Most Influential Rock Albums of the 20th Century!!!

[XemaSab]

We're talking the albums that other musicians looked at and WORSHIPPED.

I don't think you can judge the complete and utter AWESOMENESS of an album until a few years have gone by, so we're making 1999 the cutoff (not the Prince album, but the year). The albums in question don't have to be rock, but they must have had an influence on rock.

First entry: The Wall by Pink Floyd.

Dark Side of the Moon was an awesome record, but The Wall was one of the original concept albums, and it's been ripped off by generations of rockers since its release.

(Feel free to make DSOTM the Second Entry. :D )

[johnnie]

1. There is no doubt that Sgt Pepper's is in there

That kind of raised the bar a bit.

[XemaSab]

2. Too bad they only put out that one album....

:(






































:P

[johnnie]

3. They made an awesome movie too though

:)

[querelle]

4. Feh.............

All that 60's crap was just that. Crap. Get over yourself and your shitty music. Real music started with The Cars!
Their first album was legendary, and unlike those four assholes from Liverpool, nobody needs to keep reminding the world of their genuis. It just exists................

Q

[XemaSab]

5. I beg your pardon?

Real music started with "Ten."

You heard me.

[mulsh]

6. Elvis at Sun, Johnnie B Good, She Loves You, God Save the Queen

about covers it. everything else is dirivative

[mainegreen]

7. Well, Kraftwerk had some super-duper influential albums. Not sure if its rock though.

I know most artists today in electronica/industrial must pay homage to the kraftwerk team!

[XemaSab]

8. I can respect that

Many of my favorite artists have laid their stones on the altar of Kraftwerk.

[Tikki]

9. These two:

RAMONES......Ramones



Singles Going Steady........The Buzzcocks




Tikki

[tarkus]

10. Tales from Topographic Oceans by Yes

Made the impossible possible.

[Alexander]

14. Agreed! Are you an ELP fan?

I guessed from your screen name. I love Yes and ELP.

[MissMillie]

24. I think CTTE is more like it

even the members of Yes don't care for TFTO. They all say they had too much material for a single LP, not enough for a double, and the stuff they added really wasn't cohesive enough to make the album work.

Close to the Edge on the other hand..... :applause:

[qnr]

11. Hugo Montenegro - Bongos & Brass

Well, I liked it. And Sergio Mendez & The Brazil 66. And Herb Alpert & The Tiajuana Brass.

Hmmmm I sense a pattern.

[smtpgirl]

12. Metallica - Black Album

Physical Graffiti - Led Zeppelin

[Alexander]

13. In The Court Of The Crimson King

An observation by King Crimson.

[ghostsofgiants]

15. Refused's "The Shape Of Punk To Come" had a major influence on the direction of punk after '98...

I'm not sure where I read it, but I once read that every screamo/post-hardcore band should probably be called "post-Refused" instead.

[Sgent]

16. For discussion

Rolling Stone did a ranking of Top 500 most important albums of all time by artists and other industry insiders, the first few:

1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles
2. Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys
3. Revolver, The Beatles
4. Highway 61 Revisited, Bob Dylan
5. Rubber Soul, The Beatles
6. What's Going On, Marvin Gaye
7. Exile on Main Street, The Rolling Stones
8. London Calling, The Clash
9. Blonde on Blonde, Bob Dylan
10. The Beatles ("The White Album"), The Beatles
11. The Sun Sessions, Elvis Presley
12. Kind of Blue, Miles Davis
13. Velvet Underground and Nico, The Velvet Underground
14. Abbey Road, The Beatles
15. Are You Experienced?, The Jimi Hendrix Experience
16. Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan
17. Nevermind, Nirvana
18. Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen
19. Astral Weeks, Van Morrison
20. Thriller, Michael Jackson
21. The Great Twenty-Eight, Chuck Berry
22. Plastic Ono Band, John Lennon
23. Innervisions, Stevie Wonder
24. Live at the Apollo (1963), James Brown
25. Rumours, Fleetwood Mac

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5938174/the_rs_500_greatest_albums_of_all_time

[ForrestGump]

17. For once,

that's not a bad list.

My personal pick would probably be "Abbey Road" as the single most perfect album. I liek it way better than "Sergenat Pepper" even though I recognize the latter's place as a major influence.

I guess some people'd think I'd go for an Elvis album, but -- although I think he'll always reign as the single most influential person in pop/rock history -- he wasn't really an LP act...part of it's a result of the times, LPs not really being a serious force until the mid- to late-'60s. He was a singles artist. The "Sun Sessions" LP mentioned in this list combines some of THE cornerstones of rock history, for sure (Keith Richards used to tote a copy of the LP with him on every tour), but it was a 1975 British compilation (released a year later in the US) and not an 'organic' album. Elvis did record a few coherent studio albums that received great critical acclaim and arguably included some of his finest material (gospel aside, that'd include LPs like 1960's "Elvis Is Back," 1969's "From Elvis In Memphis," and 1971's "Elvis Country"), but the part of his catalog and legacy that changed it all was built on singles rather than LPs, and his 50s LPs were very much a random hodge-podge of single releases and odd songs left over from sessions.

I think the Beatles -- and the Beach Boys (and maybe some others) -- not only helped drive the move to LPs, and their assuming more importance than singles, but exemplified the 'concept album' idea that perhaps reached its most overt expression in "Sergeant pepper." Sure, the Moody Blues and many others launched similar products fairly early on, but if you look at pop LPs in the early '60s and pop LPs in the late '60s it's like day and night just in terms of the coherence of the releases, quite apart from the musical approach. To me, Side B of "Abbey Road" will always stand as perhaps the most perfect single record release ever marketed. Not that there's anything wrong with Side A -- some of the Beatles' best work, right there, swan song though it may have been -- but Side B is pure perfection and the closing medley is utter bliss, all hype aside.

[TheBaldyMan]

19. Yes but Rolling Stone is a crock of derivative shit

there are practically NO black artists in that top 25, all those Beatles albums are funny because they helped popularise black artists in white America, who do you think the Beatles main influences were? Or the Rolling Stones for that matter.

To be honest I think the only albums in there that's worth the title of influential is the Velvets & Marvyn Gaye - there is far, far too much Dylan and Beatle stuff in there.

[johnnie]

29. 7 out of 19 are black

Maybe it isn't 50%, but what do you mean "practically NO"?

I think you aren't understanding what that list is. Of course The Beatles and Rolling Stones were influenced by the black artists that came before them, but it was mainly single disks that they heard. Albums weren't really that popular until the mid-60's.

And the truth of the matter is that popular music is not R&B, Blues or Jazz, it is mainly young "pop stars" and these albums on the list are the ones that people picked that influenced the major money makers of the popular music market.

[TheBaldyMan]

44. Call me biased but nearly every American music genre has come from black roots

Damn near every 20th century innovation jazz, R&B, Rock and Roll, soul, hip-hop has roots in black music. Of the 12 out of the 19 how many of those artists don't owe a huge debt to black music?

When I say hardly any I mean disgracefully under-represented.

For my money Marvin Gaye and the Velvets are the two entries that really belong there. 3 beatles albums and 3 Dylan albums are far too many.

Half of the wooden headed fools at Rolling Stone wouldn't know an influential band if they fished one out of their soup. They are popularising the conventional, as ever. FFS Born to Run ? Thriller ? commercial successes yes - milestones in western culture - I think not.

[Spider Jerusalem]

18. Here are a few not yet mentioned:

John Coltrane - "A Love Supreme"
The Stooges - "Raw Power"
Lou Reed - "Transformer"
David Bowie - "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars"
Kraftwerk - "Trans-Europe Express"
New Order - "Power, Corruption & Lies"
Sex Pistols - "Never Mind the Bollocks..."

[DBoon]

32. I'd second the Bowie album

but instead of Transformer, I'd have the first Velvet Underground album (with Nico)

I'd include Patti Smith "Horses" too

[WritingIsMyReligion]

20. Miles, of course, with KIND OF BLUE, etc.

Coltrane's A LOVE SUPREME. They're not rock but rock would be different without them.

Then pretty much the run of the mill--requisite Beatles, RS, etc. albums. Steely Dan left their mark with PRETZEL LOGIC--perfect economical snark-pop.

[LynneSin]

21. Vanilla Ice - To the Extreme

[kwassa]

22. this one, this guy

[wildhorses]

23. Days of Future Passed~Moody Blues

[MissMillie]

25. that would get a vote from me too

Definitely on my list of "music I must have on the desert island".

[MissMillie]

26. Talking Heads - Remain in Light

Brought in some of the rhythms from other cultures a full 6 or 7 years before Paul Simon's "Graceland"

Rolling Stone named it #4 on its list of top 100 albums of the '80s.

[michreject]

27. Beatles

White Album. Nothing else is even close, IMO.

[taterguy]

28. REM's Murmur

This is the album that spawned most of the indie music that followed it. Whoever thought of making an album in Belews Creek North Carolina? The fact that REM became rich and famous afterwards encouraged others to go off the beaten path

[underpants]

30. Mitch Easter's Drive-In studio right?

I love Let's Active I still listen to Big Plans for Everybody and Cyprus regularly.

Murmur was huge but so was Nevermind by Nirvana in one fell swoop GONE were the hairbands. As friend told me the first time he heard it on the big ROCK station (FM99) he yelled out "THANK GOD!"

[taterguy]

35. Well, Nevermind is just a given

BTW, if you like Let's Active I recommend Mitch's current band Shalini. Not much different really, even the same drummer

[underpants]

38. Well what do you know-Mitch is 52 today

http://www.forbes.com/business/manufacturing/feeds/ap/2006/11/14/ap3174997.html

[peekaloo]

31. 'Horses' by Patti Smith.

see r.e.m. :-)

[LynneSin]

33. I want to say Physical Graffiti but I think probably Led Zeppelin IV

:D

[Zavulon]

34. Deep Purple: In Rock

Machine Head sold more copies, but Ian Gillan's work on In Rock paved the way for the screaming metal vocalist, and people still imitate Ritchie Blackmore today.

[BOSSHOG]

36. MADMAN ACROSS THE WATER

[RedStateShame]

37. Bee Thousand

Don't have a ton of cash to overproduce material? Not a problem. Not photogenic or young enough to hit the MTV democraphic, according to A&R assholes? Fuck 'em. Drunk? Hell, it'll make the album better. The 4-track works of Guided by Voices, with this being probably the best, reminded many people that real people can often make really, really good music, against all odds.

[Squeech]

39. Hogwash

The Wall was actually really late in the concept album arena, a decade after Tommy and Aqualung and Blows Against the Empire, let alone Sgt. Pepper (and IMNSHO not as good as any of them).

And, maybe I'm missing it, but I don't hear The Wall as a big influence on contemporary rock music. Even where artists are borrowing aspects of Pink Floyd's style or technique (Coldplay comes to mind) I think the model is more likely to be DSOTM or WYWH.

[devilgrrl]

40. Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders from Mars - David Bowie

http://www.zero.co.nz/music/images/Bowie,%20David%20-%20Ziggy%20Stardust.jpg

This record caused the 80's

[LanternWaste]

41. Chicago Transit Authority

Chicago Transit Authority. Although Blood, Sweat & Tears pioneered the fusion jazz sound, CTA picked the ball and ran it in for the touchdown.

Introduction, South California Purples, Prologue, and Someday are (to me) among the most inspired and creative pieces of music to have ever hit the rock/pop genre.

What a horn section! What a percussion section! And boy-oh-boy, Lamb's 'Free From Guitar' is w/o a doubt one of the most seriously mind-blowing solo's I've ever heard.

[Taverner]

42. Pearl Jam - Ten

I'm not going to say its one of the greatest albums because clearly there are better albums, and better Pearl Jam albums...but you said influential.

Think of how many Pearl Jam clones came out, and continue to come out (Everclear, Creed, etc....)

[Giant Robot]

43. Here's some of my thoughts

U2 The Joshua Tree/The Unforgettable Fire
Eric Clapton Slowhand
The Clash London Calling (forgot if anyone said this one yet)
Derek and the Dominoes Layla and Assorted Love Songs
Nirvana Nevermind
Warren Zevon Genius(well any of them would work)
Peter Gabriel So
Pink Floyd Wish You were Here
Fleetwood Mac Rumors
The Police Synchronicity
Sting Nothing Like the Sun

and on and on

[conscious evolution]

45. Nirvana

I hate their music,but even I can admit to the fact that Smells Like Teen Spirit changed rock when it came out.
Also The Greatful Dead's Aoxmoaxa(sp?)