According to Billboard magazine (the music industry Bible), and books from Record Research, these are, in no particular order, some of the top selling artists of the decade. 

In case you're wondering, I have all of these artists plus many more in The CEO music library.

        

        

       

NEW IN THE 80's
Rubik's cubes, designer jeans, PacMan, the space shuttle, Trivial Pursuit, Cabbage Patch dolls, liposuction, break dancing, personal computers, Live Aid, stealth fighters, karaoke, grunge and little silver platters called compact discs.

MOVIES & TELEVISION
American Gigolo, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Tootsie, ET, Blade Runner, The Big Chill, Ghostbusters, Beverly Hills Cop, Back to the Future, Top Gun, Crocodile Dundee, Fatal Attraction, A Fish Called Wanda, When Harry Met Sally, 60 Minutes, Dallas, M*A*S*H, The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers and Roseanne.

IN THE NEWS
AIDS, Mount St. Helens, the shooting of John Lennon, the attempted assassination of Ronald Regan, Bhopal, the Challenger explosion, Prince Charles and Lady Di's wedding, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the shooting down of Korean Air Lines flight 007, Chernobyl, Rock Hudson dies of AIDS, ozone holes, Lockerbie, and the Berlin Wall comes down.