By “important” I mean that it didn’t just become hugely popular, but it also changed a music genre or launched an entirely new one, or otherwise made a huge impact on music in general.
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Kidz Bop volume 1 launched an empire of children performing family friendly covers of pop songs that continues to weaken the fabric of humanity to this day.
Man, I remember hearing a Kidz Bop version of Follow Me by Uncle Kracker and just thinking “really?”
I first encountered kidz bop about 2010ish when my wife’s sister was playing it for her kids at a family gathering. I’m still scarred from the experience. That day I vowed if I ever had kids that travesty would never be allowed in my house. Since having a daughter I’ve endured Frozen, Taylor Swift, and Kpop demon hunters. But the evil that is Kidz Bop has never graced a speaker in our house!
WE BELONG TOGETHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaAAAAAaaaaaaaaAAAAAAaaaaaaaooooooouugghh
Black Sabbath’s self titled 1970 debut.
Generations of metalheads the world over owe their lives, allegiance, and gratitude to Tony’s fucked up hand.
Agreed! As a doom metal and stoner rock fan, I’m hard-pressed not to name a band from those genres not influenced by the album or the band.
As good as this album is, it wasn’t breaking the mold as much as we might think. And Ozzy was not a good dude. He did some heinous things.
Tony*
Corrected. Thank you.
The Ramones’ Ramones.
Factoid: They used the name Ramone based off a fake name Paul McCartney used at hotels, Paul Ramon.
King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
This basically started progressive rock. I also remember being in absolute awe when learning it is from 1969, it sounds soooo clean and somewhat modern (and very good, obviously).
Completely changed rock music
This one of funny because when reading about it I hit the feeling that they had no idea or plan to what they were doing. They just wanted to sell albums and get laid.
Then they drop this completely weird af, beautiful and haunting album which everyone of course tries to deconstruct and find the real meaning behind etc.
Just fripp and pals goofing about in the halls of the crimson king.
No one had mentioned Stg. Pepper yet. Am album that took advantage of creative studio sound tricks to create sounds that were not easily possible to replicate during a love performance. An album that inspired so many others to push recording further.
My suggestions:
- Boston (self titled) pretty much transformed how music was produced, using the studio as an instrument.
- Jimi Hendrix - “Are you Experienced”. Because a guitar had never been played like that before.
- Nirvana - “Nevermind”. Arguably not the first grunge album, but it pretty much put the final nail in the coffin of 80’s music.
Honorable mention: Pantera - “Cowboys from Hell” finally moved metal beyond fluffy hair and leather pants that had saturated the genre for too long, and effectively ended the glam era.
Great suggestions, although personally I would have picked Electric Ladyland for Jimi, as that feels more as a well-rounded concept album showcasing his musical skills better. If only he hadn’t died so soon, Band of Gypsys gave him the freedom to really do what he wanted.
The first grunge album that I know of was Green River’s Rehab Doll in 1988.
Yeah them and Mud Honey and the Melvins were ones we read about in Raygun and rolling stone magazines.
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There’s a few second drum break on a 7 inch single from The Winston’s that was successful as a sample called the amen break.
Portishead - Portishead
Any album by William Hung, the songbird of our generation
Radiohead OK Computer
- Angel dust by faith no more. It has been cited as a massive influence by many huge 90s metal bands.
- Pet sounds by beach boys. Without it there would be no sgt Pepper (as we know it) and without that it’s hard to say where pop would be today.
- The rise and fall of Ziggy stardust and the spiders from Mars by Bowie. While not being the source of the glam wave (hi t-rex) it really took it to a new level, along with the concept of stage personas.
As much as I enjoyed Pet Sounds when I was younger, it wasn’t until it was pointed out to me that it was one of the first albums by a big act to not be written around live performance that I began to realise its significance. Almost every other album released on major labels at the time was in service of selling tickets to live shows, along with copies of the records. They were full of songs to sing and dance along to.
Pet Sounds was an album that was best enjoyed at home on a decent sound system.
Pet Sounds is a work of art that happens to contain some incredible pop music that must have pissed off the other members of the Beach Boys as they listened to it and tried to figure out how the hell they were supposed to perform it live. But Brian made a damn good go of saying what he needed to say with it, and that was what was important to him.
Pet sounds and Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band are what I think of as the first studio driven albums and I can to them later in life after just ignoring the pop song hits that always played on the radio.
Amazing sounds with a good set of headphones.
Good call with Angel Dust. King For a Day, Fool For A Lifetime completes the syllabus.
Forgot to mention:
All of sly and the family stones albums. Larry invented slap bass, they renewed funk, Greg laid the groundwork for what all hip hop artists draw from, sly used a drill machine that was more or less a toy to create really nasty and murky beats by lioping, overlaying and tooting with speeds ented and theyinnovated sludgy lo-fi sound. All in a few years.
Rubber Soul - The Beatles
To me this marks a turning point in the Beatles’ output, from fun, rock ‘n’ roll/pop music, to serious artistry, more challenging themes and lyrics and more interesting instrumentation.Sample track: In My Life
Dubnobasswithmyheadman - Underworld
Hugely important in British dance music, a total departure from their first two albums and the start of a run of classic electronic music. It’s a shame they’re still best known for Born Slippy, because there’s so much more to Underworld than that, and it started here.Sample track: Dirty Epic
The Velvet Underground and Nico - The Velvet Underground
Famously known as an album that not many people bought, but all of those who did started a band. Hugely influential, full of great songs, some gentle and fragile, others cacophonic and dissonant. A masterpiece.Sample track: Venus in Furs
I wrote down Pet Sounds as a majorly influential album and Brian Wilson has said that that cohesion and individual song strength of Rubber Soul was the inspiration that drove him to make it.
So i guess your pick inspired my pick!
I almost picked Pet Sounds myself! Such an incredible album, so much invention and depth ❤️
Seconding Rubber Soul. In the same way Pantera managed to separate metal from the glam, Beatles separated pop/rock from the campiness of earlier and contemporary bands.
Miles Davis:
- Kind of Blue
- In a Silent Way
- Bitches Brew
- Tutu
Cornerstone records from which everything from the Headhunters, Return to Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra and the great exploration of jazz, psychedelic, rock and everything else in between.
Michael Jackson - Off The Wall
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - The Message
Sepultura - Roots
Interestingly, Roots was inspired by the first nu-metal albums, especially Korn’s first album. That’s crazy to me and i would have guessed it was the other way around.
