The 1980s were a pivotal decade for the music business. As the popularity of singer-songwriters (think Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, etc.) waned, and the glossy pop-rock of the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, and their ilk faded from the charts, an eclectic array of artists moved to the forefront as various subgenres competed for radio play. Punk rock gave way to new wave, with synthesizers dominating the soundscape, while so-called "hair metal" took over the Los Angeles music scene.

Of course, that's only a small slice of a very large and exceptionally diverse range of artists who gained popularity during the 1980s, an era when the rise of MTV meant that visual appeal became as important as the music itself. Still, there are certain hallmarks of 1980s music that immediately identif

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