10 classic songs that started entire genres
Most genres don’t come together on a whim. Every artist usually tries to play the kind of music they loved when they were kids, and somewhere along the line, that kind of music gets transformed into something entirely different once they start playing their original tunes. Although many artists have tried to bring something new to the tables, groups like The Beatles should be commended for having entire genres waiting at their feet.
That being said, many of the songs on this list are primitive compared to the styles they inspired. Since there was no real reference point for where any of them could go, most of the artists in question were flying blind, probably not knowing whether the genre was going to put them in the top tier of rock musicians or get them laughed out of the room the minute that they stormed onto the charts.
Even if not every song was necessarily chart-friendly, it didn’t take fans long to catch on to what these acts were doing. From the minute that fans saw them playing live, every one of them ended up forming bands of their own and tried to tap into that same kind of strange musical style that had now suddenly become trademarked.
Some of them may have changed rock for the better, and some of them for the worse, but there’s no accounting for matters of taste half the time. Upon release, this was the kind of music that no one had ever considered, but once the doors were knocked down, there was no limit as to where the music could go afterwards.
10 songs that kickstarted a genre:
10. Bruce Springsteen – Heartland rock
Most of the greatest bands rock and roll has to offer normally come out of the heart of America. Even though the British Invasion launched millions of acts and turned England into an institution for the genre, all roads trace back to acts like Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry for stoking the fires back in the day. While many of the blue-collar workers of America identified themselves with that kind of music, Bruce Springsteen was the first person to put a face to that style of music.
Although ‘The Boss’ fashioned himself as a Bob Dylan type when he first started working with the E Street Band, what he turned in on ‘Born to Run’ was nothing short of miraculous. Telling the story of kids who dreamt of something much bigger than life as a nine-to-five worker, Springsteen was practically telling the life story of every member of his audience who wanted to see what life was like beyond the windswept highways of their hometown.
Looking back on what came out of that, it’s not hard to see everyone from Tom Petty to John Mellencamp taking his sound and running with it, only infusing their version of it with the sounds of small-town America rather than the seedy sides of New Jersey. Still, America had finally been given a voice, and the rest of the world followed suit whenever they had songs that hit as hard as Springsteen could.
9. The Stooges – Punk rock
As the 1960s came to a close, there were still a lot of question marks as to where rock and roll could go. People still hung onto the blues like a life raft and fawned over The Rolling Stones, but the sounds of Detroit had started showing new ways that people could subvert listeners’ expectations. And if most people came out onstage to entertain, Iggy Pop was ready for war every time he took the microphone with The Stooges.
Even though many of the best Stooges songs were based around the bare essentials, hearing them hit on that primal form of rock and roll on ‘1969’ was exactly the kind of mindless rock and roll that could cause hysteria whenever they played. Despite Pop sounding like he was frothing at the mouth whenever he sang, there was no denying he meant every word that he said once the band got around to making tracks like ‘Search and Destroy’.
Looking back on what bands like Sex Pistols and Ramones would be doing years later, all of them seemed to take the core ethos of what The Stooges were and take it one step further by kicking up the tempo a bit more. Because the whole point behind The Stooges was that they were a bunch of misfits, but if you dared to look closer, there was an internal power that went beyond screaming into the microphone.
8. Green Day – Pop-punk
During the summer of 1977, the idea of punk rock mixing with pop music was almost taboo. As much as John Lydon got a lot of mainstream attention, there was no way that anyone was going to see him making something that catered to the kind of audience wanting to hear Captain and Tennille. The pop fans did deserve to have something a bit edgier, though, and once the grunge wave had died, Green Day picked up the torch for punk rock and ran with it as far as they could.
Although some naysayers still swear up and down that Green Day isn’t truly punk, many of the songs on Dookie are the perfect example of what pop-punk would become. Even though Ramones had made pop songs before, none of them were as musically sophisticated as ‘Basket Case’ or had as many hooks as ‘Brain Stew’ or ‘Nice Guys Finish Last’ off Nimrod.
Even when looking at the boom of pop-punk acts in the 2000s like Good Charlotte and Blink-182, every one of them has records like Dookie and Insomniac to thank for living in mansions today. There are still pieces of Green Day’s sound that have moved on from pop-punk, but if Saviors is any indication, that style is the kind of music that runs through their blood.
7. The Velvet Underground – Alternate rock
The Velvet Underground were never a band that fit neatly into one box. Even though they had the wittiness of Bob Dylan, there was no way that Mr Zimmerman was going to make something as caustic as ‘Heroin’ or talk about wanting to be whipped on ‘Venus in Furs’. Lou Reed thrived on pushing the envelope in that regard, and in the process, he created a new avenue right outside of the mainstream.
As much as fans and critics adore the band now, their star wasn’t nearly as bright in their prime, leading to many fans picking up on them much later. Considering how eclectic they could be on record and the scattershot approach to many of their songs, this was the beginning of alternative music before it even had a proper name. Whether it was the noise rock of ‘Sister Ray’ or the delicate voice of Moe Tucker on ‘After Hours’, every tune on their record could have been a different avenue for a band.
So, while Pixies get a lot of credit for taking the grunge formula to the mainstream before Nirvana did, The Velvet Underground is the guiding star for anyone who wanted to create something slightly weirder than what the mainstream wanted. Because if you think about it, it’s no use trying to please everyone, so these New York artists figured they would rather serve themselves.
6. Gram Parsons – Country-rock
Rock and roll was never that far away from country during its prime. Even though Elvis Presley had the kind of moves that would make many concerned parents sick back in the day, he was still brandishing a guitar and playing the kind of chords that cowboys had been playing for years. Although Johnny Cash was the epitome of what a rock star country singer was supposed to be, Gram Parsons was the first to marry both genres together.
Although The Byrds were working perfectly fine with David Crosby in the mix, his departure right before Sweetheart of the Rodeo left the door wide open for Parsons to come screaming in. Despite never getting the respect that he deserved during his all-too-brief time on this Earth, every one of Parsons’s songs was worthy of being studied by anyone who wanted to put some twang into their delivery.
And it’s not like the old guard wasn’t listening, either, with Keith Richards later taking the core of what Parsons did and channelled it into songs like ‘Wild Horses’ and ‘Coming Down Again’ on The Stones’ later records. Parsons may not have been meant for this world for too long, but hearing his trademark drawl will bring back memories from when rock and roll first started to fit into its cowboy boots.
5. The Smiths – Britpop
Okay, so this one might be a little bit strange from some hardened alt-rockers. As much as The Smiths have been known as one of the greatest examples of sad indie rock, there has always been some working-class spirit behind all of their songs, if everyone somehow managed to get past Morrissey’s occasional forays up his own ass. Beyond him quoting from poetry, the band were always men of the people during their prime, and that alone should give them a seat at the very beginning of Britpop.
Although their music was nowhere near the debuts of bands like Oasis or even The La’s, the way Johnny Marr and Morrissey wrote songs took their music to a completely different level than most. And since many of the biggest Britpop acts were talking about life in England and the struggles everyone has at the bottom, hearing tracks like ‘The Queen is Dead’ and ‘The Headmaster Ritual’ were the kind of stories that were all too real for people who didn’t understand what the future held for them.
The genre may not have started until The Stone Roses put out their debut record, but there’s not a single band to have come out around that time who didn’t cite Johnny Marr as one of the greatest guitarists of their time. They may have arrived at the party a few years too early, but The Smiths are still more than able to earn a spot at both chairs as alternative icons and Britpop godfathers.
4. Bikini Kill – riot-grrrl
Punk rock has always been about going against the grain of what everyone else was supposed to be. Many artists wanted to be rebellious, but looking back on where Sex Pistols and The Clash took their music, there was still a whole half of the audience whose voices weren’t being heard. And if Patti Smith was the only woman that punk rock took under its wing, then it was up to Kathleen Hanna to start a completely new genre from the ground up once Bikini Kill began making waves.
Although the band started as yet another offshoot of hardcore punk, hearing Hanna discuss distinctly female topics was a breath of fresh air from people who only talked about their own inner feelings of existential angst. Because listening to ‘Rebel Girl’, it’s hard not to feel secondhand anger from Hanna as she talks about every man that has stepped on her and her willingness to praise her fellow ladies for ramming their boots down any misogynist’s throat.
And even though riot-grrrl never got to the same heights as genres like grunge or nu-metal back in the day, it’s important to realise how much Bikini Kill meant to everyone from Sleater-Kinney to Green Day. Punk rock was certainly fun while it lasted, but it was time for the female perspective to bring the thunder as well.
3. King Crimson – progressive rock
Rock and roll never prided itself on being the most inventive genre in the world. For a style that was based around the blues and only featured three chords for its first half-decade, it’s safe to say that none of them were going to give Bach or Beethoven a run for their money in the musical department or anything. When listening to King Crimson, though, fans got a taste of what classical and rock could be like if they had come together.
While Robert Fripp was never interested in the same kind of rock and roll that The Beatles and The Stones were spitting out, hearing him bring together everything from jazzy chords to strange time signatures on In the Court of the Crimson King opened up people’s minds as to where the genre could go. If Jimmy Page helped open doors with Led Zeppelin, Fripp was showing people different worlds altogether the minute that he hit on ‘21st Century Schizoid Man.’
And looking at the people who left the band and were in Fripp’s inner circle, it’s a who’s who of prog-rock brilliance, whether that was Greg Lake forming Emerson, Lake and Palmer after the fact or Fripp eventually working with David Bowie to create his outlandish musical detours on Low and “Heroes”. Even though rock had a distinctive sound, King Crimson was the band that proved what could be done if everyone explored beyond the same old three chords.
2. Black Sabbath – Heavy Metal
No genre was ever invented with the intention of being elevator music. Most of the biggest acts in rock history were trying to put together music that could hit the listener right between the eyes, and even if it was a lot to take in, it often left fans with a smile on their faces. Although most heavy rock in the 1960s began and ended with bands like The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, four hardened men from Birmingham took rock and roll in a different direction when they formed Black Sabbath.
Even though all of Sabbath would tell you that they were only listening to the sounds of Zeppelin and trying to imitate that, there was a demon laced in between Tony Iommi’s fingers whenever he played. Despite playing with Jethro Tull for a stint, Iommi had the basis for heavy metal down to a science from the minute that Sabbath’s debut came out, brandishing blues rock riffs with the sounds of Hell on ‘NIB’ and ‘Black Sabbath’.
Heavy metal would have been enough, but even looking at their later records, Master of Reality is the blueprint for stoner rock, and their stint with Ronnie James Dio on Heaven and Hell laid the groundwork for power metal that came directly afterwards. Sabbath may have been reluctant to accept the title of first heavy metal, but if you look at every other band that came afterwards, there’s absolutely no contest.
1. The Beatles – Psychedelic Rock
There aren’t too many genres of rock and roll that The Beatles didn’t have their hands in creating a little bit. Every one of their albums was considered another adventure when it came out, and even when fans were slow to understand it, the lion’s share of the rock community was willing to take the journey regardless. If there is one genre that the Fab Four could claim to own, it started when they started to take acid for the first time around Revolver.
Whereas ‘Day Tripper’ made it clear things were changing, hearing the backwards singing on ‘Rain’ and the acid-rock guitar on ‘Paperback Writer’ was a sign that things were going to be different. With ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ following soon after and John Lennon writing his masterpiece, ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, the band were responsible for pioneering psychedelic rock, with everyone from The Doors to The Rolling Stones flocking to their music to see how they could too make their music sound so delightfully strange.
But that’s not even how The Beatles thought about such things. They were just bound to get bored staying in one sound for the rest of their lives, and whether that relief came from them playing with audio techniques or testing the limits of the studio, they made sure that rock and roll wouldn’t sound the same once they were finished with it.
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