10 Rock Albums That Were Ahead Of Their Time
2. The Velvet Underground and Nico - The Velvet Underground
As rock reached the back half of the 60's, the genre was progressing by leaps and bounds. Almost every other month, records would be coming out that not only presented new sounds, but set the precedent for how rock would fit into the coming decades. However, how many records can you think of that launched 3 different genres at the exact same time?
Emerging from the seedy underbelly of New York, the Velvet Underground's debut is exploding with new musical ideas left and right. While Lou Reed's poetic prowess with rock lyrics is definitely Bob Dylan-inspired, the harsh sounds of something like "Heroin" signal the ferocity of the metal scene by a few years. At the same time, that same harsh buzz featured a stripped down approach and a healthy respect for noise, which was an avant garde progenitor of what the punk rock movements would be doing.
Even with all those benchmarks, songs like "Venus in Furs" and the direction of Andy Warhol led to the band creating unusual soundscapes that would become pivotal in the art rock scene with bands like Talking Heads. It also doesn't hurt that all the songs are written beautifully, from the drug addled "I'm Waiting for the Man" to the gorgeous "Sunday Morning." This album may not have gotten a fair shake at the time, but after 50 years, we are still finding new things in this banana-clad record.