10 Perfect Pop Albums Of The 1980s

A lot of people like to think that the pop music that we know today got started as soon as the year 1980 began. As much as the '70s may have been fun, everything sounds so much more dated when you look back at the super stylized sounds of MTV. The early '80s were still firmly stuck in the last decade though, and it took one Purple musical alien to usher in the new generation of pop music.

Although Prince had arguably hit his stride years before 1983, Purple Rain is where the world go to see him for what he truly was, a virtuoso musician with an unreal sense of stage charisma. After having some hangups at MTV with studio execs hesitating to feature black artists, Prince kicked open the door with this album behind him, playing every single style that he knew how, from the sleek funk of Computer Blue to the arena rock sense of hype on Let's Go Crazy.

In between every single genre he dips his toes into, there are even some songs that could be a genre unto themselves, like the bassless sound of When Doves Cry, which remains one of the weirdest songs to ever receive major airtime on MTV. Tying everything up with the movie to put behind everything, Prince had the entire music world in the palm of his hand. The '80s may have been going on for a few years before this, but this is where the blockbuster '80s really started in earnest.