"Game Changing" Albums

Or



There'll probably never be a consensus on which is more "important", RAMONES came first but Never Mind the Bollocks "popularised" the movement and is more of a cultural touchstone.

^ If you want to know the impact this album had, listen to The Beatles' Help! in early '65, and then Rubber Soul in late '65 after The Beatles met/heard Dylan during their US tour that year. Who else was writing songs like Like a Rolling Stone or Desolation Row in '65? Absolutely nobody.

^ If arguably not the start of psychedelia, it's the early pinnacle of the genre, and the album that planted the seed for progressive rock and the notion of using studio production as an artistic tool, with the album being the work of art itself.

^ The album that invented the notion of the guitar hero. Hendrix may not have invented metal, but metal (and most all hard rock) wouldn't have existed without him.

^ Did for the late 70s/80s what Hendrix did for the late 60s/70s. One can argue Eddie's influence wasn't as positive and that 80s guitar playing devolved into wankery, but there's no denying this set a new bar level for skill.

^ First true prog album, though there are some significant predecessors (Moody Blues, Procul Harum). It's also a flat-out masterpiece and still sounds shockingly original today despite its indelible influence on the genre.

^ People cite Nirvana's Nevermind as the most influential 90s album, but I think OK Computer's influence was far more profound. Nirvana effectively ended hair metal, but alternative rock/metal was already a "thing," all Nirvana did was popularize it. Their effect lasted through the life of grunge and alt. rock, which was short-lived. Meanwhile, OK Computer's influence is still ongoing 20+ years later, and we largely have Radiohead to thank for popularizing the merger of electronic music and rock.

Perhaps its blasphemous to choose this album over Metallica's almost equally influential (and much better) 80s albums, but there's no denying that THIS was the album that brought heavy metal to the mainstream in the 90s.

^ If Metallica set the bar for 80s metal in general, Slayer essentially set the bar for what would become extreme metal here. Death and black metal basically took this template and added harsher vocals to the mix, but this still stands as arguably THE doorway from mainstream metal into the extreme underground.

That's enough for now.

Ramones influenced the London scene so was more important, "Bollocks" was late out for various reasons and so the scene was more or less dying by then. UK punk was hugely a singles scene, Like the Garage "Nuggets" one. Horses by Patti Smith was also hugely important. Bollocks is a better album than the Ramones one though for me, just less influential apart from to 2nd wave punks.

I guess that's probably enough reason for most people.

The Blues had a bastard child, they called it Rock and Roll.

Howlin' Wolf Moaning In The Moonlight





Muddy Waters' early influential stuff was released as singles and collected here.

Muddy Waters The Chess Box (1989)




Great blues disc by Junior Wells and Buddy Guy. Buddy Guy is still around influencing things.

Junior Wells/Buddy Guy Hoodoo Man Blues

Thanks to Gene Simmons.