The Best Pop Albums Of All Time Ranked

Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms popular music and pop music are often used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular and includes many disparate styles. During the 1950s and 1960s, pop music encompassed rock and roll and the youth-oriented styles it influenced. Rock and pop music remained roughly synonymous until the late 1960s, after which pop became associated with music that was more commercial, ephemeral, and accessible. Although much of the music that appears on record charts is considered to be pop music, the genre is distinguished from chart music. Identifying factors usually include repeated choruses and hooks, short to medium-length songs written in a basic format (often the verse–chorus structure), and rhythms or tempos that can be easily danced to. Much pop music also borrows elements from other styles such as rock, urban, dance, Latin, and country. Here are all of the best Pop albums of all time.

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15. The Fame – Lady Gaga

“This album changed pop culture it defined the next few years with so many artists going for that same Dance/Electronic pop sound. Just look at pop music through 2009 to mid 2010s you’ll see how heavily influenced pop stars were by Lady Gaga’s sound.”

14. Smile – The Beach Boys

“For decades it was more a rumour than an album, but when the world finally heard Smile (in both Brian Wilson’s newly recorded 2004 version and, later, the restored 1967 original), it turned out to be everything it was long promised to be: a visionary song cycle of unique resonance and beauty, plus a joy and humour that the surrounding myth had threatened to forget.”

13. Born This Way – Lady Gaga

“Lady Gaga’s finest album to date – and one of the best pop albums of the last decade – is inclusive in every way possible, taking in everything from 70s arena-rock to Judy Garland and Edith Piaf, to modern electronic pop, with the confidence that she can do it all her own way. The title-track opener to Born This Way assures the misfits and boundary-pushers in her crowd that she’ll always be one of them.”

12. Nilsson Schmilsson – Harry Nilsson

““Harry’s got a rock album,” proclaimed the original ads for Nilsson Schmilsson. What Harry really had was one of the greatest pop albums of the era, exploring the scope of pop songwriting and excelling at every turn. The three hits alone ranged from tropical novelty (‘Coconut’) to manic rock’n’roll (‘Jump Into The Fire’) to one of the era’s great heart-on-sleeve vocal performances in ‘Without You’. If you love this classic pop record you may be ready for the brilliantly off-the-wall follow-up, Son Of Schmilsson.”

11. Parallel Lines – Blondie

“In which new wave opens its heart to the whole of pop history; never again would Buddy Holly (who gets covered) and Robert Fripp (who guests) fit comfortably on the same album. Debbie Harry gives one stellar performance after another – playing a West Side Story heroine one minute and sending it all up the next – and every track on Parallel Lines sounds like the AM radio of your dreams.”

10. Like A Virgin – Madonna

“Madonna still had a foot in New York’s dance subculture when she made one of the greatest pop albums of the 80s, and the spirit of that world (before it was cruelly ravaged by AIDS) is forever preserved in Like A Virgin’s teasing sexuality and self-mythologising. Meanwhile, tracks like ‘Angel’ revealed the classic-model pop singer she aspired to (and soon would) become.”

9. Off The Wall – Michael Jackson

“Michael Jackson invites the world onto his dancefloor, crafting a universal version of pop with Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney both in the mix. At this point he was unmatchable as a singer, writer and stylist, and the grooves don’t let up. It might even be a better album than its mega-hit follow-up, Thriller.”

8. Red – Taylor Swift

“Taylor Swift’s Red is the perfect update of Blondie’s Parallel Lines, and it took a fast-evolving country artist to make it. Swift ups the ante for sass and attitude while adding in the last couple decades’ worth of pop history, with hip-hop and electronic touches. Once again, it’s an album of terrific (and mostly non-autotuned) vocal performances; Swift is your tour guide for one gloriously dramatic love life.”

7. Private Dancer – Tina Turner

“Tina Turner pulled a small coup here by harnessing the sleek sounds of mid-80s synth-pop to the lyrical perspective of a worldly-wise diva. Classic soul (‘I Can’t Stand The Rain’) meets theatrical monologues (‘Private Dancer’), with a strong feminist sensibility throughout on one of the greatest pop albums of the era. Hidden gem: the rocker ‘Steel Claw’, a Paul Brady tune that Dave Edmunds also cut that year.”

6. Help! – The Beatles

“What, instead of Sgt Pepper? Sure enough, Help! (in its proper, UK version) was where The Beatles’ creative imagination really took flight: John with his daring lyrical angles (the title song and ‘You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away’), Paul with his most soaring melodies (‘The Night Before’ and ‘Yesterday’). And, to cap it off with something Pepper didn’t have: a wild rocker in ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzy’.”

5. Fleetwood Mac – Fleetwood Mac

“Rumours may have been the last word on failed marriages and 70s decadence, but Fleetwood Mac, the first album by the Rumours line-up, was a more joyful affair, revelling in wide-eyed romance and scruffy rock’n’roll, while embracing the band’s blues roots (on ‘World Turning’) for the last time. Meanwhile, Lindsey Buckingham’s ‘I’m So Afraid’ and Stevie Nicks’ ‘Rhiannon’ hint at the angst and the mystic adventures to come.”

4. Autofiction – Suede

“While Britpop readies itself for 30th-anniversary nostalgia, Suede are still making improbably strong records. Autofiction finds them tackling middle age with the same vim they once mustered for doomed youth, galloping into the maelstrom with a flamboyant yelp and all guitars blazing.”

3. Mr Morale & The Big Steppers – Kendrick Lamar

“The first album in five years from Kendrick Lamar opens with the words: “I’ve been going through something.” What follows is 75 minutes of bold beats and virtuoso rapping about fallibility and redemption. It’s a big something.”

2. The Car – Arctic Monkeys

“A far cry from the mardy bums, kebab queues and Sheffield nightspots of the Arctic Monkeys’ origins, The Car’s luxuriant songs describe a decadent world of moated buildings and French Riviera dalliances, richly imagined and performed to a tee. Rock aristocracy never sounded so good.”

1. Thriller – Michael Jackson

“The album’s nervy, outsized blend of pop, rock and soul would send seismic waves throughout radio, inviting both marquee crossovers (like Eddie Van Halen’s guitar solo on “Beat It”) and sneakier attempts at genre-meshing. The album’s splashy, cinematic videos — from the John Landis-directed short film that promoted “Thriller” to the West Side Story homage accompanying “Beat It” — legitimized the still-nascent form and forced MTV to incorporate black artists into its playlists.”