We came across this animation on Facebook which shows what artists sold the most records from 1969 to the present day. Because we're suckers for an intuitive data visualisation, we wanted to share it with you all.

What's more, is we noticed a lot of these artists are still some of the biggest touring acts of the day, even the ones from the 70s. We published said findings here, so now we want to see which record breakers from the 80s are still on tour.

Of course if you want to see all the artists from the 1980s who are still touring, you can visit the 80s page on our new product, Bucketgigs, to explore what's coming up near you from the time when mascara sold double.

Those who carry over from the 1970s are: ABBA, Aerosmith, Barbra Streisand, Billy Joel, The Beatles, The Eagles, Elton John, Elvis Presley, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin and Queen. Explore them here >>

The new entries for the 1980s are AC/DC, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Dire Straits, George Michael, Guns N Roses, Madonna, Metallica, Michael Jackson, Phil Collins, Prince, The Rolling Stones, U2 and Whitney Houston.

The fact that almost half are carried over from the previous decade shows the staying power of those acts. Some of them are still today's biggest touring acts, like Queen and Fleetwood Mac. Go over the 1970s to explore those artists further and see if any of them are coming to a city near you. So let's focus on only the 'fresh' 80s artists.

To get in the mood, why not listen to the Best of 1980s playlist, which includes all the artists though.

Sadly, a shocking number of the most beloved stars of the 80s have left us already.

Looking at the graph there are four artists that stand out in terms of chart domination: Queen, Madonna and Prince with Michael Jackson standing head and shoulders above everyone else for literally the entire decade (Queen and Madonna are the only two acts to overtake him from 1980-1989, but only briefly).

Out of these four acts, we have lost three cultural icons as we all know and still grieve. These are Queen's frontman Freddie Mercury died in 1991, MJ in 2009 and most recently Prince in 2016. But that's not all. Whitney Houston, George Michael and Malcolm Young of AC/DC also met their makers in the 2010s.

On that super depressing note, let's see what we still have going us from the 1980s.

Each of these artists has achieved something really special, and that is to this day having a huge place in our hearts and minds – somewhat miraculously in life and in death.  

Weirdly there are more artists we listed out the upcoming shows for in the 70s post than in this one. If you can't get tickets to your absolute favourite, it's worth checking your local listings to see if there are tribute bands around, which almost all of these have aplenty.