10 Albums From The '60s That Changed Rock History

As the psychedelic sounds of California were starting to take over, rock was also starting to get a lot more nasty. At the same time that you had the Summer of Love, there was also the backdrop of the Vietnam War, bringing about death and destruction wherever it went. As Jim Morrison said, all the children are insane, and the Stooges were a look at the evolution of man.

While every member of the Stooges were fans of the heavier side of rock, there’s something about their debut that seems out of time entirely. Though the first song indicates the year 1969, there’s something a lot more primal being tapped into here, only using the bare bones chords on most of the tracks and Iggy Pop being a lot more concerned about attitude than actually hitting every single note he sings. This was by no means fun music to listen to by any stretch, but it did signal a bit of a change of the guard in rock and roll. In the wake of Iggy’s larger than life stage presence, you had the seeds of the punk and hard rock genre as well.

Looking back, it’s not that hard to make a connection between the sounds of Iggy and what would come later with the Ramones or Television. For all of the showmanship and borderline insane performances, fans would move to the back of the club but never wanted to leave. No matter how many chops they had, there was an aura about this band, and it was drawing the seedier side of rock and roll to the forefront.