10 Best Experimental Rock Albums Of All Time
7. Tommy - The Who
Pretty much anything that wasn't classifiable as a pop song in the '60s normally fell under the umbrella of experimental. Since (REAL TALK) the music business had a major stick up their ass at the time, even breaching beyond 3 minutes for a radio single seemed like a little much for people to take on. So imagine how you would sell those guys on the idea of having a rock album centered around one overarching story?
Granted, this was not a first for Pete Townshend at this point. Across the Who's past few albums, we'd heard him flirting with the idea of making some more outlandish musical choices on songs like A Quick One and Rael. This was the no compromised vision though...an entire double album that would center around one continuous story without departing for a radio song. All that build up...and yet it somehow worked.
Not only could Townshend get away with it, but Tommy became the album that birthed the idea of the rock opera, with many other bands adopting the idea of creating an album that told a story from back to front. Hell, they weren't ashamed of it either, going so far as to feature shows where they played the album in its entirety. Countless concept albums have come out in their wake, and yet none of them have been able to step out of the shadow of the deaf dumb and blind boy.