Three Albums that Changed the Direction of Music

There's gotta be a place in the thread for this bad boy and all that it brought.


(Dylan - Great White Wonder)

 

Which Cher album had that damn "Believe" song ??

 

The Byrds - Sweetheart Of the Rodeo
The Who - Tommy
Alan Parson's Project - Tales Of Mystery and Imagination

 

Lots of weird/inexplicable (not to mention unexplained) choices in this thread but I'll focus on this post:

1 - Though I personally think The Band's second album is far superior to the first (Big Pink) it was surely "Big Pink" that was the catalyst for a change in music towards "roots" music and away from the prevailing psychedelia of the time.

2 - ABB - what did it change/start? The glut of 1970s double live albums? Vaguely jazz-ish rock jamming? Southern Rock as a genre? (Surely never a hugely successful genre/cultural force even in its prime)

3 - the only change that BITUSA brought to music was to turn Springsteen from a mere "rock star" into (for a short time - roughly the time span between the Courteney Cox video, and the Live Boxset dropping out of the chart shortly after its pre-Xmas 1986 release - so what's that - 2 and a half years - at most?) a "rock superstar".

 

I see posts about some great albums that really changed the direction music was following, but I see even more posts about fantastic albums that had no effect in the way music evolved after their release.

 

This is tough.

Elvis Presley - S/T
Meet the Beatles
Nirvana - Nevermind

 

Ha! I already beat you to it on the previous page!

 

That must also be where they got the idea for an album cover with people walking in the middle of a street, with a Volkswagen in the background on the left.

 

The Piano Artistry of Jonathan Edwards - Jonathan and Darlene Edwards
Philosophy of the World - The Shaggs
Metal Machine Music - Lou Reed

 

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Licensed To Ill
Nevermind

 

Rock Around The Clock - Bill Haley & His Comets 1954
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan 1964
The Message - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five 1982

D.D.

 

Doc Coyle (ex-God Forbid) wrote an extremely compelling piece about how Pantera - specifically VDoP - arguably changed the recording and production of metal forever in terms of producing clean, precise recordings, the modern bass drum sound, and launching the career of the wildly popular Colin Richardson (and subsequent protege Andy Sneap). I believe I agree with his contentions.

It is a wonderful read, and I urge people to look it over!

Did Pantera Ruin Modern Metal Album Production Forever?

 

,,and, we're STILL getting songs with 'auto-tune' in them...
when's this generation gonna MOVE ON!

 

Sgt Pepper
Led zeppelin 1
Court of the crimson king

4th - London Calling

 

Sgt Pepper
Remain In Light
Nevermind

 

Help change ?
Sgt Pepper
Pet Sounds
Never Mind The Bollocks

 

Remember though that there was hard rock fused with rap on their first two albums too ("Rock Box" and "King of Rock")

 

Buddy Holly-tie between The Chirping Crickets and Buddy Holly
Charlie Daniels-Fire On The Mountain
Larry Norman-a tie between Upon This Rock, Only Visiting This Planet, So Long Ago The Garden and In Another Land

 

Pixies "Doolittle" - Nirvana "Nevermind" totally ripped from this album's style. (Kurt admitted this)

NWA "Straight Outta Compton". This wasn't the invention of gangster rap because singles preceded it.. but the storytelling in this album (along with It Takes A Nation of Millions.. by Public Enemy) is responsible for 2Pac, Nas, Biggie Smalls...

The Who "Tommy" - not a huge fan but how many bands tried to create a rock opera album after this? From "The Wall" to "American Idiot"

 

how about the 3 albums that changed "my own" musical direction.

cant speak for the world.

nirvana 1991
pink floyd darkside of the moon 1995
ok computer 1997

 

More than three -- (sorry to cheat, last half century):
Meet the Beatles (1964)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
London Calling (1979)
Thriller (1982)
Metallica (1991)
OutKast Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003)
21 (2011)

Anxiously awaiting the next one...

 

Elvis Presley by Elvis Presley - Brought rock and roll to a widespread audience, while Chuck Berry was the godfather of rock and roll to mine and many others' opinion, Elvis certainly brought it to the masses.

Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys - Say what you want about any album today, they all exist because of Pet Sounds. Even Rubber Soul, the album that inspired it, wasn't as coherent as this one. Concept albums had been done before (In The Wee Small Hours by Frank Sinatra), but never in a way that combined so many musical genres. From this and the Mothers' Freak Out (if I had four spaces, this would be there too) came Sgt. Peppers'.

Talking Book by Stevie Wonder - This one is bizarre compared to the other two, but Talking Book featured "Superstition", what can be argued to be the forerunner of disco. Years later, that style could be found in every hit song, as well as being augmented in the rising hip hop movement. So no "Superstition", no disco, no hip hop. You could say people just bought the single, which they did since it went #1, but the album went high on the US charts meaning many people were exposed to that sing from the album.

 

The Velvet Underground & Nico
Nirvana Nevermind
Big Star #1 Record*

(*though nobody knew it at the time)

 

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
The Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks
The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's