10 Perfect Albums That Started Rock Genres
8. Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan
In a perfect world, Bob Dylan was probably supposed to play traditional folk music for the rest of his life. With a guitar as his weapon of choice, the first half of the '60s saw Mr. Zimmerman create some of the most scathing protest music of the Vietnam Era, with songs like Blowin in the Wind and The Times They Are A Changin having a lot to say about how we treat our fellow man. Dylan's messages were getting bigger than just folk music, and if he wanted to reach a bigger audience, he needed to plug in.
That's not to say that Highway 61 Revisited was met with open arms upon release though. During the first handful of gigs that Dylan played to promote the album, he was already being hounded by some of his hardcore fans accusing him of selling out and becoming inauthentic. Once you listened to the music though, Dylan knew exactly what he was doing, almost using the louder guitars as an excuse to deal with heavier subjects, like the confusion of being in the middle of his own revolution on Like a Rolling Stone or firing back at the critics looking to pick him apart on Ballad of a Thin Man.
From that point on, some of Dylan's biggest fans weren't exactly shy about wearing his influence on their sleeves, from the Beatles making Dylan pastiches on You've Got to Hide Your Love Away to the Byrds playing catchup by putting a folk rock spin on some of his old tunes like Mr. Tambourine Man. Dylan may have thought to sue people at some point, but when you take into account all the other Dylan copycats, the days in court would probably never end.