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
this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2026
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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.
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.
WE BELONG TOGETHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaAAAAAaaaaaaaaAAAAAAaaaaaaaooooooouugghh
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 hugely successful as a sample called the amen break.
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’.
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.
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Black Sabbath’s self titled 1970 debut.
Generations of metalheads the world over owe their lives, allegiance, and gratitude to Tommy’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.
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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).
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My suggestions:
- Boston (self titled) pretty much transformed how music was produced, using the studio as an instrument.
- Jimi Hendrix - "Are you Experienced". Because a guitar had never been played like that before.
- Nirvana - "Nevermind". Arguably not the first grunge album, but it pretty much put the final nail in the coffin of 80's music.
Honorable mention: Pantera - "Cowboys from Hell" finally moved metal beyond fluffy hair and leather pants that had saturated the genre for too long, and effectively ended the glam era.
The first grunge album that I know of was Green River's Rehab Doll in 1988.
Yeah them and Mud Honey and the Melvins were ones we read about in Raygun and rolling stone magazines.
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gybe - lysf
looks like part of a serial number.
Looks like a bash shell command to me
yeah, but syntax error because of the extra space.
- Angel dust by faith no more. It has been cited as a massive influence by many huge 90s metal bands.
- Pet sounds by beach boys. Without it there would be no sgt Pepper (as we know it) and without that it's hard to say where pop would be today.
- The rise and fall of Ziggy stardust and the spiders from Mars by Bowie. While not being the source of the glam wave (hi t-rex) it really took it to a new level, along with the concept of stage personas.
Good call with Angel Dust. King For a Day, Fool For A Lifetime completes the syllabus.
As much as I enjoyed Pet Sounds when I was younger, it wasn't until it was pointed out to me that it was one of the first albums by a big act to not be written around live performance that I began to realise its significance. Almost every other album released on major labels at the time was in service of selling tickets to live shows, along with copies of the records. They were full of songs to sing and dance along to.
Pet Sounds was an album that was best enjoyed at home on a decent sound system.
Pet Sounds is a work of art that happens to contain some incredible pop music that must have pissed off the other members of the Beach Boys as they listened to it and tried to figure out how the hell they were supposed to perform it live. But Brian made a damn good go of saying what he needed to say with it, and that was what was important to him.
Pet sounds and Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band are what I think of as the first studio driven albums and I can to them later in life after just ignoring the pop song hits that always played on the radio.
Amazing sounds with a good set of headphones.
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Michael Jackson - Off The Wall
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - The Message
Sepultura - Roots
Rubber Soul - The Beatles
To me this marks a turning point in the Beatles' output, from fun, rock 'n' roll/pop music, to serious artistry, more challenging themes and lyrics and more interesting instrumentation.
Sample track: In My Life
Dubnobasswithmyheadman - Underworld
Hugely important in British dance music, a total departure from their first two albums and the start of a run of classic electronic music. It's a shame they're still best known for Born Slippy, because there's so much more to Underworld than that, and it started here.
Sample track: Dirty Epic
The Velvet Underground and Nico - The Velvet Underground
Famously known as an album that not many people bought, but all of those who did started a band. Hugely influential, full of great songs, some gentle and fragile, others cacophonic and dissonant. A masterpiece.
Sample track: Venus in Furs
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- Velvet Underground and Nico
- Bringing It All Back Home (Bob Dylan)
- Kind of Blue (Miles Davis)
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing
This singlehandedly brought to the forefront sample-based trip hop for all to hear. Soulful, haunting, melodic, and with an ever evolving back beat, filled with social consciousness. Herbie Hancock's Rock It introduced the world to the idea of turntables as instruments and Endtroducing was an album length love letter to that instrument.
Homework by daft punk had a kinda huge impact on french house
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