As part of a music community, I recently did a 1984 deep dive. I listen to 138 albums and I made a list of my favorite 25 albums and songs. Since this website is dedicated to protest music I also decided to record two videos featuring the top 10 protest albums and the top 10 protest songs. We will begin with the protest albums. Like much of the music of that era, it was heavily affected by the Cold War. The music also tackles other societal issues such as civil rights and environmental concerns.
For the ten protest albums, you’ll need to watch the video, but below I’ll post my ranked list of the Top 25 albums of 1984, which includes non-protest albums.
- Prince and The Revolution – Purple Rain
- The Smiths – Hatful of Hollow
- Minutemen – Double Nickels on the Dime
- The Replacements – Let It Be
- Hüsker Dü – Zen Arcade
- The Smiths – The Smiths
- Meat Puppets – Meat Puppets II
- Metallica – Ride the Lightning
- Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense
- David Kauffman and Eric Caboor – Songs From Suicide Bridge
- Sade – Diamond Life
- U2 – The Unforgettable Fire
- R.E.M. – Reckoning
- Iron Maiden – Powerslave
- Cocteau Twins – Treasure
- Depeche Mode – Some Great Reward
- The Dream Syndicate – Medicine Show
- Leonard Cohen – Various Positions
- Ramones – Too Tough to Die
- Run-D.M.C. – Run-D.M.C.
- The Pretenders – Learning to Crawl
- Flipper – Gone Fishin’
- Ini Kamoze – Ini Kamoze
- Cleaners From Venus – Under Wartime Conditions
- Violent Femmes – Hallowed Ground
Also, check out the playlist featuring 1984 protest music.