Best record on Muzik's The 50 Most Influential Records of All Times

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed

Under the Influence - How This List Was Made

Muzik wanted to define the records that had shaped the music we love today. The music that made Basement Jaxx, The Chemical Brothers, Roni Size and System F all possible. Not necessarily the best records ever, although they were hardly going to be stinkers, but the ones which pushed forward a genre, or fused styles to create a new hybrid. The qualities we were looking for were:
Effect on today’s music - Originality

Fusing of existing genres to create new musical styles Music that changed the club scene as well as the sound.

Chosen and written by Ben Turner, Frank Tope, Rob da Bank, Calvin Bush, Dorian Lynskey, Tom Mugridge and Michael Bonner The most important music of the 20th Century. The records which have shaped the music we hear today, from trance to trip hop, from big beat to Basement Jaxx. Everything starts with these...

Poll Results

OptionVotes
7. Donna Summer “I Feel Love” (Casablanca 1977)(12”) 11
8. Kraftwerk “Trans Europe Express” (EMI 1977)(King Klang L.P.) 9
1. The Beatles “Tomorrow Never Knows” (EMI 1966)(Revolver L.P.) 9
5. Augustus Pablo “King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown” (Island 1976)(7”) 7
50. Stardust “Music Sounds Better With You” (Roulé 1998)(12”) 6
35. Hardfloor “Hardtrance Acperience” (Harthouse 1992)(12”) 4
2. James Brown “Funky Drummer” (King 1969)(7”) 4
43. Basic Channel “Phylyps Trak II” (Basic Channel 1995)(12”) 3
17. Public Enemy “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” (Def Jam 1989)(L.P.) 3
25. The KLF “Chill Out” (KLF Communications 1990)(L.P.) 3
32. The Aphex Twin “Digeridoo” (R&S 1992)(12”) 3
11. New Order “Blue Monday” (Factory 1983)(12”) 3
9. Grandmaster Flash “Adventure On the Wheels of Steel” (Sugarhill 1981)(12”) 3
3. Marvin Gaye “What’s Going On” (Motown 1970)(L.P.) 3
31. The Future Sound of London “Papua New Guinea” (Jumpin’ & Pumpin’ 1991)(12”) 2
26. Massive Attack “Blue Lines” (Virgin 1991)(L.P.) 2
24. Primal Scream “Loaded” (Creation 1990)(12”) 2
21. Lil’ Louis “French Kiss” (FFRR 1989)(12”) 2
27. Joey Beltram “Energy Flash” (R&S 1991)(12”) 2
18. A Guy Called Gerald “Voodoo Ray” (Rham 1988)(12”) 2
13. Double D & Steinski “Lesson Three” (Tommy Boy 1985)(12” promo) 2
19. Rhythim is Rhythim “Strings of Life” (Transmat/Jack Trax 1988)(12”) 1
20. De La Soul “Three Feet High & Rising” (Tommy Boy 1989)(L.P.) 1
10. Afrika Bambaataa “Planet Rock” (Tommy Boy 1982)(12”) 1
39. Dave Clarke “Red 2” (Bush 1994)(12”) 1
41. Goldie “Inner City Life” (FFRR 1994)(12”) 1
4. Incredible Bongo Band “Apache” (MGM 1973)(Bongo Rock L.P.) 1
46. D’Angelo “Brown Sugar” (Chrysalis 1995)(12”) 1
48. Double 99 “Rip Groove” (Northwestside 1997)(12”) 1
12. Streetsounds Electro “Volumes One - Eight” (Streetsounds Compilations 1983-5)(12”) 1
29. Lennie De Ice “We Are I.E.” (Reel 2 Real 1991)(12”) 1
14. Mr Fingers “Can You Feel it” (Trax 1987)(12”) 1
28. Leftfield “Not Forgotten (Hard Hands mix)” (Outer Rhythm 1991)(12”) 1
23. 808 State “Pacific State” (ZTT 1989)(12”) 1
30. The Prodigy "Charly" (XL 1991)(12") 0
44. DJ Trace “Mutant Revisited” (SOUR 1995)(12”) 0
45. Fatboy Slim “Everybody Needs a 303” (Skint 1995)(12”) 0
47. Misjah & Time “Access” (X-Trax 1995)(12”) 0
22. Soul II Soul “Club Classics” (Virgin 1989)(L.P.) 0
49. Tina Moore “Never Gonna Let You Go” (Delirious 1997)(12”) 0
16. Techno “The House Sound of Detroit” (Ten Compilations 1988)(12”) 0
42. Robert Hood “Minimal Nation” (M-Plant 1993)(12”) 0
15. Phuture “Acid Tracks” (Trax 1987)(12”) 0
40. Dust Brothers “Chemical Beats” (Junior Boy’s Own 1994)(12”) 0
6. Double Exposure “Ten Per Cent” (Salsoul 1976)(12”) 0
37. L.T.J. Bukem “Music” (Good Looking 1993)(12”) 0
36. DJ Shadow “In/Flux” (Mo’Wax 1993)(12”) 0
34. Jam & Spoon “Stella” (R&S 1992)(12”) 0
33. Gat Decor “Passion” (Effective 1992)(12”) 0
38. Marmion “Schöneberg” (Superstation 1994)(12”) 0


the old grey mare hoos ain't what he hoosed to be (state of the world today), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 14:17 (seventeen years ago)

also Muzik Magazine's 10 For the Future - The Records You’ll Be Calling Classics in 2009

the old grey mare hoos ain't what he hoosed to be (state of the world today), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 14:17 (seventeen years ago)

i feel love. or funky drummer. but i pick i feel love.

scott seward, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 14:22 (seventeen years ago)

urgh.
this is just too damn difficult.
today steinski/double dee, tomorrow a guy clled gerald, the day after the klf.

mark e, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 14:26 (seventeen years ago)

I would agree that the Dust Brothers “Chemical Beats” was a profound influence on the Chemical Brothers.

zero learnt from nero (Neil S), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 14:33 (seventeen years ago)

I'd lilke to read how "French Kiss" and "Brown Sugar" were influential--my favorites here after PE.

Pete Scholtes, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 14:45 (seventeen years ago)

Why is it only "Lesson Three?"

Kevin John Bozelka, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 14:50 (seventeen years ago)

because it's a tracks poll?

moonship journey to baja, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 15:29 (seventeen years ago)

There's tons of albums above.

Kevin John Bozelka, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 15:31 (seventeen years ago)

The music that made Basement Jaxx, The Chemical Brothers, Roni Size and System F all possible.

kinda sad to blame the Beatles for this bullshit

shit was shocking as fuck back then (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 15:33 (seventeen years ago)

don't see the point of having 'Schoneberg' AND 'Access' there

Hard House SugBanton (blueski), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 15:34 (seventeen years ago)

i see that now ... weird to mix albums and singles

moonship journey to baja, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 15:38 (seventeen years ago)

Okay I don't know about "influential" but goddamn if I don't still love that Stardust track to death after all these years. I was seriously obsessed with that song and video in lolcollege.

homage is parody gone sour (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 15:57 (seventeen years ago)

Picking "We Are I.E." cuz I love it so.

Alex in SF, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 16:12 (seventeen years ago)

It's obv not the most influential thing on here though.

Alex in SF, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 16:13 (seventeen years ago)

12. Streetsounds Electro “Volumes One - Eight” (Streetsounds Compilations 1983-5)(12”)

this is 8 albums of singles! seems a little silly, though i don't doubt that they were influential. mostly to people who missed out on the original singles. like that german house box.

scott seward, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 16:45 (seventeen years ago)

I hate to be this thread's Geir, but it's kind of hard to beat 'Tomorrow Never Knows'. I'll give the nod to 'I Feel Love' though, I think, for being almost as good and way more influential.

Hip-hop's representation seems all wrong to me, both in quantity and the way the genre has developed.

Ismael Klata, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 16:46 (seventeen years ago)

I love Red 2. No idea how influential it's been but it rules.

pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 17:08 (seventeen years ago)

don't think i've ever heard Red 1

Hard House SugBanton (blueski), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 17:11 (seventeen years ago)

I have the cd album that combines it all I think.

pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 17:12 (seventeen years ago)

If I can find it want me to rip it for ya?

pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 17:12 (seventeen years ago)

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:0vfwxqlhldse

pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 17:13 (seventeen years ago)

also never heard 'Minimal Nation'

Hard House SugBanton (blueski), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 17:14 (seventeen years ago)

i just listened to King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown last night. absolutely perfect. there are lots of great songs/albums on this list but that's my pick.

brotherlovesdub, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 17:18 (seventeen years ago)

43. Basic Channel “Phylyps Trak II” (Basic Channel 1995)(12”)

Seriously, I never want to hear this record ever again.

Siegbran, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 21:37 (seventeen years ago)

I'm having a hard time understanding why Beatles & Marvin Gaye even belong on this list. Like they just threw them in at the last minute.

Earl of Gothington Manor (Bimble), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 21:58 (seventeen years ago)

Really? What else sounded like "Tomorrow Never Knows" in 1966?

Darin, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 22:02 (seventeen years ago)

for 1966, they should have thrown this is for the autechre crowd:

scott seward, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 22:07 (seventeen years ago)

wait, even better!

scott seward, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 22:12 (seventeen years ago)

the beatles were positively dreary compared to what else was going on in 1966. they were adorable though.

scott seward, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 22:13 (seventeen years ago)

so awesome:

scott seward, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 22:17 (seventeen years ago)

1966, the year the yardbirds invented microhouse:

scott seward, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 22:21 (seventeen years ago)

any dance acts that were influenced by the yardbirds?

pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 10:50 (seventeen years ago)

I like a lot of this music.
But my heart sinks at the thought of:

Muzik wanted to define the records that had shaped the music we love today. The music that made Basement Jaxx, The Chemical Brothers, Roni Size and System F all possible. Not necessarily the best records ever, although they were hardly going to be stinkers, but the ones which pushed forward a genre, or fused styles to create a new hybrid.

Specifically, the "we" in the first sentence. Like, we all like the same thing, folks. You, and Us. We're like you!

I suspect they would not like to hear some Harry Partch. That's fine, but does that mean I'm not part of the 'we'?

(Is this apropos the hivemind I've heard so much about?)

Mark G, Wednesday, 22 April 2009 10:58 (seventeen years ago)

er isn't it just that Muzik are talking to their target audience? i don't know if this was just a list published in the magazine itself or what

'and System F' is lol, but then i suppose Corsten has been one of the most prolific pop trance dudes of the last 10 years (at least the first 5 of those)

Hard House SugBanton (blueski), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 11:01 (seventeen years ago)

Kind of an odd list - this is from about 10 years ago right? Interested to know the rationale for putting Marvin Gaye so high, also there's a few surprising omissions - no Frankie Knuckles and Jamie Principal for one thing.

Enormous Epic (Matt DC), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 11:05 (seventeen years ago)

Interested to know the rationale for putting Marvin Gaye so high

list is in date order.

Mark G, Wednesday, 22 April 2009 11:11 (seventeen years ago)

Oh yeah, durr.

Enormous Epic (Matt DC), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 11:14 (seventeen years ago)

i heard surprisingly little of this list. ouch. it's either Stardust or De La Soul for me.

Ludo, Wednesday, 22 April 2009 12:29 (seventeen years ago)

weird to single out 'funky drummer' imo.

plus im pretty sure it's on UB&B.

FREE DOM AND ETHAN (special guest stars mark bronson), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 12:47 (seventeen years ago)

sometime i turn on the radio and that stardust song is playing.

pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 14:08 (seventeen years ago)

"Apache" for me.

Matos W.K., Wednesday, 22 April 2009 20:00 (seventeen years ago)

any dance acts that were influenced by the yardbirds?

Enigma, maybe? Also Boney M covered "Still I'm Sad," and Claudja Barry covered "For Your Love."

Anyway, there are a lot of awesome records on this incredibly stupid (or at least incredibly stupidly titled) list. (For starters: No records before 1966, and only two disco records, were this influential? Nutty.) Still, guess I'll go with "I Feel Love."

xhuxk, Wednesday, 22 April 2009 20:33 (seventeen years ago)

Voted for "RIP Groove" because it's "RIP Groove".

Easy Hippo Rider (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 20:45 (seventeen years ago)

geir not popped in to vote the beatles yet?

pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 23:00 (seventeen years ago)

voted funky drummer.

titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Thursday, 23 April 2009 10:02 (seventeen years ago)

voted funky drummer.

of the choices above, how could it possibly be anything else?

\m/ anger on stick \m/ (Ioannis), Thursday, 23 April 2009 10:09 (seventeen years ago)

i bet i feel love will be the ilm choice

pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Thursday, 23 April 2009 12:18 (seventeen years ago)

Probably, I should vote for "King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown" instead, can't really bring myself to do it tho

Sacco, Vanzetti, Passantino... (Tom D.), Thursday, 23 April 2009 12:24 (seventeen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Sunday, 26 April 2009 23:01 (seventeen years ago)

I would agree that the Dust Brothers “Chemical Beats” was a profound influence on the Chemical Brothers.

+2 insightful and funny

Seems like the bottom 40 were influenced by the top ten. Reading the list, I was like, "Omg that's really influential, oh so is that, how can I choose," but the list quickly became a list of "songs we enjoy."

Voting "Funky Drummer."

tits akimbo (kenan), Sunday, 26 April 2009 23:33 (seventeen years ago)

Although the idea of voting on which record you think was most influential is inherently weird.

tits akimbo (kenan), Sunday, 26 April 2009 23:35 (seventeen years ago)

is "Tomorrow Never Knows" on here just because "Let Forever Be" by the Chemical Brothers rips it off?

Whiney G. Weingarten, Sunday, 26 April 2009 23:46 (seventeen years ago)

Needs more disco, more Detroit techno, more Patrick Cowley, more Bobby Orlando, more George Clinton, more Madonna…

THESE ARE MY FEELINGS! FEEL MY FEELINGS! (I eat cannibals), Sunday, 26 April 2009 23:56 (seventeen years ago)

Either "funky drummer" or "apache" purely because their beats spawned a bazillion dance beat riffs.

one art, please (Trayce), Sunday, 26 April 2009 23:59 (seventeen years ago)

Tho if this is for dance, I'm a little suprised there is no Tangerine Dream on here - theyre a deadset influence on psytrance.

one art, please (Trayce), Sunday, 26 April 2009 23:59 (seventeen years ago)

my desert island pick is voodoo ray so fuck how influential any of these other records are

moonship journey to baja, Monday, 27 April 2009 00:57 (seventeen years ago)

can you feel it.

Suggesteban Cambiasso (jim), Monday, 27 April 2009 01:01 (seventeen years ago)

how does one judge an eight-volume compilation against a 12" single?

i am the eye in the sky... (psychgawsple), Monday, 27 April 2009 04:52 (seventeen years ago)

the same way you judge anything against anything: decide which one you like better

Matos W.K., Monday, 27 April 2009 06:31 (seventeen years ago)

it's like comparing one apple with a bushel of oranges

The Brainwasherroth (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 27 April 2009 06:36 (seventeen years ago)

conversely its a ILX poll and I vote in them all like five times and who really gives a shit what anyone picks because this thread is pretty much just an excuse to talk about a list

The Brainwasherroth (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 27 April 2009 06:37 (seventeen years ago)

All comparisons are unfair. Oh well.

Matos W.K., Monday, 27 April 2009 06:41 (seventeen years ago)

What's fair?

tits akimbo (kenan), Monday, 27 April 2009 07:44 (seventeen years ago)

I don't mean to sound like some libertarian mercenary nut or something. I just mean, what's inside the word "fair"?

tits akimbo (kenan), Monday, 27 April 2009 07:45 (seventeen years ago)

(Ok I'm sorry, please never answer that. It would only shorten all of our precious lives.)

tits akimbo (kenan), Monday, 27 April 2009 07:48 (seventeen years ago)

Please vote

the old grey mare hoos ain't what he hoosed to be (state of the world today), Monday, 27 April 2009 17:33 (seventeen years ago)

ye i was referring more to the dubious nature of the list than anything else

i am the eye in the sky... (psychgawsple), Monday, 27 April 2009 17:48 (seventeen years ago)

what do you think are the most influential records of all time then?

the old grey mare hoos ain't what he hoosed to be (state of the world today), Monday, 27 April 2009 21:47 (seventeen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Monday, 27 April 2009 23:01 (seventeen years ago)

well there we are

the old grey mare hoos ain't what he hoosed to be (state of the world today), Tuesday, 28 April 2009 12:49 (seventeen years ago)

Don't really get the Beatles one, it's a good record and all that but... I suppose I don't really understand what is meant by "influential"

Sacco, Vanzetti, Passantino... (Tom D.), Tuesday, 28 April 2009 13:03 (seventeen years ago)

Is it supposed to be the first psychedelic record... or sumthin'?

Sacco, Vanzetti, Passantino... (Tom D.), Tuesday, 28 April 2009 13:05 (seventeen years ago)

what's inside the word "fair"?

Air.

Mark G, Tuesday, 28 April 2009 13:05 (seventeen years ago)

That's a like a lyric from the psychedelic era

Sacco, Vanzetti, Passantino... (Tom D.), Tuesday, 28 April 2009 13:08 (seventeen years ago)

tommorow never knows was very popular in the big beat days years before the chemicals knock off and im still inclined to play it in a dancy context. its loopy drums and bass clearly have a lot of parallels with 90s dance music

straightola, Tuesday, 28 April 2009 14:09 (seventeen years ago)


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.