- 2 days ago
These are the records that didn't just top charts — they rewrote the rulebook entirely. Join us as we count down our picks for the most groundbreaking and culturally influential rock albums ever recorded! Our countdown includes classics from The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, David Bowie, and more! Which album changed your life? Let us know in the comments!
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00Well, the streets have no name, well, the streets have no name.
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for those rock LPs with the longest standing cultural influence
00:14and legacy.
00:15Oh, what's going on? What's going on? What's going on? Yeah, what's going on?
00:22Number 20, Ramones, Ramones.
00:30All it took was four guys from Queens, New York to help usher in the age of American punk.
00:35The members of Ramones were clad in ripped jeans and leather jackets, while their music employed three chords and absolutely
00:41no speed limits.
00:42Ramones' self-titled debut album was a relentless high-velocity assault on the senses thanks to tracks like Blitzkrieg Bop
00:49and Judy is a Punk.
00:56It was simple, it was loud, and most importantly, it was entirely accessible.
01:02Ramones effectively laid down the blueprint for generations of younger bands to pick up instruments of their own.
01:07Get in the garage and bash out simple yet effective anthems for the young and young at heart.
01:12I don't wanna be buried in a big cemetery.
01:18Number 19, Kill Em All, Metallica.
01:28The early years of Metallica were marked by Heavy Metal's desire for faster and heavier tunes,
01:33an approach that was largely inspired by both hardcore punk and the new wave of British heavy metal.
01:38The result was thrash metal, and albums like Metallica's Master of Puppets and Kill Em All served as its ferocious
01:44birth certificate.
01:51This latter debut album featured complex, hyper-fast guitar downpicking and frantic double bass drumming that left listeners completely breathless.
01:58Kill Em All was a groundbreaking record that pushed the boundaries of musical extremity,
02:03proving that metal could be blindingly fast and incredibly heavy without losing its sense of hooks or structure.
02:15Number 18, Elvis Presley.
02:25Can't change rock music forever without looking at the spark that truly set the entire world on fire.
02:31Elvis Presley was the first rock and roll album to ever climb to the number one spot on the Billboard
02:36charts.
02:36The record featured explosive tracks like Blue Suede Shoes and soulful covers like Trying to Get to You.
02:42Elvis the man and Elvis Presley the album both represented a seismic cultural shift.
02:54The King bridged racial divides in music and gave the youth of the 1950s a rebellious soundtrack that belonged completely
03:01to them,
03:02horrifying conservative parents everywhere.
03:04It also established the full-length long play record as a viable artistic medium for youth culture,
03:09launching the age of the modern rock star.
03:19Number 17, Back in Black, ACDC.
03:29The Australian legends in ACDC were on the brink of total collapse
03:33following the tragic alcohol-related death of their legendary frontman, Bon Scott.
03:38Rather than throwing in the towel, however,
03:40ACDC instead recruited powerhouse vocalist Brian Johnson
03:43and channeled their profound grief into a stark pitch-black cover
03:47that would become one of the greatest tribute albums ever recorded.
03:57Back in Black is a masterclass in hard rock production and lean, muscular songwriting.
04:03From the ominous tolling bell of Hell's Bells
04:05to the instantly recognizable stadium-shaking opening riff of the title track,
04:09the album stripped away all unnecessary studio fluff to deliver pure, unadulterated rock power.
04:21Number 16, The Velvet Underground and Nico.
04:25The Velvet Underground.
04:26It's just the wasted years so close behind.
04:34There's a famous quote attributed to musician Brian Eno.
04:37Quote,
04:38The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies.
04:41But everyone who bought one started a band.
04:44The Velvet Underground and Nico was released during the peak of 1967's Summer of Love.
04:48Yet while the rest of the world was singing about peace flowers and sunny optimism,
04:52Lou Reed and his bandmates were exploring the dark, gritty underbelly of New York City.
05:03The group tackled taboo avant-garde subjects like substance use disorder in heroin,
05:08sadomasochism in Venus in furs, and urban paranoia.
05:11All wrapped in a wall of screeching viola drone and abrasive guitar feedback.
05:16It was dark, unsettling, and completely revolutionary.
05:26Number 15, Tommy, The Who.
05:35The late 1960s was a period when rock bands were trying to prove that their music deserved to be taken
05:40seriously as a legitimate high art form.
05:43Enter Pete Townsend and The Who.
05:44Other groups may have dabbled in loose thematic concepts before,
05:48but 1969's Tommy was explicitly written, structured, and universally embraced as a cohesive rock opera.
06:01The double album tells the grand bizarre narrative of a deaf, dumb, and blind boy
06:06who survives childhood trauma to become a pinball champion,
06:09and eventually a messianic religious leader.
06:11With sweeping, multi-part musical movements like Overture,
06:14and massive anthemic singles like Pinball Wizard,
06:17Tommy gave rock music an unprecedented sense of theatrical scale,
06:21narrative ambition, and symphonic depth.
06:29Number 14, Born To Run, Bruce Springsteen.
06:391975 was a make or break year for Bruce Springsteen.
06:42The singer and songwriter was facing pressure from Columbia Records
06:45after his first two albums failed to make a major commercial splash.
06:48With his career completely on the line,
06:50the New Jersey native locked himself in the studio to create a sweeping cinematic masterpiece
06:55that felt less like a collection of songs,
06:57and more like a great American novel set to a rock and roll beat.
07:08Born To Run rescued Springsteen's career,
07:11elevated him to an iconic voice of a generation,
07:13and completely redefined the emotional and storytelling heights
07:17that Heartland Rock could reach.
07:26Number 13, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars,
07:31David Bowie.
07:39The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
07:43introduced the world to David Bowie's ultimate alter ego,
07:46a bisexual, fashion-forward alien rock star sent to Earth to deliver a message of hope
07:51before an impending apocalypse.
07:53Musically, the record is a flawless showcase of glam rock brilliance,
07:57balancing Mick Ronson's heavy, crunchy guitar riffs on Suffragette City
08:00with beautiful, sweeping theatrical ballads like Starman.
08:10Meanwhile, Bowie's bold embrace of androgyny, fluid identity, and theatrical roleplay
08:16completely shattered traditional hyper-masculine rock stereotypes of the era.
08:20Ziggy Stardust directly paved the way for the new wave, post-punk, and goth movements,
08:25while cementing Bowie as one of the most fearless innovators in music history.
08:36Number 12, Rumors, Fleetwood Mac
08:48Sometimes, absolute emotional chaos yields absolute artistic perfection.
08:53The five members of Fleetwood Mac were trapped in a claustrophobic pressure cooker
08:57of dissolving relationships while they were recording Rumors in 1977.
09:01Yet, instead of breaking apart, Fleetwood Mac used the studio tape as a collective diary,
09:06writing brutally honest, passive-aggressive songs directly targeted at one another.
09:10The resulting record is the definitive pinnacle of pop-rock craftsmanship.
09:21Tracks like Stevie Nicks' Hypnotic Dreams,
09:24Lindsey Buckingham's fiery Go Your Own Way,
09:26and Christine McVie's Sonny Don't Stop blended gorgeous immaculate three-part vocal harmonies
09:31with incredibly precise, flawless instrumentation.
09:41Rumors transformed some deeply personal bitter heartbreak into a universally relatable multi-platinum masterpiece.
09:48Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
09:53Dreams of loneliness
09:56Number 11, OK Computer, Radiohead
10:06ALTERNATIVE ROCK
10:08Alternative Rock was suffering a major creative hangover by the late 1990s.
10:12Grunge had burned out following the death of Kurt Cobain,
10:15and Britpop was growing increasingly predictable.
10:18It felt like guitar-driven rock had run completely out of new things to say.
10:22Then came Radiohead's OK Computer,
10:24an astonishing, forward-thinking masterpiece that looked directly into the upcoming 21st century
10:29and captured all of its looming anxieties perfectly.
10:32The album tackled themes of technological isolation,
10:35soul-crushing consumerism, and modern political paranoia.
10:46OK Computer also contained multi-part epics like Paranoid Android
10:50and the breathtakingly fragile No Surprises,
10:53both of which sounded like absolutely nothing else at the time.
11:02Number 10, Purple Rain, Prince and the Revolution
11:06The term fusion can refer to a lot of things,
11:09from the jazz fusion boom of the early 70s to albums outside of that spectrum
11:13that still juxtapose many seemingly disparate elements.
11:22Purple Rain was one such album, a potent blend of funk, rock, psychedelia, and pop
11:27that somehow all came together at the perfect time.
11:35Prince's captivating visual aesthetic and genuine aura of mystery helped create Purple Rain mania
11:41among both his established fans, as well as those coming from the pop music realm.
11:45This was radio-friendly music that still managed to sound dangerous,
11:55a mixture of sleaze and class that could have only been delivered by the Purple One.
11:59And delivered in style.
12:07Number 9, London Calling, The Clash
12:10There are a number of names that can lay claim to being there at the earliest days of punk.
12:15Both Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols,
12:18and the self-titled debut from Ramones are absolute watersheds.
12:21London Calling was something a bit different however,
12:24an album that signified both change and progression.
12:34The Clash had already proved themselves with two fiery full lengths prior to London Calling,
12:39and it was time to show critics and fans that punk rock wasn't just a fad.
12:43The album contains a wide swath of diverse influences,
12:46from reggae and ska to rockabilly,
12:49and was musically inspired in a way much different from The Clash's peers.
12:58To paraphrase the Oscar-winning film,
13:02London Calling is everything, everywhere, all at once.
13:10Number 8, Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath
13:13The birth of the heavy metal genre is similar to punk rock,
13:17in that there are a number of debated first offenders.
13:21One thing's for sure though,
13:22nothing quite captured the doom and gloom atmosphere of Black Sabbath's self-titled debut at the time.
13:32This was an album that may have possessed its fair share of blues influences,
13:36but it took those dreary tones and twisted them into something sinister sounding.
13:40This is an album that opens with howling wind, driving rain, ominous church bells, and that riff.
13:54The title track to Black Sabbath pretty much says it all really.
13:58Tony Iommi's utilization of the tritone interval makes this the devil's music.
14:03Darkness made flesh that went on to permanently cement heavy metal as a worldwide phenomenon.
14:14Number 7, Are You Experienced, The Jimi Hendrix Experience
14:18Jimi Hendrix certainly wasn't the first guitar player to bust out some flashy theatrics on stage.
14:24However, one could also argue that Are You Experienced from The Jimi Hendrix Experience
14:28helped usher in the age of the guitar hero.
14:36That's because no one had seen anyone quite like Jimi before.
14:39The pomp, the circumstance, the absolute fretboard bombast.
14:44This was scorched earth playing that took the blues, amplified it to 11, and laid waste to all pretenders.
14:56There's a jazzy tightness to the rhythm section of Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding
15:00that always reigns in Jimi's extravagant playing.
15:03It's this combination of virtuoso musicianship and devil-may-care attitude
15:07that immediately sent everyone rushing to their collective bedrooms, eager to practice and catch up to Jimi's level.
15:19Number 6, Bringing It All Back Home, Bob Dylan
15:22People listen to music in a variety of different ways.
15:26Sometimes the lyrics are a secondary thought.
15:29However, Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home helped shift the perception of rock and pop music wordplay,
15:34bringing it some real attention on an international scale.
15:43Here was a musician that came from the folk scene, a genre often known for its confessional style of lyricism.
15:49Yet by going electric in 1965, Bob Dylan paved the way for folk rock to emerge in his wake.
16:00Bringing It All Back Home is very much emblematic of this fusion.
16:04An outstanding combination of musicality, song craft and charm that reveals just as much poignancy on the 50th lesson as
16:11the first.
16:12It's all right, ma.
16:16I'm only sighing.
16:18Number 5, Nevermind, Nirvana
16:20There are a number of factors that went into the eventual decline in public favor for the hair metal that
16:26once ruled 1980s airwaves.
16:291991's Nevermind is often cited as a death knell for that genre, and a signal for the emergence of a
16:35new musical trend, grunge.
16:40Setting aside for a moment the fact that grunge's anti-image was in fact a cultivated image in and of
16:46itself,
16:47Nevermind still stands out for its songwriting.
16:49This was an album that took Nirvana's heavy metal, punk and noise roots and made them palatable for the masses.
16:59This was no easy feat.
17:01Yet there's also no denying how immediate and memorable songs like Come As You Are and Smells Like Teen Spirit
17:06were then, and are today.
17:08Here we are now, Imitators
17:11Number 4, Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys
17:15One word comes up again and again whenever the subject of Pet Sounds emerges among rock critics.
17:21Production.
17:22Said quite simply, Pet Sounds changed the game when it came to how rock albums sounded.
17:27Wouldn't it be nice if we were older
17:30Then we would have to wait so long
17:34Brian Wilson's arrangements and orchestrations made Pet Sounds feel like no other rock LP on the market.
17:40As a result, it made the full length album format feel more vital, and encouraged other artists to experiment more
17:46in the studio.
17:51Additionally, the popularity of Pet Sounds made the record buying public pay more attention to LPs,
17:57as opposed to the 45 RPM single that had long ruled the charts.
18:00Essentially.
18:02The success of Pet Sounds signified that a new era of classic rock radio was on the horizon.
18:13Number 3, Led Zeppelin
18:15Led Zeppelin
18:16Led Zeppelin is another band that often comes into the conversation when it comes to the progenitors of heavy metal.
18:27Their self-titled debut is still very much steeped in the blues, however.
18:31Right down to the cover songs included from artists like Willie Dixon.
18:35This isn't Chicago blues, however, but an over amplified and over sexed British take on the genre that was loud
18:41and raw as hell.
18:48At the same time, there was an atmosphere of high fantasy present within their lyrics and image.
18:53Led Zeppelin was a band that reveled in occult excesses,
18:56and albums like this self-titled effort and Led Zeppelin 4 helped make the band into the legends they are
19:02today.
19:10The progressive rock genre isn't one that's largely known for its commercial successes.
19:15There have, however, been outliers over the years.
19:23Pink Floyd was absolutely one of Prague's biggest and most successful bands,
19:28with albums like The Wall and 1973's The Dark Side of the Moon serving as cornerstones for the genre.
19:39Floyd had already moved through early psychedelia and musically complex prog epics on their earlier releases,
19:45but The Dark Side of the Moon struck upon a 1970s nerve.
19:48The era of drug experimentation had moved beyond hippie subcultures into mainstream rock radio,
19:54and Dark Side encouraged legions of listeners to turn on, tune in, and drop out.
20:04Before we unveil our top pick, here are some honorable mentions.
20:08Van Halen.
20:09Van Halen.
20:10The Book of Genesis for Sunset Strip Glam Metal.
20:20Exile on Main Street.
20:21The Rolling Stones.
20:22Not an initial hit, but later viewed as a masterpiece.
20:34Appetite for Destruction.
20:35Guns N' Roses.
20:3680's Rock Gets Dangerous.
20:46Vincibus Eruptum.
20:47Blue Cheer.
20:48Raw, electric, and psychedelic proto-metal.
20:51Sometimes I wonder what I'm gonna do.
20:55Oh, there ain't no kill for the summertime blue.
20:59The Smiths.
21:00The Smiths.
21:01Johnny Marr and Morrissey make magic.
21:12Before we continue, be sure to check out WatchMojo's 24-hour livestream.
21:16All of your favorite videos in one place, 24-7.
21:20Always on, always live.
21:22Are you not entertained?!
21:24Number 1.
21:25Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
21:28The Beatles.
21:28Some of the greatest pieces of art were divisive in their day.
21:33Not everyone was on board with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
21:36back when it was released in 1967.
21:38We're Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
21:43Some critics felt that the album's infatuation with artistry led to a case of diminishing returns.
21:48The Fab Four had a pop art past,
21:51yet Sgt. Pepper's embraced a full concept album structure
21:54that made the most out of every production trick available to the Beatles
21:57and producer George Martin while in the studio.
22:04The one-two punch of this album and 1968's Abbey Road
22:08helped make rock and roll into something that could change the world.
22:11They are true compositional achievements that are envied and copied
22:15by artists all the way to the modern day.
22:18Woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head.
22:23What albums changed your life?
22:25Shout out your favorites in the comments.
22:26.
Comments