Every now and then at NotRealMusic, I take a look back at older, ‘classic’ albums that are now considered legendary. They’re albums that I consider some of my favourites, but even looking at them from an objective stand point, you still can’t deny that they’re some of the greatest albums of all time. In their respective genres, each of the albums I’ve covered in this mini ‘Classics Series’ have had a major influence.
The only exception being Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys, which influenced music as a whole, and not just its own genre.
This is one of those albums that goes without saying when you bring up classics, with good reason of course, but that doesn’t mean to say it can’t be mentioned because it’s ‘too obvious’ as some might say. The rest of the albums had a major impact on their respective genres.
Joni Mitchell was influential to folk and acoustic singer songwriter music.
Particularly for other women in music as well, as her writing style had a very strong independence to it. At the time, a lot of women wrote songs about relying on their man, but Joni broke the moguls with that as she expressed her love for travelling alone.
New Order shaped the sound of synthpop to come in the 80s with their forward thinking, electronic style.
Of course, they had the help from artists from the previous decade like Kraftwerk and Jean Michelle Jarre, but the pop side of electronic came from the help of New Order, Depeche Mode, The Human League, and others.
Now, Mos Def’s Black On Both Sides was a late 90s album in a genre that already had the sound and style locked in.
However, Mos Def had a spirit and positive outlook that not many other rappers had at the time. He’s also very conscious as well, he could recognise the flaws and injustices of the world, but never got aggressive and angry about it all, which is why I regard this a unique hip hop album that deserves all the praise it can get.
And finally, we have Madvilliany, one of the albums featuring 2 of the greatest artists in hip hop history.
We have the insane and masterful flows and rhymes from DOOM, and the incredible production from Madlib that may never be topped by any other producer. A dream combination.
And the reviews are all down here, I do hope you enjoy what you hear and don’t get bored of my voice. Check them out if you’d like, and maybe even subscribe to the channel if you like what you see.
The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds
Joni Mitchell: Blue
New Order: Power, Corruption & Lies
Mos Def: Black On Both Sides
Madvillain: Madvillainy
