Over the years, a select number of albums have changed music forever. These are the albums that affected listeners worldwide and completely flipped the game upside down. On the other hand, some of these same legendary works also unknowingly helped create some of the worst musical blunders we wish we could all forget.
Source: Epic Records
10. Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
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The nu metal rap-rock scene that exploded in the late-‘90s is easily one of the worst trends music has ever seen. From Limp Bizkit to Linkin Park, these bands somehow took influences from some very solid acts and generated a steaming pile of audio poop. The first real official rap-rock effort was probably Run–D.M.C. and Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” but, in my opinion, the most influential band when it came to molding this genre has to be Rage Against the Machine.
From Zack de la Rocha’s scream raps to Tom Morello’s mind-blowing guitar trickery, Rage’s sound can be heard in almost every single rap-rock act that broke out on MTV in the late-‘90s and early 2000s. Unfortunately for us fans, they were all pretty much just paper-thin pop versions of the original formula. I do love Rage’s self-titled LP and think it’s a masterpiece in its own right, but where bands like Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, and even ICP took things made for very typical (as well as laughable) mainstream music.
After seeing the crowd at the Rage Against Machine reunion at Coachella a few years back it dawned on me how horrible things had really gotten. Most of the fans were aggressive frat douches who were only attracted to the aggression of the music and nothing more. They had no interest in the message of the music, all they cared about was screaming “F*** you, I won’t do what you tell me” just because they thought it sounded cool.
9. Appetite for Destruction - Guns N' Roses
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Easily one of the best albums of the ‘80s, Appetite for Destruction kicked lame-ass hair metal douches to the curb and showed the world what a real rock band was supposed to be. From Axl’s unreal vocal chops to Slash's virtuoso guitar playing, Guns were no doubt one of the most important bands of their era.
The only downside to this has to be the bands that were spawned from Guns’ sound, look, and all-around attitude. Somehow acts like Buckcherry and Hinder took heavy influences from this band and created some of the most horrific watered-down pop-rock ever heard. Thanks to GNR, douche rock was officially born. Even the success of this record transformed Axl from one of the greatest frontmen of all time into a raging egomaniac who completely lost focus on his art. The rest of the band was no different. And have you listened to Velvet Revolver? Nuff said.
8. Legend – Bob Marley
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We all know Bob Marley is brilliant and I don’t think there is a person alive that doesn’t like at least one of his songs, but the image of the reggae star that took shape after his death turned his deep musical philosophy into a corporate brand bought and sold at college campuses all around the world. In this specific case, I feel like this said state of affairs has less to do with the music and more to do with the image of reggae in general. How many more times must we see rich white kids from Vermont walking around with dreads and trying to preach about the Rastafari movement? I’m not saying that having dreads and smoking weed isn’t apart of reggae music, I’m just saying that it’s a tad deeper than that classic Catch a Fire album cover on every college dorm room wall.
7. Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols - Sex Pistols
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As a pet project of band manager and fashion designer Malcolm McLaren, the Sex Pistols were basically the Backstreet Boys of punk rock. I’m not saying that Never Mind The Bollocks wasn’t punk at its roots from the band’s perspective, but it is this most important element that helped commercialize the genre and turn it into a corporate brand. Sid Vicious is a prime example of this. His contribution to punk had more to do with heroin chic, leather jackets, and photogenic sneers than it did with ethos and artistic merit.
Where punk rock had started as an outlet for kids to express their creativity and individuality, the popularization of Never Mind the Bollocks ended up becoming the de facto uniform for both the sound and look of "punk" and also transformed the entire movement against its original purpose.
6. Paul's Boutique – Beastie Boys
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The funniest aspect about this record is the fact that it’s just as groundbreaking on the negative side as well as the positive.
First off, I’m pretty sure that Paul's Boutique has more samples in it than any other record ever made. The reason for this is because it was released before any real copyright laws had been set in place when it came to sampling. Over 105 songs were sampled on the album and the sampling for Boutique was uncleared. This was of course only possible before Grand Upright Music, Ltd. vs. Warner Bros. Records Inc., the landmark case against Biz Markie by Gilbert O'Sullivan, which changed the process and future of hip-hop sampling. Due to this court case the sound of hip-hop music was changed drastically and, if it wasn’t for Boutique setting these wheels in motion, who knows what might have been.
Either way, hip-hop records filled with literally dozens and dozens of samples could no longer be made. Now every single sample had to be cleared to avoid legal trouble. This gave huge names like Puff Daddy more power in this situation because they had the money to pay for any sample their hearts desired while underground producers could no longer experiment with unlimited samples and sounds. This drastically affected the evolution of hip-hop and the way it would go on being made. Although, the freedom supplied by the Internet has helped things in recent years...
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