Introducing someone to rock/metal...

AlanOB

So today a friend of my mother's asks me to pass on a few albums to her kid who has been playing guitar for a number of years now and was looking to broaden his knowledge. According to her he was looking for "Metallica's instrumental album and stuff like that" (presumably he heard Call of Ktulu or Orion and jumped to conclusions). So what I did was get a 10 pack of CDs and chose ten albums that I thought he should begin with. Here they are (in chronological order no less ):

Yes - Close to the Edge (1972)
Rainbow - Rising (1974)
Judas Priest - Stained Class (1978)
UFO - Strangers In The Night (1979)
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard Of Ozz (1980)
Rush - Moving Pictures (1981)
Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast (1984)
Metallica - Ride The Lightning (1984)
Metallica - And Justice For All (1988)
Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime (1988)

This doesn't necessarily represent my favorite ten albums by the way, just the ones that I think he would find accessible as a newcomer to this kind of music (Close to the Edge was thrown in there for a challenge I guess! ). It's heavy on Metallica aswell, but only because he specifically requested them.

Which ten albums would you have chosen?

mike65

You sir have total top taste!

I'd drop the two early Metallicas and include the 'Black Album'.

My 10 (with education in mind!)

Led Zep - 1
The Who - Whos Next
Deep Purple - Made in Japan
Pink Floyd - Dark Side...
Queen - Sheer Heart Attack
Van Halen - 1
AC/DC - Powerage
Def Leppard - Pyromania
Metallica - 'Black Album'
Soundgarden - Superunknown

Mike.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

Zeppelin is an absolute must, as are Floyd, AC/DC, Cream/Clapton bla bla bla bla

AlanOB

Yeah maybe I should have included some Zep, even for purely historical reasons. Regretting no Floyd, Halen, Leppard, Sabbath and Purple aswell, but if you only have ten blank CDs you're going to have to make some tough choices!

In the end, I predominantly went for the albums that had the biggest impact on me when I was introduced to music.

(Should have thrown in Sabbath Bloody Sabbath though. Damn! )

pbsuxok1znja4r

I think you should try to make him aware of something a little more contemporary or at least put him in touch with someone who can. Metallica and Maiden, as much as I love 'em, are old hat.

AlanOB

War on two fronts eh?

Contemporary and old hat are irrelevant terms when it comes to musical discussion my friend.

Great music is great music regardless of the time period and it just so happens that in the field of rock/metal it's the 70s/80s that hold the vast majority of those greats.

But hey I could be wrong. Someone call Bach and tell him he's obsolete now.

Acid_Violet

If this list is for Classic rock or anything? I would try to give a very broad basis, like this;

Rolling Stones; Forty licks/Greatest Hits
Pixies ;Surfer Rosa
Smashing Pumpkins; Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
The Doors; the Doors
Sex Pistols; Never Mind the Bollocks
AcDc; Back in Black
Radiohead; The Bends
Guns'n'Roses; Apetite for destruction
Electric Wizard; Dopethrone (just for variation)
Weezer; the Green album

Given more time to think I'd have probably come out with something better. To be fair, it is heavily prejudiced with my own taste, but I think a lot of new stuff is excellent and just as valid as Classic rock.

Also, well done to the person who put up Soundgarden. Completely under-rated band, I must say.

mike65

I think a list of oldies (Soundgarden is pretty modern by my standards!) is good as it helps to explain the orgins of the species. Even todays crappy chanting/yelling Emo rockers came from somewhere.

Mike.

Acid_Violet

Soundgarden are modern by my standards too, but I think that a lot of people forget about the great stuff in their day and look back to stuff like Zepellin and then only appreciate the music of their generation later on. Ok, i'm kind of bull****ting, but basically 90's Grunge is great! *nods solemnly*

pbsuxok1znja4r

AlanOB wrote:

War on two fronts eh?

Contemporary and old hat are irrelevant terms when it comes to musical discussion my friend.

Great music is great music regardless of the time period and it just so happens that in the field of rock/metal it's the 70s/80s that hold the vast majority of those greats.

But hey I could be wrong. Someone call Bach and tell him he's obsolete now.

I think you just might be wrong.


Great music is great music? Great is an inescapably subjective term. Renderring it irrelevant for your purposes.

How convenient that great music is great music but the vast majority of it just "happened" to get produced during the 60s/70s/80s. :rolleyes:

I'm just saying if you want to give this kid a real education in music you need to keep him up to date too. So he's well-up on the latest incarnations of musical styles as well as the not-so-late. It helps.

John

I had a great list made up with footnotes and then boards logged me out and I lost the post :mad:

Here's the albums

The Classic:
Black Sabbath Paranoid
Iron Maiden Number of the Beast
Judas Priest British Steel

The Followers and Innovators:
Metallica Master of Puppets
Slayer Reign in Blood
Celtic Frost To Mega Therion
Melvins Houdini
Atheist Piece of Time

A couple of newbies:
Mastodon Leviathan
Khanate Things Viral*




*for advanced listeners only

Steoob

you really should including reign in blood.. the greatest thrash album of all time

Creamy Goodness

Acid_Violet wrote:

Weezer; the Green album

if you were going to give weezer at all, it would be a toss between the blue album and pinkerton. i think the blue album would win out because it would be more accessable not everyone loves pinkerton on their first listen. As much as i love weezer the green album is fit for the bin, songs 5-10 blend into one long song.

there's no one that i can really mention which haven't be mentioned here before.

metallica, queen, floyd etc.etc

there's some mighty lists here.

peter1892

Rush 'Moving Pictures' & Tool 'Lateralus' just to mix things up a bit.

And maybe something like Def Leppard's 'Hysteria' or 'Pyromania' - great song writing, production, etc.

Alice In Chains 'Dirt' is a good album from the early 90's, an alternative to the Nirvana/Pearl Jam stuff which is worth checking out too.

Oh, and Lizzy's 'Live & Dangerous'!

Edit: You already mentioned 'Moving Pictures'! I'll throw in '2112' then as an alternative.

Civilian_Target

OK - I'm going to agree with the OP for the most part. You're looking for something a bit mellow that leads to metal, not a huge blast of thrash that scares him off (Slayer...).

So, overall, I think good choices for the most part. If he gets into that sort of music, he will discover Zep, Sabbath etc. because everyone already listens to them. He may never find Rainbow or Queensryche without this list. The one catch is, it's a bit too golden oldie

Couple of others I'd have thrown on (maybe cutting out Iron Maiden, Priest or Yes to make room):
King Crimson - In The Court of the Crimson King (OK, it is old!)
Coheed & Cambria - IV: Good Apollo I'm Burning Star
Primus - Sailing on the Seas of Cheese

blastman

scouser.tommy wrote:

I think you just might be wrong.


Great music is great music? Great is an inescapably subjective term. Renderring it irrelevant for your purposes.

How convenient that great music is great music but the vast majority of it just "happened" to get produced during the 60s/70s/80s. :rolleyes:

I'm just saying if you want to give this kid a real education in music you need to keep him up to date too. So he's well-up on the latest incarnations of musical styles as well as the not-so-late. It helps.

Truly great music stands the test of time. It will be listened to in ten, twenty or a hundred years time. Contemporary music, while it may be considered good, still has to wait out the passage of time. It is simply too early to say whether some of today's music will pass this test and become great music, although I have no doubt some of it will. Likewise, and as has always been the case, most of it won't.

Acid_Violet

peter1892 wrote:

Alice In Chains 'Dirt' is a good album from the early 90's, an alternative to the Nirvana/Pearl Jam stuff which is worth checking out too.

I'm really glad that some-one said that.