With the advent of MTV, the 80's were extremely transformative, but not always in a good way. There were plenty of one-hit wonders and Milli Vanilli like flameouts. Of course, the biggest dumpster fire was Michael Jackson. Little did we know just how sadly that story would end back then. The Moonwalking Dude owned the industry for almost that entire decade. I suspect Thriller is still the biggest thing to ever happen to music since Beethoven wrote the 9th (I jest, but not by much).
Personally, I'm a hard rock guy. So, for me icons of the decade like Janet Jackson, Madonna and George Michael, although absolute stars who I grew to love as time went on, didn't really catch my ear right away. In fact, if it were not for the fact that I hit 21 and started hanging out at dance clubs in the mid-80's, I might have missed much of the new stuff from Bobbi Brown to Prince. But, a lot of that stuff was some pretty good ****.
To start off this thread, if I had to name the acts that grabbed my ear right off the bat, I would start that list with U2. Although technically a 70's band, I first heard them in the early 80's. And, on that day, I went, "Holy ****! That band is ****ing Great!!" Definitel honorable mentions for top ear grabbers on day one are Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana and Jane's Addiction. Guns and Roses would and should probably be in that list, if not even probably ranking above U2, but the meltdown after album 3 or 4 renders them kind of in the Pete Burns category: Great for a while, but WTF happened to YOU?