating a new record.
6. Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers whose first name was “Tony Flow And The Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem“, was founded in 1983. At the end of the same year, they signed a contract with a record company and then changed their name to Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Red Hot Chili Peppers released their debut album in 1984 with songs like “True Men Don’t Kill Coyotes” and “Get Up And Jump”. These songs convinced the fans that they would be one of the greatest.
Although the band has changed its line-up several times, they have produced records that are each more valuable than the other and have reached a large fan base worldwide throughout their career.
The band members are as precious and crazy as the albums. With their stage performances, they made a name for themselves also. Red Hot Chili Peppers is not just a band but an original concept. They have been releasing new albums serially in recent years.
7. Journey
Journey is one of the most original rock bands formed in 1973 by former members of Santana, Steve Miller Band, and Frumious Bandersnatch.
The band achieved their most remarkable commercial success when Steve Perry was the lead vocalist. They released a series of hit songs, including Don’t Stop Believin’, which became one of the best-selling songs in iTunes history among songs not released in the 21st century.
Journey‘s seventh and most successful album Escape, peaked at number one on the Billboard 200. Their worldwide sales exceed 80 million copies, making them one of the world’s best-selling bands of all time. Also in 2005, USA Today ranked the band the fifth-best US rock band in history.
8. Whitesnake
Whitesnake is an English rock band founded by David Coverdale after leaving Deep Purple. In the early years, they were making blues rock-oriented sounds. But from the mid-1980s, they turned to more commercial hard rock sound and began to make a name for themselves in hard rock.
After the 1989 album Slip of the Tongue, Coverdale took a break and put the band on hold until 2003. Then he announced a new lineup for Whitesnake to celebrate the band’s 25th anniversary.
Topics are primarily about love and sex in their songs. Almost all of the albums include one or more songs with “love” in the title. The band was heavily criticized by the press for sex-themed songs such as Slide It In, Slow an’ Easy, and Spit It Out.
Whitesnake was also nominated as Best British Group at the 1988 Brit Awards. Nowadays, they are performing from time to time and they released a remix and remastered album called Still Good To Be Bad on April 2023.
9. Skid Row
Skid Row founded in 1986 and made a rapid entry into the rock genre. And, with their self-titled first album Skid Row and their second album Slave To The Grind.
With these two amazing albums, they achieved big commercial success including record sales, certificates, and good places on the Billboard 200 list with songs like “18 And Life”, “I Remember You,” “Youth Gone Wild,” “Monkey Business,” “Slave To The Grind” and many more epic songs.
It was a really big deal to achieve such success just in the beginning of a band, but this didn’t last long. They released the third album in 1995 and could not achieve the success of the previous ones. This was the last album with the original line-up.
In the end of 1996, the excellent vocal Sebastian Bach and drummer Rob Affuso left the band and turned to their solo careers. The band reformed in 1999 and have been producing music since then with different line-ups.
10. Aerosmith
Although Aerosmith was founded in the 70s and released albums since then, they regained their popularity in the 80s with “Walk This Way” and “Permanend Vacation”.
Aerosmith won numerous awards in the 80s and 90s and made their names known to millions of people with the largest-scale concert tours. They also released Guitar Hero: Aerosmith in 2008, the best-selling band-centric game of all time.
With the albums and concerts they have performed since the day they were founded, Aerosmith has become the best-selling American hard rock band of all time.
Aerosmith will complete its career at the top with their farewell tour called Peace Out: The Farewell Tour, which will last throughout 2023-2024.
11. KISS
KISS formed at the beginning of the 70s and became an icon with their theatrical performances and makeup personas.
The band managed to adapt and evolve with the changes in music during the 80s, and they released a series of successful albums like “Unmasked,” “Lick It Up,” and “Asylum.” These albums managed to hit top charts and brought the band commercial success.
One of the biggest surprises during the 80s was the band’s significant move by removing their trademark makeup and revealing their faces to the public. This attracted a new generation of fans.
Beyond musical success, they influenced the Hair Metal genre, and also they created a vast merchandising empire like action figures, comic books, and even their own comics.
Kiss is not just a music band but a big organization.
12. Heart
Being a female is hard for many women, but being a female in a male-dominated music industry is way harder. These two sisters from Heart, Ann and Nancy Wilson, stayed strong and proved that women can also do great things as men. They inspired and gave strength to all of their fans.
In the 80s era, Heart changed their style a bit and made softer, radio-friendly rock music and released albums like “Bebe le Strange” and ” Private Audition” to adapt their music to changing musical landscape.
During the decade, they released several chart-topping hits, including “What About Love”, “These Dreams,” and “Alone.”
13. Queen
Queen, one of the greatest bands of all time, formed in 1970, but as everybody knows, they are still with us with the musical legacy that they created.
Their style varies from rock to pop, opera, and more so they could manage to create albums that resounded with each timeline of this music genre. During the decade, they released some of their iconic hits like “Another One Bites The Dust,” “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” and “Under Pressure.” These hits became anthems for the people.
One of Queen‘s most legendary live performances took place at the Live Aid concert in 1985. This show is considered as one of the greatest live acts in rock history.
The most specific force them to dominate the industry was Freddie Mercury‘s vocals and frontmanship style. His style was unique and made Queen a legendary band.
14. ZZ Top
ZZ Top is one of the iconic bands, along with many others but their style with beards and sunglasses, everybody can identify them at first time.
In 1983, they released the “Eliminator” album, a game-changer for ZZ Top. They tried to incorporate synth with their music and created hits like “Gimme All Your Lovin'” and “Sharp Dressed Man”. These songs dominated the lists for a long time.
Their blend of blues and modern sounds helped them to fill the gap between traditional rock and pop music. ZZ Top’s unique sound and look influenced other artists and left a huge mark on this era.
15. Blondie
Blondie is another female-fronted rock band and has been on stage since the 70s.
The band released albums such as “Autoamerican” and “The Hunter” in 80s with hit songs like “The Tide Is High” and “Rapture”. With these songs, they achieved big success.
Blondie was also the pioneer of new visual aesthetics of music videos. Videos for “Rapture” and “Atomic” influenced the development of MTV era. Also Debbie Harry‘s style combined with her stage performance, made her an icon.
16. Ratt
Ratt formed in the early 80s and played an important role in shaping the musical style of the decade, especially in glam metal.
Like all the others, they scored hit songs like “Round and Round,” “Lay It Down” and “You’re In Love” during the time and proved their ability to create guitar-based anthems of the glam metal genre.
With melodic vocals, exceptional guitar skills, and memorable solos, energetic and visual live performances made Ratt a special band.
17. Hall & Oates
Pop-rock duo Hall & Oates from USA played a lead role in music with their tunes blended with rock, pop, soul, and R&B.
Hit songs like “Kiss on My List,” “Private Eyes,” and “Maneater” proved their skills to surpass genre boundaries, made them a special band, and created a fan base across the world.
Daryl Hall’s smooth voice John Oates‘ songwriting skills led them to achieve the success and create timeless hit songs.
18. The Cars
The Cars was another band formed in the 70s but made an impact in the 80s significantly.
Their self-titled debut album was a big sign of the decade’s sound, combining rock and new wave elements with synths. Songs like “Drive,” “Shake It Up,” and “You Might Think” not only dominated the wave style but also set a standard for the fusion of rock and new wave.
They were among the first bands to fully consider the potential of music videos and created visually innovative videos for that time.
Their ability to combine catchy pop sounds and modern sounds inspired countless artists, and this helped The Cars to stay one of the important bands of all time.
19. Mötley Crüe
Along with Ratt, Mötley Crüe was also a pioneering force in glam metal.
During 80s, they released a series of successful albums like “Shout At The Devil”, ” Theatre of Pain” and “Girls, Girls, Girls”. Three albums in a decade was an amazing job for a band since there were many many other great bands around.
Mötley Crüe‘s rebellious image was fueled by their characters and created their reputation along with the hit albums. In addition to all those elements, their pyrotechnics and theatrical stage performances delivered unforgettable memories for the fans.
Mötley Crüe was one of the biggest bands that made the people feel the spirit of the era.
20. The Police
Another British rock band that was incredibly important during the 80s was The Police.
A mixture of rock, punk, reggae, and new wave was ahead of its time. Sting’s vocal skills was influential on the evolving The Police‘s music style.
Their album “Synchronicity” in 1983 and one of the greatest hits of the band “Every Breath You Take” was a defining moment of the most listened albums in rock history.
The Police‘s approach to music continues to influence artists across all genres.
21. Dire Straits
Dire Straits was a remarkable band of rock and all kinds of music genres.
The band’s music was characterized by Mark Knopfler‘s virtuoso guitar work and only finer-picking style. They achieved massive success with the album “Brothers in Arms” in 1985. It included hits like “Money For Nothing” and “Walk Of Life,” both topped the charts.
Along with their musical identity, there were many other special elements in their career. “Money For Nothing” featured one of the earliest and most memorable music videos with its computer-animated characters. Also, “Brothers In Arms” was one of the first albums to be released on CD. This showed the band’s willingness to embrace new technology.
Although many who know the band identify with the song Sultans of Swing, Dire Straits managed to influence fans in the 80s and beyond.
22. Rush
Rush is the only Canadian band in the list composed of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart (RIP), who maintained their place in the musical scene, pushed the boundaries and inspired millions of people.
They released “Permanent Waves” and “Moving Pictures” albums during the 80s and enjoyed commercial success with hits like “The Spirit of Radio,” “Tom Sawyer,” and “Limelight”.
Drummer and lyricist Neil Peart‘s poetic and provoking lyrics became a hallmark of Rush‘s music. Themes like individualism, philosophy, and science created specific qualities in progressive rock.
As you see, each of those rock bands is important for music history. Many of them were recognized before and after the 80s. But all of them and others not on this list greatly impact this decade’s style.
We know many other great bands can be on the list, but as always, these are our choices. What do you think about our rock music bands of 1980s choices? Let us know in the comment section.
Stay strong, keep rocking!