The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta
I grew up as a kid in a typical black neighborhood, rock music was for whiteboys, period. Classic rock especially, totally missed me. I hated (and still don't have much use for) the Beatles, Stones, Who, etc. Then this record came out and Frankie Crocker was playing "Voices Inside My Head" on WBLS everyday. I couldn't deny that I loved it. I went and bought this record, and even though I dug the shit out of it I would hide it from my friends so they wouldn't see it in my room and clown me. The shame of the secret rock fan.
General Public - General Public
I've told this story on here before, but this record was weirdly enough the gateway into all of the punk rock, hardcore, reggae, etc. That I ended up becoming obsessed with. I saw their video on MTV and liked this record and when I read about the members being from bands called the English Beat and The Specials I had to go find those records and hear them. And from those records I went backwards to the Clash and Public Image. And also back to Desmond Dekker and The Skatalites. And it just kept going...
Bad Brains - ROIR Tape
I had heard some hardcore and was kind of underwhelmed. The Dead Kennedys were funny and all but I wasn't in love with the genre, too whiteboy for me again. Then someone told me about these rastas who were the baddest band ever. Holy shit did this take my head off. They inspired me so much that I decided I had to learn guitar so I could play like them. And I'm still trying to do it, almost 30 years later.