Albums that defined a genre to you

Here's my list, not to be confused with the other thread necromancy I did in which I mentioned my favorite albums. However, not all of them were quintessential to shaping my understanding of music. This will only focus on those. Here I'll give the genre in question and explain why this album helped define that genre to me:

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1986 Omega Tribe / Navigator (1986)
Genre: Soft-Rock, R&B
Reason: Great example of soft-rock that was not only chill, but catchy and terribly addictive. This, and Aqua City (which had their first singer) made me a fan of the band.

Arcade / Arcade (1992)
Genre: L.A./Glam/Hard Rock
Reason: Great example that LA metal in the 90's could be just as good if not better as it was a decade earlier. Found the cassette at a dollar store. And it was actually through this that I got acquainted with Ratt, as Pearcy was the frontman.

Boowy / Boowy (1985)
Genre: J-Rock (non-visual)
Reason: Another great pop-rock album, this time in the so-called "Beat Rock" genre from Japan. I love all their stuff but this is one of my favorites by them and influenced many later artists. If you want to know how giants like Glay and other notable J-Rock groups got their sound and vocals, look no further.

Dreams Come True / The Swinging Star (1992)
Genre: J-Pop
Reason: Though they had several releases before this, TSS showed not only that J-Pop bands could write their own material, and play it, but also sing it well without sounding like chipmunks. Actually outshines many vaguely similar albums (if there were any) released in the west around the same time. Lastly, it opened me up to foreign music, thanks to the fact that the composer was involved with the first two Sonic games.

Hootie and the Blowfish / Cracked Rear View (1994)
Genre: Standard Pop-Rock
Reason: Straightforward, conservative pop-rock done right. As one reviewer said, "It was norm-core at its best".

Kuroyume / Nakigara Wo (1992)
Genre: Visual Kei, Nagoya Kei, Gothic Rock
Reason: Set the standard for most of the 90's visual kei movement, though mostly the underground stuff. This also established 'goth rock' in my mind, which was far different from western examples like The Cure or more preferably, Bauhaus. I was around 12 or 13 years old when I heard it and loved it for being eccentric and distinguished.

Muhangwedo / Muhangwedo (1989)
Genre: Korean Ballads
Reason: Prime example of the distinct style of Korean ballads at their best, and achieved this at the end of the decade considered to be the Golden Age of the genre in its native country. The leader, Shin Hae Cheol was quite a legend (R.I.P.) but this was probably one of his strongest works in terms of the softer side of things.

N.EX.T / The Return of N.EX.T Part 2: World (1995)
Genre: Korean Rock
Reason: One of he defining moments of Korean hard rock/metal. It demonstrated the fact that many Korean bands not only excel at the genre but are also not afraid of doing some things outside the genre like funk, electronica, or even ballads just as competantly. Something that tends to be true with asian bands in general.

Relient K / Relient K (2000)
Genre: Pop-Punk, music in general
Reason: My introduction into music in general outside of video game music and whatever my family listened to at the time. Not as developed as their later work, but you could see the potential on it.

Relient K / The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek (2001)
Genre: Pop-Punk
Reason: The band that would eventually go on to become quite revered in Christian pop-punk begins to realize their full potential that was merely suggested on their major debut (which was among the first music CDs that I owned). Showed that pop-punk could be clever and diverse while still being fun and silly.

Shawn Colvin / A Few Small Repairs (1996)
Genre: Acoustic, Folk
Reason: One of the albums that led me to fully embrace folk music. I was partial to it until one day I had this absurd craving to hear this album. I knew Shawn was part of the genre but I wanted to see how incredibly tasteless and uncool it was (as some had said). However, it turned out to be great stuff. I also listened to Seeger and the Weavers eventually as Shawn was a fan.

Sugiyama Kiyotaka & Omega Tribe / Aqua City (1983)
Genre: Soft Rock, R&B
Reason: Another prime example of the japanese soft-rock genre that goes hand in hand with the Navigator album with the later singer Carlos Toshiki.

X Japan / Blue Blood (1989)
Genre: Japanese Metal/J-Rock
Reason: The first import CD I ever bought and played to death. Still a favorite and their most balanced album to date. Quintessential listening for any metal or Japanese music fan.

X Japan / Dahlia (1996)
Genre: Power Ballads/Classical
Reason: The softest album in the X catalog, but showed a new integrity to ballads in heavy metal that it is amazing in its own right. Crucify My Love won me over to X. However, critics are correct in saying that there isn't as much balance between heavy and soft material, unlike Blue Blood.

Nice write-up, man, although I'm unfamiliar with most artists listed there.

Always thought that pop-punk was an oxymoron. How can one be both pop and anti-pop (punk) at the same time?

Technical Death Metal: Death - Symbolic. This was one of the first extreme metal albums I'd ever had the pleasure of hearing, and it's been my favorite since. It was my first foray into harsh vocals, and aside from Mikael Akerfeldt from Opeth, and Vincent Cavanagh from Anathema, I've never heard growls I love more.

USPM: Titan Force - Titan Force. Harry Conklin, plus magnificent twin guitar, and some of the best melodies this side of Iron Maiden. This is essential listening for every metal fan.

Thrash Metal: Ride the Lightning. What else can be said? This album likely helped shape the taste in music I have today, as it's one of the first albums I remember listening to in my life. THE RIFFS, THOUGH, MAN. Those riffs will change a person, lol.

Doom Metal: Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. Never has an album this bleak been such a pleasure to listen to. It's dark, morose, heavy as shit, and it's got enough variance in tempo to remain listenable for the entire length. Some doom just plods along, but this album does not.

Progressive Metal: This genre is so all over the place that picking just one feels like I'm doing it an injustice.
80's Progressive Metal: Fates Warning's The Spectre Within. Those snaking vocal harmonies and Maiden on steroids guitar work just move me like no other. Aside from Watchtower and a few other more obscure proto-prog bands, Fates Warning was doing metal in a way that it hadn't been done yet.
90s: Dream Theater's Images and Words. Generic answer, I suppose, but it's all there now. The progressive rock influence (10 minute plus tracks, keyboards & synths, wacky time signatures, etc) combined with power/traditional metal sensibilities makes for a dense package of kick-ass, thought provoking prog-metal.
2000s thus far: Haken's The Mountain/Leprous' Coal. Both of these bands take progressive metal into the new millennium gracefully, with their music being a melting pot of widely varied influences. Haken's blend of progressive metal brings together influences from prog rock's greats, like Gentle Giant, while Leprous have this nice alternative, almost dance-y groove to their music that sets them apart from others.

I'll probably write some more of these later. This is a cool thread!

There are some cool answers on this thread, but I don't know if I could answer the question myself. I've never gotten the impression that a given band "owned" a genre. I even get kind of annoyed with people who say that Black Sabbath "invented" metal because they certainly weren't alone in it.

Personally, music comes across in more of an army metaphor. Yeah, they're all pulling for the same team and, at first, it looks like you've just got a mob of identical soldiers. Then, you look closer and you've got your munitions expert, sharpshooter, etc.

So, I think there's an argument you could make about who released something with a given sound first, with so many contributing to the same genre, I can't say, "Oh, this album owned it."

Just my opinion. Also not something I've ever given much thought to until I tried to think of an answer to the original post.

Well it's about what defined a genre to the poster in question. What made the genre really good in their eyes. Some who are credited with inventing a genre didn't actually make some listeners a fan of it. I like Antoine de Saint Exupery's example when, in his book, "Wind Sand and Stars", he eludes to the question of at what point and why does someone become established as an innovator, when in reality every little tweak that went into the field in question at that point led to what was eventually labelled as its pioneer. He is of course using the flight industry as an example, in its early days, when all the obscure people who died to make an example of what was technically wrong with the mechanics of aeroplanes at the time, contributed just as much to its well-being as the people who get the credit as being significant in history. So you could say in many cases, there was not as a big a leap from one innovation to the next, it's just that it happens to hit the right spot at the right time to ingrain itself into people's minds, whether it be flight or even music.

I know, being an avid listener and researcher of music, that some subtle nuances in a genre can make the difference between enjoyable and completely unlikeable. Some have good music but the wrong vocalist, and some are the total opposite. It took me a while to accept this, but I now consider derivative music to not be such a bad thing if the person who is imitating another does it better. Then there are some things that, if they aren't broken, don't fix them. I don't have to eat a meal that tastes bad just for the fact that it's weird or different if it compromises common elements that I have and likely always will like about a meal. Same with music.

Good points all around.

I guess this means metal hasn't even achieved its final form yet, eh?

Wurthless wrote:

Prog Rock -- Red by King Crimson  

Great lp! Changed my whole way of looking at music. I like to call this the Wetton era of KC. Amazing era of the band..   John Wetton once said this was the band he wanted to be in for 20 years.

Much like Runicen, I can't pick one band and album that defined a genre for me. It's just too hard for me to do. At times, certain songs are great examples of a particular genres sound. But, each time I tried scratching out a list but kept changing between bands and albums and couldn't decide what to settle on.

the sentinel wrote:

Much like Runicen, I can't pick one band and album that defined a genre for me. It's just too hard for me to do. At times, certain songs are great examples of a particular genres sound. But, each time I tried scratching out a list but kept changing between bands and albums and couldn't decide what to settle on.

I have the same problem, sometimes. But honestly I don't know what is considered the best example of pop music in general, for instance. That one is pretty hard for me.

Stratovarius - Visions

It defined heavy metal to me back in 1997.

Then Speed Metal... and later on it defined Power Metal to me (once I learned what power metal meant).

Then it defined Euro Power to me (since apparently there's US Power Metal too). Then Melodic Metal (because genres are hard and Melodic vs Extreme is easy). Then Flower Metal (because F*ck everything and let's just pigeonhole).

Nowadays "Visions" just defines good music.

Heavy Rock - Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath. The seed from which a whole music scene grew.

Heavy Metal - Judas Priest - Stained Class. The benchmark that defined late '70s metal.

NWOBHM - Iron Maiden - Killers. The pinnacle of that movement before IM outgrew it.

Thrash Metal - Metallica - Kill Em All. After this record dropped, nothing was ever the same again and everyone knew it.  

Black Metal - Venom - Black Metal - Not the greatest album in the world and musically it wouldn't even be considered black metal these days but it gave the scene everything else including it's name.


Swiss Avant Garde Doom Death with added uhh's ahh's and oww's - Difficult one this as there are so many bands and albums to choose from, but in the end I went with Celtic Frost - Morbid Tales. I think that metal bands are far more likely to take risks nowadays because of this record.

Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast. The ultimate NWOBHM album.

Stoner: Kyuss-Sky Valley
American Power Metal:Metal Church-Metal Church
European Power Metal-Blind Guardian-Nightfall in Middle Earth
Doom:Trouble-Psalm 9
Death: Nile-Annihilation of the Wicked
Black: Bathory- Under the Sign of the Black Mark
Industrial: Godflesh- Streetcleaner
Alternative-Faith No More-Angel Dust
Grindcore: Napalm Death-Scum
Thrash-Megadeth-Rust in Peace
NWOBHM-Witchfinder General-Friends of Hell
Avant Garde-Sigh-Imaginary Sonicscape
Heavy Metal:Oz-Fire in the Brain
Glam:Motley Crue-Shout at the Devil
Christian-Stryper-To Hell with the Devil
Space: Hawkwind-In Search of Space
Nu Metal-System of a Down-Mesmerize

thejokeriv wrote:

Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast. The ultimate NWOBHM album.

I don't know. Maiden kind of transcends the genre, and this didn't sound too much like the typical NWOBHM genre album. I think the first two with Di'Anno are both much better representations of it.

The Beast is already a Classic Era (TM) Maiden album. It defines Iron Maiden as a band that has moved beyond the confines of NWOBHM. Kind of like what Def Leppard did, except without the selling out to MTV part. "The Beast" turns Maiden from a NWOBHM band into a simply Heavy Metal band territory. A unique, epic one, that need not be compared to its inaugural peers anymore.

I think Saxon's Denim & Leather is a pretty "defining" NWOBHM album. Or Lightning to the Nations.

Lari wrote:

thejokeriv wrote:

Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast. The ultimate NWOBHM album.

I don't know. Maiden kind of transcends the genre, and this didn't sound too much like the typical NWOBHM genre album. I think the first two with Di'Anno are both much better representations of it.

The Beast is already a Classic Era (TM) Maiden album. It defines Iron Maiden as a band that has moved beyond the confines of NWOBHM. Kind of like what Def Leppard did, except without the selling out to MTV part. "The Beast" turns Maiden from a NWOBHM band into a simply Heavy Metal band territory. A unique, epic one, that need not be compared to its inaugural peers anymore.

I think Saxon's Denim & Leather is a pretty "defining" NWOBHM album. Or Lightning to the Nations.

Agree. I only consider Paul Di'Anno-era Iron Maiden to be NWOBHM.