50 Albums That Changed Music (or not)

**Janszoon** · 08-11-2008, 07:41 AM

Quote:

44 Talking Heads
Fear of Music (1979)
...

Without this ... Paul Simon's Graceland might never have been made.
LH

Don't get me wrong, I love this album and it deserves to be on the list, but WTF is up with the Graceland reference? Later Talking Heads albums would have more of a world music angle but "I Zimbra" is the only song on this album with any kind of world flavor at all. I'd say this album was a much bigger influence on new wave and postpunk as well as more modern bands like Radiohead and Modest Mouse than it ever was on Paul Simon.

And speaking of people who brought world music to mainstream American and European ears, why is there nothing by Taj Mahal on this list?

Quote:

26 Stevie Wonder
Songs in the Key of Life (1976)

This influenced virtually every modern soul and R&B singer, brimming with timeless classics like 'Isn't She Lovely', 'As' and 'Sir Duke'. The 21-tracker encompassed a vast range of life's issues - emotional, social, spiritual and environmental - all performed with bravado and a lightness of touch. No other R&B artist has sung about the quandaries of human existence with quite the same grace.

Without this ... no Alicia Keys, no John Legend - contemporary R&B would be empty and lifeless.
EJS

I don't know, I think Talking Book a much better album personally, and it's a couple years older. Based on the way it sounds compared to Songs in the Key of Life, I'd also say it's musically more influential as well.

Quote:

The Spice Girls
Spice (1996)

The music business has been cynically creating and marketing acts since the days of the wax cylinder, but on nothing like the scale of the Spice phenomenon, which was applied to crisps, soft drinks, you name it. Musically, the Spice's Motown-lite was unoriginal, but 'Girl Power', despite being a male invention, touched a nerve and defined a generation of tweenies who took it to heart.

Without this ... five-year-olds would not have become a prime target for pop marketeers. Most of all, there'd be no Posh'n'Becks.

Oh whatever. The Spice Girls are far from the biggest or most influential manufactured pop band or the biggest or most influential girl band. Any number of bands belong in this slot over the Spices Girls.

boo boo · 08-11-2008, 08:27 AM

Anyone could make a better list with little effort.

And their reasoning for the Spice Girls is retarded.

IMO these are the worst ommissions.

ITCOTK - Crimson pretty much defined progressive rock with this album as well as introducing classical and symphonic elements to rock music like no one had before.

Tommy - Pretty much popularized the concept album and rock opera, pomp rock owes a lot to this.

Remain in Light - I'm sorry but wasn't this the definitive new wave album?

Freak Out - C'mon now.

Van Halen - Ok, pretty much starting the whole glam metal thing is not really a positive thing, but impact is impact.

Another Green World - This would have been a better choice for Eno.

Low - Why in the hell should Trans Europe Express get all the credit?

simplephysics · 08-11-2008, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boo boo

I think Thriller should be there, it's one of my favorite albums and it had pretty massive influence, even though it was mostly negative influence, it was still influence.

Agreed. I'm not a massive MJ fan, but isn't Thriller one of the top selling albums of all time? There are few who haven't at least heard the single let alone know the dance.

lucifer_sam · 08-11-2008, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boo boo

Tommy - Pretty much popularized the concept album and rock opera, pomp rock owes a lot to this.

Van Halen - Ok, pretty much starting the whole glam metal thing is not really a positive thing, but impact is impact.

I think Quadrophenia had a deeper impact on the rock opera and concept album ideologies. But The Who had so many albums like that; The Who Sell Out could be up there too. Did they leave them all off the list altogether?

I think glam metal was in full sway before Van Halen came along. I've never been a big glam fan, but I know there were earlier bands. And Zeppelin started it, btw. They made it okay to be flamboyant rockers. But it was more their stage presence than any given album, so I dunno.

**Janszoon** · 08-11-2008, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lucifer_sam

I think glam metal was in full sway before Van Halen came along. I've never been a big glam fan, but I know there were earlier bands.

Glam metal didn't really come into it's own until the 80s and Van Halen had already been around for a little while by then. And they were a huge influence on it, as were a bunch of bands like The New York Dolls, Kiss and as you mentioned, Led Zeppelin.

lucifer_sam · 08-11-2008, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Janszoon

The New York Dolls.

That's who I was forgetting. Even if they had a lot of proto-punk influences, they were one of the first glam rock bands to showcase their flamboyance.

The New York Dolls - s/t (1973)

The Monkey · 08-11-2008, 12:56 PM

What's up with the avatar and sig, OP? What are you, 10 years old?

Minstrel · 08-11-2008, 01:56 PM

Just about all of their "without this, there would have been no..." claims were insane. Right, without Kraftwerk, electronic music never would have existed. Without (one of) the pioneers, it never would have occurred to anyone. By that reasoning, Chuck Berry should be atop the list. Without his music, all guitar-driven rock and pop never would have happened.

The Spice Girls selection was silly. It's like they felt they were being very clever, "You thought the Spice Girls were empty and inconsequential pop, but in fact they were massively influential." They manage to undercut their own reasoning at each turn. Cynical marketing-driven pop groups had existed for decades...but the Spice Girls are influential for that. "Girl power" was a cynical, male-created gimmick (which was well understood all along)...but the Spice Girls empowered a generation of girls. If they wanted to go the route of "pop group created for marketing reasons," they should have gone with the Monkees. They would have ended up with far better music in their list, to boot.

Also, what irony using the "empowered girls" argument for the Spice Girls and then ranking Kate Bush below the Spice Girls. Bush was far more empowering and far more influential.

There are a number of good picks, but the ordering and reasoning are fairly silly. Also, Led Zeppelin is a big omission. Possibly overrated in the US and underrated in Europe, Zeppelin was still massively influential to rock as a whole, and the biggest pioneer of metal and hard rock (though Black Sabbath deserves mention too).

lucifer_sam · 08-11-2008, 02:00 PM

They're not going to promote Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath while none of the voters actually listen to metal.

Blah blah blah bland corporate garbage accounts for 90% of the list. I'm starting to regret resurrecting this...

08-11-2008, 12:56 PM	#27 (permalink)
The Monkey Music Addict Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Sweden Posts: 803	What's up with the avatar and sig, OP? What are you, 10 years old? __________________ Now another stranger seems to want you to ignore his dreams as though they were the burden of some other My Last.fm

08-11-2008, 02:00 PM	#29 (permalink)
lucifer_sam Unrepentant Ass-Mod Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3,921	They're not going to promote Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath while none of the voters actually listen to metal. Blah blah blah bland corporate garbage accounts for 90% of the list. I'm starting to regret resurrecting this... __________________ first.am

08-11-2008, 01:56 PM	#28 (permalink)
Minstrel Music Addict Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 436	Just about all of their "without this, there would have been no..." claims were insane. Right, without Kraftwerk, electronic music never would have existed. Without (one of) the pioneers, it never would have occurred to anyone. By that reasoning, Chuck Berry should be atop the list. Without his music, all guitar-driven rock and pop never would have happened. The Spice Girls selection was silly. It's like they felt they were being very clever, "You thought the Spice Girls were empty and inconsequential pop, but in fact they were massively influential." They manage to undercut their own reasoning at each turn. Cynical marketing-driven pop groups had existed for decades...but the Spice Girls are influential for that. "Girl power" was a cynical, male-created gimmick (which was well understood all along)...but the Spice Girls empowered a generation of girls. If they wanted to go the route of "pop group created for marketing reasons," they should have gone with the Monkees. They would have ended up with far better music in their list, to boot. Also, what irony using the "empowered girls" argument for the Spice Girls and then ranking Kate Bush below the Spice Girls. Bush was far more empowering and far more influential. There are a number of good picks, but the ordering and reasoning are fairly silly. Also, Led Zeppelin is a big omission. Possibly overrated in the US and underrated in Europe, Zeppelin was still massively influential to rock as a whole, and the biggest pioneer of metal and hard rock (though Black Sabbath deserves mention too).