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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Fang’s album landshark. Just saw them play last night they are amazing.
Portishead - Portishead
Any album by William Hung, the songbird of our generation
The Ramones’ Ramones.
Factoid: They used the name Ramone based off a fake name Paul McCartney used at hotels, Paul Ramon.
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.
Radiohead OK Computer
Wendy Carlos’ ‘Switched-On Bach’ turned synthesizers from a tool of avantgarde experimentalists into a mainstream instrument.
Kraftwerk’s ‘Autobahn’ is an obvious one.
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 predominantly built on the 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 and ebm.
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.
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. 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, 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, and not least Glintshake. And Filmmaker for the company.
Thanks for the additional context! I’ll have to check those out
Black Sabbath’s self titled 1970 debut.
Generations of metalheads the world over owe their lives, allegiance, and gratitude to Tommy’s fucked up hand.
Tony*
Corrected. Thank you.
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.
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 good).
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 tradition instead.
I’m not versed in music theory anywhere near enough to tell if this is really true, though.
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.
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.
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.
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.
- 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.
Good call with Angel Dust. King For a Day, Fool For A Lifetime completes the syllabus.
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.
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.
Every album I really like should be on this list. Every album you really like should be on this list. You cannot rationalize subjectivity.
Michael Jackson - Off The Wall
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - The Message
Sepultura - Roots
