Films, music, literature, art, and cultural moments of 1987.
| Topic | Description | |—|—| | Aretha Franklin: First Woman in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame | On January 21, 1987, Aretha Franklin became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, at the ceremony in New York City. | | U2’s The Joshua Tree | Released March 9, 1987, U2’s fifth studio album became Britain’s fastest-selling record, topped charts in 20+ countries, and won the 1988 Grammy Album of the Year. | | Sign ‘O’ the Times (Prince) | Prince’s double album released March 31, 1987, widely considered his finest work and one of the greatest albums in popular music history. | | Full Metal Jacket | Stanley Kubrick’s two-part Vietnam War film, released June 26, 1987, a landmark entry in the cinema of the Vietnam War. | | Michael Jackson’s Bad | Jackson’s seventh studio album, released August 31, 1987, becomes the first album in history to produce five Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, selling over 35 million copies worldwide. | | Toni Morrison’s Beloved | Morrison’s fifth novel, published September 16, 1987, draws on the true story of Margaret Garner and wins the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, later ranked the best American fiction from 1981–2006. |
See also the master index and timeline.