10 Rock Albums That Invented Entire Genres

In the ‘60s there were only two types of rock: rock and roll and hard rock. Although most people jumped on the bandwagon of rock and roll when the Beatles hit it big, the newer sounds of acts like The Doors and the later Rolling Stones were opening people’s eyes to what rock and roll could really sound like. Though the blues bands of the ‘60s may have given rock some teeth, a few misfits out of Birmingham brought us something that no one had heard before.

When Black Sabbath were first laying down their tunes, their initial vision was to write something that was designed to frighten people. Opening up like a rock and roll horror movie, Black Sabbath’s debut took listeners on a different kind of ride, taking the dark sounds of the blues and melding them together with dissonance and foreboding lyrics about the occult. While the initial critiques of the album may have been appalling, this was the beginning of an entirely new genre finding its feet.

Although Sabbath defined themselves as hard rock, this was the unofficial start of heavy metal, making music that was designed to be scary but with a solid backbeat and swagger to it. The Doors may have lit fires of psychedelia and Cream may have opened your mind to what the blues could do, but the roaring sounds of Tony Iommi’s guitar sent a shiver down the spine of any kid born for something more than traditional rock and roll.