The Best Album by 20 Legendary College Rock Bands

What are the best albums from 20 of college rock’s most legendary bands? Let’s take a closer look.

It may seem a bit of an oxymoron referring to a college rock band as legendary given that college rock radio was notoriously home to what many considered to be the underground of music during most of the 1980s. But as we’ve seen over time, several of those acts graduated to mainstream radio and became some of the biggest bands in the world. And time has been kind in recognition of bands from the college rock era and finally giving them their due.

Here, we take a closer look at some of the bands that were dominating the airwaves on college rock radio stations in the ’80s and laying the groundwork for what would become the ’90s alt-rock boom. Sadly, some of these bands didn’t last long enough to see the new avenues open to them, but the music they left behind not only provided influence for further generations but also often received critical acclaim in en era in which word of mouth was crucial to success.

READ MORE: 20 Songs That Shaped College Rock Radio in 1986

As stated, there are some bands who were onto bigger things, such as R.E.M., U2 and Red Hot Chili Peppers, but as this is a piece about the college rock era, we pick favorite albums from each when they were still far from the mega-huge bands they are now. But along with those big name bands we shout out some more underground heroes of the college rock era, such as Husker Du, Echo & the Bunnymen and They Might Be Giants among others.

So let’s take this trip. Scroll down in the gallery below as we take a look at the best album of 20 legendary college rock bands.

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