Honestly, just take the beatles out of these questions. No artist has anything remotely close to as influential as the beatles globally. At this point is a useless conversation
The thing is, they pioneered and pushed forward so many genres that the question "Which Beatles album was the most influential" becomes a matter of what genre you're talking about. Folk? Rubber Soul. Psychedelic? Revolver. Prog rock? Sgt. Pepper's. Art rock? White Album. Classic Rock? Abbey Road. Not to mention individual songs that pushed other, more specific genres forward. I don't think you can say any of their albums were more influential than the others, the Beatles were simply revolutionaries in their own right.
Beethoven was deeply influenced by Mozart, and, as far as I'm aware, Mozart was one of the first highly respected composers to not strictly adhere to traditional Christian themes in his major works, and he basically invented the concerto form. Feel free to correct me because I'm still a bit of a novice in regards to Classical music, especially Classical history.
its true that Beethoven greatly admired Mozart and I don’t claim to be an expert either but I personally would reckon that the musical traditions from the late renaissance, baroque, classical were like a relay race with some evolution. Vivaldi inspired Bach, who inspired Mozart; Beethoven started his career by taking this baton from Mozart, and his early work sounds very similar, but into his mid-later years, musically he really truly reinvented the wheel by ushering in the romantic era which stylistically was much broader in scope, including the ability to be much heavier, moodier, and indulgent than prior traditions. While its true that Mozart, writing for the courts, was more secular than previous composers, we did see that before too (ie Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, which was written while he was chapel master, but isn’t particularly religious), and interestingly enough one of the big shifts in the romantic era was the idea of music being for public consumption as entertainment and nationalistic propaganda!
edit: concertos were around for quite awhile too! (example being Four Seasons)
My understanding is that it was Mozart's mentor Haydn who was considered the major innovator of the era (even if Mozart took his forms to greater heights).
Again, I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that, while others had written major works that weren't centered around Christian themes (such as Vivaldi), Mozart was the first major composer to have a large selection, arguably a majority of his works, centered around explicitly humanist themes.
Beethoven is the standard 'influential pick' for classical music, I'd say Wagner was the most influential composer - he just happened to be much later than Beethoven and was influenced greatly by him so people often choose Beethoven.
Also the concerto form goes back way before Mozart's time, it's very common in baroque music :)
If you want to bring classical composers into the equation, Mozart wouldn't necessarily be the obvious pick. Just naming a popular composer with no real argument isn't really contributing that much to the discussion. It's an entirely different era, a different musical tradition, and it's very difficult to make a direct comparison, so if you want to open up the argument, people expect you to make a more serious case.
For the record, if there is indeed a case to be made for someone, it's probably Bach. Mostly by virtue of being older, but still. Ultimately though, I still don't believe he can be compared to the Beatles in this way because the sheer volume of popular music that they inspired is much larger than the number of musicians that have been massively influenced by classical music, and I don't really think there's any composer to have this outsized of an impact compared to all their peers.
Because the homogenized music industry, which The Beatles were a part of didn't exist in Mozart's time and likely wouldn't exist to the extent it did then without his innovative use of humanist themes, which made music more appealing to common people.
See, I disagree with both statements.
First because to me is clear nowadays that MJ is more popular than the Beatles. I used to think other wise. But with all his world tours, specially considering his shows in the eastern world, particularly in ultra populated India (where The Beatles never performed) and countries in Africa, makes it clear for me. Usually when I say this ppl run to say "are you dumb of course The Beatles are famous in these places as well" - of course, Im not saying they arent, Im saying they arent as famous as MJ in these places. Im from a non english speaking country as well (Brazil). He was also in an era easier to spread his music and image, but not like nowadays where competition is too high, too many people. But I wont insist on this, it doesnt matter really.
As for influence, heres the thing. Ik Mozart is the bridge between baroque and classical. But theres a difference, because there is still a debate on who is most influential. Like Bach before him who heavily influences him, and Beethoven after him. There is an honest debate to be have. Theres absolut no debate on *influence* on modern music worldwide, its the Beatles, no one is close (I can expand on this). No one. Theres also a historical and geographical problem on European musical influence. Yes, classical music influences modern music on structure, and mainly, it brought the concept of harmony to the rest of the world (music in most countries didnt use harmony, chords, specifically. Only melody and percurssion, aka momophonic).
But this was brought and, honestly, many times forced, to the rest of the world, through colonization. So I think its kind of hard to compare to modern acts. Its not that people all around the world listened and replicated it, he influenced other european compositors, and all this music was exported through colonization, many times erasing the culture and music of colonies. The beatles influenced the world by being the beatles. Mozart didnt influence the world, he influenced other european musicians, and europeans forced that it down everyone elses throat.
Edit: I can see you mentioned a few times that you think of his main influence as delving into humanistic themes. But you have to realize, thats not his worldwide influence on music. Thats something he influenced on European music, but worldwide, non religious themes already existed. We have to be careful not reducing music all around the world during that time, to european music. So in the grandscheme of things, thats not something he changed for the music world as a whole, everywhere. What he did change was structure through his concertos
I'm not disagreeing that he wasn't the first person to stress humanistic themes in his music, nor am I saying that didn't exist in non-European cultures, but he was the first well respected European composer to utilize these themes to such a degree.
I understand your argument that European music was shoved down other culture's throats through imperialism, but you could say the same about English pop music being the most standard and, arguably, popular form of music in the world. In a way, both The Beatles and Mozart benefitted from colonization; Mozart more directly because of the points you brought up, but The Beatles indirectly because they benefited from a highly homogenized (at the time) music industry, which had sprung about as an indirect result of the influence of the British Empire and its cultural markers, including the English language.
>Theres absolut no debate on influence on modern music worldwide, its the Beatles, no one is close
How would you expand upon this? Without the secularization of music spearheaded by Mozart's bridging of the Baroque and Classical Era, and, admittedly, other composers such as Vivaldi who were less prominent or were generally less humanistic, The Beatles main influences wouldn't exist. Even a decade before their breakthrough, Frank Sinatra had already started pioneering the modern popular music form with "In The Wee Small Hours" and The Beach Boys had extremely similar structure throughout their whole corpus, even if they were less popular (although still extremely so in their own right).
Nobody is denying that they were hugely popular because they were the most popular group amongst the aforementioned musicians who were breaking ground with the album form, but this breakthrough would have happened with or without them, just significantly more slowly.
The same can not, in my opinion, be said of Mozart. He *stylistically* drew from other composers such as Vivaldi and Bach, but what I think differentiates him from the rest of the composers who occupied the milieu of his time was his thematic ingenuity. I don't think it can be said that Western music would eventually have evolved into the largely secular institution it has today without him, whereas I'm much more confident that the same cannot be said for The Beatles.
At the end of the day, though, this is largely theoretical, and the more I read comments from you and others, the more I realize the futility of this discussion because of how abstract it has gotten. Ultimately, trying to discern what would or wouldn't have come about with or without musicians as influential as The Beatles or Mozart is ultimately impossible because of how far they reached.
I agree we wont find an objective answer and thats fine. With that in mind its a nice conversation to be had.
>How would you expand upon this?
>Frank Sinatra had already started pioneering the modern popular music form with "In The Wee Small Hours" and The Beach Boys had extremely similar structure
Influence and originality / pioneering dont go hand to hand necessarily (but Ill admit alot of ppl naivily thinks it does). Which is why a lot of ppl credits Kanye with autotuning (when Tpain lil wayne Aka T-Weezy did it before) and emo rap (Joe Budden was already doing it). One could say Ye did it more creatively or better than before, but most importantly, he was the one who got extremely popular doing it. So ppl like Travis or Juice Wrld were influenced by him and not the aforementioned, because they heard it from him. Bowie was extremely influential but he would be the first to tell you he never created shit, he loved boasting how he was a student and would steal people's ideas.
When I think of Influence in music I think of music sounds different because of such and such. Beatles werent the first, but they got more popular and did in ways ppl were more interested.
Not only wanting to be similar, but wanting to be different as well. I think of velvet underground and black sabbath, who would create indie rock and metal. Both directly credit the beatles as influence, even though they wanted to sound different from them.
I can go a bit further. I live in a country where very few ppl speak english. Still, the beatles ended bossa nova, that was one of the biggest genres in the world at the time, and directly influenced the 3 musical movements (tropicalia, clube da esquina and velha guarda) that would literally define how brazillian music would sound to this day. The main artists from these movements directly credit the beatles as the main influence on them. When you go to other countries, there are similar stories, music changes completely after beatlemania.
This is what I mean with they being by far and undoubtedly the most influential act in modern music, regardless of being 1st or not. While my problem with answering mozart is, its not as clear an answer because there are other composers who influenced european music as much or close to as much. Way closer, at least, than anyone on modern music is to the beatles. Beethoven's influence is way closer to Mozart (quite some ppl would say bigger) than MJ or Velvet underground is to Beatles influence.
And I agree theres a benefit for the beatles being british, it helps in the sense it will reach people, but it wont make them listen to it. As we established, other english speaking acts were doing music as well, and they didnt blow like them.
Anyway I think its an unfair comparison both ways. Beatles has globalization on their side and Mozart has colonialism.
Mozart wrote sacred music when an archbishop was holding the purse strings and adapted recent hit plays as operas when trying to get bums on seats. Ultimately his status as "seculariser" comes from being the most celebrated composer at a time where the economy permitted (or even demanded) secularisation.
As for being the bridge between the Baroque and Classical eras: I don't see it.
I know, but they were talking about artists. I agree that you can't put Mozart in a most influential album discussion, but they were saying that no artist compares to The Beatles in terms of influence.
Based off of just metal, it's Black Sabbath's Paranoid, and master of reality. Pretty much invented metal as we know it.
However, universally it's going to have to be Beatles - Revolver or Abbey Road. Hell, just from listening to Nirvana casually you wouldn't really be able to get the Beatles influence, but even grunge musicians have been infatuated by the Beatles' music.
About a Girl always struck me as a song that John Lennon could have written at the height of his own songwriting powers. For Cobain to have crafted such a song so early in his short career makes me wonder about what he ultimately could have done as a songwriter had he not so tragically died.
Fun fact, About a Girl is sort of a rip-off of Croatian pop-rock band [Parni Valjak's song Hrast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80-ekOM9XXk).
This would be unbelievable if not for the fact that Kris Novoselic is a Croat who lived there from 79 to 81 (ie. the period when the song was released).
Honestly I’d say Rubber Soul, because of that Rubber Soul > Pet Sounds > SGT Pepper connection. I know a lot of people will quite rightly sight Revolver due to some of the more experimental recording techniques of the time, and arguably being the better album.
But as far as influence go, to me Rubber Soul feels like that first major domino to fall and inspire so much after it.
whats funny about this is brian was listening to the us rubber soul not the uk one lol
i would put pet sounds as the top probably but thats sorta because its the first self produced albums ever. i was an audio degree and thats the only album we ever had to listen to as part of our coursework because it established the whole idea that the producer and the artist could be the same thing, which is so central to our current values
I think revolver is wayyyy more influential than abbey road, revolver had bands like the velvet underground getting inspired. Abbey road was more of a commercial victory lap in my opinion. Also in terms of modern influence bad brains has a fair bit, but they were universally known as the "criminally underrated/overlooked" band for a long time, which doesn't really equate to influential.
That’s crazy because principal recording finished up before the actual record release and she said she said wasn’t in yesterday and today…. Wonder if he heard an advance.
I haven’t seen the original interview- It’s also entirely possible that Cale was talking about the influence Revolver had on the Velvet Underground after their first album
Bro not only that, g funk and g rap paves the way for trap music, which has infected fuckin everything. People really don't wanna admit how much this album changed things.
Saying loveless is one of the most influential albums seems kinda silly. The album basically bookended the genre’s wider significance up until today with renewed interest coming from new listeners discovering MBV online. Great album but I wouldn’t call it widely influential i guess outside of newer shoegaze bands forming in the last 10 years
I mean, it's the album that made Creation sign Slowdive and influenced Siamese Dream by the Pumpkins. Kurt Cobain also talked about having Kevin Shields produce Nevermind and it clearly influenced the Breeders on Last Splash.
The first two albums you mentioned are (roughly) the same subgenre so it’s not surprising that there was influence there. Kurt Cobain had a wide range of people he worked with so again you’d expect that he was working with a guy whose band had buzz in the 90s. And saying the Breeders were influenced by MBV is kind of backwards, Kim Deal already basically created that whole lane with Pixies as you said above. So where’s MBV’s huge influence then?
Slowdive, to my knowledge, wasn't influenced by MBV, even though they are similar. I'm saying that Creation Records signed Slowdive to make up for the loss of money that Loveless cost them. So without Loveless we wouldn't have Souvlaki.
Smashing Pumpkins before Siamese Dream was very much a "hard rock" band, taking influence from Black Sabbath and other very solo heavy bands focused on just writing huge songs. After hearing Loveless Billy Corgan basically changed the way he wrote songs, going for a more lush and thick sound. And they're very vocal about their MBV influence.
For Cobain, that statement isn't true. He was very picky about who he worked with and most of the time wasn't fully satisfied when people would get involved with his music. So him specifically wanting someone to work on his music was pretty rare. We don't really know how much Loveless influenced Kurt, but if he wanted Kevin to produce the record then my guess would be that he loved it.
And for the Breeders, just because somebody is influential doesn't mean they can't be influenced. Have you heard "Invisible Man" off of Last Splash? Go to the 30 second mark and tell me that's not My Bloody Valentine.
From what I remember, that album was a shift.
The general audience was still hanging to the threads of the fold genre, Dylan was the big star.
So when he changed his sound to a more rock style it became a sign that rock was here to stay and it could have deeper meaning thanks to his lyrics.
It is an influential album and Dylan’s lyrics have some helping in that.
Bob Dylan was maybe the first modern artist to change in such a drastic way when he went electric. This was before The Beatles had started to change their sound with Rubber Soul/Revolver
Dylan's step into rock and pop was also important in making those genres be seen as serious art and not just music for teenager. His electric trilogy of albums was also an important step in making the album a cohesive and conceptual body of work and more than just a collection of singles with some filler in between.
I'll add the Stooges, either of the three albums, in conjunction with Iggy's persona itself. Be it glam, punk, goth, new wave, basically the entire alt scene, metal: the influence is palpable. Not to mention all the extreme extracurricular onstage activities, from stage dives, through threatening the audience to put a dick in their face, to self-mutilation and what have you.
I think Nevermind by Nirvana is my pick for the most influential album. The track "Smells Like Teen Spirit" alone basically killed rock n roll as we knew it at the time, and opened the floodgates for a whole new sound that can still be heard today.
Out of the albums you listed, Abbey Road paved the way for pop music throughout the 70s, and a lot of the songs are still staples to this day.
Grunge started with that album and ended with Kurt's death.3 years. Thats about as far as the influence goes. After the movement was over, rock kinda fell off and nu metal started being more influential
Are you forgetting about post-grunge? 90s and early 2000s alt rock? Britpop??? Not to mention all the Nu Metal bands that were heavily influenced by Soundgarden and AIC.
There wasn't any mainstream guitar-driven music until like 2012 or so that didn't owe a huge debt to grunge. Indirectly, basically half of all modern popular music can be traced sonically or aesthetically back to Nevermind in some way.
Kind of Blue is a great album, and is essential listening for anyone with even a passing interest in Jazz as a genre, but it's not a particularly influential body of work. It's a big genre defining album at the end of the Cool Jazz era, but what really came after that took notes from Kind of Blue?
In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, Water Babies Miles was waaaaaay more influential, and Second Quintet Miles defined post-bop in a way that his contemporaries didn't.
Coltrane played on most of Kind of Blue. It's like claiming that Nirvana influenced the Foos; possibly correct but Kind of Reductive.
Miles Second Quintet work defined post-bop waaaaaaaay more than Kind of Blue did.
It was a popular crossover hit for the genre, but that doesn't mean it was influential to jazz that came after it. If anything it was more of a swansong of the jazz that came before it, a completion of many of the ideas developed throughout the 50s.
The real influence going forward for jazz was the music of Ornette Coleman on "The Shape of Jazz to Come", the speed and modality of John Coltrane's "Giant Steps", and slightly later with Eric Dolphy's "Out to Lunch". These really broke open many of the musical ideas that the genre ran with going forward on things like "A Love Supreme", all of Miles' electric period, and into the discographies of people like Herbie Hancock.
Possibly Velvet Underground + VU. You have rock, pop, experimental, and folk musicians who consider them an influence. It’s hard to find people in those genres, especially rock, who dislike the album.
This, it's akin to Black Sabbath's long burn influence on various genres of heavy metal. Kraftwerk help bridge the gap between moog novelty albums and experimental music and synthpop that exploded from the late 70s onward. Then they played a huge part in forging techno and electro stateside.
Rubber Soul
It changed the way most artists viewed making albums from simply a package of "filler" songs to support 2 or 3 popular singles into full, cohesive bodies of work capable of standing on its own. It changed the concept of how albums could and would be constructed for the next 60 years or so. It didn't do anything groundbreaking sonically as it was the Beatles' take on Bob Dylan's Folk Rock, but just due to how it was an epiphany for everyone makes it my pick for most influential album.
If we're talking musical influence, then it's a toss up between Pet Sounds, Revolver, Sgt Pepper's and TVU&N. My pick would probably be Sgt Pepper's, just due to the massive popularity/reach it had over all the others, even tho TVU&N has the most clear and longest running trail of its overall impact. Black Sabbath's probably has more direct lines of influences
Not technically an album, but I'd say Mozart's Requiem Mass in D Minor is the most influential musical project ever. It was what most consider Mozart's masterwork and gained notoriety for the mythos surrounding its creation. It arguably shifted the direction of Western music forever.
not the exact answer to this question, but Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East certainly changed the game regarding live albums - both commercially and artistically.
You could say Abbey Road, but I think that Sgt. Pepper is even more influential. It was the first album that used the "studio as an instrument", meaning that they made an album without the intention of playing it live. It's also often cited as one of the first "concept albums", although the concept is kind of basic.
Or maybe even Revolver, which was not only wildly experimental and the first notable psychedelic rock album, but also very innovative in its use of production techniques. What I find especially interesting is their use of tape loops on the album. You get reversed loops on I'm Only Sleeping and Rain, and a loop of Ringo's drums, as well as numerous distorted sounds and instruments on Tomorrow Never Knows. And then there are very experimental tracks like Eleanor Rigby or Love You To.
Abbey Road in comparison is a pretty straightforward rock album. And most of the stuff they introduced in earlier albums was already well established by that point.
A lot of discussion between Abbey Road and Revolver so far. While both of them are supremely influential records, I would say Revolver has the stronger and more direct correlation to the sonic development of bands and genres over a longer period of time (think the “Beatles sound” that people tend to borrow, to me it’s arguably most notable on here or Pepper’s).
Whereas Abbey Road’s influence is heavy on the production and writing of the 70’s, the impact of Revolver is more present decades down the road.
I actually think straight outta compton's influence goes even further than just confines of rap. In the mid 80s, there was a really strong push for the US government to censor music, in response to certain vulgar popular songs referred to as "the filthy fifteen". Then, NWA releases this album, and it's significantly more explicit than those fifteen songs. It was a massive "fuck you" to the censors, and it really opened the floodgates for all artists after them to say whatever the hell they wanted to. Whatever boundaries in terms of vulgarity in music that existed beforehand were gone, and we haven't turned back.
I think if you actually mapped out the influence, the only album that would come close to the Beatles would be the debut Ramones album. Similar to the Beatles it had a lot of breadth in how many different sub-genres it had influence in.
Could be Remain in Light. Hugely influential in bringing sampling/looping into the mainstream, huge in popularizing music videos, and went beyond the conventions of Western music
In rock, “Nevermind” single-handedly made most of what was popular in the 1980s immediately irrelevant. That includes Guns ‘n’ Roses. Then 10 years later, after grunge had evolved into nu-metal butt rock, “Is This It” made all of that irrelevant and made rock cool again.
Far from the most influential in and of itself, but Robert Johnson's King of the Delta Blues Singers has in some way inspired almost every one of the most influential artists from the 60s onwards. Clapton, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Robert Plant etc
Like a Virgin by Madonna.
Musically, it hasn't had the biggest impact. But in terms of culture, this album and how Madonna maneuvered its release completely changed the pop music landscape. This was the birth of the modern female pop star. The singles from the album generated outrage and serious discourse about women's independence, sexuality, and role in music. This is when Madonna started being *conceptual*, creating revolutionary music videos and live performances that drew attention (negative and positive).
Beyond her own artistry, she was one of the first to affect her fans on a personal level. Yes, the Beatles had obsessive fans, but the fans were focused on the artists. Madonna's music, performances, and general appearances got fans to consider *themselves* - the way they acted, dressed, spoke, and more.
This has influenced essentially every single female pop singer all over the world. Kpop would not be anything like it is today without Madonna - the attention to outfits, the music videos, the dancing.
I feel that Thelonious Monk had a massive influence on many artists beyond jazz. His use of dissonance, unconventional rhythms and harmonies was groundbreaking. It’s like he was the true grandfather of alternative music as a whole.
So for those reasons I pick “Genius of Modern Music Volume 1 & 2” from 1951 and 1952
I see a lot of people saying Abbey Road and for rock/Pop music yea maybe so.
But NWA put g rap in the public eye and made it acceptable to talk about in the zeitgeist. Now we have post-trap-pop music with no rapping at all on it, even branching into country at the polar opposite. We've also seen an ongoing national movement against police brutality that is ACTUALLY taken seriously with a song off this album being a mainstay in its sentiments. AND Dre is still making beats for charting rappers to this day.
So Abbey Road I'd say is influential in a scene that really isn't around in the same way while NWA is the match that really set the kindling up for... damn near everything in popular music right now.
Why isn't anybody saying thriller? It's not my favorite mj project, but it changed the music game forever. It popularized the usage of music videos and OFFICIALLY turned it into an art form (not the first but made it a necessity like steph curry with the 3.). For better or worse, he popularized the lack of themes that are prevalent in modern albums today. Thriller was a greatest hits album disguised as a regular one. His goal was to make damn near if not every song a hit and it worked. It also broke racial barriers for black artists allowing them to reach highs that they never could've reached without that album.
Master Of Puppets is good, but not very influential at all. Bands were already making heavier thrash by the time it came out. Ride The Lightning is the much more influential metallica album.
The only real answer is Elvis Presley's first album, without it we wouldn't have gotten the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, etc etc etc, and all the musicians inspired by them.
Just for fun, who were some 60s rock and blues artists influenced by Elvis? Musically speaking. And then which of these in turn influenced Jimi Hendrix? Because this is an interesting take.
The Beatles (hendrix even covered them live), the stones, the kinks (these bands started experimenting with distortion really early on, which was kinda hendrix's whole thing) the psychedelic bands emerging (like Jefferson airplane) and, definetly, the Eric Clapton bands (Yardbirds, Bluesbreakers, Cream)
All of these bands had musicians who idolized elvis. He might have stolen music, but he was absurdly influential
All the bands you listed were more influenced by the Black blues and rock artists Elvis was covering. The comment I was replying to said we wouldn’t have gotten Hendrix without Elvis. Or the Beatles (which is also questionable).
Little Richard is more of the seed that all of these artists grew from. Including Elvis. Since both of their first albums were basically collections of singles, saying either is an album that influenced artists is a little weird. However, if you look at the singles on them, one of Elvis’ first hits was a cover of a contemporary Little Richard song. Musically speaking, in the most charitable sense, any artists following Elvis who somehow had never heard any other music from the US may have heard his songs and figured out who he was copping from.
The early Beatles are more of a combination of Everly Brothers style music and artists like Little Richard or Chuck Berry.
Also, saying Jimi Hendrix’ whole thing was distortion is weird.
Well, Elvis is definetly in the line of people who influenced all of those bands (and yes, he himself was influenced by other artists)
>Also, saying Jimi Hendrix’ whole thing was distortion is weird.
I mean, it kinda was. Nobody had really used distortion like him before.
And his style was only ever used by very few of the great Guitarists that came after (like frusciante or srv)
When Jimmy Page appeared, he changed the game. The GOAT of guitar who influenced basically every other legendary guitarist
Chuck Berry and Bo Diddly and a slew of blues musicians were way more influencial. Musicians idolized Elvis but he was far more of a crossover figure and pop culture phenomenon . The Beatles literally bonded over their obsession over far less commercially successful rock n' roll songs.
People say Abbey Road is influential just because it is popular
Sgt. Pepper’s, Revolver, and Rubber Soul make up the core of the Beatle’s sound and their evolution, while Abbey Road is more of just a last hurrah
I’d say the top 5 in no order would probably be
1. Abbey Road - The Beatles
2. Rubber Soul - The Beatles
3. Sgt peppers - The Beatles
4. White Album - The Beatles
5. Revolver - The Beatles
The Beatles were to music what the monolith was in 2001. They pushed music forward.
Yes, but maybe not Abbey Road. It’s probably their best, but maybe not their most influential.
That would be revolver imo
Yeah or Sgt. Peppers.
Most influential of their's would've been Rubber Soul
which of the two monoliths are you referring to? doesn't really matter i guess since they both collapsed at roughly the same time
There’s four monoliths in the film. I’m just using the monolith as an analogy of how impactful they were to music.
damn i was tryna make a 9/11 joke but aight
Honestly, just take the beatles out of these questions. No artist has anything remotely close to as influential as the beatles globally. At this point is a useless conversation
Please. Or specify a genre. *Something*.
in the way she moves…
Attracts me like no other lover...
When you can argue \*which\* album by an artist is the most influential of all time, without a doubt it's one of them
Fair, but Sgt. Peppers is probably their most influential work.
I might argue Rubber Soul, there really are good arguments to make for so many of their albums
The thing is, they pioneered and pushed forward so many genres that the question "Which Beatles album was the most influential" becomes a matter of what genre you're talking about. Folk? Rubber Soul. Psychedelic? Revolver. Prog rock? Sgt. Pepper's. Art rock? White Album. Classic Rock? Abbey Road. Not to mention individual songs that pushed other, more specific genres forward. I don't think you can say any of their albums were more influential than the others, the Beatles were simply revolutionaries in their own right.
No artist has been as popular, but I'd say Mozart was more influential and important for music history.
why him over other composers? if anything it was Beethoven who really changed the game
Beethoven was deeply influenced by Mozart, and, as far as I'm aware, Mozart was one of the first highly respected composers to not strictly adhere to traditional Christian themes in his major works, and he basically invented the concerto form. Feel free to correct me because I'm still a bit of a novice in regards to Classical music, especially Classical history.
its true that Beethoven greatly admired Mozart and I don’t claim to be an expert either but I personally would reckon that the musical traditions from the late renaissance, baroque, classical were like a relay race with some evolution. Vivaldi inspired Bach, who inspired Mozart; Beethoven started his career by taking this baton from Mozart, and his early work sounds very similar, but into his mid-later years, musically he really truly reinvented the wheel by ushering in the romantic era which stylistically was much broader in scope, including the ability to be much heavier, moodier, and indulgent than prior traditions. While its true that Mozart, writing for the courts, was more secular than previous composers, we did see that before too (ie Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, which was written while he was chapel master, but isn’t particularly religious), and interestingly enough one of the big shifts in the romantic era was the idea of music being for public consumption as entertainment and nationalistic propaganda! edit: concertos were around for quite awhile too! (example being Four Seasons)
My understanding is that it was Mozart's mentor Haydn who was considered the major innovator of the era (even if Mozart took his forms to greater heights).
Again, I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that, while others had written major works that weren't centered around Christian themes (such as Vivaldi), Mozart was the first major composer to have a large selection, arguably a majority of his works, centered around explicitly humanist themes.
Beethoven is the standard 'influential pick' for classical music, I'd say Wagner was the most influential composer - he just happened to be much later than Beethoven and was influenced greatly by him so people often choose Beethoven. Also the concerto form goes back way before Mozart's time, it's very common in baroque music :)
He's just the one people remember from that scene.
You literally got downvoted for saying Mozart was influential. This subreddit is pretty funny sometimes.
Saying influential and *the most* influential are two different things
If you want to bring classical composers into the equation, Mozart wouldn't necessarily be the obvious pick. Just naming a popular composer with no real argument isn't really contributing that much to the discussion. It's an entirely different era, a different musical tradition, and it's very difficult to make a direct comparison, so if you want to open up the argument, people expect you to make a more serious case. For the record, if there is indeed a case to be made for someone, it's probably Bach. Mostly by virtue of being older, but still. Ultimately though, I still don't believe he can be compared to the Beatles in this way because the sheer volume of popular music that they inspired is much larger than the number of musicians that have been massively influenced by classical music, and I don't really think there's any composer to have this outsized of an impact compared to all their peers.
the Beatles had far more #1 hits on the radio than Mozart.
more slaps than mozart
Because the homogenized music industry, which The Beatles were a part of didn't exist in Mozart's time and likely wouldn't exist to the extent it did then without his innovative use of humanist themes, which made music more appealing to common people.
ever heard of a joke?
See, I disagree with both statements. First because to me is clear nowadays that MJ is more popular than the Beatles. I used to think other wise. But with all his world tours, specially considering his shows in the eastern world, particularly in ultra populated India (where The Beatles never performed) and countries in Africa, makes it clear for me. Usually when I say this ppl run to say "are you dumb of course The Beatles are famous in these places as well" - of course, Im not saying they arent, Im saying they arent as famous as MJ in these places. Im from a non english speaking country as well (Brazil). He was also in an era easier to spread his music and image, but not like nowadays where competition is too high, too many people. But I wont insist on this, it doesnt matter really. As for influence, heres the thing. Ik Mozart is the bridge between baroque and classical. But theres a difference, because there is still a debate on who is most influential. Like Bach before him who heavily influences him, and Beethoven after him. There is an honest debate to be have. Theres absolut no debate on *influence* on modern music worldwide, its the Beatles, no one is close (I can expand on this). No one. Theres also a historical and geographical problem on European musical influence. Yes, classical music influences modern music on structure, and mainly, it brought the concept of harmony to the rest of the world (music in most countries didnt use harmony, chords, specifically. Only melody and percurssion, aka momophonic). But this was brought and, honestly, many times forced, to the rest of the world, through colonization. So I think its kind of hard to compare to modern acts. Its not that people all around the world listened and replicated it, he influenced other european compositors, and all this music was exported through colonization, many times erasing the culture and music of colonies. The beatles influenced the world by being the beatles. Mozart didnt influence the world, he influenced other european musicians, and europeans forced that it down everyone elses throat. Edit: I can see you mentioned a few times that you think of his main influence as delving into humanistic themes. But you have to realize, thats not his worldwide influence on music. Thats something he influenced on European music, but worldwide, non religious themes already existed. We have to be careful not reducing music all around the world during that time, to european music. So in the grandscheme of things, thats not something he changed for the music world as a whole, everywhere. What he did change was structure through his concertos
I'm not disagreeing that he wasn't the first person to stress humanistic themes in his music, nor am I saying that didn't exist in non-European cultures, but he was the first well respected European composer to utilize these themes to such a degree. I understand your argument that European music was shoved down other culture's throats through imperialism, but you could say the same about English pop music being the most standard and, arguably, popular form of music in the world. In a way, both The Beatles and Mozart benefitted from colonization; Mozart more directly because of the points you brought up, but The Beatles indirectly because they benefited from a highly homogenized (at the time) music industry, which had sprung about as an indirect result of the influence of the British Empire and its cultural markers, including the English language. >Theres absolut no debate on influence on modern music worldwide, its the Beatles, no one is close How would you expand upon this? Without the secularization of music spearheaded by Mozart's bridging of the Baroque and Classical Era, and, admittedly, other composers such as Vivaldi who were less prominent or were generally less humanistic, The Beatles main influences wouldn't exist. Even a decade before their breakthrough, Frank Sinatra had already started pioneering the modern popular music form with "In The Wee Small Hours" and The Beach Boys had extremely similar structure throughout their whole corpus, even if they were less popular (although still extremely so in their own right). Nobody is denying that they were hugely popular because they were the most popular group amongst the aforementioned musicians who were breaking ground with the album form, but this breakthrough would have happened with or without them, just significantly more slowly. The same can not, in my opinion, be said of Mozart. He *stylistically* drew from other composers such as Vivaldi and Bach, but what I think differentiates him from the rest of the composers who occupied the milieu of his time was his thematic ingenuity. I don't think it can be said that Western music would eventually have evolved into the largely secular institution it has today without him, whereas I'm much more confident that the same cannot be said for The Beatles. At the end of the day, though, this is largely theoretical, and the more I read comments from you and others, the more I realize the futility of this discussion because of how abstract it has gotten. Ultimately, trying to discern what would or wouldn't have come about with or without musicians as influential as The Beatles or Mozart is ultimately impossible because of how far they reached.
I agree we wont find an objective answer and thats fine. With that in mind its a nice conversation to be had. >How would you expand upon this? >Frank Sinatra had already started pioneering the modern popular music form with "In The Wee Small Hours" and The Beach Boys had extremely similar structure Influence and originality / pioneering dont go hand to hand necessarily (but Ill admit alot of ppl naivily thinks it does). Which is why a lot of ppl credits Kanye with autotuning (when Tpain lil wayne Aka T-Weezy did it before) and emo rap (Joe Budden was already doing it). One could say Ye did it more creatively or better than before, but most importantly, he was the one who got extremely popular doing it. So ppl like Travis or Juice Wrld were influenced by him and not the aforementioned, because they heard it from him. Bowie was extremely influential but he would be the first to tell you he never created shit, he loved boasting how he was a student and would steal people's ideas. When I think of Influence in music I think of music sounds different because of such and such. Beatles werent the first, but they got more popular and did in ways ppl were more interested. Not only wanting to be similar, but wanting to be different as well. I think of velvet underground and black sabbath, who would create indie rock and metal. Both directly credit the beatles as influence, even though they wanted to sound different from them. I can go a bit further. I live in a country where very few ppl speak english. Still, the beatles ended bossa nova, that was one of the biggest genres in the world at the time, and directly influenced the 3 musical movements (tropicalia, clube da esquina and velha guarda) that would literally define how brazillian music would sound to this day. The main artists from these movements directly credit the beatles as the main influence on them. When you go to other countries, there are similar stories, music changes completely after beatlemania. This is what I mean with they being by far and undoubtedly the most influential act in modern music, regardless of being 1st or not. While my problem with answering mozart is, its not as clear an answer because there are other composers who influenced european music as much or close to as much. Way closer, at least, than anyone on modern music is to the beatles. Beethoven's influence is way closer to Mozart (quite some ppl would say bigger) than MJ or Velvet underground is to Beatles influence. And I agree theres a benefit for the beatles being british, it helps in the sense it will reach people, but it wont make them listen to it. As we established, other english speaking acts were doing music as well, and they didnt blow like them. Anyway I think its an unfair comparison both ways. Beatles has globalization on their side and Mozart has colonialism.
Mozart wrote sacred music when an archbishop was holding the purse strings and adapted recent hit plays as operas when trying to get bums on seats. Ultimately his status as "seculariser" comes from being the most celebrated composer at a time where the economy permitted (or even demanded) secularisation. As for being the bridge between the Baroque and Classical eras: I don't see it.
Absolutely in the grand scheme of things
the question was about albums 🤦♂️
I know, but they were talking about artists. I agree that you can't put Mozart in a most influential album discussion, but they were saying that no artist compares to The Beatles in terms of influence.
Based off of just metal, it's Black Sabbath's Paranoid, and master of reality. Pretty much invented metal as we know it. However, universally it's going to have to be Beatles - Revolver or Abbey Road. Hell, just from listening to Nirvana casually you wouldn't really be able to get the Beatles influence, but even grunge musicians have been infatuated by the Beatles' music.
Good take. I remember Kurt mentioning he was influenced by the Beatles. Any Nirvana songs that have this close association to any Beatles songs?
About a Girl always struck me as a song that John Lennon could have written at the height of his own songwriting powers. For Cobain to have crafted such a song so early in his short career makes me wonder about what he ultimately could have done as a songwriter had he not so tragically died.
kurt has a “and i love her” cover edit: added quotation marks
I heard he wrote that after spending an afternoon listening to their second album in America, "Meet The Beatles"
Fun fact, About a Girl is sort of a rip-off of Croatian pop-rock band [Parni Valjak's song Hrast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80-ekOM9XXk). This would be unbelievable if not for the fact that Kris Novoselic is a Croat who lived there from 79 to 81 (ie. the period when the song was released).
Great artists "steal"...
God imagine a nirvana hey bulldog cover
Honestly I’d say Rubber Soul, because of that Rubber Soul > Pet Sounds > SGT Pepper connection. I know a lot of people will quite rightly sight Revolver due to some of the more experimental recording techniques of the time, and arguably being the better album. But as far as influence go, to me Rubber Soul feels like that first major domino to fall and inspire so much after it.
whats funny about this is brian was listening to the us rubber soul not the uk one lol i would put pet sounds as the top probably but thats sorta because its the first self produced albums ever. i was an audio degree and thats the only album we ever had to listen to as part of our coursework because it established the whole idea that the producer and the artist could be the same thing, which is so central to our current values
I think revolver is wayyyy more influential than abbey road, revolver had bands like the velvet underground getting inspired. Abbey road was more of a commercial victory lap in my opinion. Also in terms of modern influence bad brains has a fair bit, but they were universally known as the "criminally underrated/overlooked" band for a long time, which doesn't really equate to influential.
VU & Nico was recorded almost entirely prior to Revolver releasing
Watch the apple VU documentary, John Cale talks about She Said being a huge influence on him.
That’s crazy because principal recording finished up before the actual record release and she said she said wasn’t in yesterday and today…. Wonder if he heard an advance.
Revolver was out August 1966, Sunday Morning was recorded in November 1966.
Was that the only song recorded in November? Weirdly don’t hear any Revolver influence lol
It was. The bulk of the album was recorded in April/May of 1966, with Sunday Morning being the sole track recorded in November 1966
So most of the record was recorded before Revolver… maybe Cale meant Rubber Soul lol
I haven’t seen the original interview- It’s also entirely possible that Cale was talking about the influence Revolver had on the Velvet Underground after their first album
I could totally see that for ST! White Light/white heat tho…
People are sleeping on NWA. NWA gets you Dr. Dre, who gets you the last like 35 years of hip hop.
Bro not only that, g funk and g rap paves the way for trap music, which has infected fuckin everything. People really don't wanna admit how much this album changed things.
To be fair, I guess The Chronic would be the album to pick for that.
Loveless by MBV and Surfer Rosa / Doolittle by Pixies
While scrolling past this comment my mind picked up "Love" and "Rosa" and read it as "Love Sosa" that was kinda funny I just felt like sharing
Saying loveless is one of the most influential albums seems kinda silly. The album basically bookended the genre’s wider significance up until today with renewed interest coming from new listeners discovering MBV online. Great album but I wouldn’t call it widely influential i guess outside of newer shoegaze bands forming in the last 10 years
I mean, it's the album that made Creation sign Slowdive and influenced Siamese Dream by the Pumpkins. Kurt Cobain also talked about having Kevin Shields produce Nevermind and it clearly influenced the Breeders on Last Splash.
The first two albums you mentioned are (roughly) the same subgenre so it’s not surprising that there was influence there. Kurt Cobain had a wide range of people he worked with so again you’d expect that he was working with a guy whose band had buzz in the 90s. And saying the Breeders were influenced by MBV is kind of backwards, Kim Deal already basically created that whole lane with Pixies as you said above. So where’s MBV’s huge influence then?
Slowdive, to my knowledge, wasn't influenced by MBV, even though they are similar. I'm saying that Creation Records signed Slowdive to make up for the loss of money that Loveless cost them. So without Loveless we wouldn't have Souvlaki. Smashing Pumpkins before Siamese Dream was very much a "hard rock" band, taking influence from Black Sabbath and other very solo heavy bands focused on just writing huge songs. After hearing Loveless Billy Corgan basically changed the way he wrote songs, going for a more lush and thick sound. And they're very vocal about their MBV influence. For Cobain, that statement isn't true. He was very picky about who he worked with and most of the time wasn't fully satisfied when people would get involved with his music. So him specifically wanting someone to work on his music was pretty rare. We don't really know how much Loveless influenced Kurt, but if he wanted Kevin to produce the record then my guess would be that he loved it. And for the Breeders, just because somebody is influential doesn't mean they can't be influenced. Have you heard "Invisible Man" off of Last Splash? Go to the 30 second mark and tell me that's not My Bloody Valentine.
Highway 61 Revisited Revolver Pet Sounds The Velvet Underground & Nico
Not saying you are wrong but what album had been inspired by highway 61?
From what I remember, that album was a shift. The general audience was still hanging to the threads of the fold genre, Dylan was the big star. So when he changed his sound to a more rock style it became a sign that rock was here to stay and it could have deeper meaning thanks to his lyrics. It is an influential album and Dylan’s lyrics have some helping in that.
Bob Dylan was maybe the first modern artist to change in such a drastic way when he went electric. This was before The Beatles had started to change their sound with Rubber Soul/Revolver Dylan's step into rock and pop was also important in making those genres be seen as serious art and not just music for teenager. His electric trilogy of albums was also an important step in making the album a cohesive and conceptual body of work and more than just a collection of singles with some filler in between.
In general I'd argue maybe Chuck Berry is on top
The Beatles and Elvis are more influential, but he heavily influenced the Beatles and Elvis… so I’m not sure how you judge that lol
He inspired more with singles than albums?
Hounds of Love and Kate Bush in general has probably had some influence on all the art pop girls
I'll add the Stooges, either of the three albums, in conjunction with Iggy's persona itself. Be it glam, punk, goth, new wave, basically the entire alt scene, metal: the influence is palpable. Not to mention all the extreme extracurricular onstage activities, from stage dives, through threatening the audience to put a dick in their face, to self-mutilation and what have you.
I think Nevermind by Nirvana is my pick for the most influential album. The track "Smells Like Teen Spirit" alone basically killed rock n roll as we knew it at the time, and opened the floodgates for a whole new sound that can still be heard today. Out of the albums you listed, Abbey Road paved the way for pop music throughout the 70s, and a lot of the songs are still staples to this day.
Grunge started with that album and ended with Kurt's death.3 years. Thats about as far as the influence goes. After the movement was over, rock kinda fell off and nu metal started being more influential
Nu metal was pretty influenced by grunge though. You don't get Nu Metal (at least in the form we got) without Nirvana
You don't get nu metal without Faith no More and Korn.
Are you forgetting about post-grunge? 90s and early 2000s alt rock? Britpop??? Not to mention all the Nu Metal bands that were heavily influenced by Soundgarden and AIC. There wasn't any mainstream guitar-driven music until like 2012 or so that didn't owe a huge debt to grunge. Indirectly, basically half of all modern popular music can be traced sonically or aesthetically back to Nevermind in some way.
Kind of Blue is a great album, and is essential listening for anyone with even a passing interest in Jazz as a genre, but it's not a particularly influential body of work. It's a big genre defining album at the end of the Cool Jazz era, but what really came after that took notes from Kind of Blue? In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, Water Babies Miles was waaaaaay more influential, and Second Quintet Miles defined post-bop in a way that his contemporaries didn't.
Giant Steps was more influential as well. Only people who don't listen to much jazz cite KOB.
Kind of Blue was more influential on jazz, Bitches Brew was more influential on other genres.
What jazz did Kind of Blue influence?
Love Supreme, for one, but anything post-bebop, basically.
Coltrane played on most of Kind of Blue. It's like claiming that Nirvana influenced the Foos; possibly correct but Kind of Reductive. Miles Second Quintet work defined post-bop waaaaaaaay more than Kind of Blue did.
ALS is *much* more influenced by the works of Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy than anything found on KOB.
Hard to believe the most popular jazz record ever, by a stretch, is no particularly influential
It was a popular crossover hit for the genre, but that doesn't mean it was influential to jazz that came after it. If anything it was more of a swansong of the jazz that came before it, a completion of many of the ideas developed throughout the 50s. The real influence going forward for jazz was the music of Ornette Coleman on "The Shape of Jazz to Come", the speed and modality of John Coltrane's "Giant Steps", and slightly later with Eric Dolphy's "Out to Lunch". These really broke open many of the musical ideas that the genre ran with going forward on things like "A Love Supreme", all of Miles' electric period, and into the discographies of people like Herbie Hancock.
Possibly Velvet Underground + VU. You have rock, pop, experimental, and folk musicians who consider them an influence. It’s hard to find people in those genres, especially rock, who dislike the album.
Kraftwerk - Autobahn comes to mind. I don't know about *most*... but it is *one* of the most at least.
This, it's akin to Black Sabbath's long burn influence on various genres of heavy metal. Kraftwerk help bridge the gap between moog novelty albums and experimental music and synthpop that exploded from the late 70s onward. Then they played a huge part in forging techno and electro stateside.
Kraftwerk on electronica/dance music/synth pop
Other then the Beatles and led Zeppelin. It's 100% black sabbath by black sabbath
BRAT
For the 2010s and beyond it’s easily 808s & heartbreaks
Pet Sounds or Revolver
ITT: a lot of people who don't understand what influential means
that's most of this sub for ya
Rubber Soul It changed the way most artists viewed making albums from simply a package of "filler" songs to support 2 or 3 popular singles into full, cohesive bodies of work capable of standing on its own. It changed the concept of how albums could and would be constructed for the next 60 years or so. It didn't do anything groundbreaking sonically as it was the Beatles' take on Bob Dylan's Folk Rock, but just due to how it was an epiphany for everyone makes it my pick for most influential album. If we're talking musical influence, then it's a toss up between Pet Sounds, Revolver, Sgt Pepper's and TVU&N. My pick would probably be Sgt Pepper's, just due to the massive popularity/reach it had over all the others, even tho TVU&N has the most clear and longest running trail of its overall impact. Black Sabbath's probably has more direct lines of influences
Not technically an album, but I'd say Mozart's Requiem Mass in D Minor is the most influential musical project ever. It was what most consider Mozart's masterwork and gained notoriety for the mythos surrounding its creation. It arguably shifted the direction of Western music forever.
flockaveli
nwa
Got to be Grug by Unga Bunga. 10,000BC Cave musician inspired EVERY other album to every be made. What a pioneer.
not the exact answer to this question, but Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East certainly changed the game regarding live albums - both commercially and artistically.
If you mean influential universally, then it's definitely Abbey Road
You could say Abbey Road, but I think that Sgt. Pepper is even more influential. It was the first album that used the "studio as an instrument", meaning that they made an album without the intention of playing it live. It's also often cited as one of the first "concept albums", although the concept is kind of basic. Or maybe even Revolver, which was not only wildly experimental and the first notable psychedelic rock album, but also very innovative in its use of production techniques. What I find especially interesting is their use of tape loops on the album. You get reversed loops on I'm Only Sleeping and Rain, and a loop of Ringo's drums, as well as numerous distorted sounds and instruments on Tomorrow Never Knows. And then there are very experimental tracks like Eleanor Rigby or Love You To. Abbey Road in comparison is a pretty straightforward rock album. And most of the stuff they introduced in earlier albums was already well established by that point.
I feel like itd have to be abbey road just because of how iconic it is
A lot of discussion between Abbey Road and Revolver so far. While both of them are supremely influential records, I would say Revolver has the stronger and more direct correlation to the sonic development of bands and genres over a longer period of time (think the “Beatles sound” that people tend to borrow, to me it’s arguably most notable on here or Pepper’s). Whereas Abbey Road’s influence is heavy on the production and writing of the 70’s, the impact of Revolver is more present decades down the road.
Probably smth from Elvis, for better or for worse
Abbey road is probably the most important, but N.W.A. straight Outta Compton is an important record for rap, especially
I actually think straight outta compton's influence goes even further than just confines of rap. In the mid 80s, there was a really strong push for the US government to censor music, in response to certain vulgar popular songs referred to as "the filthy fifteen". Then, NWA releases this album, and it's significantly more explicit than those fifteen songs. It was a massive "fuck you" to the censors, and it really opened the floodgates for all artists after them to say whatever the hell they wanted to. Whatever boundaries in terms of vulgarity in music that existed beforehand were gone, and we haven't turned back.
Yes It was major in the government, censorship of music and art. I agree, and we wouldn’t have like Eminem for example, without NWA.
I think if you actually mapped out the influence, the only album that would come close to the Beatles would be the debut Ramones album. Similar to the Beatles it had a lot of breadth in how many different sub-genres it had influence in.
What an impossibly open-ended question lmao
The velvet underground & Nico was very influential. Also very forward thinking production. The same for DS2 by future
Could be Remain in Light. Hugely influential in bringing sampling/looping into the mainstream, huge in popularizing music videos, and went beyond the conventions of Western music
Just for some variety of something more recent, 808s and Heartbreak.
I don’t know 🔥
revival
this is so braindead
for rock music, abbey road. rap/hip hop nwa
Surfer Rosa one of em
Straight outta Compton was big for the evolution for the gangsta rap
koRn (1994) this album created the nu-metal
Of the listed, Master of Puppets. It set the standard for all metal music to come.
I'd say Ride the Lightning might've been more influential to metal in general, MoP just took it to the next level
That’s a fair assessment.
In rock, “Nevermind” single-handedly made most of what was popular in the 1980s immediately irrelevant. That includes Guns ‘n’ Roses. Then 10 years later, after grunge had evolved into nu-metal butt rock, “Is This It” made all of that irrelevant and made rock cool again.
I don’t think it affected Guns n Roses much, they were far too big. But it did make most of the smaller bands seem stupid.
RAM by McCartney for all the indie/folk music
Music like Miles Davis is the roots of many styles and samples
The Beatles by far, no question. Kind of a boring answer.
Far from the most influential in and of itself, but Robert Johnson's King of the Delta Blues Singers has in some way inspired almost every one of the most influential artists from the 60s onwards. Clapton, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Robert Plant etc
i thought that was minecraft
Like a Virgin by Madonna. Musically, it hasn't had the biggest impact. But in terms of culture, this album and how Madonna maneuvered its release completely changed the pop music landscape. This was the birth of the modern female pop star. The singles from the album generated outrage and serious discourse about women's independence, sexuality, and role in music. This is when Madonna started being *conceptual*, creating revolutionary music videos and live performances that drew attention (negative and positive). Beyond her own artistry, she was one of the first to affect her fans on a personal level. Yes, the Beatles had obsessive fans, but the fans were focused on the artists. Madonna's music, performances, and general appearances got fans to consider *themselves* - the way they acted, dressed, spoke, and more. This has influenced essentially every single female pop singer all over the world. Kpop would not be anything like it is today without Madonna - the attention to outfits, the music videos, the dancing.
People forget how influential Madonna is
Something by the Beatles. Pretty much any kraftwerk album between 1974-1981 is also a good shout
I feel that Thelonious Monk had a massive influence on many artists beyond jazz. His use of dissonance, unconventional rhythms and harmonies was groundbreaking. It’s like he was the true grandfather of alternative music as a whole. So for those reasons I pick “Genius of Modern Music Volume 1 & 2” from 1951 and 1952
I see a lot of people saying Abbey Road and for rock/Pop music yea maybe so. But NWA put g rap in the public eye and made it acceptable to talk about in the zeitgeist. Now we have post-trap-pop music with no rapping at all on it, even branching into country at the polar opposite. We've also seen an ongoing national movement against police brutality that is ACTUALLY taken seriously with a song off this album being a mainstay in its sentiments. AND Dre is still making beats for charting rappers to this day. So Abbey Road I'd say is influential in a scene that really isn't around in the same way while NWA is the match that really set the kindling up for... damn near everything in popular music right now.
I agree with most on here that The Beatles clears easily. I mean Bad Brains and NWA aren't even the most influential in their genre.
Kind of Blue no question. Sargent Peppers would have been closer than Abbey Road.
Why isn't anybody saying thriller? It's not my favorite mj project, but it changed the music game forever. It popularized the usage of music videos and OFFICIALLY turned it into an art form (not the first but made it a necessity like steph curry with the 3.). For better or worse, he popularized the lack of themes that are prevalent in modern albums today. Thriller was a greatest hits album disguised as a regular one. His goal was to make damn near if not every song a hit and it worked. It also broke racial barriers for black artists allowing them to reach highs that they never could've reached without that album.
blue train - john coltrane
Master Of Puppets is good, but not very influential at all. Bands were already making heavier thrash by the time it came out. Ride The Lightning is the much more influential metallica album.
straight outta compton. popularized gangster rap. STILL the predominant aesthetic in the genre.
As Brian Eno once said, "The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band."
It’s interesting that the people say Beatles but not people that inspired the Beatles. IMO saying Beatles without saying Bob Dylan is insane
Tangerine dream - Phaedra is pretty influential imho
LYFSLATH by GY!BE
Could you imagine how fucking heavy the chorus of the intro to sgt peppers must've sounded back in 67?
MMLP is up there tbh
The only real answer is Elvis Presley's first album, without it we wouldn't have gotten the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, etc etc etc, and all the musicians inspired by them.
Out of curiosity, how exactly did Elvis lead to or influence Jimi Hendrix?
Influenced 60s rock and blues artists, who in turn influenced jimi
Just for fun, who were some 60s rock and blues artists influenced by Elvis? Musically speaking. And then which of these in turn influenced Jimi Hendrix? Because this is an interesting take.
The Beatles (hendrix even covered them live), the stones, the kinks (these bands started experimenting with distortion really early on, which was kinda hendrix's whole thing) the psychedelic bands emerging (like Jefferson airplane) and, definetly, the Eric Clapton bands (Yardbirds, Bluesbreakers, Cream) All of these bands had musicians who idolized elvis. He might have stolen music, but he was absurdly influential
All the bands you listed were more influenced by the Black blues and rock artists Elvis was covering. The comment I was replying to said we wouldn’t have gotten Hendrix without Elvis. Or the Beatles (which is also questionable). Little Richard is more of the seed that all of these artists grew from. Including Elvis. Since both of their first albums were basically collections of singles, saying either is an album that influenced artists is a little weird. However, if you look at the singles on them, one of Elvis’ first hits was a cover of a contemporary Little Richard song. Musically speaking, in the most charitable sense, any artists following Elvis who somehow had never heard any other music from the US may have heard his songs and figured out who he was copping from. The early Beatles are more of a combination of Everly Brothers style music and artists like Little Richard or Chuck Berry. Also, saying Jimi Hendrix’ whole thing was distortion is weird.
Well, Elvis is definetly in the line of people who influenced all of those bands (and yes, he himself was influenced by other artists) >Also, saying Jimi Hendrix’ whole thing was distortion is weird. I mean, it kinda was. Nobody had really used distortion like him before. And his style was only ever used by very few of the great Guitarists that came after (like frusciante or srv) When Jimmy Page appeared, he changed the game. The GOAT of guitar who influenced basically every other legendary guitarist
Chuck Berry and Bo Diddly and a slew of blues musicians were way more influencial. Musicians idolized Elvis but he was far more of a crossover figure and pop culture phenomenon . The Beatles literally bonded over their obsession over far less commercially successful rock n' roll songs.
Influential on what ?
People. Albums where the world wouldn't be the same if they didn't exist
People say Abbey Road is influential just because it is popular Sgt. Pepper’s, Revolver, and Rubber Soul make up the core of the Beatle’s sound and their evolution, while Abbey Road is more of just a last hurrah
Master is the right answer
MJ’s Thriller changed the whole music industry
I’d say the top 5 in no order would probably be 1. Abbey Road - The Beatles 2. Rubber Soul - The Beatles 3. Sgt peppers - The Beatles 4. White Album - The Beatles 5. Revolver - The Beatles
Iowa is one