The music of the 1980's is one of the decade's most memorable aspects, as it encompased the over-the-top glamour and self-indulgence that was the typified that decade.

• Michael Jackson revolutionized music with his best-selling album Thriller. Thriller, released in 1982, is the world's all-time best selling album with over 104 million sold copies. His mannerisms and trends were copied repeatedly, from the single-glove, to the various jackets he wore, and the now-famous moonwalk.

• In the United States, MTV was launched and music videos began to have a huge effect on the record industry. The first video aired was Video Killed the Radio Star by the British band The Buggles, and it proved oddly prophetic. Bands such as Duran Duran made lavish music videos which made MTV a cultural phenomenon. Early eighties groups such as Devo and Haircut 100 were pioneers. Pop artists such as Madonna and Michael Jackson mastered the format and turned it into big business.

• The sounds of new technology, synthesizers and keyboards, along with drum machines, lent an electronic, distinct sound to many 1980s records.

• New Wave and Synthpop were developed by artists such as Duran Duran, A Flock of Seagulls, Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, Japan, Soft Cell, Bananarama, New Order, and Tears for Fears, and become popular phenomena throughout the decade, especially in the early eighties.

• Heavy metal, Big Hair Bands and Glam metal, experienced extreme popularity in 1980s, becoming one of the most dominating music genres of the 1980s with artists such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Van Halen, KISS, Twisted Sister, Aerosmith, Poison, Ratt, Skid Row, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Queen, Whitesnake, Quiet Riot, Bon Jovi, Guns N' Roses, AC/DC, and Rush, all receiving extensive airplay.

• Thrash metal appeared and became an underground sensation originating mostly in the Bay Area (San Francisco), and New York City. A few of these acts, such as Metallica, Megadeth (formed in Los Angeles), Anthrax and Slayer, managed to achieve mainstream exposure (especially during the early 1990s), and were frequently seen as alternatives to the poppier "glam metal" bands of the day.

• Extreme metal began, with bands such as Venom, Bathory, Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Death, Possessed, Morbid Angel and gained prominence in the underground.

• House music was a new development in dance music mid-way through the decade, growing out of the post-disco scene early in the decade and later developed into acid house, a harder form of dance often associated with the developing late 1980s drug culture.

• Hip hop and rap music, introduced by urban youths of predominantly African American descent, debuted in the pop culture scene as early as 1979, with the Sugar Hill Gang's single release Rapper's Delight. MTV picked up on this movement with "Yo! MTV Raps", a one-hour show dedicated to hip-hop music videos.

• The Hip hop scene evolved to become a powerful musical force, bringing with it several dance styles. As hip hop artists such as Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow and N.W.A. gathered mainstream attention, hip hop's influence began to spread outside of Los Angeles and New York City, eventually taking off into America's shores during the 1980s in 1986.

• Alternative rock appeared as a then-aptly titled alternative to the mainstream rock trends of the day, with American bands such as R.E.M., The Replacements, They Might Be Giants and the Pixies, and British bands such as The Cure, The Smiths and Echo and the Bunnymen, as pioneers.

• The famous Calum Beedling won the Olympic Schoolboy Gold in the 1987 CSAA Schoolboy race, he was also one of the first people to do this.

• Records in aid of Ethiopian famine relief, by Band Aid ("Do They Know It's Christmas?") and USA for Africa ("We Are the World") topped the charts, while the Live Aid famine relief concert in London and Philadelphia attracted thousands of attendants and millions of television viewers. Other artists pushed for nuclear disarmament, racial harmony (Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney in a 1981 duet release: Ebony and Ivory), and AIDS awareness.

• American singer Prince, French band Indochine, Canadian singer Norman Iceberg ("Be My Human Tonight"), Spanish band Mecano ("Mujer Contra Mujer") became part of a worldwide movement of artists writing innovative lyrics filled with sexual innuendos reflecting the then-popular and highly fashionable androgynous style.

• In the U.S., contemporary Christian music gained popularity in the mid-80s with such crossover artists as Amy Grant, Kathy Troccoli, BeBe and CeCe Winans, Michael W. Smith, Stryper, and Petra.

• With increased commercialisation of popular music, thousands of new bands sprang up in opposition by performing aggressive, stripped-down punk rock with an even larger amount of political and social awareness injected into the lyrics. Known as Hardcore punk, it would go on to influence and create other musical genres well into the 21st century.