Albums that defined Los Angeles in the '80s

Van Halen set the Los Angeles rock scene on its ear in the late 1970s, then enjoyed massive commercial success in the 1980s. Eventually, frontman David Lee Roth felt it was time to strike out on his own. His solo debut was all of four songs, with a cover of The Beach Boys' "California Girls" as the highlight. Roth, with flowing blonde hair, always had that beachy, southern California vibe and his sound and look were prevalent to this effort.

Often referred to as "sleaze" rock. Faster Pūssycat had its moment at the tail end of the hair metal scene and often sang about the raunchier, randier side of Hollywood's famed Sunset Strip. The band's R-rated lyrics and sexual innuendos ran rampant on its debut effort. "Bathroom Wall" and "Cathouse," (a shout out to the famed L.A. club the band had a piece of along with former MTV VJ Riki Rachtman) celebrated the life it enjoyed.

One of the more popular movies from the early 1980s highlights the speech and actions of a group of teenage girls from the San Fernando Valley of the Los Angeles area. The soundtrack highlighted the new-wave sound of the time, especially in that part of the country. Cuts like "Million Miles Away" from L.A. area band The Plimsouls and Jose Cotton's "Johnny Are You Queer" and Modern English's classic "I Melt with You." 

The popular film version of Bret Easton Ellis' classic used Los Angeles and southern California as its backdrop. The soundtrack superbly reinforces that type of vibe. L.A. hair band Poison offered a decent version of Kiss' "Rock and Roll All Nite," LL Cool J hit it big with "Going Back to Cali" and The Bangles, Los Angeles based, delivered an amped-up version of Simon & Garfunkel's "Hazy Shade of Winter." 

While Metallica got its start in the Los Angeles area, the metal giants moved to northern California before striking it rich. Thrash kings Slayer, meanwhile, stuck it out in the Los Angeles area and showed that the music scene there in the early 1980s was more than guys wearing lipstick and massive amounts of hair spray. While Slayer's '80s thrash staples Hell Awaits, Reign in Blood, and South of Heaven, it was this debut by the band that delivered a relentless sound of fury and passion that L.A. rock fans might have not existed.

One of the early "true" hair bands to enjoy success was Ratt. The group originally hailed south in San Diego, but really lived the hair metal scene on Hollywood's Sunset Strip to the hilt. The band's debut album might have been a little grittier and bluesier than its glam metal ilk, but its look and attitude was a representation of that scene in L.A. Songs like "Round and Round" and "Lack of Communication" were provocative enough to represent some of the debauchery going on at the time.

Los Angeles' Circle Jėrks will always be associated with fellow southern California hardcore punks Black Flag. Singer Keith Morris was in both bands. Still, this Circle Jėrks' debut encapsulates what the blossoming L.A. punk scene was all about on songs like "Wasted" and "Beverly Hills." The album and band, in general, were a huge influence on those SoCal pop-punks who eventually followed, as well thrash metal staples like Slayer.

Jane's Addiction always took pride in hailing from Los Angeles and embracing the cultural aspect of the city. Went it came to the overall sound of its debut album, one can perhaps define it as alternatively eclectic. Like areas of the city that outsiders didn't know much about. "Jane Says" is a tripping ride with the steel drums adding a nice touch. Meanwhile, "Mountain Song" and "Summertime Rolls" capture the signature sound that became synonymous with Perry Ferrell and Co.

One of the great solo albums of all time from a guy whose band (The Eagles) is synonymous with that southern California sound. Henley reportedly stated he got some of the lyrics from his classic "Boys of Summer" while driving down the San Diego Freeway. Meanwhile, "Sunset Grill" is a nod to a favorite burger joint located on Sunset Boulevard.  

The great singer/songwriter spanned the country through tracks on this album, but it also produced what's arguably his most recognized song -- in terms of mass appeal. "I Love L.A." became an anthem of sorts for the city of Los Angeles and its surrounding area. There are plenty of shout-outs (South Bay, the Valley, palm trees) from the L.A. native. The music video also highlighted most of the area's most notable landmarks and favorite hangouts.

The title  track, performed by Ice-T, was one of the most popular raps of the 1980s. The entire soundtrack for the movie -- starring Robert Duvall and Sean Penn and directed by Dennis Hopper -- about the Los Angeles gang scene and the cops who are involved features many other prominent rap and hip-hop stars of the time, such as Salt-n-Pepa and Big Daddy Kane.  

While Eazy-E enjoyed monster success with N.W.A., his solo effort that came out roughly the same time the group broke through is pure genius. Eazy was always the most notorious member of the group, a true gang member from the rough streets of Compton, located in Los Angeles County. Though N.W.A. bandmates MC Ren and Ice Cube wrote these rather personal songs and Dr. Dre and DJ Yella co-produced the record, Eazy delivered the goods on such classics as the title, "Boyz-n-the-Hood" and "Nobody Move."

Motley Crue went through a number of image changes during their long and successful career. Band members lived on the Sunset Strip and immersed themselves in the debauchery of the music scene in Hollywood. Many of those experiences went into the songs and attitude of Crue's debut album. Song such as "Piece of Your Action" and "Live Wire" offers a gritty, heavy, punkish, yet poppy, sound that encapsulated the aura of the Strip at the time.

Though legendary frontman Henry Rollins hailed from Washington D.C., the band was formed in Hermosa Beach on the L.A. County shoreline. While Black Flag was known for a punk sound favored by the straight edge movement, the album is a musical description of the everyday life in the Los Angeles hardcore punk scene that was burgeoning enough to rival what was going on in New York City.

If there was one band who wore the badge of L.A. hair metal with honor, it was Poison. The lipstick, the spandex, and the hair spray. The Sunset Strip of the 1980s was a time of delight and debauchery for the hair bands and their fans. Poison's debut album celebrated all the raunch with hits like "Talk Dirty to Me" and I Want Action."

When Tom Petty decided to make a solo record, the late, legendary southern rocker paid homage to the City of Angels. The nostalgic "Free Fallin'" offers numerous references to the Los Angeles area and the video is almost like a promotional tool for the city and its surroundings. His cover of "Feel a Whole Lot Better" is a nice tip of the cap to the Byrds, L.A. rockers from the 1960s.

Rolling Stone listed X's celebrated debut among its "Top 100 Albums of the Eighties." When it came to L.A. punks, X and Black Flag were at the forefront, and this record was certainly a reason why. It featured darker, perhaps more disturbed, lyrical imagery of Los Angeles. The title cut remains the highlight of an album that was produced by late Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek and includes a cover of that group's hit "Soul Kitchen." 

The Go-Go's started out as a punk outfit on the Hollywood scene in the last 1970s but realized that success was in pop music. This L.A.-based band knocked it out of the park with this debut record. The hit "We Got the Beat" has that danceable, record-store vibe that also goes well with a day at the beach. "This Town," meanwhile offers a less-glamorous, more sarcastic look at Los Angeles and the Hollywood area.

Considered by critics and fans alike to be the greatest rap album of all time, and certainly of the "gangsta" rap genre. Depicting life on the dangerous streets -- with plenty of glorified accounts -- of South Central L.A. and near Compton, unabashed and uncensored raps like the title cut, "F*** tha Police" and "Gangsta Gangsta" are still just as powerful today as they were back in the late 1980s. The influence this record had not just locally, but nationally, was massive.

Back in the day, the boys in the band lived a hard life -- mostly by their own doing -- on the darker side of Hollywood. Appetite encapsulated that experience. Songs like "Welcome to the Jungle," My Michelle," "Nightrain" and "Mr. Brownstone" detail a side of the city and themselves that glam rockers of the '80s didn't sing about. It was a groundbreaking album that showed there are two sides of the Sunset Strip and changed the landscape of the hard-rock scene into the new decade.