Return of Rock

The Best Albums of 1981

The arrival of MTV in 1981 would usher in the new wave’s most successful era. British artists, unlike many of their American counterparts, had

By 1980, the disco genre, largely dependent on orchestras, was replaced by a lighter synthpop production, which subsequently fuelled dance

In 1979, after a string of modestly-performing singles in his new style, he broke through with “Family Tradition,” an autobiographical

In the late 1970s, many bands in the United Kingdom began experimenting with synthesizers, forming the new wave style known as synthpop. Major

By the later half of the 1970s, Dolly Parton, a highly successful traditional-minded country artist since the late 1960s, mounted a

The mid-to-late 1970s Australian band AC/DC became one of the most popular and successful acts in Australia, scoring a string of hits,

Bob Dylan’s 1975–1976 Rolling Thunder Revue reunited him with a number of folk-rock acts from his early days of performing, most notably Joan

The country-pop sound was a successor to the countrypolitan sound of the early 1970s. In addition to artists such as Murray and

Pink Floyd’s 1973 release, The Dark Side of the Moon, was an immediate success, remaining in the charts for 741

The 1970s saw the emergence of hard rock as one of the most prominent subgenres of rock music. Bands like