10 Rock Music Debuts That Changed The Game

There's always a certain magic about seeing a band let loose in a dirty garage. As much as the stadiums of the world may be filled with loud guitars from time to time, the root of every great rock band can turn the tiny garage space into an arena, with songs that are performed more at street level. And when you had the pop punk invasion of MTV just starting to reach its peak in the early '00s, the Strokes struck out sounding like the greatest '70s rock band you never got around to actually hearing.

Going through their debut Is This It, this could practically be a greatest hits album for them, taking all of the allure that comes with being in downtown New York and amplifying it that much more. While Julian Casablancas's delivery can be a bit of an acquired taste, there's definitely a certain aura about him, being almost too disinterested to sing above his usual tone of voice and adding further mystery to every single thing that comes out of his mouth.

Since there was no real rock and roll like this on the radio, the entire scene seemed to switch on a dime overnight, with bands like the Arctic Monkeys and The Hives coming out in the next few years playing the same kind of ramshackle sounds that the Strokes had called their own. For all of the aggression in songs like the Modern Age, there seems to be a little bit of New York hidden between the grooves of this record. It might be dirty and a little bit ugly at times, but you're always going to want to revisit this again and again.