10 ROCK Albums that Changed History

[Allhallowsday]

I might give it to Black Sabbath but Sweetheart of the Rodeo?  I have my doubts... but I guess you might have something there

Most successful early country/rock hybrid I could think of.

I think The ALLMAN BROS. was much more influential (hadda go back to the top to spell that one!) . But thats just me opinion.

Yeah, but THE ALLMAN BROTHERS sound was influence by the Byrds---so they inherit all the bands the Allman Brothers influenced. 

"When Sweetheart Of The Rodeo is measured against the music of the late sixties, and judged on its merits, and its continuing influence, the LP is undeniably a masterpiece. Sweetheart of the Rodeo was an incredibly bold and daring concept LP, that was obviously doomed to commercial failure, but it provided the spark that sent American popular music searching for its roots. The LP is one of the seminal albums of the era, a profoundly important recording that changed the direction of American popular music overnight, influencing performers like Crosby, Stills, & Nash, the Grateful Dead, the Eagles, Bob Dylan, the Flying Burrito Brothers, the Rolling Stones, Poco, Pure Prairie League, Little Feat, Linda Ronstadt, the Beatles, Neil Young, and Elvis Costello. Sweetheart of the Rodeo also laid the groundwork for the Southern Rock movement of the early seventies, with groups like the Allman Brothers Band, Wet Willie, the Charlie Daniels Band, and the Marshall Tucker Band mining the rich vein of southern music tradition."--some guy
Like it or not it was an influential record.

I don't entirely agree; listen to RICK NELSON's '60s DECCA records Bright Lights/Country Music and Country Fever which were there before THE BYRDS were (a direction he continued with THE STONE CANYON BAND).  NELSON also had more and more Country Rock on his later Imperial releases which are very early '60s (particularly Album Seven by Rick).  More importantly, Sweetheart of the Rodeo is a landmark because of the artists who worked on it, the fact it brought them together, particularly GRAM PARSONS and CHRIS HILLMAN (heart and soul of THE FLYING BURRITO BROTHERS) and the influence their sound had on later bands, the "California sound" often attributed to THE BYRDS, but they're only part of the story. 

[RCMerchant]

Whoops! Ill shut up now-! Im obviously out classed in my music history! (Now gimmme some Lugosi history-I be ok!) 

[Nightowl]

Motorhead heavily influenced thrash metal.

[HappyGilmore]

Some ones I was gonna name were previously named, mainly:
Pet Sounds by Beach Boys
Nevermind by Nirvana
Rubber Soul by Beatles.

I was also thinking of
Billion Dollar Babies by Alice Cooper.  By all accounts it's influenced many later musicians in various ways.

There's a few other albums I was thinking of but they do fall out of the ROCK category.  Dunno.

[HappyGilmore]

Van Halen by Van Halen.  For like, ten years after it came out, bands tried to sound like this.

[Trevor]

I don't know if this qualifies as 'rock' but The Moody Blues album Days of Future Passed ~ a pop group playing with a full orchestra backing ~ was quite innovative IMO. Or maybe I'm just saying that because TMB is my favourite group of all time.