This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1983.
Specific locations 1983 in British music 1983 in Japanese music 1983 in Norwegian music 1983 in Nordic music
Specific genres 1983 in country music 1983 in heavy metal music 1983 in hip-hop music 1983 in jazz 1983 in progressive rock
Trends CDs become popular among classical music listeners.
Events January–April January 1 ZTT Records is founded. The Merchant Ivory film Heat and Dust is released. On the soundtrack, composed by Zakir Hussain, Ivory is featured on tanpura with Hussain (who also appears in the film) on tabla. January 8 – The UK singles chart is tabulated from this week forward by The Gallup Organization. In 1984 electronic terminals will be used in selected stores to gather sales information, and the old "sales diary" method will be gradually phased out over the next few years. January – Surtitles are first used in a live opera performance at a Canadian Opera Company production of Elektra. February 2 – "Menudomania" comes to New York as 3,500 screaming girls crowd Kennedy Airport to catch a glimpse of Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, who are playing six sold-out shows at the Felt Forum. February 11 – The Rolling Stones concert film Let's Spend the Night Together opens in New York. February 13 – Marvin Gaye performs "The Star-Spangled Banner" before the NBA All-Star Game. February 23 – The 25th Annual Grammy Awards are presented in Los Angeles, hosted by John Denver. Toto win both Album of the Year (for Toto IV) and Record of the Year (for "Rosanna"), while Willie Nelson's cover of "Always on My Mind" wins Song of the Year. Men at Work win Best New Artist. February 26 – Michael Jackson's Thriller album hits #1 on the US charts, the first of thirty-seven (non-consecutive) weeks it would spend there on its way to becoming the biggest-selling album of all time. March 2 – Compact discs go on sale in the Europe and North America. They had first been released in Japan the previous October. March 4 – Neil Young cancels the remainder of his tour after collapsing backstage in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, after playing for seventy-five minutes. March 5 – Thompson Twins have their first chart success as "Love on Your Side" enters the Top 10 in the UK. March 26 Duran Duran enter the UK Singles Chart at number 1 with their first UK number 1 single "Is There Something I Should Know?". Tears for Fears debut album The Hurting reaches number 1 on the UK Albums Chart. April 5 A Generative Theory of Tonal Music by Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff is published. US Interior Secretary James G. Watt causes controversy when he effectively bans the Beach Boys from a return performance at the Fourth of July festivities in Washington, announcing that Wayne Newton would perform instead. Watt claims that rock bands attract "the wrong element". That same week President Reagan, himself an avowed Beach Boys fan, presents Watt with a plaster foot with a hole in it. April 9 – David Bowie achieves his fourth UK number 1 single with "Let's Dance". April 11 – Dave Mustaine is dismissed from Metallica just as the band is set to begin recording its début album, to be replaced by Kirk Hammett. April 14 – David Bowie releases Let's Dance, his first album since parting ways with RCA Records and his fifteenth studio album overall. With its deliberate shift to mainstream dance-rock, it would become Bowie's biggest commercial success, at 10.7 million copies sold worldwide. April 18 – Ellen Taaffe Zwilich becomes the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. April 23 – French singer Corinne Hermès, representing Luxembourg, wins the 28th annual Eurovision Song Contest, held at Rudi-Sedlmayer-Halle in Munich, with the song "Si la vie est cadeau".
May–August May 15 – Rita Lee concludes her Tour Brasil 83 at Maracanãzinho as the first Brazilian artist to carry out a tour in arenas and stadiums, with a record audience of 500,000 attendees. May 16 Singer Anna Vissi marries composer Nikos Karvelas. The Motown 25 Special airs on NBC, celebrating a quarter century of Motown Records. Michael Jackson unveils his moonwalk dance move during a performance of "Billie Jean". May 28 – June 4 – The second US Festival is held at Glen Helen Park in California. June 3 – American rock drummer Jim Gordon commits matricide during a schizophrenic episode. June 18–19 – Menudo make their second visit to New York. The band plays four shows at Madison Square Garden and all 80,000 tickets sell out within three days of going on sale. June 20 – Catalunya Ràdio begins broadcasting. July 1 – Chilean Band Los Prisioneros debut at the Miguel Leon Prado High School Song festival. They will come to personify the rebellion of young Chileans leading to protests against Augusto Pinochet. July 6 – As a statement of protest against music piracy in the form of home taping, Jean-Michel Jarre releases only one pressing of his latest album "Music for Supermarkets", which is sold at an auction to a French real estate dealer for 69,000 francs (about US$8960). The auction is broadcast live on Radio Luxembourg which also plays the album in full for the first and only time. July 19 – Simon and Garfunkel begin their North American summer tour in Akron, Ohio. July 21 – Diana Ross performs a filmed concert in Central Park in heavy rain; eventually the storm forces her to postpone the rest of the concert until next day. July 29 – Friday Night Videos is broadcast for the first time on NBC. August 16 Johnny Ramone suffers a near-fatal head injury during a fight over a girl in front of his East Village apartment. Singer Paul Simon marries actress Carrie Fisher. August 20 – The Rolling Stones sign a new $28 million contract with CBS Records, the largest recording contract in history up to this time.
September–December September 1 – Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon of The Clash issue a press statement announcing Mick Jones has been dismissed from the group. September 4 – Phil Lynott performs his final show with Thin Lizzy in Nuremberg, Germany. September 18 – The members of Kiss show their faces without their makeup for the first time on MTV, simultaneously with the release of their album Lick It Up. September 20 – The first ARMS Charity Concert is held at the Royal Albert Hall in London. October 29 – The 12th OTI Festival, held at the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., United States, is won by the song "", written by Jessé and Elifas Andreato, and performed by Jessé himself representing Brazil. November 12 – Duran Duran start their SING BLUE SILVER World Tour. The tour begins with sold-out shows in Australia November 26 – Quiet Riot's Metal Health album tops the US album charts, the first heavy metal album to hit #1 in America. December 2 The Uday-Ustav Festival, a tribute to Uday Shankar, is staged at the instigation of Uday's younger brother, Ravi Shankar. Michael Jackson's 14-minute music video for Thriller is premiered on MTV. Phish play their first show. December 25 – Marvin Gaye gives his father, as a Christmas present, an unlicensed Smith & Wesson .38 special caliber pistol so that Gaye could protect himself from intruders. A few months later, Gaye Sr would use it to shoot his son dead. December 31 – The twelfth annual New Year's Rockin' Eve special airs on ABC, with appearances by Culture Club, Rick James, Laura Branigan, Barry Manilow, Mary Jane Girls and David Frizzell.
Bands formed See Musical groups established in 1983
Bands disbanded See Musical groups disestablished in 1983
Bands reformed
The Animals The Everly Brothers
Albums released January DayAlbumArtistNotes4 Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) Eurythmics -10 Trans Neil Young -14 ExtendedancEPlay Dire Straits EP Feline The Stranglers - Nena Nena -17 Trouble in Paradise Randy Newman -18 Cuts Like a Knife Bryan Adams -20 American Made The Oak Ridge Boys - Pyromania Def Leppard -21 The Law of Devil's Land Loudness -28 Never Surrender Triumph -31 Money and Cigarettes Eric Clapton US Another Page Christopher Cross -? The Art of Falling Apart Soft Cell - The Belle Stars The Belle Stars Debut G Force Kenny G - Live Evil Black Sabbath Live Making Contact UFO - Strive to Survive Causing Least Suffering Possible Flux of Pink Indians - Touch the Sky Smokey Robinson - What Makes a Man Start Fires? Minutemen - What's Funk? Grand Funk -
February DayAlbumArtistNotes1 Frontiers Journey -3 Powerlight Earth, Wind & Fire -4 All the Best Stiff Little Fingers - Porcupine Echo & The Bunnymen -8 Michael W. Smith Project Michael W. Smith Debut11 Lucky Marty Balin -18 Somewhere in Afrika Manfred Mann's Earth Band UK22 Kilroy Was Here Styx -23 Subterranean Jungle Ramones -28 Metal Health Quiet Riot - War U2 - So Fired Up Le Roux - The Key Joan Armatrading -? Confusion Is Sex Sonic Youth Debut High Land, Hard Rain Aztec Camera Debut Kihnspiracy The Greg Kihn Band - Quick Step and Side Kick/Side Kicks Thompson Twins - Rock Goddess Rock Goddess - Seal in Red Rufus - Strong Stuff Hank Williams Jr. - Waiting Fun Boy Three - Youngblood Carl Wilson -
March DayAlbumArtistNotes4 Dazzle Ships Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Thunder and Lightning Thin Lizzy - True Spandau Ballet -7 Cool Kids Kix - The Hurting Tears For Fears Debut Deep Sea Skiving Bananarama -11 No Rest for the Wicked Helix -14 Europe Europe Debut Script for a Jester's Tear Marillion Debut16 Outside Inside The Tubes -21 The Final Cut Pink Floyd -23 Eliminator ZZ Top -28 Baby Snakes Frank Zappa Soundtrack Jarreau Al Jarreau - The Man from Utopia Frank Zappa -30 Living in Oz Rick Springfield -31 Dancing With Danger Streetheart -? The Abominable Showman Nick Lowe - Baila Conmigo Rita Lee & Roberto de Carvalho International album Branigan 2 Laura Branigan -A Child's Adventure Marianne Faithfull - Dig That Groove Baby Toy Dolls - The High Road Roxy Music Live EP If You Leave Me Now Chicago Compilation Inarticulate Speech of the Heart Van Morrison - Julio Julio Iglesias - Legendary Hearts Lou Reed - Local Hero Mark Knopfler Soundtrack Naked Eyes Naked Eyes Titled "Burning Bridges" in the UK No Guts...No Glory Molly Hatchet - Power & the Glory Saxon -
April DayAlbumArtistNotes1 Havana Moon Carlos Santana -8 Faster Than the Speed of Night Bonnie Tyler - The Luxury Gap Heaven 17 -11 Let's Dance David Bowie - Flashdance Various Artists Soundtrack Sirens Savatage - Style Cameo -12 Murmur R.E.M. Debut13 Death Party The Gun Club EP Forged in Fire Anvil - Mary Jane Girls Mary Jane Girls Debut Violent Femmes Violent Femmes -15 Rock for Light Bad Brains -18 It Pulp Debut White Feathers Kajagoogoo Debut22 Midnight at the Lost and Found Meat Loaf -25 Headhunter Krokus -27 Whammy! The B-52s -29 Cargo Men At Work - Listen A Flock of Seagulls - Hootenanny The Replacements -? You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll Twisted Sister UK; US release in June Fastway Fastway - In Outer Space Sparks - Information Dave Edmunds - Madness Madness US Compilation Michael Bolton Michael Bolton - Out of Step Minor Threat - Pride Robert Palmer Scoop Pete Townshend Compilation of unreleased tracks Take It to the Limit Willie Nelson with Waylon Jennings - Tumult The Ex - Steve Miller Band Live! Steve Miller Band Live
May