50 Albums That Changed Music
- Thread starter ladyday
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Well, if you think back to '89, probably the two most acclaimed new rap releases of the year were "3 Feet High..." and "Straight Outta Compton". Both were great records in different ways, but one sold and the other didn't - "3 Feet High" finally went plat a year or so ago. As I see it, it was as a direct result of NWA's success that gangsta rap went from being a largely regional sub-genre with (at the time) limited appeal, to the defining musical style of rap throughout the '90's and beyond. If you weren't doing hardcore/gangsta/reality-style material, you probably weren't going to sell the same numbers as the likes of Snoop, Ice Cube, etc. There's an argument to be made as to what extent "Straight Outta Compton"'s influence may have been malign, but the influence itself is undeniable.
so ridiculous, it has to be,
As a longtime Guardian reader I feel obliged to point out that this comes from the Observer, the Guardian's sister Sunday paper.
However, having said that, while I enjoy much of the writing the paper is prone to being so smugly ironic and superior sometimes that you want to burn it.
Therefore, take it all with a pinch of salt and know that half the entries will be there purely to wind people up and for people to smile at in a knowing way while they sit in their townhouse sipping organic tea handpicked by happy workers from a third world country.
"What's The 411" is there because of its level of influence as an album, which was enormous. Before that record came out, r&b was pretty much yer Anita Baker, Luther Vandross and Jam & Lewis on one side, and New Jack Swing on the other. I have a lot of time for all that stuff, but in terms of anything fresh there wasn't a whole lot happening in r&b in 1992. Now, everyone knows that all Puffy did with that record, and the subsequent remixes, was to put on wax what Kid Capri and Ron G had been doing on the mixtapes, but nevertheless he still took that concept and put it out there for an audience that wasn't really checking those tapes. For the people who were, just hearing that intro skit with the answerphone messages over the PSK beat let us know that this was something new. For me, that album completely changed r&b and is one of the landmark records of the last twenty years.
I'd argue that the major influence that "Thriller" had was in areas other than those connected directly to the music itself; things like the rise of MTV, the growth of high-concept videos and how a well-established, multi-million selling soul/r&b singer suddenly became "the biggest rock star in the world" when he got Eddie Van Halen on his record.
I'm not even going to get into it over the Strokes' inclusion, although I do think "Is This It" is still their best record.
so ridiculous, it has to be,
As a longtime Guardian reader I feel obliged to point out that this comes from the Observer, the Guardian's sister Sunday paper.
However, having said that, while I enjoy much of the writing the paper is prone to being so smugly ironic and superior sometimes that you want to burn it.
Therefore, take it all with a pinch of salt and know that half the entries will be there purely to wind people up and for people to smile at in a knowing way while they sit in their townhouse sipping organic tea handpicked by happy workers from a third world country.
This is some Briddish irony ya!
Out of 50, I own "Kind Of Blue". That's how much influence they had on my perception of music.
Mary J? I never understood why this was such a big deal. Teddy Riley deserves the props for marketing that beat, that's all.
"Thriller" is "Off The Wall" pt.2. Dunno what all the fuss was about here either. Oh yeah, the whiteys bought it because Van Halen was on it. Hence it being acceptable for whiteys in genral to own a "Black" record. It took until 1983 or whenever for this state of social affairs to happen?
LFO! I am please about this. I know one of these blokes, he would be v. pleased to read this [crap or not] about that set.
The rest is typical artschool trendier-than-thou cookie-cutter band stuff. 30 years of the exact same skinny whiteboy guitar rock with Cyclical haircuts and white-frame glasses Strokes/Devo-ness. My only surprise is no Beck or Oasis.
Mary J? I never understood why this was such a big deal. Teddy Riley deserves the props for marketing that beat, that's all.
"Thriller" is "Off The Wall" pt.2. Dunno what all the fuss was about here either. Oh yeah, the whiteys bought it because Van Halen was on it. Hence it being acceptable for whiteys in genral to own a "Black" record. It took until 1983 or whenever for this state of social affairs to happen?
LFO! I am please about this. I know one of these blokes, he would be v. pleased to read this [crap or not] about that set.
The rest is typical artschool trendier-than-thou cookie-cutter band stuff. 30 years of the exact same skinny whiteboy guitar rock with Cyclical haircuts and white-frame glasses Strokes/Devo-ness. My only surprise is no Beck or Oasis.
Nice to see LFO getting some press but if they seriously wanted to include a token dance act I woul think that Leftfield's first album or Chemical Brothers Exit Planet Dust would be a more appropriate point to measure when dance albums achieved proper crossover appeal.
Or The Prodigy: Fat of the Land. Didn't they all clusterf*ck over this at the time? Corporates decided to give it The Big Push and - Whoosh! - Everyone had a copy. Liam has his McLaren F1. Twisted Firestarter Property Developers Ltd. beckons.
The wife knows Mr. LFO well, although I don't understand why this set was singled out as there were 99 identical acts with the same kit able to make this kind of stuff. Nothing special about it to me, but she was more the ravestival type wheras I was a "Bad muso trainspotter". Still, just nice to see them remembered.
am I the only one that finds Raw Power to be prettycompared to the first two Stooges albums?
You are not.
so ridiculous, it has to be
...while I enjoy much of the writing the paper is prone to being so smugly ironic and superior sometimes that you want to burn it!!!!!
Therefore, take it all with a pinch of salt and know that 90% the entries will be there purely to wind people up and for people to smile...bla...bla...
The "Without This..." part... FFUUCCKK TTHHAATT !!
am I the only one that finds Raw Power to be prettycompared to the first two Stooges albums?
You are not.
This is interesting. Much as I love the first two albums (esp. "Fun House"), "Raw Power" is still probably my favourite Stooges record. I remember hearing it a couple of times as a kid, but I never actually owned it until 1977, when it was reissued in the UK in the wake of the whole punk thing. Although I liked it at the time, I used to hate the way it was recorded. The rhythm section sounded as if they were playing at the end of an alley across the street from the studio, and it seemed as if the whole record had been mixed by someone wearing handcuffs. When it was reissued on CD in 1997 though, it was marketed as an authorised (by Iggy) remix. A few years ago, someone told me that what it was in reality, was a re-EQ'ed version taken from the ????? two-track master - apparently, the original multi-track had been irreparably damaged, and the two-track was all they had left to work with, so we'll never hear a true remixed/remastered version. Nevertheless, the 1997 CD version is fucking blazing - the whole thing leaps out and smacks you in the grill in a way the original never did. Most people I know prefer the lo-fi feel of the o.g., but for me, the '97 version is much closer to how I always wanted to hear it.
"What's The 411" is there because of its level of influence as an album, which was enormous. Before that record came out, r&b was pretty much yer Anita Baker, Luther Vandross and Jam & Lewis on one side, and New Jack Swing on the other. I have a lot of time for all that stuff, but in terms of anything fresh there wasn't a whole lot happening in r&b in 1992. Now, everyone knows that all Puffy did with that record, and the subsequent remixes, was to put on wax what Kid Capri and Ron G had been doing on the mixtapes, but nevertheless he still took that concept and put it out there for an audience that wasn't really checking those tapes. For the people who were, just hearing that intro skit with the answerphone messages over the PSK beat let us know that this was something new. For me, that album completely changed r&b and is one of the landmark records of the last twenty years.
Definitely--an album whose influence is consistently underrecognized.
The very fact that they mention Dizzee Rascal twice in their "without...there'd be no..." sections invalidates the list in its entirety.
Again, it must be emphasised that this is written from a UK broadsheet perspective. Their handle on rap is generally woeful, and there's a tendency for a lot of writers outside of the specialist press to stay within a very narrow frame of reference. This can be because they're not neccesarily writing for a readership that's particularly music-savvy, so they like to keep the reference points familiar. It's because of this that the names of Diz and Roots will crop up perhaps a little more than maybe they ought, but sometimes it's borne of a plain old lack of familiarity on the writer's part. For example, when he's asked about his influences, I know for a fact that Diz frequently namechecks UGK and 3-6 in interviews, because on at least two occasions I've had friends who've interviewed him call me to ask who they are. Now, unless you're a rap fan, they're not gonna be names you immediately recognise, but I still get tired of seeing the same names every time a so-called quality paper writes about rap, because you know they're only writing about what they get in the mail.
Again, it must be emphasised that this is written from a UK broadsheet perspective. Their handle on rap is generally woeful, and there's a tendency for a lot of writers outside of the specialist press to stay within a very narrow frame of reference. This can be because they're not neccesarily writing for a readership that's particularly music-savvy, so they like to keep the reference points familiar. It's because of this that the names of Diz and Roots will crop up perhaps a little more than maybe they ought, but sometimes it's borne of a plain old lack of familiarity on the writer's part. For example, when he's asked about his influences, I know for a fact that Diz frequently namechecks UGK and 3-6 in interviews, because on at least two occasions I've had friends who've interviewed him call me to ask who they are. Now, unless you're a rap fan, they're not gonna be names you immediately recognise, but I still get tired of seeing the same names every time a so-called quality paper writes about rap, because you know they're only writing about what they get in the mail.
Dizzee "namechecked" UGK when I interviewed him a couple of years back as a pre-cursor to a show he was about to do here in Texas with Bun B on the bill. Whatever that's worth to you...
Specifically he said that UGK's "Choppin' Blades" was really important to him, which led us to talking about E-40.
JLee was at the show. Ask him how Dizzee was received by the Screwston-oriented crowd. For whatever that's worth to you as well...
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