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50 albums · 1958–2023

Music of Iceland, from Megas and the Sugarcubes to Björk, Sigur Rós and today

· 1 min read · by 1001 Albums

Björk singing on stage with a large red and blue projection behind her
The trio Samaris on a club stage under the Iceland Airwaves logoOf Monsters and Men playing on a theatre stage under white lights
Björk on the Cornucopia tour at Forest National in Brussels, 2019. Photo: Marcwncs, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Samaris, Jófríður Ákadóttir, Þórður Kári Steinþórsson and Áslaug Rún Magnúsdóttir, at Iceland Airwaves in Reykjavík, 2011. Photo: Jed, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Of Monsters and Men at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, 2015. Photo: Justin Higuchi, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Iceland's popular music has a festival at its centre, Iceland Airwaves in the clubs of Reykjavík each November, and before it the dance halls where Haukur Morthens and Ellý Vilhjálms sang, the prog of Trúbrot and Þursaflokkurinn, Stuðmenn and Megas, the punk years of Utangarðsmenn, Bubbi Morthens and Purrkur Pillnikk, Kukl and The Sugarcubes, from which Björk went on to Debut, Homogenic and Vespertine, Sigur Rós, múm and GusGus, Emilíana Torrini, the composers Jóhann Jóhannsson, Ólafur Arnalds and Hildur Guðnadóttir, Of Monsters and Men, Samaris and Hatari, who went to Eurovision like Daði Freyr, Víkingur Ólafsson at the piano, and Laufey. The list has 50 records from 1958 to 2023, one or two by each of the names above and only a small part of what they made; Haukur Morthens and Ellý Vilhjálms are here as collections because their records are on Deezer only that way, Þeyr is missing because its records are not there, and the rímur and the old chant, the choirs and most of the classical tradition beyond a nod to Víkingur Ólafsson would each need a list of their own. About 39 hours of music, 5 days of a few records each.

By genre

Rock 17%Electronic 14%Pop 11%Other 58%
  • Rock 17%
  • Electronic 14%
  • Pop 11%
  • Other 58%

The genres named most: icelandic, pop, rock, electronic, indie folk, ambient.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 1 country: Iceland 50. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1950s

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

The 2020s

More lists

Lists of Countries first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.