1987 in Music

Five number ones from a single record A pop star released his third album, his final collaboration with the producer who had shaped his previous two records. It debuted at number one and sold 2.25 million copies in its first week, the fastest-selling album in American history at that point. Five consecutive singles from the album reached number one on the Hot 100, a feat no artist had achieved before: a duet ballad, the title track, a midtempo groove, a gospel-influenced anthem, and a rock-edged strut. Nine of the album's eleven tracks were released as singles. Seven charted in the top twenty.

Three debuts in five months Between March and July, three hip-hop groups released debut albums that collectively launched the genre's golden age. The first came from a crew in Hempstead who built tracks around DJ scratches and layered samples, recorded for approximately five thousand dollars. The second came from a duo in the Bronx whose MC rapped with internal rhyme schemes and rhythmic complexity no one had heard before, borrowing his phrasing from jazz. The third came from the South Bronx: a battle-rap record with minimalist, hard-hitting beats that became a foundational document of East Coast hip-hop. Its producer was shot and killed in August, five months after the album's release. He was twenty-five.

Debuted at number 182 A Los Angeles band released their debut album in July for a budget of around $370,000. Nobody noticed. It entered the Billboard 200 at number 182 and sold only 200,000 copies in several months. It would not reach number one until more than a year later. It then stayed on the chart for 147 weeks, sold over 28 million copies in the United States, and became the best-selling debut album in American history.

The Wool Hall sessions An indie band from Manchester entered a sixteenth-century residential studio in Somerset to record their fourth album. The guitarist wanted to move away from the jangly sound that had defined the band. By July he had quit, citing frustration with the singer's musical inflexibility and a management dispute over an American tour. Auditions for a replacement proved fruitless. The album came out in September. Both the singer and the guitarist have called it the band's best record. The band was already finished.

$4.5 million and a one-armed drummer A hard rock band spent three and a half years and $4.5 million making their fourth album. The delay began when the drummer lost his left arm in a car crash on New Year's Eve 1984. The producer dropped out from exhaustion, then returned. His method was extreme: individual notes recorded and overdubbed separately, guitars tracked first to a drum machine click, bass and drums added last. The stated goal was a hard rock version of the best-selling pop album of all time, where every track could be a single. It eventually sold twelve million copies in America.

A double album from the wreckage A Minneapolis musician released a double album, sixteen tracks, assembled from the debris of three abandoned projects and the dissolution of his band. He had fired the group, ended an engagement, and scrapped two complete records before arriving at the final sequence. He played most of the instruments himself. Critics voted it the best album of the year. It peaked at number six on the Billboard 200, a fraction of what his earlier commercial peak had reached, but it is now widely regarded as his finest work.

The first woman at the Waldorf At the second annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on January 21, a soul singer from Detroit became the first woman inducted. She joined a class of fourteen artists spanning rock and roll's first three decades. Eight of the inductees were dead.

Fog and repetition in South London In November, a London DJ and his wife opened a club after returning from a summer holiday in Ibiza where they had heard Chicago house music for the first time. The club featured thick fog, ecstatic dancing, and an extremely selective door policy. When police raided the after-hours events, the parties moved into warehouses and secret venues. It was one of the first moments that acid house, which had been born in Chicago from a cheap bass synthesizer and a drum machine, took root in Britain. Within two years, the warehouse parties would become a national movement.

First female debut at number one A pop and R&B singer's second album became the first by a female artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 200. Four singles from the album reached number one on the Hot 100. The lead single, a synth-pop dance track about loneliness at a party, sold over 500,000 copies in the United Kingdom alone and became one of the defining pop recordings of the decade.

A fistfight on the street Several songs intended for a guitarist's solo album were coaxed into becoming a band project instead. The album became the group's second biggest seller, behind only a 1977 record that had defined soft rock for a generation. Shortly after its release, the guitarist announced his departure at a band meeting. The singer physically attacked him. The fight spilled out of the house and into the street. Two replacement guitarists were hired, and the band continued without the architect of its sound.

CDs outsell vinyl for the first time In 1987, compact disc sales surpassed vinyl LP sales for the first time, a milestone that would not reverse until 2022. Cassette tapes still outsold everything. The CD had gone from less than one percent of recorded music revenue in 1983 to overtaking vinyl in four years. The format's 74-minute time limit was now a real production constraint: at least one major double album had to cut a track from its CD release because it exceeded the Red Book specification.