50 Great Albums Celebrating Their 30th Anniversary in 2011
A collection of 50 classic albums that celebrated their 30th anniversary in 2011.
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Although our debut issue was published in July 1980, the following year remains remarkable in the annals of Guitar World, as it was the magazine's first full year of publication.
And it's a pretty good thing we were around; it was a banner year for rock music and the electric guitar. Disco was dead. Country hadn't gone pop yet. And alternative? Still 10 years away from being mainstream.
Yes, rock was in full reign in 1981. Of course, there were some great jazz and blues releases -- Jaco Pastorius' Word of Mouth and B.B. King's There Must Be A Better World Somewhere, for example.
But take a look at even a handful of the albums featured in the photo gallery below -- classics like Van Halen's Fair Warning, Rush's Moving Pictures, Ozzy Osbourne's Diary of a Madman and Iron Maiden's Killers -- and there's no denying it was a good time to be a hard rock fanatic.
For more great albums celebrating their 30th anniversary this year, check out the gallery below. And for more anniversaries, check out our galleries of classic albums from 1971 and 1991.
And don't forget to let us if we left your favorite off the list.
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redspecial
December 06, 2011 at 10:16am
Now really, The Elder and Special Forces - classic albums? Where is In God We Trust EP by Dead Kennedys? The Stray Cats' debut? El Rayo-X by David Lindley? Punk's Not Dead by the Exploited? Talk Talk Talk by the Psychedelic Furs? Wha'happen by the Beat? Beauty and The Beat by The Go-go's? Bella Donna by Stevie Knicks? Still by Joy Division? Burning Blue Soul by Matt Johnson/The The? Freeze Frame by the J.Geils Band? Don't Stop by Billy Idol? Queen's Greatest Hits I (yup it is a compilation but this album turns out to be one of the most beloved albums of that year by so many millions of people)? Business As Usual by Men at Work? The Blasters' debut?
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foshizol
December 05, 2011 at 2:32pm
Come on, really? You guys are really pushing it with fifty why didn't you just limit it to ten. There are only 10 great albums here. But let me point out the worst album.
When I was 13 years old I thought Alice Cooper's Flush The Fashion and Special Forces where awesome albums. Well no one agreed with me including Alice Cooper who claims to not even remember making those albums. Of course I was 13 so I was an idiot and listing to those albums now I realize how much they sucked. It sounds like he was phoning it in through a haze of whiskey and blow.
There is no way that Special Forces is a classic album.





















