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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).
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.
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:
Moby credited ‘Experience’ with changing his perception about dance albums; previously he felt that "dance albums had always failed [...] because they didn't work over the full length of the record. Mostly they were singles collections which was exactly what I didn't want to do," and noted that ‘Experience’ "impressed me because they'd managed to create a full listening experience which encompassed various styles. This was the kind of vision I had for my debut album."
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.
- 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.
Michael Jackson - Off The Wall
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - The Message
Sepultura - Roots
- Velvet Underground and Nico
- Bringing It All Back Home (Bob Dylan)
- Kind of Blue (Miles Davis)
IMHO, perfect albums that you can listen to from the beginning to the end without skipping anything:
- Guns n' Roses, Use Your Illusion 1 & 2
- Radiohead, OK Computer
- Portishead, Portishead
- Bjork, Homogenic
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
The Ramones' Ramones.
Factoid: They used the name Ramone based off a fake name Paul McCartney used at hotels, Paul Ramon.
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.
- Ramones - Ramones (1976)
- The Stooges - The Stooges (1969)
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.
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.
"Bela Lugosi's Dead" is considered the harbinger of gothic rock music and has been immensely influential on contemporary goth culture.[23] In an article by The Guardian titled "Bauhaus invent goth", the newspaper ranked the song number 19 on their list of the 50 key events in indie music history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bela_Lugosi%27s_Dead
Primus, I don't know anyone else that sounds like them. Sailing the Seas of Cheese.
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.
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.
Portishead - Portishead
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.
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".
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
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.
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.
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.
James Brown Live At The Apollo
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.
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 ;)
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.
gybe - lysf
Fang's album landshark. Just saw them play last night they are amazing.
I'm no fan, but I imagine that there is an Elvis album on this list. Possibly Jerry Lee Lewis, too.
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.
John McLaughlin, My Goals Beyond.
Tom Waits, Swordfish Trombone.
Captain Beefheart, Trout Mask Replica.
The Residents, Commercial Album.
Every album I really like should be on this list. Every album you really like should be on this list. You cannot rationalize subjectivity.
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