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of the 1980s

The Best-Selling Artists of the 1980s

Hrefna Helgadóttir

The Best-Selling Artists
The Best-Selling Artists

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.

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.

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).

Billy Joel, on tour

No upcoming events

Dire Straits, on tour

No upcoming events

Guns N' Roses, on tour

Madonna, on tour

Metallica, on tour

The Rolling Stones, on tour

U2, on tour

Not on Tour


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.