10 Albums From The '60s That Changed Rock History

10. Freak Out - Frank Zappa

In the wake of the psychedelic period, it was officially time for rock to start getting weird. The old 12 bar blues format wasn’t really going to be working for too much longer, and artists were starting to throw everything at the wall to see what they could work with in the future. And in the middle of it all was Frank Zappa, who became the weirdest man in rock and roll without the help of any hallucinogens.

Because when you go through the album Freak Out, there are points where you start to question whether or not you’re actually listening to a rock album. Structured as a double album experience, the tone of these songs feel weird for weird’s sake, from songs that feel like they’re being played as a joke to random jams that stretch well beyond 10 minutes. On paper, this thing should fall apart, but the music is enough to really keep you invested, with each of the jams leading your ear in that much more every time you listen to it.

This was only the beginning of Zappa’s streak of strangeness, going down the rabbit hole of rock opera, jazz rock, and even some blues thrown into the mix, each of them becoming more and more interesting later down the line. If anything, that’s just a testament to what we were working with back then. Since something like this could get on the charts, there were no rules anymore.