If the 1970s was the decade that rock came of age, then the 1980s was the era when it truly spread its wings.
Those 10 insanely fertile years saw the emergence of countless brilliant bands who would go on to change the course of music – and a few brilliant ones who didn’t. Factor in the emergence of the CD, and it suddenly felt like everything was up for grabs.
Among the many thousands of albums released throughout the 1980s were some truly classic debuts – ones that would launch the bands that made them to stardom, or some cases cult-dom.
Our job here is to boil down all those fantastic opening salvos to the 10 best debut albums – specifically one for each year of the decade.
You might notice that some familiar names are absent – the likes of Ozzy, Dio and many others are missing. The reason is simple: their debuts may have been great, but there were other, even greater debut albums released the same year.
Here, then, are the greatest debut albums from every year of the 1970s.
