Vibrant as it generally is, rock and roll sometimes needs a kick in the pants to shake it from inertia and complacency. Each of the following 10 albums―several of which rank among rock’s best―kickstarted a new direction when change was much needed.
Elvis Presley: Elvis Presley (1956)Sun Records founder
Sam Phillips famously said if he could find a white man with a black sound and a black feel, he could make a billion dollars. In Elvis he found precisely that, and then promptly sold Elvis’s contract to RCA Records. Six months later, this album changed American music forever.
The Beatles: Please Please Me (1963)Rock and roll was mired in a monumental slump when the Beatles released their debut album, as the charts were dominated by the likes of Trini Lopez,
Andy Williams, and the Singing Nun. Not only did the Fab Four unleash the British Invasion; they also solidified the notion that performing musicians should compose their own material.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Are You Experienced? (1967)No rocker could look at the guitar in quite the same way after
Jimi Hendrix released his debut in 1967. Coming at the tail end of the Summer of Love,
Are You Experienced? put teeth into flower power and psychedelia. From Iron Butterfly to Steppenwolf to Cream, bands instantly began drawing from the template Hendrix created.
King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)Mixing mellotron and woodwinds with Robert Fripp’s angular guitarwork, this 1969 tour-de-force set the standard for prog-rock torchbearers such as
Yes, Emerson Lake & Palmer, and early Genesis. The jazz-metal epic “21st Century Schizoid Man” remains a classic of the genre.
David Bowie: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)Marc Bolan was there first, but it took David Bowie’s brilliant packaging of flamboyant androgyny and wham-bam rock and roll to set fire to the glam rock movement. Sometimes lost in the glitter and makeup is the fact that glam spawned great music―especially via the likes of the New York Dolls, Lou Reed, and
Roxy Music. Even the Rolling Stones got on-board for the ride.
Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Soundtrack (1977)Who said all directional changes in rock and roll were for the better? To be fair, the disco forces set in motion by this 1977 blockbuster―which was dominated by the Bee Gees―gave rise to a smattering of great music.
George Clinton, Chic, and even Prince incorporated the funkier components of disco into their songs, to splendid effect. Too bad the same couldn't be said for the Rolling Stones or Rod Stewart .
The Sex Pistols: Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols (1977)No less an artist than Neil Young hailed the Sex Pistols as exactly the kick in the ass rock needed when the band released its debut. With one snot-nosed punch, the Pistols sent dinosaur bands such as Yes and Emerson Lake & Palmer scurrying for cover. The band imploded within months, but its followers carried the punk mantel forward for years to come.
Roxy Music: Manifesto (1979)Ironically, it was one of the weakest albums in the Roxy Music catalog that launched one of rock’s most unlikely genres. Sparked by the Roxy hits “Angel Eyes” and “Dance Away,” bands such as
ABC, Spandau Ballet, and the Thompson Twins spearheaded the British-based New Romantic movement. A then-nascent phenomenon known as MTV kept the movement alive throughout the early ’80s.
Run-DMC: Raising Hell (1986)With Rick Rubin at the helm, this trio of rappers catapulted hip-hop from the fringes of popular music to a central position on mainstream pop charts. The rap-ization of
Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” also helped resuscitate the career of one great rock band. Twenty years on, the album’s impact still reverberates.
Nirvana: Nevermind (1991)Alternative music came above ground for good after
Nirvana caught fire in 1991. Legions of imitators hopped on board for the ride, but none came close to matching the explosive core of the original article. It’s sometimes forgotten that Nirvana also dealt a fatal blow to the frothy pop metal of the late ’80s.