Influential Albums How many do you Own.

I got 23. 

Rubbish list. No Elvis. P, Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan's earlier stuff, Culture Club (yes seriously),  Pet Shop Boys, Sinatra.....

I've been wondering for years who was responsible for inflicting all that awful twee folk shit on us.

Thanks for letting us know.

Time to have her and her acolytes arrested for crimes against music  perhaps?

I suppose if Sinatra is to be included then Bing Crosby must be too because he was probably the man who influenced Sinatra.

Has David Bowie been named yet?

Regards

D 

Count. d

Hi, I have never been a fan of Culture Club and am at a bit of a loss as to whom they have influenced.

Please don't take this the wrong way, I need educating, I am interested in who influenced who and in what way.

Talking about who, how about the Who, have they been mentioned.

Regards

D

And no Doors, DSOTM, The Wall, The Who, Miles Davis.... someone makes a stupid list and we all fall for it by voting and chatting about it!

Chimp, it depends on who and what's been influenced. It could be argued that Culture Club started the widespread decline in the image of the male pop star.  

What is that supposed to mean?

The interesting thing about this thread is that each and everyone has a differing opinion as to whom has been an influence and it is always good to get other peoples opinion on such matters, one may not agree with some of the input but to call the thread "a stupid list" or any other such thing is I think missing the point. To me, this is a personal journey and lets others see who and what is in their collection that they feel has been influential, nothing more, it stretches the boundaries to the point where one may question certain opinions, seeking enlightenment for the open mind.

Count. d  I still do not get what you are saying about Culture Club.

Regards

D

And to think I was feeling pretty good about myself on this sunny Friday!  I've been exposed . . . where's my bottle??

A lot of talk of who's missing.  Any thoughts on why Dexy's on the list?  They are a one-hit wonder outside of the UK.  Never had a number 1 LP anywhere.  Who did they influence, except for maybe Homer Simpson?

You know how to hit below the salt ... I'm very upset now and shall go away and find some more new order albums to burn just to make me feel better .... Have a listen to Folk Roots, New Roots and you'll love it. Anyways, lets discuss it after the next Naim morris dance ... You are going again, KW, aren't you?

Without Dame Shirley music would be very different today ... I doubt i'd have a naim system or even listen to music .... 

Morris On, Guy 

There are lots on the list of that ilk ... I don't think iggy pop influenced anybody, he just sounded like lou reed meets david bowie on a bad night, but ....  Well i think people are reacting to artists on the list that they do not enjoy listening to ... As indeed i have just done, KW does not enjoy folk music, i can't stand groups like new order ... It's a funny old world. 

Did TDSOTM influence anybody? What album by somebody else sounds like it? I think it is a good record, but can't see it as genre defining in the way Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast was. Half of Scandinavia copied that ....   

Yes Guy, I'll be there. My wrist bells and breeches are ready to be rattled and breeched.

If you're burning some New Order records, try the last two "Waiting For The Sirens Call" and "Get Ready" as a) they're super-combustible; b)godawfully shite.

I wouldn't really burn any records .... 

So who do we are the single most influential band of all time, the band without whom the music we love most would just not exist? For me there is an obvious choice, the band most often cited as the greatest of all time on this very forum 

Guido,

A post of subtle discretion and timing.

Vlad

Part of the problem with this list is that:

a) People mistake albums they really like for albums that were/are influential. Not the same thing.

b) People conflate huge sales figures with influence. Again, not the same thing.

c) Lists like this are often crippled by a kind of musical political correctness; a desire to be as inclusive

    as possible means that all manner of albums are excluded so that something more "modern" or  

    representative of a particular genre can be squeezed in.

d) A "canonical" album is not necessarily and influential one.

e) Most of the really influential records were made early on in the history of pop, in the 50s, 60s and

    70s, with a very, very few in the 1980s, and perhaps just one (Nevermind) in the 1990s.

f) Albums taken in isolation are rarely hugely influential (leaving aside titans like the Beatles, Dylan etc) 

    - although artists often are, for at least part (usually early on) of their careers. One could argue that

   the Fabs' recording career from '62-69 was more influential than any one of their albums.

To reduce this thread ad absurdum, one could argue that there are three "albums" which have been more influential than any others: Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives & Sevens recordings; and Robert Johnson's blues 78s. THat probably covers most things.

Well, what about these three, upon whom Murphy, Ash & Co built their  careers?

I accept Siouxsie and the Banshees as influential ... I certainly file them under Gothic Rock in my iTunes library 

With your three influential albums, there doesn't seem to be one that influenced the folk scene or the wonderful array of female singer songwriters or an artist like Delia Derbyshire who influenced Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream ... there were also a whole collection of German groups who seemed to gather influences from elsewhere such as Faust. 

You make the points superbly and I agree totally. Whether I like an album is irrelevant, whether it sold well is irrelevant ... I think we are searching for those albums that others followed ... Roy Wood and Jeff |Lynne were innovative and I love their music, but I never heard too many bands follow in their footsteps. Keith Emerson likewise, highly original, but few tried to be like them (even when before they went through an undeserved period of ridicule) 

However, Bob Dylan, was obviously influential in that he made others think about the lyrical content of their songs ... something that hadn't really been done that much since the music hall. Noel Coward was of course brilliant as were Flanders and Swann and Tom Lehrer, but none had the influence of Bob. 

Bauhaus may not have been the first Goths, but I think their influence is immense. As much as a group like Caravan, albeit in a different style. 

Good point Guy. There are lots of innovative artists (Jeff Lynne, whom you cite, is a very good example) who aren't particularly influential, although they be admired, and even mentors and heroes to some. I think, oddly, Zappa is another. As are the Grateful Dead. Both these two were in effect their own, self-contained genres.  

At last! Some progress!

Now name 97 others.