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Post some songs that sound like nothing else that came before, or alternatively, post evidence that a previous example is wrong.

I honestly can't think of a rock tune that's much of a precursor to Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear The Reaper".   Iconic guitar riff, crazy lyrics, totally unique band sound.  Am I missing something?

Got another genre-busting tune?

 

 

  • Author

And yes, before anybody jumps it, here:

 

I mean, Bjork has to be on the short list right?  I still remember where I was when I heard this for the first time.  Turns out she had already been doing similar things with the Sugarcubes, but they didn't hit my radar until much later.

 

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6 minutes ago, TexasHooch said:

I mean, Bjork has to be on the short list right?  

GREAT call.   Yes.

^^^

Not that he didn't greatly influence Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, and a boatload of others.  But he's the original.  Used to live in Austin for a long time, too.  Still kicking at 78!

The accompanying music sounds like it could have been lifted straight out of a random 6 minute jam session by The Doors.

Edited by TexasHooch

41 minutes ago, TexasHooch said:the Sugarcubes

Sugarcubes is a good answer.  Buddy of mine played “Birthday” for me after it came out.   Didn’t sound like anything else.  

13 minutes ago, TexasHooch said:

The accompanying music sounds like it could have been lifted straight out of a random 6 minute jam session by The Doors.

 

Yeah the Doors had released two albums before this came out so they were probably a pretty big influence.  

 

How about Igor Stravinsky?  You know your music is new and different when it spawns a riot.

Hard to pick from so many, but few things have impacted the way I think about and listen to music as from having my mind blown by the way Jeff Buckley used his voice as an instrument beyond singing lyrics. Just otherworldly.

 

 

Radiohead.  Ok Computer is a masterpiece.

 

Ives did most of the things Stravinsky did before Stravinsky:

 

 

Ornette Coleman's playing around 1:10 always gets me and is sort of a proof of concept of the expressive capabilities of free jazz:

 

There were some pretty hip things happening in the late 14th century. Like things that seem 700+ years too early:

 

Whatever you think of Schoenberg, every composer for a generation either had to copy him or intentionally not copy him. The Nazis labeled it degenerate music, which tells me that he was doing something pretty compelling:

 

 

Edited by Mole

Quote

Ives did most of the things Stravinsky did before Stravinsky:

Good pull.

"(Ives) set about devouring the contemporary cake before anyone else had even found a seat at the table" -Igor Stravinsky

 

This is my personal favorite. It may sound familiar but then he twists it like a pretzel (It's like Sousa on crack):

 

 

Ives singing his "They Are They!" is a fun time.

 

And how about Daniel Johnston for the Texas connection?

 

If we're looking for iconic songs/moments that changed everything with a new sound,  "Eruption" has to be on that list.  And the all-synth sounds of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love."  

You could arguably place those two moments as the birth of hair metal and EDM, respectively.  

Two holy shit moments for me:

8th grade





senior in hs

Just now, Scooter Monzingo said:

Almost 30 posts in and no Beatles, Rolling Stones or Elvis...interesting.

Geez, left off Ray Charles.

3 hours ago, Scooter Monzingo said:

Almost 30 posts in and no Beatles, Rolling Stones or Elvis...interesting.

 

10 hours ago, Bojack said:

 

 

4 hours ago, Scooter Monzingo said:

Almost 30 posts in and no Beatles, Rolling Stones or Elvis...interesting.

I was going to go that direction. Decided to go more obscure.  My first pick was straight up LHB the eyes just as a mic dropper. Then I remembered the LHB came on stage for a ghostland concert. Still one of the most wicked live acts ever. Wish I had been there for that one. 

3 hours ago, Scooter Monzingo said:

Almost 30 posts in and no Beatles, Rolling Stones or Elvis...interesting.

Because Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and Chuck Berry.

I'd listen to the argument that, while heavily influenced, the Beatles and Stones had their own sound.  But Elvis? He was just a good looking white kid doing his best to perform like Berry and sound like Roy Hamilton.

Just now, TexasHooch said:

Because Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and Chuck Berry.

I'd listen to the argument that, while heavily influenced, the Beatles and Stones had their own sound.  But Elvis? He was just a good looking white kid doing his best to perform like Berry and sound like Roy Hamilton.

And that’s true. 

  • Author

I'd say there was a little Buddy Holly in early Beatles, too.

Early on it was this one....later SRV's TX Flood....neither of these guys could be replicated

 

 

53 minutes ago, TexasHooch said:

Because Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and Chuck Berry.

I'd listen to the argument that, while heavily influenced, the Beatles and Stones had their own sound.  But Elvis? He was just a good looking white kid doing his best to perform like Berry and sound like Roy Hamilton.

First off Johnson, Waters and to a large part Hooker were pure blues guys. Not to mention Jimmyjazz asked for songs “that don’t sound like anything else”. True to their art, they suffered for it. And would only start to capitalize on their talents after the British Invasion. But blues sounded like blues. It pretty much could be identified in four notes.

Ray on the other hand popularized an entirely new sound with the combination of the blues, and gospel. And got shit from the black community for doing that very thing. And used time signatures in ways no musician had ever done up to that point. The guy laid the groundwork for what would come.
 

So far as Elvis. I’m not sure how old you are but that is some serious revisionist history. Not only did Elvis get the very music that Ray developed onto the airwaves, which no one would dare play prior. He got the white community to buy it, and buy a lot of it. The reason? Because the white community had never heard such a sound. Sure, doesn’t sound like much now. But ask anyone who was there the cultural impact Elvis had. We would have eventually got the music on the air, Elvis just short cut the process. Elvis drove rock and roll mainstream. And yeah, he was a good looking guy.

Hey, I dig it if you don’t agree. But, I have been a musician most of my life. It is simply how I remember it.

10 hours ago, Surly Bevo said:

 

Written one year prior to the Rite of Spring. I’ll direct your attention to about 1:55 in particular. I’m not saying that Stravinsky stole that lick, but it’s the same thing. This will be my last Ives post, but for most of the interesting developments in the first half of the 20th century, Ives probably did it first.


And how about some prepared piano? There were some precedents for the technique, but not much for what John Cage did.

 

38 minutes ago, Scooter Monzingo said:

First off Johnson, Waters and to a large part Hooker were pure blues guys. Not to mention Jimmyjazz asked for songs “that don’t sound like anything else”. True to their art, they suffered for it. And would only start to capitalize on their talents after the British Invasion. But blues sounded like blues. It pretty much could be identified in four notes.

Ray on the other hand popularized an entirely new sound with the combination of the blues, and gospel. And got shit from the black community for doing that very thing. And used time signatures in ways no musician had ever done up to that point. The guy laid the groundwork for what would come.
 

So far as Elvis. I’m not sure how old you are but that is some serious revisionist history. Not only did Elvis get the very music that Ray developed onto the airwaves, which no one would dare play prior. He got the white community to buy it, and buy a lot of it. The reason? Because the white community had never heard such a sound. Sure, doesn’t sound like much now. But ask anyone who was there the cultural impact Elvis had. We would have eventually got the music on the air, Elvis just short cut the process. Elvis drove rock and roll mainstream. And yeah, he was a good looking guy.

Hey, I dig it if you don’t agree. But, I have been a musician most of my life. It is simply how I remember it.

I didn't argue that the guys I mentioned fit the parameters set by the OP, I only cited them as evidence that the artists you offered (I don't include Ray Charles from your subsequent post) weren't quite as unique as maybe you implied. 

That said, I'm still not going to argue the Beatles and Stones.  As I stipulated, you can hear the Blues (The Stones) and R&B (Beatles) influences in their earlier music, but their sound was their own; And in the case of the Beatles, they evolved significantly over time.  

As for Elvis, Maybe we're just interpreting the OP differently.  Elvis' music wasn't original. Not at all. As you said yourself, Ray was doing it, as was Roy Hamilton. Seriously, listen to a early Roy Hamilton ballad with his phrasing and vibrato and tell me it doesn't sound like Elvis before Elvis.  

Elvis' songs weren't "songs that sound like nothing else".  They were simply songs that sounded exactly like songs that White America hadn't heard yet, coupled with a stage presence that white girls weren't previously allowed to see as sexual.  That's not nothing. I can't imagine the guts it took, and no one can credibly argue against Elvis' cultural impact- I'd go so far as to say that it hasn't been matched before or since.  But I didn't see this as a thread about the cultural impact of rock artists. If it were, The Beatles, Stones, and Elvis would all be in my top 5.

Fun topic.

This one blew my mind up as a 12 year old. I mean I was well aware of hip hop then but the subject matter was eye-opening for me, and I had never heard anything like it. And it was fucking awesome.

 

 

I've never heard anything like this.  I guess it kind of cribs from classical composers a bit.

Also

I realize AC/DC was amplifying blues riffs, but no one else before them that I know of had done it so loud, hard, fast, whatever.  Sure, Zeppelin was heavier, but there's always been something really unique to AC/DC's sound to me.  Plus, Bon Scott.  What he was doing as a vocalist was pretty fucking original at the time.

Edited by Al_4_ISU

  • Author

Yeah, I expected some early rap, but I don't really know much about the artists who broke the genre.  Kurtis Blow?  Sugarhill Gang?

I'm also curious as to the point when jazz broke to bop.  Charlie Parker?

The piano went to new places with this number and this is my wife's warm up piece.

 

 

Yeah, I expected some early rap, but I don't really know much about the artists who broke the genre.  Kurtis Blow?  Sugarhill Gang?
I'm also curious as to the point when jazz broke to bop.  Charlie Parker?


Run DMC, Fat Boys, Kool Moe Dee, LL Cool J, on and on.

NWA really changed it up.

I vividly remember the first time I heard both Smells Like Teen Spirit and Man In The Box. I immediately went and bought both CDs in both cases.

Also:
NIN - Head Like A Hole
Ministry - Thieves
Primus - Jerry Was A Race Car Driver
Metallica - Jump In The Fire
12 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Yeah, I expected some early rap, but I don't really know much about the artists who broke the genre.  Kurtis Blow?  Sugarhill Gang?

As a white kid from Austin my hip hop knowledge at the time was of Run DMC, Grandmaster Flash, License to Ill-era Beasties, the Fat Boys, Kurtis Blow, etc... Rather light-hearted party type acts that weren't extremely deep.

When the guys in military garb showed up, with fucking Flavor Flav, and started rapping about slavery, corruption, institutional racism and revolution... some new (old) shit came to light for me.

 

  • Author
2 minutes ago, Buzzrock said:

I vividly remember the first time I heard both Smells Like Teen Spirit 

As big a fan as I am of that band and song, I'm not sure it fits.  I guess it does in some sense, but the nod to The Pixies is clear (and Cobain admitted it).

To me, the chord progression always echoed "Godzilla" by (irony) Blue Oyster Cult.  Some people say Boston's "More Than A Feeling", but I think that's a copout.  It's just not the same thing.

 

This is a little different because the music is a cover, but the presentation is different that anything I'd seen or heard before.  I've seen/heard orchestras play with Metallica, Deep Purple, and others, but it is different with just one instrument - in this case cellos.  There were probably others that did similar things before, but this was my first experience.

 

two songs on one album completely changed shit for the next decade.  security by peter gabriel...san jacinto and rhythm of the heat.

 

 

the entire Ágætis byrjun album by sigur ros.

 

beethoven 3rd symphony.

 

and while the song itself may not fit the theme of this thread, the performance and the way of articulating it by this mother fucker right here:

 

Edited by sidis

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