Music history of the United States in the 1980s

Popular music of the United States in the 1980s saw new wave entering the year as the single biggest mainstream market, with heavy metal, punk rock and hardcore punk, and hip hop achieving increased crossover success. With the demise of punk rock, a new generation of punk-influenced genres arose, including Gothic rock, post-punk, alternative rock, emo and thrash metal. Hip hop underwent its first diversification, with Miami bass, Chicago hip house, Washington DC go-go, Detroit ghettotech, Los Angeles electroclash and the golden age of old school hip hop in New York City. House music developed in Chicago, techno music developed in Detroit which also saw the flowering of the Detroit Sound in gospel. This helped inspire the greatest crossover success of Christian Contemporary Music (CCM), as well as the Miami Sound of Cuban pop.

The 1980s saw the reinvention of Michael Jackson and the emergence of Madonna and Whitney Houston, which arguably were the most powerful musicians during the time. Their videos became a permanent fixture on MTV and gained a worldwide mass audience. Michael Jackson's Thriller album from 1982 is considered to be the best-selling album of all time; though sales figures for the album vary, it is cited as selling as many as 110 million copies worldwide. Despite all the controversy surrounding Jackson during that period, he was indisputably the biggest star of the 1980s.

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