What are some essential discographies?

[Apex]

Michael Jackson
Stevie Wonder
David Bowie
Prince
Marvin Gaye
John Coltrane

Having a general familiarity with those catalogs will up your musical IQ significantly. They're some of the most influential artists, post James Brown. You might be able to argue Jackson, Bowie, and Prince are the top 3 most influential post James Brown.

Can you elaborate on their influence? What did they do to influence artists? How so in terms of the sonics? If so, who? I've never heard even one project from these artists, but I definitely will.

 

[Mac Casper]

Tupac Shakur
The Beatles
Mac Dre
Prince
Suga Free
Parliament
Funkadelic
The Strokes

 

[360dagod]

hall and oates
pink floyd
the whispers
michael jax
prince
sade
anita baker
average white band

and i might have to check out those beatles demos..i heard one and paul layed down a bassline something serious...just filthy

kool and the gang

 

[Mac Casper]

Tupac Shakur
The Beatles
Mac Dre
Prince
Suga Free
Parliament
Funkadelic
The Strokes

 

[Piff Perkins]

Can you elaborate on their influence? What did they do to influence artists? How so in terms of the sonics? If so, who? I've never heard even one project from these artists, but I definitely will.

Michael Jackson:

Arguably the most influential music artist since James Brown. He paved the way for modern pop and r&b, influencing Madonna and everything that came afterward. By the late 70s disco was dealing with major backlash from many people, partially driven by racist and homophobic views. Jackson turned the page on disco with Off The Wall by mixing it more prominently with funk, pop, and other genres. He also helped pave the way for the "quiet storm" genre of r&b with the song I Can't Help It. Next time you're driving around at 11PM or so find an r&b station, it'll likely have that quiet storm shyt segment.

Then you have Thriller, the biggest album ever. Again blending various genres, surpassing color lines. Later he experimented with EDM, helped pioneer trip hop (Stranger In Moscow), and many other influences.

Stevie Wonder:

He's generally considered one of the greatest songwriters of all time. We talk about great album runs sometime but I'm not sure anyone is touching what Stevie did in the 1970s. From Wiki:

Wonder's "classic period" is generally agreed to be between 1972 and 1977.[80][81][82] Some observers see in 1971's Where I'm Coming From certain indications of the beginning of the classic period, such as its new funky keyboard style which Wonder used throughout the classic period.[82] Some determine Wonder's first "classic" album to be 1972's Music of My Mind, on which he attained personal control of production, and on which he programmed a series of songs integrated with one another to make a concept album.[82] Others skip over early 1972 and determine the beginning of the classic period to be Talking Book in late 1972,[83] the album in which Wonder "hit his stride".[82]

His classic 1970s albums were very influential on the music world: the 1983 Rolling Stone Record Guide said they "pioneered stylistic approaches that helped to determine the shape of pop music for the next decade";[32] Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time included four of the five albums, with three in the top 90;[38] and in 2005, Kanye West said of his own work, "I'm not trying to compete with what's out there now. I'm really trying to compete with Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life. It sounds musically blasphemous to say something like that, but why not set that as your bar?"

David Bowie:

Another one of the most influential musicians of all time. He popularized the concept album and advanced 1970s progressive rock by taking things farther with electronic and ambient influences. Production wise his albums were ahead of their time in terms of synths and drum machines. Dunno how much 80s pop you've listened to but peep the drum sound here, you've probably heard the sound before.


That came out in 1977. The album it was on birthed an entire decade of pop drum programming.

Although the music was influenced by German bands such as Kraftwerk and Neu!,[12][27] Low has been acclaimed for its originality and is considered ahead of its time, not least for its cavernous treated drum sound created by producer Visconti using an Eventide Harmonizer.[11][29] On the release of Low, Visconti received phone calls from other producers asking how he had made this unique sound, but would not give up the information, instead asking each producer how they thought it had been done.[29] In 2004, Bjorn Randolph of Stylus Magazine said that "had the album been released twenty years later, this would have been called "post-rock.""[30]

Bowie also birthed new music movements and was a pioneer of androgynous leanings in music lyrics and fashion, alongside Prince.


I'll post more later...

 

[lucky lefty]

Top 10 in no order:

Jay Z, Jiggaman, Jayhova aka Hova Da Gawd, William H Holla, Iceberg Slim, Hov, Young Hov, Euro Hov, Lucky Lefty & Playboy Jigga

 

[Da_Eggman]

Mobb deep
Outkast
Nirvana
Future
Sonic youth
Pavement
Built to spill
Slick rick
Nas
Guided by voices
Meek mill
Weeknd
Pusha T
Ugk
Bone thugs
PND
Clash
Radiohead

 

[Kilgore Trout]

radiohead

 

[Piff Perkins]

Can you elaborate on their influence? What did they do to influence artists? How so in terms of the sonics? If so, who? I've never heard even one project from these artists, but I definitely will.

Prince:

One of the most versatile, talented, and genius musicians ever. Blended rock with r&b, pop, funk, everything. Like Bowie he had huge influence in terms of drum programming, not just for pop but even hip hop. Also he had the best synths in the 80s imo.

I can't think of anyone with a better catalog of music outside of Stevie Wonder perhaps. Classic album after classic album. Effortless mastery of various genres of music. One of the greatest guitarists of all time. Burned the fukking house down here:

I've never seen anything like that before brehs

IMO no one continued James Brown's torch better than Prince in terms of funk. He moved away from the funk as time went on but never lost it. Prince also helped pioneer the androgynous musical leanings of the time that still has influence today (Young Thug comes to mind).

The Prince v Jackson rivalry in the 80s is one of the greatest things to ever happen in music IMO.

Marvin Gaye:

Similar to Stevie Wonder in terms of master songwriting. One of the pioneers of r&b/pop music with social messages. By now you've probably noticed a pattern: nearly all the artists mentioned are partially known for mixing genres. Gaye is no different. He mixed soul and r&b with gospel and jazz, forming an unholy beautiful alliance.

What's Going On remains one of the most relevant albums of all time on every level. You can hear the melodies when you turn on the radio, the lyrical content mirrors our world today. It's amazing.

In terms of other influence: the slow jam.

The album also affirmed Gaye's influence over later R&B styles and artists.[19] Gaye's change of musical style and production soon became contemporary and popular, prior to the disco era of the late 1970s. Several successful Motown artists, including Lionel Richie and Rick James, were influenced by many of the elements of Gaye's recording style for their work in the late 1970s and early 1980s.[9] The slow jam sound and contemporary R&B production in general were greatly influenced by the album's use of vocal multi-tracking and instrumentation. Allmusic calls the album "the blueprint for all of the slow jams to follow decades later — much copied, but never imitated."[28] Renown engineer Russell Elevado's work in the neo soul genre, including his production for D'Angelo's Voodoo (2000) and Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun (2000), has been influenced by Gaye's and Townsend's production techniques and sound.[9][38]

Coltrane tomorrow...

 

[Mac Casper]

I'm going to add Empire of the Sun to my list

 

[Piff Perkins]

Can you elaborate on their influence? What did they do to influence artists? How so in terms of the sonics? If so, who? I've never heard even one project from these artists, but I definitely will.

You could choose a variety of jazz artists but I went with Coltrane. He inspired an entire generation of sax players and continues to be a dominant figure in the genre. He's credited with helping to pioneer free jazz and is known as one of the most complex players in jazz history. The chord progression of his sax play influenced not only jazz but other genres of music as well.

Coltrane employed extremely dense improvisational yet patterned lines consisting of high speed arpeggios and scale patterns played in rapid succession: hundreds of notes running from the lowest to highest registers.[4] The lines are often faster than sixteenth notes, consisting of quintuplets, septuplets, etc., and can sound like glissandos.[5] The saxophonist invented this style while playing with Thelonious Monk and later developed it further when he returned to Miles Davis' group. Both leaders are known to have facilitated a free atmosphere where Coltrane was able to experiment on the bandstand.

notice how the speed of the notes goes crazy.

He's also credited with birthing the spiritual jazz movement.

 

[MikeyC]

 

[Apex]

You could choose a variety of jazz artists but I went with Coltrane. He inspired an entire generation of sax players and continues to be a dominant figure in the genre. He's credited with helping to pioneer free jazz and is known as one of the most complex players in jazz history. The chord progression of his sax play influenced not only jazz but other genres of music as well.



notice how the speed of the notes goes crazy.

He's also credited with birthing the spiritual jazz movement.

Breh, you don't understand how much I appreciate this. Thank you for this.

 

[Columbo]

Nas

 

[IShotTheSheriff]

In Hip Hop some I feel are essential are...


Bizzy Bone

Canibus
Big L

Shouts out for that Bizzy Bone mention!

Canibus has some GEMS (Dead By Design is one of my all time favorite tracks, the Poet Laureate series is good for damn sure ) but I wouldn't suggest his entire discography by a long shot bro bro.