Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Four represented an interesting crossroads in music.
In the underground, there was a fascinating musical stew brewing. Black Flag had turned their back on the ultra-influential, hyper-speed hardcore that had made them famous and turned to sludge metal. Husker Du were writing pop songs buried in layers of noise. Minutemen were a politically conscious funk-punk band with songs that frequently skirted under two minutes.
Prince broke boundaries and records with Purple Rain, an album that merged funk, R&B, soul, disco and rock into one irresistible combination. Bruce Springsteen turned to synthesizers and simplified messages for his own blockbuster album, Born In the USA, a record that sawed off the more difficult-to-grasp edges of his previous masterpieces.
Pink Floyd had essentially fallen apart (so David Gilmour and Roger Waters released solo albums), the Rolling Stones were at a creative low point, while Led Zeppelin and the Who had called it quits earlier in the decade. Their struggles left a gaping chasm at the center of rock, and bands of all kinds from a myriad of increasingly splintered sub-genres raced to fill it in.
Meanwhile, Stevie Ray Vaughan released his second album, and Johnny Winter was burning up the fretboard over at Alligator Records.
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Four didn’t bring the sort of apocalyptic world promised by George Orwell, but it did bring a year of absolutely fascinating music! Enjoy the photo gallery below. Remember you can click on each photo to take a closer look.
NOTE: As we say every year, this list is presented in no particular order. Once again, it is presented in no particular order. None.
Enjoy! (P.S.: There might actually be 51 albums in the gallery. Hope you don't mind!)
