Ask Lemmy

Radiohead - in rainbows

They tried to go outside the existing studio release system before the rise of streaming. It was a pay what you want release.

Nirvana - unplugged in new York

Took a backlash to overproduced music at the time and started a still going strong tradition of publishing live albums.

Air - moon safari

Took electronic music and added a soul with otherworldly sounds and production to make chill out music that could be played in a club or on the beach or in a park with friends.

Dusty Springfield - Dusty in memphis Dusty brought back music to white people. There is a long tradition of white artists taking black music and presenting it palatably to white audiences. From elvis to P!nk. however, the UK as a more melting pot society without segregation, doesn't see it as cultural appropriation, but just another style for anyone to sing. That tradition continues with Amy winehouse and adele today.

Speak English Or Die by Stormtroopers of Death. Whipped up in a week and recorded using Anthrax's leftover studio time, this album bridged hardcore and metal. Metallica and Slayer were already popular with some punks but SEOD didn't take itself seriously and had a DIY vibe

Kidz Bop volume 1 launched an empire of children performing family friendly covers of pop songs that continues to weaken the fabric of humanity to this day.

No one had mentioned Stg. Pepper yet. Am album that took advantage of creative studio sound tricks to create sounds that were not easily possible to replicate during a love performance. An album that inspired so many others to push recording further.

John McLaughlin, My Goals Beyond.

Tom Waits, Swordfish Trombone.

Captain Beefheart, Trout Mask Replica.

The Residents, Commercial Album.

There's a few second drum break on a 7 inch single from The Winston's that was successful as a sample called the amen break.

Portishead - Portishead

Fang's album landshark. Just saw them play last night they are amazing.

The Ramones' Ramones.

Factoid: They used the name Ramone based off a fake name Paul McCartney used at hotels, Paul Ramon.

Any album by William Hung, the songbird of our generation

Miles Davis:

• Kind of Blue
• In a Silent Way
• Bitches Brew
• Tutu

Cornerstone records from which everything from the Headhunters, Return to Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra and the great exploration of jazz, psychedelic, rock and everything else in between.

Radiohead OK Computer

Wendy Carlos' ‘Switched-On Bach’ turned synthesizers from a tool of avantgarde experimentalists into a mainstream instrument.

Captain Beefheart's ‘Trout Mask Replica’ remains probably the most widely cited avantgarde-rock album, perplexing listeners to this day. (Gotta say, I never had a problem with it, perhaps because I don't know music theory.)

Kraftwerk's ‘Autobahn’ is an obvious one, though ‘Trans-Europe Express’ and ‘The Man-Machine’ probably had more influence on synthpop and techno.

Lou Reed's ‘Metal Machine Music’ was trashed on release by critics, and returned en masse by the buyers, but it presaged industrial and noise music, and possibly noise-rock.

Then again, though industrial music properly started with live performances, if you wanted to revisit its roots, you'd listen to Throbbing Gristle's ‘The Second Annual Report’ or the more warmly received ‘D.o.A: The Third and Final Report’.

The ‘No New York’ compilation was exemplary of the ‘no wave’ experimental jazz-rock of the downtown NYC scene and gave the genre its name.

Liaisons Dangereuses' self-titled album was the progenitor of ebm, e.g. with the track ‘Los niños del parque’.

This Mortal Coil's ‘It'll End in Tears’ “set the template” for dream pop, although the sound itself was already around in the work of Cocteau Twins and the ethereal wave movement.

The Winstons' 1969 track ‘Amen, Brother’ didn't start anything itself, but the ‘Amen break’ is one of the most sampled in history, beginning with the 80s breakbeat, and with jungle, drum-and-bass and breakcore having been predominantly built on this one sample.

Napalm Death's ‘Scum’ is the origin of grindcore.

John Zorn's ‘Naked City’ is a landmark in jazz-fusion: although the concept existed before, no one mixed jazz with other genres so aggressively outside of free-jazz. (Though arguably the band Massacre anticipated Zorn's approach.)

The Prodigy's ‘Experience’ is said to have birthed edm albums as a concept:

Moby credited ‘Experience’ with changing his perception about dance albums; previously he felt that "dance albums had always failed [...] because they didn't work over the full length of the record. Mostly they were singles collections which was exactly what I didn't want to do," and noted that ‘Experience’ "impressed me because they'd managed to create a full listening experience which encompassed various styles. This was the kind of vision I had for my debut album."

The ‘Artificial Intelligence’ compilation on Warp started idm.

‘Wipeout’'s electronic soundtrack, along with its acid visuals and nightclub-oriented promotion (by Designers Republic) was a big factor in targeting the first PlayStation to college-age people, instead of kids as it was with previous consoles. This shifted the console market from kids' toys to entertainment for everyone.

Therion properly invented symphonic metal around ‘Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas’ / ‘Lepaca Kliffoth’ / ‘Theli’.

The ‘Hotline Miami’ soundtrack played a large role in the popularity of synthwave and the 2010s revival of associated genres like darkwave, coldwave, ebm, and to some extent post-punk.

If you're into edm, you might want to check out Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music for various branching points.

Black Sabbath’s self titled 1970 debut.

Generations of metalheads the world over owe their lives, allegiance, and gratitude to Tony’s fucked up hand.

King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King

This basically started progressive rock. I also remember being in absolute awe when learning it is from 1969, it sounds soooo clean and somewhat modern (and very good, obviously).

gybe - lysf

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

With The Dark Side of the Moon, Rock enters its adult age, becoming culture music and reprogramming the figure of rock musician, now intellectualized and affected by a special strabismus for other forms of art. Listening to this album is like living a world: in this sense it remains open to the canons of psychedelic rock, but it redefines its boundaries, closing in fact that musical season and its main extensions of space-rock and progressive.

My suggestions:

• Boston (self titled) pretty much transformed how music was produced, using the studio as an instrument.
• Jimi Hendrix - "Are you Experienced". Because a guitar had never been played like that before.
• Nirvana - "Nevermind". Arguably not the first grunge album, but it pretty much put the final nail in the coffin of 80's music.

Honorable mention: Pantera - "Cowboys from Hell" finally moved metal beyond fluffy hair and leather pants that had saturated the genre for too long, and effectively ended the glam era.

• Angel dust by faith no more. It has been cited as a massive influence by many huge 90s metal bands. 
• Pet sounds by beach boys. Without it there would be no sgt Pepper (as we know it) and without that it's hard to say where pop would be today. 
• The rise and fall of Ziggy stardust and the spiders from Mars by Bowie. While not being the source of the glam wave (hi t-rex) it really took it to a new level, along with the concept of stage personas.

Rubber Soul - The Beatles
To me this marks a turning point in the Beatles' output, from fun, rock 'n' roll/pop music, to serious artistry, more challenging themes and lyrics and more interesting instrumentation.

Sample track: In My Life

Dubnobasswithmyheadman - Underworld
Hugely important in British dance music, a total departure from their first two albums and the start of a run of classic electronic music. It's a shame they're still best known for Born Slippy, because there's so much more to Underworld than that, and it started here.

Sample track: Dirty Epic

The Velvet Underground and Nico - The Velvet Underground
Famously known as an album that not many people bought, but all of those who did started a band. Hugely influential, full of great songs, some gentle and fragile, others cacophonic and dissonant. A masterpiece.

Sample track: Venus in Furs

Michael Jackson - Off The Wall

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - The Message

Sepultura - Roots

DJ Shadow - Preemptive Strike

Rage against the machine's debut album & Evil Empire

Massive Attack - Mezzanine