What are some hugely important music albums?
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.
102
Comments95View original on sh.itjust.works
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.
I'll tell you two such bands: The Beatles and Iron Butterfly.
Tony*
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.
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.
From what I've heard, progressive rock threw away the influence of black musicians that was there in blues and rock'n'roll, and continued in the European and ‘academic’/art music tradition instead.
I'm not versed in music theory anywhere near enough to tell if this is really true, though.
Me neither I just read a magazine about king crimson and I probably only remembered the parts I found amusing. Could be they had more cohesion than my post claims.
But the thematics of the first album is not as planned as some would like to think and fripp was very vocal that female groupies was one of his biggest drives.
My suggestions:
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.
Wendy Carlos' ‘Switched-On Bach’ turned synthesizers from a tool of avantgarde experimentalists into a mainstream instrument.
Captain Beefheart's ‘Trout Mask Replica’ remains probably the most widely cited avantgarde-rock album, perplexing listeners to this day. (Gotta say, I never had a problem with it, perhaps because I don't know music theory.)
Kraftwerk's ‘Autobahn’ is an obvious one, though ‘Trans-Europe Express’ and ‘The Man-Machine’ probably had more influence on synthpop and techno.
Lou Reed's ‘Metal Machine Music’ was trashed on release by critics, and returned en masse by the buyers, but it presaged industrial and noise music, and possibly noise-rock.
Then again, though industrial music properly started with live performances, if you wanted to revisit its roots, you'd listen to Throbbing Gristle's ‘The Second Annual Report’ or the more warmly received ‘D.o.A: The Third and Final Report’.
The ‘No New York’ compilation was exemplary of the ‘no wave’ experimental jazz-rock of the downtown NYC scene and gave the genre its name.
Liaisons Dangereuses' self-titled album was the progenitor of ebm, e.g. with the track ‘Los niños del parque’.
This Mortal Coil's ‘It'll End in Tears’ “set the template” for dream pop, although the sound itself was already around in the work of Cocteau Twins and the ethereal wave movement.
The Winstons' 1969 track ‘Amen, Brother’ didn't start anything itself, but the ‘Amen break’ is one of the most sampled in history, beginning with the 80s breakbeat, and with jungle, drum-and-bass and breakcore having been predominantly built on this one sample.
Napalm Death's ‘Scum’ is the origin of grindcore.
John Zorn's ‘Naked City’ is a landmark in jazz-fusion: although the concept existed before, no one mixed jazz with other genres so aggressively outside of free-jazz. (Though arguably the band Massacre anticipated Zorn's approach.)
The Prodigy's ‘Experience’ is said to have birthed edm albums as a concept:
The ‘Artificial Intelligence’ compilation on Warp started idm.
‘Wipeout’'s electronic soundtrack, along with its acid visuals and nightclub-oriented promotion (by Designers Republic) was a big factor in targeting the first PlayStation to college-age people, instead of kids as it was with previous consoles. This shifted the console market from kids' toys to entertainment for everyone.
Therion properly invented symphonic metal around ‘Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas’ / ‘Lepaca Kliffoth’ / ‘Theli’.
The ‘Hotline Miami’ soundtrack played a large role in the popularity of synthwave and the 2010s revival of associated genres like darkwave, coldwave, ebm, and to some extent post-punk.
If you're into edm, you might want to check out Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music for various branching points.
Some very good suggestions, and not just the already well-known stuff among mainstream audiences from most of the other comments.
I would personally cite Cocteau Twins over This Mortal Coil, not only did they predate them, but Treasure is also the better (and more influential) record in my opinion.
Therion has been quite explicit with its acknowledgment of Celtic Frost as a major influence (even taking the name) - though their records suffer from subpar production, and one could argue Therion was able to fulfill the ambition of Celtic Frost.
One shouldn't mention no wave without mentioning Swans, who were massively influential to grunge, post-punk, post-rock and heavy music in general. The colossal Soundtracks for the Blind is their magnum opus.
Aside from Kraftwerk, the krautrock scene spawned several more highly influential groups, including Neu! (who invented the remix), CAN (cited as a major influence by Radiohead and many others) and Popul Vuh (pioneers of early ambient, electronic and "new age" music).
A few more suggestions not related to yours: Oddly enough Zappa hasn't been mentioned yet in the comments (as of writing this comment), probably the most influential pop music artist of the 20th Century, though his music can be challenging at times and not all of his humour has aged very well. We're Only In It For the Money is probably the best starting point.
Brian Eno - Apollo. Not Eno's first ambient album, but probably his most accomplished one.
Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden. It's hard to believe you are listening to what used to be a new wave band only a few years earlier if you play this record. It was so far ahead of its time their label dropped them amidst an acrimonious lawsuit.
Ulver has been cited as a major influence by modern electronic music artists (e.g., Carpenter Brut). Their output is extremely diverse and creatively shifts dramatically from album to album. I would recommend Perdition City as a starting point.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F#A#∞. Not coincidentally released shortly after Soundtracks for the Blind, a massive creative leap nonetheless and one of the defining post-rock records of the 1990s.
Switched-On Bach was the stuff, I still listen to it
Check out ‘Digital William Tell Overture’ (particularly the finale), and ‘The Theiving Magpie’ from the same guy. And perhaps also ‘Infernal Galop hard synth remix’ and Reggae Far East's ‘Turkish March’.
Great list. I'm a bit confused by the Hotline Miami/post-punk bit though. By the time the game comes out we'd just had a decade of post-punk revival bands with great albums and even some level of mainstream success. Bands like Interpol, the Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and the Killers.
I'm referring rather to what is popularly known as ‘doomer music’, which includes coldwave, some darkwave, and post-punk, and to my knowledge emerged as a meme around mid-2010s. Molchat Doma are the prime exemplar of the genre. Netlabels like Detriti Records and Russian post-punk and online places like Harakiri Diat were cranking out both fresh gloomy music and some classic 80s-style sound. Dark Entries Records reissued some cool stuff from way back in the day.
Personally I'm unmoved by most indie-adjacent rock (while digging original old post-punk), but getting into modern underground-ish post-punk and darkwave really paid off, even though I was rather late to the party.
Check out e.g. toska po domu, My friend tape recorder, Dirty Beaches, Artificial intelligence created by a smart creature, Karl Kave, to some extent margenrot, ‘DETHWAVE MIX 2014’ by BLACkMOON77, and not least Glintshake and Inturist. And Filmmaker for the company.
Thanks for the additional context! I'll have to check those out
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
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
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.
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 ❤️
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.
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.
Rage Against the Machine's first public show is on YouTube. It's remarkable how they arrived almost fully formed.
The debut album was released 13 months after that performance, but tracks like Know Your Enemy sound almost identical to the recorded version.
Nas - Illmatic
While I can guess why, I'm not experienced enough with rap, hip, hop, or any combination of the three to be an authority on this, so could explain what makes the album hugely important?
Oh man, that is tough to put in words, but let me try. First of all, the lyricism. The way Nas rhymed and structured his verses was practically unheard of. Rakim could do it, Big Daddy Kane could do it. Not many others. So just in terms of rhyming skill and storytelling, he was up there. It was also one of the first (cohesive) street albums, with Nas just acting as the observer, with vivid storytelling about what he saw around him. You can clearly hear his influence in Mobb Deep's albums, for example.
Musically, it is quintessentially 90s East Coast rap, and it came out at a time where the focus was more on the West Coast (think NWA, Snoop Dogg). It has a cohesive sound despite having many different producers (Pete Rock, Premier, Large Professor, etc) on the album, something that wasn't really done before that time.
Also, there's not a single bad track on the album. 10 tracks, no filler.
My guess was that it started the east coast rap scene with the kind of sound I later would recognized from some other artists.
I've never been huge on hip hop, but Illmatic was one of the ones that slipped through my metal net. Wonderful record.
100%.
I would also put 36 Chambers by Wu-Tang Clan and Operation Doomsday by MF DOOM in the same tier of essential 90s NY hip-hop.
Primus, I don't know anyone else that sounds like them. Sailing the Seas of Cheese.
I'd say for the same reason I posted Hendrix earlier: Primus deserves to be on the list because nobody had played a bass like that before.
While nobody else has (to my knowledge) gone full Claypool, using the bass partly as a rythm instrument has left its mark on many other basists.
not sure I understand what you mean, the bass has always been a rhythm instrument, its traditional role is to mark tempo and provide the root for harmony. do you maybe mean using it as a percussive instrument, like Claypool often does with muted slapping?
Yeah, percussive is a better word. And not in a typical funk-style slap bass either.
It's honestly kinda cool the ouroboros-like influence between Les Claypool and Geddy Lee. Les has always credited Rush as a huge influence, but then Geddy's playing has also gotten progressively slappy-er over the years just from hanging out with Primus
They didn't invent slap base, but they did perfect it. You've convinced me they belong here.
All I remember from my brother listening to that album is the short track with the album title. "Come with us, we'll sail the seas of cheese"
Is unique the same as important?
IMHO, perfect albums that you can listen to from the beginning to the end without skipping anything:
I'd add New York Dolls to that list too.
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.
I always thought Kidz Bop was just a cheap knock-off of the Mini Pops (Not to be confused with the Mini Pop Kids), especially since the first Kidz Bop album came out 18 years after "We're the Mini Pops" rose to the top of the charts.
Side 1
Side 2
Man, I remember hearing a Kidz Bop version of Follow Me by Uncle Kracker and just thinking "really?"
WE BELONG TOGETHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaAAAAAaaaaaaaaAAAAAAaaaaaaaooooooouugghh
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!
Homework by daft punk had a kinda huge impact on french house
The Ramones' Ramones.
Factoid: They used the name Ramone based off a fake name Paul McCartney used at hotels, Paul Ramon.
Radiohead OK Computer
Nothing - Meshuggah
It wasn't their first album by any means, but I think it was the most influential on metal music, it kind of spawned its own sub-genre (djent-core?). On this album they really honed in on the sound they made steps toward with Chaosphere, and it influenced the sound of metal moving forward into the late 00s and 2010s.
I haven't really been into metal as much as I was back when this came out, but it was really interesting to see this swedish metal band I randomly heard about in an AOL chatroom take off and become hugely popular and influential.
I'd argue that you got the band and the reason right, but with the wrong album. Chaosphere. Not as djenty as their later albums, but the seeds and saplings are clearly there.
Plus every metal drummer I knew back then tried to learn New Millennium Cyanide Christ.
Yeah I was debating between saying Chaosphere or Nothing, I can definitely see your argument as well. Really cool band with incredible musicians all around.
Rush - Fly by Night
Their second album is the first where they found their prog rock selves.
From wikipedia: The members of Rush have noted that people "either love Rush or hate Rush",[170] resulting in strong detractors and an intensely loyal fan base. In 1979, The Rolling Stone Record Guide called them "the power boogie band for the 16 magazine graduating class".[171] A July 2008 Rolling Stone article said, "Rush fans are the Trekkies/trekkers of rock".[172] Rush have been cited as an influence by artists including Alice in Chains,[173] Anthrax,[174] the Cro-Mags,[175] Dream Theater,[176][177][178] Exciter,[179] Fates Warning,[180] Fishbone,[181] Foo Fighters,[182] Iron Maiden,[183] Jane's Addiction,[184] Living Colour,[185] Manic Street Preachers,[186] Megadeth,[187][188][189] Meshuggah,[190][191] Metallica,[178][192] No Doubt,[193] Pearl Jam,[194] the Pixies,[195] Primus,[196] Queensrÿche,[197] Rage Against the Machine,[198] the Red Hot Chili Peppers,[199] Sepultura,[200] the Smashing Pumpkins,[196] Elliott Smith,[201] Soundgarden,[202] Stone Temple Pilots,[203] System of a Down,[204] Testament,[205][206] Tool,[207][208] and Steven Wilson.[209] Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails said in the 2010 documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage that Rush is one of his favourite bands, and he has also cited the band's early 1980s period in particular as a major influence on him in regard to incorporating keyboards and synthesizers into hard rock.[210]
I wanted to mention rush, but I couldn't narrow it down to one album.
On a related note, I got tickets to see Rush next year, as I figured it'll be my last chance.
I decided to treat myself:
That's as close to the stage as I could justify with my paycheck. Closer is ridiculously priced, even by ticketmonster standards.
Loveless by My Bloody Valentine influenced a whole genre.
On the other end of the scale you have Forever Changes by Love which has been an inspiration for lots of musicians without ever directly influencing a specific sound as far as I know.
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing
This singlehandedly brought to the forefront sample-based trip hop for all to hear. Soulful, haunting, melodic, and with an ever evolving back beat, filled with social consciousness. Herbie Hancock's Rock It introduced the world to the idea of turntables as instruments and Endtroducing was an album length love letter to that instrument.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bela_Lugosi%27s_Dead
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Flat_Field
![email protected]
Miles Davis:
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.
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.
Portishead - Portishead
Any album by William Hung, the songbird of our generation
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.
A lot of bands from the 90s to the early 2000s were inspired by Neutral Milk Hotels "In the aeroplane over the sea".
Fear Factory - Demanufacture.
I couldn't decide whether it was this album or Soul of a new machine that pioneered clean singing in metal but I chose Demanufacture since it has such a timeless sound.
I heard Remanufacture before I heard Demanufacture, so there'll always be a larger part of my heart devoted to Rhys Fulber's remix of Self Bias Resistor than the original. But yeah, Demanufacture is an incredible record. That era of industrial metal transports me back to some incredibly sweaty venues.
being a tull fan Im going to say stand up, aqualung, songs from the wood, and thick as a brick. The bands early career sorta brought progressive rock front and center and there is definately a difference between rock before the band and after thick as a brick and I think it was very much their influence. Songs from the wood sorta did the same for folk rock.
Rum, Sodomy and the Lash by the Pogues. Seemless blending of punk and traditional irish music that's still as raw and refined today as ever.
Pretty much anything by the Velvet Underground. They're the quintessential "barely anyone came to their shows but everyone who did started a band" band.
Early Pixies - Surfer Rosa or Come on Pilgrim. Basically no grunge otherwise.
Probably everything by Sun Ra, but his earliest wrangling of electronic keys into jazz in like the 40s or whatever seems pretty consequential. Plus probably no P-funk as we know it without Sun Ra, which has heaps of knock on effects.
gybe - lysf
looks like part of a serial number.
Looks like a bash shell command to me
yeah, but syntax error because of the extra space.
Speak English Or Die by Stormtroopers of Death. Whipped up in a week and recorded using Anthrax's leftover studio time, this album bridged hardcore and metal. Metallica and Slayer were already popular with some punks but SEOD didn't take itself seriously and had a DIY vibe
Radiohead - in rainbows
They tried to go outside the existing studio release system before the rise of streaming. It was a pay what you want release.
Nirvana - unplugged in new York
Took a backlash to overproduced music at the time and started a still going strong tradition of publishing live albums.
Air - moon safari
Took electronic music and added a soul with otherworldly sounds and production to make chill out music that could be played in a club or on the beach or in a park with friends.
Dusty Springfield - Dusty in memphis Dusty brought back music to white people. There is a long tradition of white artists taking black music and presenting it palatably to white audiences. From elvis to P!nk. however, the UK as a more melting pot society without segregation, doesn't see it as cultural appropriation, but just another style for anyone to sing. That tradition continues with Amy winehouse and adele today.
Colors by BTBAM is probably the single most impressive prog metal album of this century. It really felt like the world stopped for that album, took it's time to digest it in full, then started over with a renewed sense of creativity.
Periphery 1. Commercialized the sound of Skith and Meshuggah and popularized Djent as a genre.
Exoplanet by The Contortionist dropped the same summer as Periphery 1 and it marked a clear line of Deathcore to Djent. Djent took over in full swing for about 3 years. Traditional Deathcore chased the trend or fell behind.
James Brown Live At The Apollo
https://youtu.be/R61iGCD9hgQ?list=RDR61iGCD9hgQ
Any specific era? I mean, I'm mostly into classical music and I would consider quite a few of those old pieces... hugely important, to say the least: much more meaningful than many of the more recent productions. But, even though I've a much more limited understanding of it, I also consider some more recent and even a few contemporary artists... hugely important ;)
Any era where music is released as part of albums, I guess.
Album doesn't mean much to me I'm afraid. I mean an opera (which literally means 'a work') could be considered an album? What about a symphony (which could means 'a body of (harmonious) sounds')? And what about all tho the other types of music?
They were not released as 'albums' (no disc players, back then) but they were released as a coherent ensemble one was expected to listen to as a whole, in a certain order. And they were released as printed editions too as, back then, owning music sheets was the equivalent of what purchasing albums is/was to us: people would buy them in order to be able to read the score and to play it by themselves or with friends ;)
Fang's album landshark. Just saw them play last night they are amazing.
John McLaughlin, My Goals Beyond.
Tom Waits, Swordfish Trombone.
Captain Beefheart, Trout Mask Replica.
The Residents, Commercial Album.
I'm no fan, but I imagine that there is an Elvis album on this list. Possibly Jerry Lee Lewis, too.
In terms of bringing existing black music to white audiences, sure, but Elvis and Jerry weren't really doing anything that wasn't already being done.
Steely Dan's Aja includes the first recorded rock shuffle thanks to Bernard Purdie. Not to mention Steve Gadd's masterpiece solo on the title track.
Every album I really like should be on this list. Every album you really like should be on this list. You cannot rationalize subjectivity.
I did a big write up about how this is a thought-terminating cliche, but it felt too much like preachy lecturing, so I'll try a different tack: why do you feel that subjectivity cannot be rationalized?