“It’s damn near impossible to adequately explain the impact of this album. We didn’t know what hit us”: The best rock debut album from every year of the 1980s

A montage of debut albums from the 1980s.

If the 1970s was the decade that rock came of age, then the 1980s was the era when it truly spread its wings.

Those 10 insanely fertile years saw the emergence of countless brilliant bands who would go on to change the course of music – and a few brilliant ones who didn’t. Factor in the emergence of the CD, and it suddenly felt like everything was up for grabs.