Music: Most influential albums or music

[Hippasus]

I know this is a very nebulous topic that is for all intents and purposes impossible to objectively answer. Nonetheless, I think it is possible to attempt to objectively answer, and to do so successfully to some extent. Obviously, I am framing this openendedly. 'Influential for what?', one might retort. That's for you to decide. It could be cultural values in a certain time period or even politics. It could be the development of a certain style or genre, perhaps from the artist(s) being innovative or prescient in some way. It could be influential for some sort of music theory. One's personal tastes and biases are likely to reveal themselves in an attempt to answer this question, but there's nothing inherently wrong with that.

Click to read more...

 

[The Marquis]

Easy to say an album like Sgt. Peppers fits the bill whether one likes it or not.

The first Ramones record, while far from the first punk record was easily the most influential. One could say that Nevermind the Bollocks would also sit in this catagory.

The first Black Sabbath record

Velvet Underground and Nico

Straight Outta Compton

It’s weird because there are loads of bands that are hugely influential, but they don’t have a particular album that is nearly as influential as the band itself is, and I’d say far fewer albums have immense influence than artists on the whole.

 

[kihei]

Kind of Blue Miles Davis
Pet Sounds The Beach Boys
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Beatles

 

[Elvis P]

Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, considered by some as the best album ever, not only expressed concern for ecology in 1971 but more importantly made fellow Motown artist Stevie Wonder feel comfortable discussing important political and social issues such as racism and black poverty on four great seventies albums considered some of the best albums ever made.

 

[PANARIN BREAD FAN]

at this moment off the top of my head:

run dmc first album
van halen 1
cher-believe
nirvana - nevermind

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

- Le Quatuor du Jazz Libre du Québec, under the name Le Quatuor du Nouveau Jazz Libre du Québec, had a first (self-titled) album in 1969. It launched what became the musique actuelle scene, which has been the center of most musical experimentation and creativity in the province. Conventum's À l'affût d'un complot (1977) is another very influential album of that scene.

- John Zorn had so much influence on the New York avant-garde during the 90s, it always felt like "Zorn and the boys", and it felt at some point like he owned the Knitting Factory (he now owns The Stone, and man I wish I lived in NY). As for picking an album, I think that Naked City might have been the most influential, that or The Big Gundown, but I've always thought the "ideas" of Cobra were the most talked about (the 2002 version gave a proper form to these ideas).

- I have to include something about Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, who despite the work and notoriety of John Cage, must be the main influence on the musique concrète genre. Hard to point to an album, Symphonie pour un homme seul was recorded only later (1972), but it was already well known in the early 50s and the central influence of the genre.

 

[The Marquis]

Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, considered by some as the best album ever, not only expressed concern for ecology in 1971 but more importantly made fellow Motown artist Stevie Wonder feel comfortable discussing important political and social issues such as racism and black poverty on four great seventies albums considered some of the best albums ever made.

Undoubtedly this album belongs on a list of most influential by every metric. I don’t listen to soul and R&B but I know the reach of this album. I also know exactly how great it is.

 

[Mike C]

Kind of Blues Miles Davis
Pet Sounds The Beach Boys
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Beatles

I'd add Dylan "Bringing It All Back Home"

Probably "Rubber Soul" too

 

[Hippasus]

Cult of Dionysus (celebrators of the God of music and intoxication), Pythagoras and musical intervals (i.e. harmony), and the ancient Greek chorus (the uncanny emergence of myth, commentary, and resonant spoken word during the course of a drama).

Gregorian chant (complex Christian music during the medieval period).

Ars nova: this was an early Renaissance musical movement centered in what is today France. It was somewhat of a bridge from medieval to Renaissance music. It foreshadowed the Baroque period, classical music in general, and complex music theory.

Richard Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen (the notion of a total work of art, an embrace of mythology).

Scott Joplin: "Maple Leaf Rag" (ragtime).

Woody Guthrie: Dust Bowl Ballads (arguably the first concept album and a big influence on Bob Dylan).

John Cage: Music of Changes, " 4'33" " (experimental music--Zen Buddhist influence on him).

Karlheinz Stockhausen: Kontra-Punkte, Studie I, Studie II, Gesang der Junglinge (these are four separate works--experimental, electronic music).

The Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground & Nico (influential for art rock).

Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath (influential for metal).

Ramones: Ramones (influential for punk).

The Sugarhill Gang: "Rapper's Delight" (influential for hip hop).

Nirvana: Nevermind (influential for alternative rock and spoke to teenage alienation).

Honorable mentions: tribal, folk, ancient Egyptian music. I'm not sure if the latter as I understand it is modern or not. If it is, never mind.

 

[VMBM]

Even though artistically Sgt. Pepper is obviously more significant, I wonder if Please Please Me (the name of the UK release anyway) was an even more influential album. Not to mention the whole Beatles phenomenon in 1963—64.

Here was a group who wrote most of their stuff themselves, thus inspiring countless of starting musicians and bands to do the same, and pretty much ended the instrumental/surf music craze right there with their harmony vocals. I've heard e.g. many '60s Finnish musicians say that their band suddenly had to become a singing group after the Beatles broke through; an all-instrumental group was a no-no at that point. Also you hear guys like ABBA's Björn & Benny say that they started to write their own songs due to the Beatles' example.

 

[frisco]

Frank Sinatra's "In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning" is really the first concept album in popular music history. All the songs are about heartbreak and the mood was melancholy, dark, gloomy, etc., and they were intentioned that way.

"Elvis' Golden Records" was the first greatest hits album and really the songs on that release set the template for rock and roll for the next 60 years.

R.E.M. "Murmur" probably spawned thousands of college alt-rock bands in that genre.

My Best-Carey

 

[WetcoastOrca]

A few that jump to mind:
Sgt. Pepper: The Beatles
Music from Big Pink: The Band
Dark Side of the Moon: Pink Floyd
What’s Going On: Marvin Gaye

 

[Primary Assist]

Off the top of my head, Live From Folsom Prison is one of the most influential country albums. Contributed hugely to the Outlaw Country movement, to this day an integral piece of country's DNA and one of the coolest musical waves in 20th century America

 

[VMBM]

George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.

Like, I haven't bothered to check what the most covered songs of all-time are, but I bet "Summertime" is in the top 10, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was #1. So many artists/groups have recorded a version of it, especially in the late '50s and '60s.

Anyway, a great piece of work. My favourite is the Miles Davis recording from 1958 with arrangements by Gil Evans.

 

[Neutrinos]

The Beatles are #1 in terms of influence

I might put Nirvana #2 on that list, followed by Black Sabbath

With that said, it just occurred to me that Run DMC or NWA may actually deserve the top spot given the rise in popularity of rap and hip hop over the last 35 years or so

Then, of course, there's Elvis as well...

 

[PALE PWNR]

Boston by Boston

Changed the sound of the guitar forever. Scholz the man who played every instrument on the album except the drums and vocals is also an MIT graduated engineer who created his own equipment to play on and now virtually every band out there uses his Rockman or a knockoff version of it to make music. The entire album was recorded in his basement and basically a demonstration of his equipment on top of being one of THE best selling albums of all time and just an absolutely monolithic, masterpiece front to back.

 

[93gilmour93]

Original Black Sabbath album
Appetite for Destruction Guns n Roses
Nevermind Nirvana

 

[Jack Straw]

Beethoven almost completely changed the symphony as a musical form. Symphonies written by composers that followed him are vastly different than those written by composers before him (who were mostly Haydn and Mozart).

Classical music in general was much different after Beethoven, to the extent that he is often seen as the transitional figure between the "classical" and "romantic" periods of classical music.

You could probably argue Haydn too, since he more or less invented the symphony. And of course everyone was strongly influenced by Bach.

 

[VMBM]

Beethoven almost completely changed the symphony as a musical form. Symphonies written by composers that followed him are vastly different than those written by composers before him (who were mostly Haydn and Mozart).

Classical music in general was much different after Beethoven, to the extent that he is often seen as the transitional figure between the "classical" and "romantic" period of classical music.

You could probably argue Haydn too, since he more or less invented the symphony. And of course everyone was strongly influenced by Bach.

I'd give a little honorable mention to Claude Debussy and his influence on the 20th Century composers. I know he didn't like the term impressionism as a description of his music, but it was something new and original for sure.

 

[Mikeaveli]

 

[Fiji Water]

Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division. Maybe didn't have as much immediate impact but it has been hugely influential on many artists that emerged over the past 3+ decades

 

[#37]

Carter Family - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The Carter Family was a traditional American folk music group that recorded between 1927 and 1956. Their music had a profound impact on bluegrass, country, Southern Gospel, pop and rock music as well as on the U.S. folk revival of the 1960s.

They were the first vocal group to become country music stars, and were among the first groups to record commercially produced country music.

Before the Carter family's recordings, the guitar was rarely used as a lead or solo instrument among white musicians.[citation needed] Maybelle's interweaving of a melodic line on the bass strings with intermittent strums is now a staple of steel string guitar technique. Flatpickers such as Doc Watson, Clarence White and Norman Blake took flatpicking to a higher technical level, but all acknowledge Maybelle's playing as their inspiration.

 

[#37]

Jimmie Rodgers - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Rodgers is considered the Father of Country Music.[102][103] The Country Music Hall of Fame inducted Rodgers among the inaugural class of 1961. According to the Hall of Fame, Rodgers "brought to the emerging genre of 'hillbilly music' a distinctive, colorful personality and a rousing vocal style" that "created and defined the role of the singing star in country music".

Robert Johnson's step-sister, Annye, remembered Rodgers as their favorite country singer. Johnson played "Waiting for a Train" and imitated Rodgers' yodel.[118] Other artists that have been influenced by Rodgers include Lefty Frizzell,[119] Roy Rogers, Eddy Arnold,[49] Jerry Lee Lewis,[120] Johnny Cash,[121] Willie Nelson,[105] Merle Haggard,[122] Bob Dylan,[123] George Harrison,[124] Lynyrd Skynyrd,[103] John Fahey,[125] and Alison Krauss.

Bob Dylan put together a tribute compilation of major artists covering Rodgers' songs, The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers, A Tribute. The artists included Bono, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Jerry Garcia, Dickey Betts, Dwight Yoakam, Aaron Neville, John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson and others.

 

[TheAngryHank]

The Beatles are #1 in terms of influence

I might put Nirvana #2 on that list, followed by Black Sabbath

With that said, it just occurred to me that Run DMC or NWA may actually deserve the top spot given the rise in popularity of rap and hip hop over the last 35 years or so

Then, of course, there's Elvis as well...

I'll fight you over Run DMC and just replace them with the beastie boys ,license to IIl is possibly the most influential hip hop album while straight outta Compton could be for gangster rap which are two separate genre.

London calling made things mainstream punk/ ska/ rege riffs ,to me the clash were underrated and heavily influential.

 

[todeskultes]