1986 in Music

Indie rises and hip-hop crosses over.

1986 was a turning point. Run-DMC's collaboration with Aerosmith on 'Walk This Way' fused rock and rap on MTV, while The Smiths released The Queen Is Dead and the C86 cassette helped name an entire indie aesthetic. Janet Jackson's Control announced a major new pop voice, and Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer' set new standards for music video.

Trends of 1986

Stadium rock peaked with Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet and Van Halen's 5150. Goth deepened with The Cure's double album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me a year later. Acid house began to bubble up in Chicago.

Key albums

• The Queen Is Dead — The Smiths
• Black Celebration — Depeche Mode
• Slippery When Wet — Bon Jovi
• Control — Janet Jackson

Key songs

• Walk This Way — Run-DMC & Aerosmith
• Sledgehammer — Peter Gabriel
• Bizarre Love Triangle — New Order
• Stripped — Depeche Mode

Artists of 1986

• The Smiths — Released what many critics still call the best album of the decade.
• Bon Jovi — Slippery When Wet sold over 28 million copies worldwide.

Legacy

Hip-hop was no longer a sub-genre — it was now competing with rock for cultural centrality.

All years 1980–1989 · 80s charts by year

Compiled and fact-checked by the RADIO 1980 Editorial Team. Spotted something wrong? Send a correction.