NEWS: Another List: The 50 Most Influential Albums of the Last 50 Years

MUSIC: Another List: The 50 Most Influential Albums of the Last 50 Years

Enough bar stool debates about "important" records. Ask 100 people about the "most influential" album of all time and you'll get 100 different answers. Or maybe, like 75 different answers.

However many answers there are, you expect to see a few of the same names appearing again and again. UK's The Observer has attempted to answer the age old question with what they feel is a "definitive list" of the "50 albums that changed music".

Not interested in wading through another one of these lists? Well, #1 is The Velvet Underground And Nico.

#2? Sgt. Pepper. Pet Sounds? #10. The Ramones? #35. And so on. Print the list out, bring it down to Happy Hour and annoy your friends. Or, bring it to the record shop and annoy the clerks. Either way, here's your blueprint for hours of summer fun. Enjoy!



Pet Sounds: #10

While it's nice to see Joni Mitchell score as high as she did on that list, it's discouraging to see Nirvana score so low. Was grunge just not that affecting in the UK?

So? It's not like that's exactly the most diverse list of rock acts.

Now if they'd said of an album, "Without this there'd be no Weezer, Outkast, Smiths, or System of a Down", I'd be impressed.

So that's it. I'm sorry to say, but we must go back in time to destroy Radiohead.

It's not meant that those are the only acts that were somehow influenced by VU. I'm sure any number of members of any of the artists you mentioned will cite VU as an important influence. Basically most if not all serious musicians who started a band sometime between 1975 and now will cite the VU in some way. That may be a slight exaggeration, but not so much really.

What's the 411 > Unknown pleasures?

Spice Girls at #21? Get the fuck out of here.

Lists like these are made to show how hip and aware a publication is, which is why they pushed the Beatles to number 2. Everyone expects them to be number 1 on a list like this, and they probably deserved to be.

What exactly is the point of The Observer? It's owned by The Guardian, no? And it's like a crappy version of The Guardian as far as I can tell. Why not just have The Guardian On Sunday instead of another, lesser publication?

As far as the list is concerned, I'm not sure how anyone can gauge how "influential" one artist is to any other. NWA certainly was influential, but I would argue that the commercial success of The Chronic and Doggystyle would make those records far more influential than Straight Outta Compton ever was. But then again I think 4 track demos is PJ Harveys best album, I stopped liking Outkast post-Aquemini and I think Skinnyman is better than The Streets, Lady Sov, Dizzee, MIA, Ms. Dynamite and Plan B combined.

I hear ya, but to be fair, they never said it had to be a good influence.

They talk about "angst-laden falsetto" and say that it was Jeff Buckley and Radiohead that populatized it? I know he's very forgettable, but I think Morrissey had that title, right?

But they could at least base it on influencing musicians, not influencing young girls to cop attitudes.

At least the kids I know who used to like Spice Girls before they faded away have attitudes. I suppose I shouldn't blame the Spice Girls as I never saw the movie and I don't know if I can remember anything I heard by them (Did they do that annoying-as-Hell I'lll tell you what I really really want drivel?) I just think that since I usually hear a song and remember most of the words and can figure out how to fake playing it after one or two listenings, I might remember SOMETHING about them if they had a redeemingquality. I listen to enough stuff and interact with a very eclectic lot of musicians and listeners, but I can't think of ANY EVER that have ever once mentioned Spice Girls as anything remotely resembling influential.

But then again, I've been wrong before. Maybe they did influence someone musically. Do they even play instruments or write songs? I assume they sing the songs at least.

This is an interesting list, and an admirable attempt at the impossible. I am however kind of pissed to see that Husker Du's Zen Arcade is not on the list, same with Minor Threat. In fact I really see no one that influenced the current hardcore/emo scene...

brian eno rates above aretha franklin for influence? i'm not much of a soul fan but as any single mariah carey or whitney houston release has outsold everything ambient techno has vomited out of its collective hard drive. i hate to equate commercial success with artistic whatever but seriously, whose sound is infinitely more recognizable to the average person, franklin or eno?

I'm happy to see Hip-Hop has a strong presence on the list with NWA, RUN-DMC, De La Soul. It's undeniable that Hip-Hop has become very influential in moderm music. I don't necessarily think all the influence is positive, but I'm glad to see those groups on the list.

And how does recognizability of a sound to the average person = influence? Average people don't make music. The subject of influence is always a tricky one, as the bands that most influenced their successors in music weren't always the bands at the top of the charts. Two words - Big Star. Influential to the point that the Replacements wrote the following line about Big Star's lead singer, "Children by the million scream for Alex Chilton".

Eno's influence on the Second Wave of the British Invasion also can't be underestimated. Joy Division/New Order, Depeche Mode, and Yaz, among many others, owe much of their success to Eno's groundbreaking work.

most retarded list: ever
any list that has spice girl ANYWHERE other than a list of WORST ALBUMS should be just burned.
wait - you know what - i'd like some of what they were smoking - cause it must have been strong shit to say that.

Whatever, what I wouldn't give to return to the halcyon days of 1996 (almost exactly ten years ago! Wannabe came out on 8 July!) when the Spice Girls were what was on the Top 40.

Spice Girls : Monkees :: Coldplay : Bread

You have to admit that as far as influence goes Elvis should be number one.

No Elvis = No rock band, no matter what style would be on that list

But without Jimmie Rodgers there'd be no Elvis.

As far as I'm concerned, Jimmie Rodgers is the primum mobile in the creation of rock.

My pedantic know-it-all jerk moment of the day: You mean "can't be overestimated," I believe. If his influence can't be underestimated, that means he didn't have much influence...

no fugazi, no minor threat, no youth of today, no gorilla biscuits, no lifetime, no public enemy, no johnny cash, no rush, no sabbath, no cream, no sabbath, no at the drive-in...

worst.
list.
evar.

nirvana wasn't very orginal at all. other bands were influenced by the same bands that influenced nirvana... their only impact, really, was their massive popularity.

Like all lists, it hits and misses:

Kraftwerk is a great choice, as are Mary J Blige and the Byrds.

Aretha Franklin: " 'R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Find out what it means to me!' Is there a more potent female lyric in pop? " Well, maybe not. But Otis Redding wrote it and sang it first. The Observer should know this

Sgt Pepper might be the better album, or the weirder, but I doubt it's more influential than Revolver or Rubber Soul (unless they mean "influential on making lists")

I'd also (unfortunately) put the terrible Bob Marley "Legend" album ahead of anything else by him in terms of influence. Everyone had that record at one point, and it was the impetus for thousands of terrible suburban ska/reggae bands (sublime, I'm looking at you!).

Robert Johnson's songs were recorded well before 1956, so I don't think it should make the list.

No Funkadelic? Far more influential than Herbie Hancock.

The Strokes? Really? No Television, or Gang of Four?

A British List without the Arctic Monkeys or Oasis? Unpossible!!