10 Hard Rock Albums That Changed Music History

Some of the best rock artists in the world always start things off with a blues riff when they first pick up a guitar. Before rock and roll had even been invented, you already had people like BB King and Howlin Wolf tapping into the grittiness of music by singing about the dark side of life, from heartache to sexual tension. Blues also had its fun side though, and Aerosmith had grown into the band that would put boogie back into rock and roll.

Up until this point, the Bad Boys From Boston had already gotten a nasty reputation as a second rate version of the Rolling Stones, but this is where they started to form their own unique identity. With the mammoth selling Toys in the Attic under their belt, you can hear them getting more confident in their own skin as performers, like on the opener Back in the Saddle sounding like something out of an old Western or the borderline metallic sound of Nobody's Fault. Even when they graduated to arenas, they always kept things low to the ground and grooving, like the tight rhythm that takes you through Last Child.

Rock fans were still getting most of their hard rock from England at the time, but America could still hold its own when it came to something a little more balls to the wall. In just a few years, these kids had taken those Stones influences and found their own kind of swagger along the way.