101 Albums that Changed Popular Music

Chris Smith's 101 Albums That Changed Popular Music tells the fascinating stories behind the most groundbreaking, influential, and often controversial albums ever recorded, ranging from The Anthology of American Folk Music (1952) to Elephant (2003) by The White Stripes. Organized chronologically to capture the flow of culture from one album to the next, this volume illuminates how these classic recordings reflected--and sometimes changed--the political, social, and economic culture of their eras. Among the featured albums are releases from the hard-blues explosion of the '60s, including Robert Johnson's King of the Delta Blues Singers, a landmark collection whose songs were later covered by the likes of Cream, Led Zeppelin, and the Rolling Stones. Punk made its mark in the '70s with Patti Smith's Horses and the Clash's London Calling. In the '80s Michael Jackson's blockbuster LP, Thriller, not only topped the charts, it became the best-selling record of all time. Diversity defined