The 27 Greatest Albums of All Time by Decade

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Decade to decade artists of their time embark on creating massive hits while garnering critical acclaim. Sometimes a single is trendy. Sometimes a single is meaningful. Sometimes a single is trendy and  meaningful. And sometimes....an artist creates a collection of singles into a cohesive album that is trendy, meaningful, and ends up becoming a staple of the times. This is a rare achievement, an achievement that garners mass attention, influences newer artists, and gets future generations wearing old school album t-shirts decades later for their "cool factor". These are the albums that have achieved that decade by decade from the 1950's to the 2010's. The list is in no particular order considering the variation of types of records. But all make the list for one reason or another. 

 

The 1950's: The Birth of Rock

Miles Davis, Kind of Blue, 1959

Kind of Blue has been regarded by many critics as jazz's greatest record, Davis's masterpiece, and one of the best albums of all time. Its influence on music, including jazz, rock, and classical genres, has led writers to also deem it one of the most influential albums ever recorded. The album was one of fifty recordings chosen in 2002 by the Library of Congress to be added to theNational Recording Registry, and in 2003 it was ranked number 12 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Though precise figures have been disputed, Kind of Blue has been described by many music writers not only as Davis's best-selling album, but as the best-selling jazz record of all time.

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Little Richard, Here's Little Richard, 1957

In 2003, the album was ranked number 50 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die and in 2010 Time Magazine listed it in the Top 100 Albums of All Time. The opening track Tutti Frutti was listed as No. 43 in Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The album went on to achieve six Top 40 hits, a record for a black artist at the time. 

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Elvis Presley, Elvis Presley, 1956

He's the King of Rock for a reason. Elvis' debut album spent ten weeks at number 1 on the Billboard Albums chart in 1956, the first rock and roll album ever to make it to the top of the charts, and the first million-selling album of that genre. In 2003, it was ranked number 56 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Elvis Presley was also one of three Presley albums to receive accolades in the reference book '1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die'.

 

The 1960's: Rock Expands and Changes

The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967

During a return flight to London in November, Paul McCartney had an idea for a song involving an Edwardian-era military band that would eventually form the impetus of the Sgt. Pepper concept. McCartney suggested that the Beatles should release an entire album that would represent a performance by the fictional Sgt. Pepper band. This alter ego group would give them the freedom to experiment musically.   Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band then became the eighth studio album by English rock band the Beatles. It was an immediate commercial and critical success, spending 27 weeks at the top of the UK albums chart and 15 weeks at number one in the US. On release, the album was lauded by the vast majority of critics for its innovations in music production, songwriting and graphic design, for bridging a cultural divide between pop music and legitimate art, and for providing a musical representation of its generation and the contemporary counterculture. It won four Grammy Awards in 1968, including Album of the Year, the first rock LP to receive this honor.

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Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited, 1965

Highway 61 Revisited is the sixth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was released on August 30, 1965, by Columbia Records. Having until then recorded mostly acoustic music, Dylan used rock musicians as his backing band on every track of the album, except for the closing 11-minute ballad, "Desolation Row". Critics have focused on the innovative way in which Dylan combined driving, blues-based music with the subtlety of poetry to create songs that captured the political and cultural chaos of contemporary America. Author Michael Gray has argued that in an important sense the 1960s "started" with this album.

Leading with the hit single "Like a Rolling Stone", the album features songs that Dylan has continued to perform live over his long career, including "Ballad of a Thin Man" and "Highway 61 Revisited". He named the album after the major American highway which connected his birthplace, Duluth, Minnesota, to southern cities famed for their musical heritage, including St. Louis, Memphis,New Orleans, and the Delta blues area of Mississippi.

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The Velvet Underground & Nico, The Velvet Underground & Nico, 1967

The Velvet Underground & Nico is the debut album by American rock band The Velvet Underground, released in March 1967 by Verve Records. Accompanied by vocalist Nico, the album was recorded in 1966 while the group were featured on Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable multimedia event tour, which gained attention for its experimental performance sensibilities and controversial lyrical topics, including drug abuse, prostitution, sadism and masochism and sexual deviancy.

Though the record was a commercial failure upon release and was almost entirely ignored by contemporary critics, The Velvet Underground & Nico is now widely recognized as one of the greatest and most influential albums in the history of popular music. It ranked 13th on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and was added to the 2006 National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress. In 1982, musician Brian Eno famously stated that while the album initially only sold approximately 30,000 copies, "everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band." Genres that were significantly informed by the album include art rock, punk,garage, grunge, shoegaze, gothic, indie, and most other forms of alternative music.

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The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds, 1966

The foundation for pop began with experimental rock: Pet Sounds is regarded by musicologists as an early concept album that advanced the field of music production, introducing non-standard harmonies and timbres, and incorporating elements of pop, jazz, exotica, classical, and the avant-garde. A heralding work of psychedelia, the album furthered an aesthetic trend within rock by helping it transform from dance music into music that was made for listening to, elevating itself to the level of art rock. 

The album was produced and arranged by Brian Wilson, who also wrote and composed almost all of its music. Most of the recording sessions were conducted between January and April 1966, a year after he had quit touringwith the Beach Boys in order to focus more attention on writing and recording. For Pet Sounds, Wilson's goal was to create "the greatest rock album ever made" — a personalized work with no filler tracks.

 

The 1970's: Things Get A Little Weird

David Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, 1972

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars has received critical acclaim and has been consistently considered one of the greatest albums of all time, with Rolling Stone magazine ranking it the 35th greatest ever. The album presents the vague story of a rock and roll character called Ziggy Stardust, the human manifestation of an alien being who attempts to present humanity with a message of hope in the last five years of its existence. Ziggy Stardust represents the definitive rock star: sexually promiscuous and wild in drug intake, but with a message of peace and love. He is destroyed both by his own consumptions, and by the fans he inspires. The album, and the character of Ziggy Stardust, was known for its glam rock influences and themes of sexual exploration and social commentary. These factors, coupled with the ambiguity surrounding Bowie's sexuality and fuelled by a ground-breaking performance of "Starman" on 'Top of the Pops', led to the album being met with controversy and since hailed as a seminal work.

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Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin [IV], 1971

Led Zeppelin IV was a commercial and critical success, featuring many of the band's best-known songs, including "Black Dog", "Rock and Roll", "Going to California" and "Stairway to Heaven". The album is one of the best-selling albums of all time with more than 37 million copies sold. After the band's previous album Led Zeppelin III received lukewarm reviews from critics, Page decided their fourth album would officially be untitled. This, along with the inner sleeve's design featuring four symbols that represented each band member, led to the album being referred to variously as ,Four Symbols, The Fourth Album, Untitled, Runes, The Hermit, and ZoSo(which was derived from Page's symbol). In addition to lacking an album title, the cover featured no band name, as the group wished to be anonymous and to avoid easy pigeonholing by the press.

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Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon, 1973

The Dark Side of the Moon  thematically explores conflict, greed, the passage of time, and mental illness. 

The Dark Side of the Moon built upon experiments Pink Floyd had attempted in their previous live shows and recordings, but lacks the extended instrumental excursions which, according to critic David Fricke, had become characteristic of the band after founder member Syd Barrett left in 1968. Gilmour, Barrett's replacement, later referred to those instrumentals as "that psychedelic noodling stuff", and with Waters cited 1971's Meddle as a turning-point towards what would be realised on the album. The Dark Side of the Moon's lyrical themes include conflict, greed, the passage of time, death, and insanity, the latter inspired in part by Barrett's deteriorating mental state; he had been the band's principal composer and lyricist. The album is notable for its use of musique concrète and conceptual, philosophical lyrics, as found in much of the band's other work.

Each side of the album is a continuous piece of music. The five tracks on each side reflect various stages of human life, beginning and ending with a heartbeat, exploring the nature of the human experience, and (according to Waters) "empathy".

 

The 1980's: The Birth of Pop

Michael Jackson, Thriller, 1982

Not only is this album the highest selling album of it's decade, it's the highest selling album of all time. In just over a year, Thriller became—and currently remains—the world's best-selling album, with estimated sales of 66 million copies. It is the best-selling album in the United States and the first album to be certified 33× multi-platinum, having shipped 33 million album-equivalent units. The album won a record-breaking number of eight Grammy Awards in 1984, including Album of the Year. Seven singles were released from the album, all of which reached the top 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Thriller also enabled Jackson to break down racial barriers in pop music, via his appearances on MTV and meeting with the US President Ronald Reagan at the White House. The album was one of the first to use music videos as successful promotional tools, and the videos for the songs "Thriller", "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" all received regular rotation on MTV.

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Madonna, Like a Prayer, 1989

Madonna's "Like A Virgin" and "True Blue" might have delivered mass radio friendly hits and defined pop music of the decade, but it was Madonna's combination of viable pop and tip toeing into real issues like sexism, prejudice, and religion on her fourth album that ended the decade with a bang. Like A Prayer remains Madonna's pinnacle at being both a viable radio artist for the masses before transitioning into the daring risque diva in the 1990's. Power anthems like "Express Yourself" and "Like a Prayer" proved earworms could be powerful on multiple levels, and that a woman could do it just as good...or even better....than the typical male rockstar.  

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Michael Jackson, Bad, 1987

The only male artist on the list to make it twice, Michael Jackson's Bad was the first album ever to achieve five number one Billboard Hot 100 hits. It maintained that status as the only five-hit-number-one album for 23 years. The first studio album Jackson released in almost five years since the release of Thriller, Bad was the third, and final, musical collaboration between Jackson and Quincy Jones. It was produced by Jones, with co-production credit given to Jackson. Jackson began recording demos for the anticipated follow-up to Thriller a few months after the 1984 Victory Tour with the Jacksons and throughout 1985 while preparing for Disney's 4D film experience Captain EO, which featured an early pre-album extended cut of "Another Part of Me." Album development for Bad began in November 1986 and recording took place between January 5, 1987 and July 9, 1987, at Westlake Audio, where a special wooden stage was built to allow Jackson to dance while recording. 

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, Jon Pareles called Bad "a well-made, catchy dance record by an enigmatic pop star". He said while nothing on the record compared to "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'", the music's "concocted synthesizer-driven arrangements" were "clear" and carried "a solid kick". In USA Today, Edna Gundersen called it Jackson's "most polished effort to date," that is "calculated but not sterile." Davitt Sigerson fromRolling Stone wrote that "even without a milestone recording like 'Billie Jean',Bad is still a better record than Thriller." He believed the filler, such as "Speed Demon", "Dirty Diana" and "Liberian Girl", made Bad "richer, sexier and better than Thriller's forgettables."

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Prince (and the Revolution), Purple Rain, 1984

Purple Rain is regularly ranked among the best albums in music history, and is widely regarded as Prince's magnum opus. Time magazine ranked it the 15th greatest album of all time in 1993, and it placed 18th on VH1's Greatest Rock and Roll Albums of All Time countdown. Rolling Stone ranked it the second-best album of the 1980s and 76th on their list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". The first two singles from Purple Rain, "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy", topped the US singles charts, and were hits around the world, while the title track went to number two on the Billboard Hot 100. The album was certified thirteen-times platinum (Diamond) by the RIAA.

In 2007, the editors of Vanity Fair labeled it the best soundtrack of all time, and Tempo magazine named it the greatest album of the 1980s. The 1,000th issue of Entertainment Weekly dated July 4, 2008, listed Purple Rain at number one on their list of the top 100 best albums of the past 25 years.

The 1990's: From Grunge to R&B to Bubblegum

Nirvana, Nevermind, 1991

Despite low commercial expectations by the band and its record label, Nevermind became a surprise success in late 1991, largely due to the popularity of its first single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit". By January 1992, it had replaced Michael Jackson's album Dangerous at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart. The album also produced three other successful singles: "Come as You Are", "Lithium", and "In Bloom". The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has certified the album diamond (at least over 10 million copies shipped), and the album has sold at least 30 million copies worldwide, with 10,640,000 of those copies sold in the United States.Nevermind was in part responsible for bringing both alternative rock and grunge to a large, mainstream audience, and has been ranked highly on lists of the greatest albums of all time by publications such as Rolling Stone and Time. 

Cobain, Nirvana's main songwriter, fashioned chord sequences using primarily power chords and wrote songs that combined pop hooks with dissonant guitar riffs. His aim for Nevermind's material was to sound like "The Knack and the Bay City Rollers getting molested by Black Flag andBlack Sabbath". Many of the songs on Nevermind feature shifts in dynamics, where the band changes from quiet verses to loud choruses. Dave Grohl said this approach originated during a four-month period prior to the recording of the album, where the band would experiment with extreme dynamics during regular jam sessions

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Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill, 1995

Jagged Little Pill is the third album by Canadian singer Alanis Morissette, released in 1995 through Maverick, Madonna's self owned label. It was Morissette's first album released outside Canada. Morissette began work on her next album after moving from her hometown, Ottawa, to Toronto; she made little progress until she traveled to Los Angeles, where she met producer Glen Ballard. Morissette and Ballard had an instant connection and began co-writing and experimenting with sounds.

The experimentation resulted in an alternative rock album that takes influence from post-grunge and pop rock, and features guitars, keyboards, drum machines, and harmonica. The lyrics touch upon themes of aggression and unsuccessful relationships, while Ballard introduced a pop sensibility to Morissette's angst. Jagged Little Pill is one of the most successful albums of the 1990s. It peaked at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200, and was the first album to reach both 12 million (in February 1997) and 13 million (in August 1998) in sales in the US since 1991, when Nielsen SoundScan started tracking music sales.

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Madonna, Ray of Light, 1998

 After pushing the envelope so far on Erotica that she received "unforgiveable backlash" and following it up with a mediocre performing album "Bedtime Stories" that failed to recover Madonna's image, it seemed Madonna had finally reached her peak. Until this swirling little gem. Ray of Light is the ultimate comeback album. It reminded everyone what Madonna was capable of. It reminded everyone not to count an artist out just yet. And it showed Madonna's most vulnerable side yet. After breaking for several years from music and touring, Madonna gave birth to a daughter and decided to re-channel her energy into a new spiritual project. The album garnered immediate commercial and critical success, set Madonna up for the 21st Century, and is one of the first pop records that toyed enough with electronica that it could also qualify as experimental. Ray of Light is Madonna showing once again that she is best when she is vulnerable. 

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Mariah Carey, Daydream, 1995

Daydream is the fifth studio album by American singer and songwriter Mariah Carey, released on October 3, 1995, by Columbia Records. The follow-up to her internationally successful album Music Box (1993) and holiday album Merry Christmas (1994), Daydream differed from the two by leaning increasingly towards hip hop and urban music. Throughout the project, Carey collaborated with Walter Afanasieff, with whom she wrote and produced most of her two previous albums. With Daydream, Carey took more control over the musical direction as well as the album's composition. Carey said she consideredDaydream the beginning of her musical and vocal transformation, a change that became more apparent in her sixth album Butterfly (1997). During the album's production, Carey endured many creative differences with her label and husband Tommy Mottola.

On Daydream, Carey collaborated with Jermaine Dupri for the first time, and co-wrote and produced a song with Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, with whom she had collaborated on Music Box. It was also the first time she had worked with Boyz II Men, an R&B group consisting of four male vocalists. Together, they wrote the concept and lyrics for "One Sweet Day", a song that Carey co-produced with Afanasieff. With his assistance and the addition of a few contemporary producers, she was able to make a subtle transition into the R&B market. Daydream was nominated for six Grammy Awards at the 38th annual ceremony, during which Carey performed live. Due to the album's critical and commercial success, critics believed Carey would be one of the night's big winners. However, to her dismay, she was completely shut out, causing the subject to become very public and controversial. She left the annual ceremony empty-handed.

Six singles were released from the album. Its lead single "Fantasy" became the first single by a female artist to debut at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 and went on to top the chart for eight weeks and became the second best-selling single of 1995 in the country. The song topped the charts in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand and became a top-five hit in Finland, France, and the United Kingdom. The second single "One Sweet Day" topped the BillboardHot 100 for sixteen weeks and became the longest-running number one singlein American history, a record it still holds.

The 2000's: Hip Hop and 808s

Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP, 2000

The Marshall Mathers LP is the third studio album by American rapper Eminem. The album was produced mostly by Dr. Dre and Eminem, along with The 45 King, the Bass Brothers, and Mel-Man. Released a year after Eminem's breakout album The Slim Shady LP, the record features more introspective lyricism including the rapper's response to his sudden rise to fame and controversy surrounding his lyrics.

The album sold more than 1.78 million copies in the US in its first week alone, becoming the fastest-selling studio album by any solo artist in American music history. In 2001, the album won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album and was nominated for Album of the Year.  The album was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America in March 2011 for shipping 10 million copies in the United States. By December 2016, the album had sold over 11 million copies in the United States and more than 32 million copies worldwide.

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Jay-Z, The Blueprint, 2001

The Blueprint was reportedly cut in two weeks, with Jay-Z allegedly writing the lyrics in two days. At the time, he was awaiting two criminal trials for gun possession and assault. He was also engaged in feuds with various rappers, in particular Nas and Mobb Deep member Prodigy. In the song "Takeover", Jay-Z attacks the two Queensbridge rappers, using a sample of the song "Five to One" by The Doors and an interpolation of David Bowie's "Fame". On The Blueprint, Jay-Z and his producers used vintage soul as inspiration, including a vocal sample on almost every track from such artists as Al Green, Bobby "Blue" Bland, David Ruffin and The Jackson 5. Exceptions include "Jigga That *****," "Hola Hovito," and "Renegade," a track produced by and featuring the rapper Eminem, and the only track on the album featuring another rapper on verses.

Upon its release, The Blueprint received universal acclaim, with critics praising Jay-Z's lyricism and the production. It is considered one of Jay-Z's best albums and has also been labeled as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time.

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Justin Timberlake, FutureSex/LoveSounds, 2006

During a two-year hiatus, Timberlake resolved his feelings on being unable to record any new material, and as he returned to record some new music, he began collaborating with his longtime record producer Timbaland. The album shares some lyrical themes with Timberlake's debut album Justified (2002), although FutureSex/LoveSounds has more diversity in music genres. It infuses R&B and pop with techno, funk, and elements of rock. The reprises and interludes interspersed on the album's tracks were created by the production team with the goal of channeling Timberlake's influences; including David Bowie and Prince.

FutureSex/LoveSounds received mostly positive reviews from critics, who noted its wide range of influences and collection of eclectic sounds. The album produced six singles that attained chart success; including U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles: "SexyBack", "My Love", and "What Goes Around... Comes Around". With "Summer Love", the album achieved four U.S.Mainstream Top 40 number-one songs. Many music publications considered it among the best albums of the 2000s. Aside from earning numerous best-of-the-decade lists, the album received several Grammy Award nominations, including Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album, while its first four singles won in their respective categories. It has been certified multi-platinum in many countries worldwide, and has sold over 10 million copies, with four million in the United States. The album has been added to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's musical library and archive.

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Lady Gaga, The Fame Monster, 2009

Critically, Lady Gaga's second album The Fame Monster is considered one of the most cohesive and consistent pop records of all time. Musically, The Fame Monster is a pop album with influences of disco, glam rock, and synthpop music of the 1970s and 1980s, as well as industrial and gothic music. The album is commended as being responsible for the birth of electronica into the mainstream world. The album was also inspired by fashion shows and runways. According to Gaga, the album deals with the darker side of fame, and are lyrically expressed through a monster metaphor. Following the worldwide success of it's predecessor The Fame, Gaga has described this record it's former's "ying to yang". 

Simon Price of The Independent called it "a whole new piece of art in its own right." Kitty Empire from The Observer said that the album is "a lot more splendidly deranged" than the work of The Pussycat Dolls. MSN Music's Robert Christgau found it to be of "comparable quality" as The Fameand gave it a rating of A–, describing the tracks as "streamlined pop machines". Christgau further elaborated that "after being overwhelmed by the sheer visibility of her warp-speed relaunch did I realize how enjoyable and inescapable her hooks and snatches had turned out to be."

NME's Emily MacKay described The Fame Monster "as pristine as you'd expect, but has a sub-zero core of isolation and fear". She went on to call the album's release as "the moment Gaga cemented herself as a real star".

 

The 2010's: Electronic Dance, Indie-Pop, and Trap 

Beyonce, Lemonade, 2016

American rapper Snoop Dogg named his Coolaid album after Beyoncé's Lemonade. Singer Florence Welch was inspired by the record: "We've been listening to Lemonade before every show. It's the record I dance around to before I go on stage." At the 59th Annual Grammy Awards, Adele dedicated her Album of the Year award to Beyoncé and said: "The artist of my life is Beyoncé... the Lemonade album, is just so monumental." Bill Condon, director of Beauty and the Beast says the visuals behind Lemonade inspired him for the movie: "You look at Beyoncé's brilliant movie Lemonade, this genre is taking on so many different forms… I do think that this very old-school break-out-into-song traditional musical is something that people understand again and really want."Many critics have noted that Jay-Z's 2017 album 4:44 is a response to Lemonade, with Jay-Z referencing lines from Lemonade, such as the "You better call Becky with the good hair" line on Beyoncé's "Sorry", with Jay-Z retorting, "Leave me alone, Becky" in "Family Feud".

The University of Texas at San Antonio offered a class in the Fall of 2016 based on the album. The course, titled "Black Women, Beyoncé and Popular Culture", explored how the visual album "is a meditation on contemporary black womanhood," before advancing and diving into the "theoretical, historical, and literary frameworks of black feminism," according to the syllabus. Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) announced "The Lemonade Project", a 12-month series of conversations centered around the visual album. The series will explore the themes of race, gender and class addressed by the album. Nuff said.

Adele, 21, 2011

Praised by critics for its understated production, vintage aesthetic, and Adele's vocal performance, 21 defied the modest commercial expectations of her indie record label XL Recordings. The album topped the charts in more than 30 countries and became the world's best-selling album of the year for 2011 and 2012. In the United Kingdom, it is the best-selling album of the 21st century andfourth best-selling album of all time, while its 23-week tenure atop the UK Albums Chart is the longest by a female solo artist. In the United States, the album held the top position for 24 weeks, longer than any other album since 1985 and the longest by a female solo artist in Billboard 200 history. As well, it had the most weeks on the Billboard 200 chart of any album by a woman.

It was certified Diamond by the RIAA and was ranked as the "Greatest Billboard 200 Album of All Time."

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Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, 2010

Following a period of public and legal controversy, West retreated to a "self-imposed exile" in Hawaii in 2009. There, he worked on the album in a communal recording environment that involved numerous contributing musicians and producers. The album features guest appearances from Bon Iver, Jay-Z, Pusha T, Rick Ross, Kid Cudi, Nicki Minaj,John Legend and more.

Production was led by West himself, alongside a variety of high-profile record producers including Mike Dean, No I.D., Jeff Bhasker, RZA, S1, Bink and DJ Frank E. Noted by critics for its maximalist aesthetic, opulent production quality, and dichotomous themes, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy incorporates aspects of West's previous works, including soul, baroque, electro, and symphonic styles.

The album's themes deal primarily with excess and celebrity, and also touch on decadence, grandiosity,escapism, sex, wealth, romance, self-aggrandizement, and self-doubt.

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Lady Gaga, Born This Way, 2011

The album of the millenials? The music of Born This Way stems from the synthpop and dance-pop styles of Gaga's previous material while incorporating different forms of instrumentation from that on her previous releases, such as electronic rock and techno.But it also features a broader range of genres such as opera, heavy metal, disco, house and rock and roll while its lyrical topics include sexuality, religion, freedom, feminism, and individualism. Despite divided opinions among religious and conservative commentators, the album was well received by music critics, who praised the varying musical styles and Gaga's insane vocals. 

Born This Way  debuted in the top five spots of every major chart, including the Billboard 200. In the United States, the record sold more than one million copies in its first week—the highest first-week album sales in five years. It sold six million copies worldwide. Four of the album's singles—"Born This Way", "Judas", "The Edge of Glory", and "You and I" and one of the promotional singles, "Hair"—charted in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 and "Born This Way" became the 1000th song to reach the number one spot since the inauguration of the chart in 1958. The title track was also once the fastest-selling single in iTunes history,  while the promotional track "Hair" charted in sixteen countries.

Slant Magazine ranked the album as the best of 2011 in their list of "The 25 Best Albums of 2011", calling it a "magnum opus", and describing it as a "sincere ode to the bedazzled hearts of outsiders past and present". The album is also noted as holding the first number one hit to include the word "transgender" in it, 'Born This Way', and is considered a modern gay civil rights empowerment album.

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Katy Perry, Teenage Dream, 2010

Teenage Dream is the second album in history to have five number ones from one album (after Michael Jackson's 1987 album Bad), the first by a woman to achieve this milestone and the third album in history to produce eight top five hits. All six of the aforementioned singles, in addition to two from its 2012 reissue, have sold over two million digital downloads each in the US, setting a record in the digital era for the most multi-Platinum singles from one album. 

Katy Perry's Teenage Dream proved that bubblegum pop could mingle and be viable in a changing 2010's pop landscape surrounded by EDM and Hip-Hop.

 

[Irrelevant 20,281]

The sudden change

[SISTERV 3,887]

2 minutes ago, Irrelevant said:

The sudden change

change? change what?

[Maleficent 6]

Agree with everything except for the last two albums 

[Saint Hollywood 37,363]

Born This Way and The Fame Monster celebrating: 

[HOTNebraskaGuy 19,547]

It’s funny how you noticed/mentioned multiple occurrences in the latter decades but one thing for the earlier ones.  Time for some music history research I see.  For both of us. 

[gabeoz 7,915]

21 minutes ago, Maleficent said:

Agree with everything except for the last two albums 

Born This Way is the second to last. WHat you smokin' 

[Zaskar 3,887]

Did you compile it? Or found it online?

[ssslyboy 3,273]

yaaaas at Like a Prayer 

[chiuga 1,970]

not the last one though

[Tom Nook 37,805]

I was waiting for Gaga to pop up or else this thread would be @Irrelevant

[PeterPan 0]

Is this ur list or from an article?

[Gagadonna 10,801]

This list loses all credibility because of the last album 

[whore 11,447]

On 8/2/2017 at 10:46 PM, gabeoz said:

Born This Way is the second to last. WHat you smokin' 

It has its hits and misses, way too many fillers to be considered a decade-defining record 

[Juvi 1,639]

2 hours ago, Possibly Maybe said:

It has its hits and misses, way too many fillers to be considered a decade-defining record 

Guuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrlll.............. wtf BIG TIME!!!

Sorry but there are indeed a lot of tracks on the album but NOT A SINGLE ONE IS A FILLER, B!TCH