1984 Hit Record Was Just Ranked 'the Best Album' of the '80s
The 1980s are known for the strides made in music. While there are a countless amount of incredible records that were released in the '80s, Collider managed to narrow down the top 10 best albums from the era in a list, published on April 18.
The ranking included hits like the 1986 album Master of Puppets by Metallica, The Smiths' The Queen is Dead from 1986, Michael Jackson's 1982 record, Thriller, The Cure's Disintegration, released in 1989, and Kate Bush's 1985 album, Hounds of Love.
Collider named Prince and the Revolution's 1984 record, Purple Rain, as the "best album of the 1980s." The publication reported that the album deserved the title because the record is consistently good, with no filler.
Members of The Revolution Discussed Making the 'Purple Rain' Album and Movie in a 2017 Interview
Collider reported that Prince wrote the Purple Rain album for his 1984 film. Prince starred in the Purple Rain film, written by Albert Magnoli and William Blinn, alongside the Revolution, which consisted of Doctor Fink, Lisa Coleman, Bobby Z.,Wendy Melvoin, and Brownmark. In a 2017 interview with Yahoo, the Revolution shared some insight into creating the Purple Rain album and appearing in the Purple Rain film. According to the band's drummer, Bobby Z., Prince, who died in 2016 at the age of 57, had members of the film's crew join the band during their 1982 tour.
"On our 1999 tour, he had people observing us on the bus. All of the sudden, there was strangers on the bus, like, getting jokes and learning our personality. And it was like a Big Brother kind of a shadowing thing and all this data and information was being gathered about us to create characters," explained Bobby Z.
He also said that Prince and the band went through acting and ballet classes to better their performances as fictional musicians in the Purple Rain movie.
In addition, Bobby Z. said that Prince "prepared for" the Purple Rain record "in a way that he never did any other album," which includes 1980's Dirty Mind, Controversy from 1981, and 1982's 1999.
"He had to. Because the film slowed him down and that created time for him to reflect. On most albums, he was done in two to three weeks. But Purple Rain, he had to stew for about six months," explained Bobby Z. in the 2017 interview. "And he really had to think about it. He could replace tracks. He came up with beautiful ones at the last minute. There was things that happened that made it what it is today. And it was forced patience on him."
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This story was originally published April 19, 2026 at 7:03 PM.