A question raised by BrettShand and asked on the WordUp mailing list ...
If Sgt Pepper was the concept album of the 60's, and Ziggy Stardust was the album of the 70's ... What were they for the 80's and 90's?
And the winners according to email debate are:
80's
- Michael Jackson "Thriller"
90's
- Beastie Boys "Check Your Head(?)"
Worthy Mentions ...
- Rage Against the Machine
- Queen (duh ... they were Queen!)
- Kraftwerk (early contributors to techno)
- Pink Floyd "The Wall" (it just misses at '79 but ...)
- Nine Inch Nails "Pretty Hate Machine"
- Prince?
- Psychic TV / Throbbing Gristle (important in early techno and industrial scene)
- Tool "Undertow" or "Aenima"
- Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash, Run DMC (early hiphop)
- Dre "Chronic" (later hiphop)
- Janes Addiction "Nothings Shocking"
- Pixies "Doolittle" or "Come on Pilgrim/Surfer Rosa" (inspired nirvana, early punk/grunge rock)
Answers I veto ...
- Nirvana (and certainly "Nevermind", it was good, it wasn't a concept album")
- Smashing Pumpkins (for the same reasons as Nirvana only more so)
- Madonna (good and popular but concept?)
Comments (please sign comments) ...
...Nirvana's Nevermind wasn't a concept album? Are you kidding me? I think albums _become_ emblematic of their time - they are not made so. The Grunge wave killed both Heavy Metal and Glam Rock in one blow, elevated "alternative" music to the mainstream and in doing so, with Pearl Jam's help, killed alternative music as well. Without Nirvana, there would still be an alternative music scene. After Nirvana, Metallica is pop music.
Right but it was just a continuing refinement of music that bands like the Pixies had pioneered 5 years earlier. It's true they made it popular, it's true they killed glam rock (I'm not sure I'd agree it killed Heavy Metal though it certainly removed the lime light for a while) ... but it wasn't anything new. Now that I say that I'm hard pressed to reason why "Thriller" and "Check your head" were any better though ... lemme think
- Adam.
Okay, this is a totally dead thread, I know. But what about Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime (1988)? Am I totally missing the definition of a concept album? - JohnMcDaniel
I think the idea was that a concept album was supposed to change the way people thought about music. Given that definition though I think the answers we agreed on suck. It's funny you posted about this though, I was just thinking about this again yesterday. -- AdamShand.