6 albums that blew me away before 1990. No particular order.
 

1) Def Leppard- Pyromania I was 12 years old when I first heard this album in 1982. It was at that point in my young life the coolest thing that I'd ever heard. I still like it, but I find that I can't really listen to a whole song from it anymore. I'll get all happy when one of the songs comes on the radio, and I'll turn it up. But then I realize about halfway through it that I'm getting bored.

2) Paul Simon- Graceland For those who don't know, this was his African inspired album. I was 16 or 17 when it came out and I was not really a Simon fan at that time. This was my first exposure to the African sound and I really fell in love with it. I remember his appearance on SNL with about 20 African singers to sing "Diamonds on the soles of her shoes" and I was blown away. I still love this cd.

3) U2- The Joshua Tree I was a Junior in HS, and was on vacation driving across the desert with my family. I had this tape and listened to it all the way across the west to avoid actually speaking to my family. I thought U2 was decent before Joshua Tree, but they weren't my favorite. I had even heard "With or without you" many times on the radio before I ever borrowed the tape and I didn't really like it that much. But when I heard this album including all of the songs that never were radio releases it became my all time favorite. I still consider this my favorite album ever.

4) Pixies- Doolittle This was a sound I'd never heard before. I hadn't really listened to them before this 1989 album. I think they were way ahead of their time and that they perhaps laid some of the foundation of what was to come in the 90's. I still love this album.

5) Run DMC- Raising Hell I had heard the Sugarhill gang and some other rap and was semi-amused by it earlier in life. But when I first heard this album I was floored. I couldn't get enough of it and probably listened to it daily for a good 6 months. I still appreciate this album, but I doubt I could listen to a whole song without getting bored. It's good history.

6) Guns n roses- Appetite for Destruction Heard "welcome to the jungle" in the movie "The Dead Pool". Ran out and found the album. I remember thinking that I was hearing an album that would forever be a classic. I still love this album.

Re: 6 albums that blew me away before 1990. No particular or
 

paul is an amazing poet, and is incredibly brilliant.....

here are some cds that blew my socks off....

a. snoop doggy dogg-doggystyle
b. dr dre-the chronic

Dr Dre the Chronic is the single greatest rap album ever.

Giving it a run for its money is the Marshall Mathers LP.

TO me that sounds about as significant as "The Tallest Building in Tucumcari, New Mexico," or some such.

I know, I am an old, bitter, man.

Hey, you kids, stay OFF THE GRASS!

I don't like much rap either. I grew up in the days of "happy rap" where everything had to rhyme and the lyrics were meaningless and pretty stupid. Once rap went "gangsta" I couldn't relate.

you could say the three greatest rap albums of all time...

the chronic....

marshall mathers lp....

doggystyle....

were because of dr dre himself....

the reason it is significant, in response to those that think it is insifnificant, is these albums helped pave the way for current african american culture/hip hop culture that has left the 'ghettos' and now finds itself in suburban america.

ever wonder why allen iversons shoe is the number one selling basketball shoe since jordan retired? look no further than to dr dre and his rap studio, edgy lyrics, and black clothing attire....

these guys made it cool to be a thug. made it cool to be black. made it cool to have tattoos. made it cool to have corn rows. made it cool to drive big cars, with big tires, and big sound systems. they were truly the pioneers of the hip/hop revolution that finds itself in almost every level of american culture....

how many of your wives have said....

two trailer park girls go round the outside, round the outside round the outside?

i know ive heard my mom say it more than once.

Re: 6 albums that blew me away before 1990. No particular or
 

I'm with you on these, I'd add a couple...

REM- Document. If this album had not come out in the same year as Joshua Tree it would have gone down as one of the greatest albums in history. Unfortunately, Document is to music as Jan Ulrich is to cycling. Both will forever live in the shadow of a geater contemporary.

NIN- Pretty Hate Machine. Ok... It was the very end of 89 when I heard this, but that counts... NIN changed everything.

There are other albums I love but I think these are the only ones that really "Blew me away."[/b]

As far as Def Leppard, for me it was Hysteria.

U2, for me it was Achtung Baby.

Paul Simon, for me it was Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits (i've never liked his solo stuff).

Appetite for Destruction, ditto.

As far as rap goes, I was pretty well done in the eighties. Beastie Boys License to Ill was my all-time favorite.

A close second (and third) - Parents just don't understand ("My parents went away on a weeks vacation") and "We like the cars, the cars that go boom". (J/K)

Pre-1990 - I was pretty taken in by:

Anything by Queen, although I didn't really appreciate it until the early 90's.

Def Leppard Hysteria

U2 Joshua Tree

New Edition - Title album and Heartbreak - I'm not proud of this one, but its the truth and I've got to come to grips with it sometime

I can relate to various comments. I think, like Mike, that Hysteria and Achtung were the ones that really hooked me in on those groups, even though I liked Joshua Tree before that. (Showing our youth, I guess.) But I can still listen to Photograph at any time and in the late 90s I really came to enjoy Rattle and Hum -- what a great three-album stretch in JTree-RHum-ABaby.

I have listened to popular rap off and on for the past 8 years or so, but I also am a bigger fan of the rhyming days. Fresh Prince, Young MC, "It Takes Two."

Kudos also on Appetite and the other album, well before the 90s, was Led Zeppelin IV. I got my money's worth out of that CD.