The albums that defined
the 1970s.

The 1970s are where every modern genre lays its foundation. Rock splinters into prog, glam, hard rock, art rock, country rock — the umbrella that worked in 1969 stops working by 1973. Black music undergoes its own fission: Marvin and Stevie turn soul into long-form auteur statements, James Brown invents the funk grammar that hip-hop will sample for the next forty years, disco organizes the dance floor as a queer political space. Jamaica gives the world reggae as a global pop language. Punk arrives in 1976 and 1977 and incinerates everything that's gotten too comfortable.

It's the decade of the album as feature-length statement. Studios get bigger, budgets get bigger, the listener is expected to sit down with side A and hear it through. Pink Floyd, Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac, Bowie, Springsteen — all making records that assume you'll spend an hour with them.

Where to start: Songs in the Key of Life for soul's most ambitious double album, Dark Side of the Moon for prog at its most accessible, Blue for the singer-songwriter blueprint, Rumours for the studio-rock-as-confessional template, London Calling for the punk record that contained whole other genres. The '70s repay deep listening more than any decade before or since — these are albums built to live with, not to scroll past.