Gary Graff is an award-winning music journalist based in Detroit. He is a regular contributor to Billboard, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Media News Group, Ultimate Classic Rock, Consequence, and other publications, as well as to radio stations in Detroit and Milwaukee. He is the author of Alice Cooper at 75; co-author of Neil Young: Long May You Run, Rock 'n' Roll Myths: The True Stories Behind the Most Famous Legends, and Travelin' Man: On the Road and Behind the Scenes with Bob Seger; and the series editor of the MusicHound Essential Album Guides. He is also co-founder and co-producer of the Emmy Award-winning Detroit Music Awards. Graff lives in Beverly Hills, Michigan.

"501 Essential Albums of the 80s, edited by Gary Graff, is more than just a book--it's a time machine for music lovers. Along with a crew of seasoned music journalists, Graff takes readers on a trip into one of the most groundbreaking, genre-bending, and flat-out fun decades in music history. This isn't just a book--it's your VIP pass to the ultimate '80s sound explosion."

"Sure the titans of the decade are all there...but Graff and his crew go deeper (in some cases, way deeper), with nods of essentialness to releases by artists like Fugazi, Killing Joke, John Hiatt, James Blood Ulmer, the db's, Branford Marsalis, Cocteau Twins, the Winans and even George Jones."