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Men at Work were among the first bands to benefit from the music-video revolution. The Australian rocker's loony, cartoonish video clips intrigued young MTV watchers, who began calling radio stations with requests for the band's singles. By early 1983 Business As Usual and the single "Down Under", which told of an Aussie's adventures traveling around the world on the "hippie-trail", were simultanously at Number One. 
 Men at Work, a five man pub band from Melbourne, wrote brisk, likeable pop tunes that combined quasi-reggae rhythms and songwriter-guitarist Colin Hay's throaty, accented vocals. Though quite mainstream, the band was considered on the accessible side of New Wave, alongside Police. "We're not presenting anything incredibly new or innovative," said Hay. "But in the States, in a lot of places, it's like, "Oh, I haven't heard anything like this before"." Business As Usual eventually broke the Monkee's record for the longest run at Number One for a debut album. Men at Work, meanwhile, won the 1982 Grammy for Best New Group. 
  
 
 

   

The Wall is a sprawling, ambitious double album filled with songs of alienation, rage and disenchantment. The largely autobiographical lyrics were written by singer-bassist Roger Waters. The large and elaborate staging necessary to do The Wall justice made conventional touring an impossibility, so it was performed live only in Los Angeles, New York, and London. The album was eventually made into a full length film featuring Bob Geldof and directed by Alan Parker. Because of dissension within the band, The Wall turned out to be the final album by Pink Floyd in its classic lineup of Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright. 
  
 
 

   

After all the mega-platinum success of the first half of the Eighties -  Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Prince - a twenty-one-year-old singer named Whitney Houston came along and quietly rewrote the record books. Her debut album, Whitney Houston, released in 1985, remains the best-selling album of all time by a female solo performer, spawning three Number One hits. 
Houston's thrilling, gospel trained voice carried ballads and uptempo dance tracks up the charts. Houston came from a very musical family background; herm other was Cissy Houston (of the Sweet Inspirations), whose cousin was Dionne Warwick and who could call Aretha Franklin a cherished family friend. At fifteen Houston was singing background vocals on other people's records, at eighteen she was modeling for fashion magazines, and at nineteen, she was signed to Arista by president Clive Davis, who helped select material and producers for her debut. The result was a painstakingly plotted, market-researched, nuance-perfect album - and instant stardom for Whitney Houston. 
 
 
   

   

   

 
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