10 Rock Bands That Invented Their Own Genre

Over the years, there comes to be bands that have become caricatures of the genre that they are a part of. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Bob Marley is one of the leaders of the reggae movement, or the fact that Johnny Cash belongs squarely in the realm of country music. Rock has a fair bit of those acts as well, as Black Sabbath created their own separate lane on their first records.

Being a much darker substitute for the Rolling Stones of the world, Sabbath's beginnings were on the cusp of something a lot more innovative, taking the bluesy foundation of rock and roll and making it a lot more sinister. By tuning down and getting a lot heavier, Tony Iommi created riffs that could scare you to death from the minute you heard them, along with Ozzy Osbourne telling tales about the seedier side of life, like the occult on NIB or the falling Flower Generation on Children of the Grave.

Though they never self identified as anything less than a good hard rock band, the entire concept of metal music still lives in the shadow of what those first few records achieved. While the first Sabbath album may have just been a good heavy rock record at the time, the entire generation of kids that listened to it and formed bands of their own are regarded as some of the first metal bands that the world had ever known.