Best Pop Albums of All Time

The Best Pop and Art Pop Albums of All Time

In a sense, everything here is Pop, or 'Popular Music', but Pop as a genre has generally meant the most commercial forms of music, typically taken from whatever genre is popular but simplified and adrenalised to deliberately target the broadest audience. This is a genre led by producers and record labels, and it has been mostly been deliberately about singles rather than albums. However, this pure Pop is an artform in songcraft and proudction in itself and the genre been inhabited by some of the greatest artists of all time. Whether or not they have been responsible for all the greatness themselves ,or have relied on legendary songwriters and producers, nevertheless the music released in their name has often been great and this does include a, relatively small, number of classic albums.

Then there is also Art Pop - singular auteurs (such as Kate Bush or Bjork) have created complex and original music over time, drawing from a range of sources and reaching a wide audience. This is a genre well suited to classic albums, but it does not take on the regular guitar-bass-drums and format and tradiitonal sound of Rock music; it is something else: intelligent, artist-led Pop.

The 25 Best Pop Albums of All Time

1. Thriller - Michael Jackson, 1982
2. Off The Wall - Michael Jackson, 1979
3. Parallel Lines - Blondie, 1978
4. Little Earthquakes - Tori Amos, 1992
5. Body Talk - Robyn, 2010
6. 21 - Adele, 2011
7. Red - Taylor Swift, 2012
8. Faith - George Michael, 1987
9. Bad - Michael Jackson, 1987
10. Ray Of Light - Madonna, 1998
11. Like a Prayer - Madonna , 1989
12. Sail Away - Randy Newman, 1972
13. She's So Unusual - Cyndi Lauper , 1983
14. Whitney Houston - Whitney Houston, 1985
15. Actually - Pet Shop Boys, 1987
16. 1989 - Taylor Swift, 2014
17. Steve McQueen - Prefab Sprout, 1985
18. When We All Fall Asleep - Billie Eilish, 2019
19. Madonna - Madonna, 1983
20. Lexicon of Love - ABC, 1982
21. Dare! - The Human League, 1981
22. Close to You - The Carpenters, 1970
23. Today - The Beach Boys, 1965
24. Arrival - Abba, 1980
25. Futuresexx/Love Sounds - Justn Timberlake, 2006

The 20 Best Art Pop Albums of All Time

1. Hounds Of Love - Kate Bush, 1985
2. So - Peter Gabriel, 1986
3. Meoldrama - Lorde, 2017
4. Post - Bjork, 1995
5. When the Pawn… - Fiona Apple, 1999
6. Here Come the Warm Jets - Brian Eno, 1974
7. The Idler Wheel… - Fiona Apple, 2012
8. Heaven or Las Vegas - The Cocteau Twins, 1990
9. Homogenic - Bjork, 1997
10. Avalon - Roxy Music, 1982
11. Debut - Bjork, 1993
12. Another Green World - Brian Eno, 1975
13. Agætis Byrjun - Sigur Ros, 1999
14. For Your Pleasure - Roxy Music, 1976
15. Norman F*cking Rockwell - Lana Del Ray, 2019
16. Born to Die - Lana Del Ray, 2012
17. Spirit of Eden - Talk Talk, 1988
18. Rock Bottom - Robert Wyatt, 1974
19. Vespertine - Bjork, 2001
20. St Vincent - St Vincent, 2014

​BEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIME

The Best Pop and Art Pop Albums of All Time

BEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIME