Hank Sapoznik, The Klezmorim, Kapelye, Andy Statman and the Klezmer Conservatory Band emerge at the forefront of a klezmer revival among Jews in Israel, the US and UK.
Artists like Wilfrido Vargas help popularize merengue, drawing on a large Dominican minority internationally in cities like New York
Rangzen Shonu helps lead a merger of Tibetan and Western rock and pop music; recordings by Mickey Hart and Philip Glass (Koyaanisqatsi) help further fuse Tibetan, New Age and Western classical music. One year later, Alain Presencer's The Singing Bowls of Tibet proved an influential fusion of Western and Tibetan forms
Alt-folk group Biermosl Blosn appear on Bavarian TV playing the national anthem with words attacking then-President Franz Josef Strauss, leading to increasing attention and controversy of the new wave of folk music
Kassav's popularity grows in Martinique, Guadeloupe, Haiti and Paris; the band and its imitators help invent a style of music called zouk, which will soon explode across the Caribbean, Africa and other parts of the world
Casper's "Groovy Ghost Show" is the beginning of recorded hip hop from Chicago
Hardcore punk rock begins its golden age, centered in California and Washington DC, while hardcore fusion genres are created by The Cramps' Songs the Lord Taught Us (voodoobilly) and Bad Brains' Pay to Cum (reggae-punk)
African-Belgian artists like Princesse Mansia M'Bila, Cécile Kayirebwa and Dieudonné Kabongo create a vibrant world music scene in Belgium
Daniel Ponce and 125,000 other Cubans expelled by Fidel Castro; many, including Ponce, bring songo to New York, fuelling the development of timba and other forms of salsa
Roger Shepherd forms Flying Nun Records in New Zealand; the record label will go on to dominate kiwi rock; Clean and Tall Dwarfs invent a form of lo fi pop
Dick Gaughan's Handful of Earth is released; it is widely considered one of the best modern Scottish folk albums
The record label Fflach Tradd is formed by Richard and Wyn Jones of Ail Symudiad; the label goes on to play a central role in the Welsh roots revival; Dafydd Iwan's first hit, "Yma O'Hyd (Still Here)", is a major breakthrough for the Welsh languagesinger-songwriter scene
Soro, an influential fusion album, is recorded by Malian star Salif Keita, Senegalese producer Ibrahima Sylla and French keyboardist Jean-Philippe Rykiel; the album is considered the start of modern Malian pop
A group of Paris-based makossa artists, many incorporating zouk elements, become popular in Cameroon, France and farther abroad; these include Bébé Manga and Moundy Claude
Alpha Blondy becomes a star after appearing on the TV showFirst chance and his first recording, "Brigadier Sabari", is a national hit; this is the beginning of reggae's mainstream popularity in the country
Flying Nun Records releases The Clean's Boodle Boodle Boodle and Great Sounds Great and a compilation called Dunedin Double which establish the Dunedin Sound
Stryper's The Yellow and Black Attack is the first Christian metal album and sets the stage for later Christian artists in punk, hip hop and other genres
Aerosmith begins its return to popular acceptance with Done with Mirrors
Changes in British immigration laws results in a large number of Ghanaians emigrating to Germany instead; the Ghanaian-German community creates a distinctive kind of highlife called burgher-highlife
Live Aid starts the trend for charity festivals and records, and catapults a number of notable acts to prominence, such as U2, Simple Minds and Phil Collins.
Ali Baba's Northern Cameroonian nganja gains unprecedented popularity at home and in the United Kingdom
Soukous, or popular Congolese music, becomes closely associated with Paris, where several new stars of Congolese descent emerge, including Four Stars and some of the first female African stars like M'Pongo Love and Mbilia Bel.
Most of the popular record labels in Madagscar fold due to financial problems; Western pop dominates the Malagasy audiences
GlobeStyle Records records two compilations of folk music, helping to inspire American and European musicians like Henry Kaiser to take an interest in Malagasy folk
King Sunny Ade's band walks out in the middle of a Japanese tour and Island Records drops his contract, thus ending the brief boom for juju music outside of Nigeria; in Nigeria, juju begins to lose ground to Yo-pop music
Rappers like LL Cool J (Radio) and Kurtis Blow (America) help bring rap closer to the mainstream than ever before; LL Cool J is especially known for organizing rap into traditional song structures
Zydeco musicians like Rockin' Sidney (My Zydeco Shoes Got the Zydeco Blues, "My Toot Toot") and Buckwheat Zydeco (Waitin' for My Ya-Ya) engender a brief surge in zydeco's popularity
Pinoy rock has become socially aware in its lyrical tone, and helps set the stage for a revolution in this year; at the same time, some reject this new development, resulting in a punk rock scene in Manila
Robin Huw Bowen begins his professional music career by joining Mabsant; he will go on to become one of the most influential musicians of the Welsh roots revival
American house music begins to enter the British club culture
MacTullagh Vannin releases their debut, MacTullagh Vannin, which places the band at the forefront of the Manx roots revival
The term world music is first used as a marketing category to describe several dozen kinds of folk music from around the world; the term immediately draws criticism from artists like David Byrne and other critics
Punta becomes the most popular form of Belizean music, aided by the release of Punta Rockers, a compilation featuring Pen Cayetano, Andy Palacio and Sounds Incorporated.
The Gospel Musicians Union is founded to provide support for the burgeoning gospel music scene
Amekye Dede releases Kose Kose, which establishes him as the biggest highlife performer in the country and remains an influential highlife-reggae fusion
Nikos Xydhakis and Eleftheria Arvanitaki's Konda sti Dhoxa Stigmi is an influential album in the development of an orientalized form of Greek pop music
Rai's popularity and influence in Algeria and among immigrants in France help to begin breaking into the mainstream there, and elsewhere in Europe, including future-superstar Cheb Khaled (Kutche)
Mory Kanté releases "Yeke Yeke", a classic Mande song; it becomes a surprise chart-topper throughout Europe
