Billie Jean
1982 · From Thriller
That bassline, mixed and remixed until it gleamed, and the four minutes that integrated MTV.
★ 9.8
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1982
Showing 104 works across all media from 1982
Thriller
1982
Quincy Jones and Jackson remixed the whole record because the first version sounded thin, and Eddie Van Halen played his solo for free.
★ 9.5
The MessageGrandmaster Flash
The Message
1982
The record that proved hip hop could report and not just party, and the edge everyone's been close to since.
★ 9.5
Beat It
1982 · From Thriller
Van Halen dropped in, played the solo for free, and Jackson made rock and pop the same building.
★ 9.2
Thriller
1982 · From Thriller
Vincent Price cackling over a disco-funk groove, and a fourteen-minute video that turned pop into event television.
★ 9.2
Blade Runner
Directed by Ridley Scott
1982
It flopped, then quietly redesigned the future: every rainy neon city of the last forty years is borrowing from Ridley Scott, and the mood still outlasts the plot.
★ 9.2
ET the Extra-Terrestrial
Directed by Steven Spielberg
1982
Highest grossing film in the world for a decade, and it earns every cent: Spielberg shot at child height so the adults are legs and voices, and wrecks entire cinemas.
★ 8.8
The Book of Disquiet
1982 · 468 pages
Pessoa invented an assistant bookkeeper in Lisbon and gave him hundreds of fragments on being alive in a rented room. Open the book anywhere and someone is already thinking your thoughts.
★ 8.4
Planet RockAfrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force
Planet Rock
1982
Bambaataa welded Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express to a Roland 808, and Tommy Boy paid Kraftwerk a dollar per record.
★ 8.2
Fanny & Alexander
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
1982 · Sweden
Bergman meant it as his farewell to cinema and made it the warmest thing he ever did: five hours in its full version, of Christmas light, ghosts, cruelty and childhood.
★ 8.1
Sexual Healing
1982 · From Midnight Love
Gaye programmed the TR-808 himself in a Belgian studio, and it finally won him the first Grammys of his career.
★ 7.8
Nebraska
1982
He taped it alone on a four-track in his bedroom, carried the cassette around in his pocket, and it ended up released as it was.
★ 7.5
I Love Rock 'N Roll
1982
The Runaways passed, so Jett recorded it twice herself; the second version spent seven weeks at number one.
★ 7.5
Rock the Casbah
1982 · From Combat Rock
Topper Headon cut the drums, piano and bass himself, and Strummer finished the lyrics in the studio bathroom.
★ 7.4
Tootsie
Directed by Sydney Pollack
1982
Hoffman said the part permanently changed how he saw women, and what he learned is worked out here as farce: an unemployable actor becomes a soap opera star.
★ 7.2
Total Eclipse of the Heart
1982
Nearly seven minutes, Rory Dodd's voice answering Tyler on the refrain, and Steinman's vampire love song became number one.
★ 7.2
Should I Stay or Should I Go
1982 · From Combat Rock
Spanish backing vocals translated by the tape operator's mother over the phone, and a jeans advert made it number one.
★ 7.0