1975

The year 1975 was a year of classic and epic rock albums. Most of the artists on this list are considered to be mainstream and everyone knows them. This goes to show that in the 70's actually the best bands were in mainstream. I couldn't have left any of these albums from the list, since they're all important to me as well as objectively appreciated albums. The vintage factor of this list is quite amazing. Musical styles range from folk to progressive rock and from rock operas to hard rock and folk. Also glam rock and electronica are featured. It looks to me as though the year 1975 was the culmination of the big stadium bands, before punk took over showing that everyone could make music again. There's a funny colour pattern in the top four. Perhaps white was in fashion in 1975.

1976

If the year 1977 was a year of punk, 1976 offers one of the widest ranges in musical styles in my blog. Punk was beginning to appear, mainstream was all about disco, synthesiser bands were reaching bigger audiences, funk combined more mainstream disco sounds and more experimental jazz sounds. Records were still mostly ambitious concept albums. This years list does not include any of my super-favourites, but as a whole list I'm really pleased in the selection. There's punk, synthesiser space-music, more conventional rock, rock-opera, afrobeat/funk, piano-blues and folk. This year was again about finding new albums. There are a few classics I've listened to for years, but also a few newcomers, which I'm very pleased about. I confronted this problem last in the 90's, but now again, it's getting harder and harder to decide what to put on the list, since I have to leave some brilliant albums out.

1977

The year 1977 is mostly about the first wave of punk. Some of the most classic punk albums appeared at this time. This is not the best year in my view, but still it has its moments. It was fairly easy to find good songs from the albums that were released this year, but the whole albums leave something to hope for. In addition to punk, this list has electro, late versions of glam rock, more traditional rock, reggae, progressive rock and film noir piano blues. I even left out some truly classic albums, even though they have value as something different. The reason mostly is that I just don't enjoy listening to them. This list has many different albums in good and bad.

1978

The 1970's kick off really impressive. The amount of classic albums is amazing. What intrigues me is that in 80's, 90's and 2000's, I've handled mostly alternative music sciences, but coming to the 70's, a lot of the best albums are actually pretty main stream. Not everything though, but there are substantially more great mainstream artists in the 70's than in the later decades. This year's list has all sorts of musical genres ranging from electronica to punk and from art-pop to stadium rock. This is again among my favourite lists of this blog. It was difficult to decide on the order of the top three, so I want you to consider the whole top three this year as potential number ones. The whole list is quite amazing!

1979

Welcome to the 70's! This decade is often seen as the golden decade for music. The birth of metal, glam-rock, progressive rock, stadium rock, disco, punk, birth of electronica, and birth of new wave all happened in this decade. Most of the most iconic concept albums are from the 70's. 1979 list is still closely linked to approaching 80's, but already the list is a lot better than most of the lists in the 80's. The sounds detach themselves from electronic, overly-produced sounds and authentic instruments are more audible. Of course there are few synthesiser sounds here and there, but their use is classy. This year's list consists mainly of different versions of post-punk and modifications of punk's first wave. The songs are more melodic than couple of years before. This year is full of great songs and great albums! There are a couple of huge classics on this list!

1980

The first (or last of this blog) year of the 1980's sounds already like the 1980's, but there are strong elements from the end of 1970's punk and rock movements present. This year, there were enormous amount of good songs released, but when it comes to full albums, there were not that many great albums. These ten on the other hand are all pretty good. I'm glad that after this list I'm done with 80's and can move on to the 70's which is a much more interesting decade in music. First wave of punk, Birth of synthesiser music, rock giants, art-pop glam-rock, great folk singer-songwriters, progressive rock, reggae and birth of heavy metal all define this decade. This years list has post-punk, alternative guitar rock, electro, classic rock, new wave, ska and influences from African rhythms and reggae. The top three this year is exceptionally good!

1981

In approaching the 1970's, the artificial and tacky sounds are not as common as in the later years. Post-punk still dominates the scene of good music at the time. The influence of joy Division's success is audible. Goth aesthetic is in fashion. This year's list mainly consists of post-punk albums, but there are some electronic vibes as well as more straight-forward pop and rock. I'm glad to be soon out of the bleak 80's in the 70's, when concept albums thrived and bands still had great stories and skills. 1981 is a fairly good year in music, but still it's not in the same level as the years after the 80's. There are few new finds on this list and most of the bands have already been seen in this blog before.

1982

The year 1982 already starts to show signs of approaching 1970's. Most of the bands are somehow connected to the post-punk movement and new wave. The sounds are dark and you can hear industrial coldness in there. On the other hand few bands show upbeat melodies in the weird mixture of punk, ska and reggae, which was back then favoured amongst skinheads (mostly not like skinheads today). Some people may be outraged that I didn't add Michael Jackson's Thriller on this list. I understand that that album is one of the most important albums ever when you look at things from objective perspective. I don't really listen to Jacko's music personally though and that was my reason to leave it off the list even though some of the songs on it are fairly good. But anyway, here's the list. I guess people who enjoy experimental sounds and cold melancholia, as well as great bass-lines are going to like this list.

1983

I'm a bit embarrassed of the year I was born. most of the albums made in this year were really bad. I had to listen to almost 200 albums to come up with this list. Although most of those albums were utter crap, I was able to put together pretty good list of the albums. Most of the albums portrayed here were new to me, although some old classics are there as well. The genres this year include synthesiser jazz, alternative rock, folk punk, pop-rock, ambient and post-rock. To look on the bright side, no other list in this blog took me so much effort and thus this introduced me to most new albums and bands. I hope you enjoy these albums.