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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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 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!
WE BELONG TOGETHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaAAAAAaaaaaaaaAAAAAAaaaaaaaooooooouugghh
Man, I remember hearing a Kidz Bop version of Follow Me by Uncle Kracker and just thinking “really?”
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.
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.
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.
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
John McLaughlin, My Goals Beyond.
Tom Waits, Swordfish Trombone.
Captain Beefheart, Trout Mask Replica.
The Residents, Commercial Album.
Any album by William Hung, the songbird of our generation
Portishead - Portishead
The Ramones’ Ramones.
Factoid: They used the name Ramone based off a fake name Paul McCartney used at hotels, Paul Ramon.
Fang’s album landshark. Just saw them play last night they are amazing.
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.
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.
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
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.
Black Sabbath’s self titled 1970 debut.
Generations of metalheads the world over owe their lives, allegiance, and gratitude to Tony’s fucked up hand.
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.
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.
I’ll tell you two such bands: The Beatles and Iron Butterfly.
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.
