This is a tough one to think about. I really don't know what angle anyone else took in writing this so I am kinda going my own way. All of this is subjective and unfortunately, I have to stick with musical types that I am familiar with so you guys have to forgive me on that one.

The route I went with was which albums made the general population wake up and listen to what the hell was going on in their scene. Most of this list is going to be nothing new. This is just my opinion of which albums broke out and put a magnifying glass on the music type that they were categorized in. God that's confusing. As I said, the music was nothing new but somehow gained a whole new level of exposure due to whatever circumstances that were involved.

And of course I am missing a lot but hey, it's what I do.

Let's start out with the easy ones.

Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks

Not much to say on this one. Kinda woke up everyone to the punk rock scene. Sure, punk rock was around before this but not so out there to the public. Maybe it was Malcom Mcwhateverthe fuckhisnamewas or maybe it was just right time, right place type of thing. Whatever it was it basically broke punk to the public. Hell, my mom even knew what punk was.

Nirvana - Nevermind

Well this one had to be in here. General rule of thumb to me is that when my mom has heard of a band it is generally now considered mainstream. Nothing incredible music wise but something worked at some point. Don't ask me how it happened cause I don't know. All of a sudden they were huge and the small club days were gone. Also my mom knew who they were. See above for that. In my opinion there were a lot of bands doing grunge better, but this was the album that broke.

Those were the easy ones.

Now let's get a little harder.

Sleater Kinney - Dig Me Out

Grrlpower was out a long time before these guys (or girls?) shot their first video and turned down some insanly high contracts but somehow this was the album that people remember as the first real riotgrrl album. As with all of these on my list, there were others doing it for longer but somehow this one hit. It is also one of my all time favorite albums so I have a little bias on it. With this album, normal everyday punk rockers stopped thinking of riot grrls as "those fat lesbians with tattoos who drink a lot of beer" and started listening to their music. plus, my mom thought they were too cute to be so angry.

Turbonegero - Apocolypse Dudes

Whoa. Norway has music? Really? The first time I heard this album, I was shitfaced drunk at a huge BBQ somewhere near Reno, Neveda with about ten other people from bands that played all different types of music. We all sat around and decided that these guys were going to be huge. This was the album that would put deathpunk on the map. Problem was that the band had broken up five years before. The day I realized I would never see these leather warriors was a sad day indeed. But never say never, ya know? Who knew a few years later I would be flying over to Norway just to see them for their reunion show? Crazy fucking world. Plus it was another band that made the "My mom's heard of them" list.

Black Flag - Damaged

Welcome to the West Coast, motherfucker.

NWA - Straight Outta Compton

Welcome to the West Coast, beetch.

Metallica - Master of Puppets

San Francisco thrash finally had a spokesband. I listen back to the other bands that came out at the same time and absolutly nothing compares to what Metallica was doing. Too bad they went down so hard. My mom liked Damage, Inc. She said she hated it, but I know I saw her at a few clubs. She was a sneaky little minx.

So anyways, take it or leave it, that is my list of certain albums that defined certan styles of music that brought them out to the general public and forced people to recognize what they were doing.

Of course this list is sorely missing a lot of albums but what I went for in this post was bands that broke. Feel free to throw in whichever ones you think I missed and you will probably hear me slap my forhead and say "Oh yeah. I forgot that one."

Remember, none of them started what they were doing but for some reason or another, these are the bands that will be the first quoted in some VH1 special or by my mom. - T

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