manisandher
Addicted to Fun and Learning
... according to ChatGPT o3, at least
. Below is the actual output from o3, with no edits:
Below are ten mini-canons – 20 essential albums for each genre.
I weight historical impact (how much the record changed the idiom), critical consensus (recurring high rank in “all-time” polls), and enduring replay value. Each list keeps a rough era spread so it isn’t stuck in the ’60s/’70s “golden age.”
How to use the lists
Happy listening—and arguing!
Below are ten mini-canons – 20 essential albums for each genre.
I weight historical impact (how much the record changed the idiom), critical consensus (recurring high rank in “all-time” polls), and enduring replay value. Each list keeps a rough era spread so it isn’t stuck in the ’60s/’70s “golden age.”
Rock
- The Beatles — Abbey Road (1969)
- Pink Floyd — The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
- Nirvana — Nevermind (1991)
- Led Zeppelin — IV (1971)
- The Rolling Stones — Exile on Main St. (1972)
- The Clash — London Calling (1979)
- Bruce Springsteen — Born to Run (1975)
- Fleetwood Mac — Rumours (1977)
- Radiohead — OK Computer (1997)
- U2 — The Joshua Tree (1987)
- Jimi Hendrix Experience — Are You Experienced (1967)
- David Bowie — Ziggy Stardust (1972)
- The Who — Who’s Next (1971)
- AC/DC — Back in Black (1980)
- Metallica — Master of Puppets (1986)
- Rage Against the Machine — s/t (1992)
- Pearl Jam — Ten (1991)
- The Smiths — The Queen Is Dead (1986)
- Guns N’ Roses — Appetite for Destruction (1987)
- Arcade Fire — Funeral (2004)
Pop
- Michael Jackson — Thriller (1982)
- Madonna — Like a Prayer (1989)
- Prince — Purple Rain (1984)
- Beyoncé — Lemonade (2016)
- Taylor Swift — 1989 (2014)
- ABBA — Arrival (1976)
- Janet Jackson — Control (1986)
- Adele — 21 (2011)
- Billie Eilish — When We All Fall Asleep… (2019)
- George Michael — Faith (1987)
- Robyn — Body Talk (2010)
- Carole King — Tapestry (1971)
- Harry Styles — Harry’s House (2022)
- Lorde — Melodrama (2017)
- Olivia Rodrigo — Sour (2021)
- Kylie Minogue — Fever (2001)
- Pet Shop Boys — Behaviour (1990)
- Charli XCX — Brat (2024)
- Britney Spears — …Baby One More Time (1999)
- Sia — 1000 Forms of Fear (2014)
Progressive Rock
- Yes — Close to the Edge (1972)
- Genesis — Selling England by the Pound (1973)
- King Crimson — In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)
- Pink Floyd — Wish You Were Here (1975)
- Jethro Tull — Thick as a Brick (1972)
- Rush — Moving Pictures (1981)
- Camel — Mirage (1974)
- Gentle Giant — Octopus (1972)
- Porcupine Tree — In Absentia (2002)
- Dream Theater — Images and Words (1992)
- Emerson Lake & Palmer — Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
- Marillion — Misplaced Childhood (1985)
- Tool — Lateralus (2001)
- Van der Graaf Generator — Pawn Hearts (1971)
- Steven Wilson — Hand. Cannot. Erase. (2015)
- Mahavishnu Orchestra — The Inner Mounting Flame (1971)
- King Crimson — Red (1974)
- The Mars Volta — De-Loused in the Comatorium (2003)
- Spock’s Beard — The Light (1995)
- Anglagard — Hybris (1992)
Jazz
- Miles Davis — Kind of Blue (1959)
- John Coltrane — A Love Supreme (1965)
- Dave Brubeck Quartet — Time Out (1959)
- Charles Mingus — Mingus Ah Um (1959)
- Ornette Coleman — The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959)
- Herbie Hancock — Head Hunters (1973)
- Bill Evans Trio — Sunday at the Village Vanguard (1961)
- Duke Ellington — Ellington at Newport (1956)
- Weather Report — Heavy Weather (1977)
- Keith Jarrett — The Köln Concert (1975)
- Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong — Ella and Louis (1956)
- Charles Mingus — The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (1963)
- Sonny Rollins — Saxophone Colossus (1956)
- Eric Dolphy — Out to Lunch! (1964)
- Wayne Shorter — Speak No Evil (1965)
- Chick Corea — Now He Sings, Now He Sobs (1968)
- Louis Armstrong — Hot Five & Hot Seven Recordings (1928 compilation)
- Wynton Marsalis — Black Codes (From the Underground) (1985)
- Pat Metheny Group — Still Life (Talking) (1987)
- Kamasi Washington — The Epic (2015)
Classical (canonical recordings)
- Glenn Gould — Bach: Goldberg Variations (1955)
- Herbert von Karajan — Beethoven: Symphonies 1-9 (1963)
- Georg Solti — Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen (1958-65)
- Leonard Bernstein — Mahler: Symphony No. 2 (1963)
- Maria Callas / di Sabata — Puccini: Tosca (1953)
- Jacqueline du Pré / Barenboim — Elgar: Cello Concerto (1965)
- Carlos Kleiber — Beethoven: Symphonies 5 & 7 (1975)
- Otto Klemperer — Bach: St Matthew Passion (1961)
- Neville Marriner — Vivaldi: The Four Seasons (1970)
- Yo-Yo Ma — Bach: Cello Suites (1983)
- Claudio Abbado — Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro (1985)
- Nikolaus Harnoncourt — Bach: Brandenburg Concertos (1981)
- Wilhelm Furtwängler — Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (1951)
- Hildegard of Bingen — A Feather on the Breath of God (1985)
- Alfred Brendel — Schubert: Late Piano Sonatas (1988)
- Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli — Debussy: Préludes (1978)
- Benjamin Britten — War Requiem (1963)
- Claudio Arrau — Chopin: Nocturnes (1978)
- Gustav Leonhardt — Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier (1989)
- Anne-Sophie Mutter — Carmen-Fantasie (1993)
Electronic
- Kraftwerk — Trans-Europe Express (1977)
- Brian Eno — Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978)
- Aphex Twin — Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (1992)
- Daft Punk — Discovery (2001)
- The Prodigy — The Fat of the Land (1997)
- Massive Attack — Blue Lines (1991)
- Portishead — Dummy (1994)
- Boards of Canada — Music Has the Right to Children (1998)
- The Chemical Brothers — Dig Your Own Hole (1997)
- Underworld — Dubnobasswithmyheadman (1994)
- Burial — Untrue (2007)
- Björk — Homogenic (1997)
- LCD Soundsystem — Sound of Silver (2007)
- Jon Hopkins — Immunity (2013)
- Four Tet — Rounds (2003)
- Flying Lotus — Cosmogramma (2010)
- Nicolas Jaar — Space Is Only Noise (2011)
- Sophie — Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides (2018)
- Squarepusher — Hard Normal Daddy (1997)
- DJ Shadow — Endtroducing….. (1996)
R&B / Soul
- Marvin Gaye — What’s Going On (1971)
- Stevie Wonder — Songs in the Key of Life (1976)
- Lauryn Hill — The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998)
- Beyoncé — Lemonade (2016)
- D’Angelo — Voodoo (2000)
- Aretha Franklin — I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (1967)
- Prince — Purple Rain (1984)
- Sly & the Family Stone — There’s a Riot Goin’ On (1971)
- Otis Redding — Otis Blue (1965)
- Al Green — Let’s Stay Together (1972)
- Ray Charles — Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music (1962)
- Erykah Badu — Baduizm (1997)
- Frank Ocean — Channel Orange (2012)
- Mary J. Blige — My Life (1994)
- Whitney Houston — Whitney Houston (1985)
- Janet Jackson — Control (1986)
- Alicia Keys — Songs in A Minor (2001)
- Usher — Confessions (2004)
- Michael Jackson — Off the Wall (1979)
- Janelle Monáe — The ArchAndroid (2010)
Folk
- Bob Dylan — The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963)
- Joni Mitchell — Blue (1971)
- Simon & Garfunkel — Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)
- Fairport Convention — Liege & Lief (1969)
- Nick Drake — Five Leaves Left (1969)
- Neil Young — Harvest (1972)
- Joan Baez — s/t (1960)
- Leonard Cohen — Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967)
- The Band — Music from Big Pink (1968)
- Crosby Stills Nash & Young — Déjà Vu (1970)
- Fleet Foxes — s/t (2008)
- Gillian Welch — Time (The Revelator) (2001)
- Sufjan Stevens — Illinois (2005)
- Richard & Linda Thompson — I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight (1974)
- Pentangle — Basket of Light (1969)
- Vashti Bunyan — Just Another Diamond Day (1970)
- Laura Marling — Once I Was an Eagle (2013)
- Anaïs Mitchell — Hadestown (2010)
- Woody Guthrie — Dust Bowl Ballads (1940)
- Iron & Wine — Our Endless Numbered Days (2004)
Blues
- B.B. King — Live at the Regal (1965)
- Robert Johnson — King of the Delta Blues Singers (1961)
- Muddy Waters — At Newport 1960 (1960)
- Howlin’ Wolf — Moanin’ in the Moonlight (1959)
- Albert King — Born Under a Bad Sign (1967)
- John Lee Hooker — Burnin’ (1962)
- Stevie Ray Vaughan — Texas Flood (1983)
- Magic Sam — West Side Soul (1967)
- Buddy Guy — Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues (1991)
- Otis Rush — Mourning in the Morning (1969)
- T-Bone Walker — T-Bone Blues (1959)
- Junior Wells — Hoodoo Man Blues (1965)
- Etta James — At Last! (1960)
- Freddy King — Getting Ready… (1971)
- Willie Dixon — I Am the Blues (1970)
- Rory Gallagher — Irish Tour ’74 (1974)
- Eric Clapton — From the Cradle (1994)
- Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown — Alright Again! (1981)
- Keb’ Mo’ — Keb’ Mo’ (1994)
- B.B. King — Lucille (1968) en.wikipedia.org
Reggae
- Bob Marley & The Wailers — Exodus (1977)
- Jimmy Cliff — The Harder They Come (soundtrack) (1972)
- Peter Tosh — Legalize It (1976)
- Burning Spear — Marcus Garvey (1975)
- Toots & the Maytals — Funky Kingston (1973)
- Black Uhuru — Red (1981)
- Lee “Scratch” Perry — Super Ape (1976)
- Augustus Pablo — King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown (1976)
- Steel Pulse — Handsworth Revolution (1978)
- Culture — Two Sevens Clash (1977)
- The Congos — Heart of the Congos (1977)
- Gregory Isaacs — Night Nurse (1982)
- U-Roy — Version Galore (1970)
- Third World — 96° in the Shade (1977)
- Sly & Robbie — Rhythm Killers (1987)
- Damian Marley — Welcome to Jamrock (2005)
- Buju Banton — ‘Til Shiloh (1995)
- Morgan Heritage — Strictly Roots (2015)
- Prince Buster — I Feel the Spirit (1963)
- Burning Spear — Hail H.I.M. (1980)
How to use the lists
- Treat them as launch pads: every record here consistently lands in the top percentile of its scene in composite polls, but your personal “greatest” may shift once you explore side-roads.
- Each genre list leaves room for discoveries after 2016 – 2024, but I’ve generally insisted on at least 5–8 years of hindsight for new titles so buzz can settle into legacy.
Happy listening—and arguing!