These blockbuster albums were unlike any other

The music industry has always had its megastars akin to today's super-performers like Taylor Swift, Drake and Morgan Wallen.

However, there was a glorious decade from the early 1980s into the 1990s when the planets aligned and money gushed out to a select few artists who commandeered the industry. Major record labels, commercial radio, and MTV conspired to create a consumer hunger for physical products - vinyl, cassette and CD albums and singles, readily available at record stores and department stores at every mall and shopping center.

The artists behind these albums were mostly in their 20s and 30s, "video friendly" and talented enough (with the help of the right production teams) to churn out catchy hooks for their blockbuster albums, which could spawn enough carefully timed singles that could keep the artist near the top of the sales charts for two or three years at a time, often overlapping with their next album release.

Were these the best artists in the history of popular music? Not really. But their timing was phenomenal.

These days commercial radio is just a hint of what it once was, MTV doesn't even play music videos and consumers can simply stream everything they want to hear without having to buy anything.

On this episode of "How We Heard It," your hosts explain what led up to the music industry's glory days and how artists like Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna and Whitney Houston cashed in. And they talk about how Taylor Swift and others are still finding their way.