What I mean here are albums that played a big role in changing the course of music… i.e., not some obscure LP no one’s heard of that featured the first use of Moog synthesizer. I’ll give a few examples:
The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. The success of this album, with its deep lyrics and a performance style that made absolutely no concessions to popular commercial trends, meant that vast new territories were now open to exploration. Although not itself a rock album, it opened the way to folk-rock.
Are You Experienced by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. This album changed the sound of rock guitar forever, essentially setting forth a new vocabulary for the instrument.
Music from Big Pink by The Band. This album kick-started the “back to the roots” movement, showing that music could have a strong strain of tradition and still be cutting-edge. As one example of its effect, as soon as Eric Clapton first heard it, he knew Cream was history.
Ramones. The Ramones’ debut got punk going. Thousands of kids heard this, thought “I bet I could do that too” and picked up instruments.
Some (relatively) obscure albums did end up having a major impact on the course of music, though; it just took a bit longer than the hit stuff. Joy Division and the first Gang of Four album, for instance, are still being copied by fairly successful “indie” bands today, and without Zen Arcade you have no Pixies or Nirvana.
For more “established” artists, I’d go with Public Enemy’s It Takes A Nation of Millions… and The Velvet Underground and Nico. Also Revolver.
There was a thread on Fark.com today discussing Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth, and I think that album fits the “revolutionary” tag pretty well. You could release it today, 23 years after it was made, and it would still seem groundbreaking, despite countless attempts by lesser lights to ape its sound.
I’m no longer a fan, but *Led Zeppelin IV *(or whatever you want to call it) probably did more to redefine the limits of the possible than anything since.
And then there’s Nevermind…
Honestly, this is much easier with jazz. After Ornette Coleman’s *Free Jazz *came out, folks knew the game was up. Charles Mingus said it best: “We didn’t have to play like Ornette, but we HAD to stop playing like Bird.” Kind of Blue, Giant Steps, and *In a Silent Way *probably had similiar impact.
The Velvet Underground and Nico * and White Light/White Heat by the Velvet Underground. If you made noise rock or art rock (and to some extent punk rock), it pretty much starts with those two albums.
While sitting here thinking about it, Daydream Nation is the other side of the noise rock tunnel, where noise rock starts making things that people would normally recognize as a song again.
I was thinking about that one. I guess it was revolutionary in that it firmly established the album as the creative unit of rock music… not just a collection of songs, but a work of art in and of itself.
The Beatles were so influential that you could probably argue for three or four of their albums as being among the most influential in rock. There was also With the Beatles (or its US counterpart, Meet the Beatles!), which started the British Invasion; Rubber Soul, which helped push rock towards greater maturity; and the White Album, which officially rendered psychedelia over and done with.
I was also thinking that, before about 1963, it’s hard to argue that there were any really influential rock albums, because albums were just not that important – it was all about singles. So, for example, I wouldn’t list Elvis’ first album.
Dark Side of the Moon. Yeah, some people would say that Wish You Were Here or Animals was more influential, but a great number of recording techniques were invented for Dark Side.