100 Albums That Changed Popular Music: A Reference Guide (Inscribed copy)

Whether on vinyl or in digital form, the album has become an integral part of our cultural history. 100 Albums That Changed Popular Music: A Reference Guide tells the stories behind the most groundbreaking, influential, and often controversial albums ever recorded. Narrative chapters in this chronologically organized volume describe how the albums reflected the political, social, and economic culture of the era. Individual entries discuss these albums histories, the inspiration behind their creation, and why they continue to stand the test of time. Selected on the basis of their popular appeal, historical significance, and influence on later genres, the albums included represent a wide variety of genres, such as blues, jazz, rock, reggae, rockabilly, folk, soul, hip-hop, and country.

Among the featured are releases from the hard-blues explosion of the '60s, including Robert Johnson's King of the Delta Blues Singers, a landmark album whose songs were later covered by the likes of Cream, Led Zeppelin, and the Rolling Stones. Punk made its mark in the '70s with such albums as Patti Smith's Horses and the Clash's London Calling. In the '80s Michael Jackson's blockbuster LP, Thriller, not only topped the charts, it become the best-selling record of all time. Diversity defined the '90s, with the most influential albums ranging from Garth Brooks' No Fences, which made country one of the hottest musical genres of the decade, to Dr. Dre's debut, The Chronic, a multi-platinum smash hit that brought West Coast hip hop into the mainstream.

Chris Smith is a Vancouver-based writer and photographer who has served as music editor for Performing Songwriter, editor-in-chief for Inside New York, and associate editor for University of Chicago Magazine. His work has appeared in dozens of publications, including Rolling Stone, Billboard, Time Out New York, the Sydney Morning Herald, Texas Music, the Village Voice, and the Journal of Visual Anthropology. In addition to music and film journalism, Chris has worked as a combat correspondent, a festival producer, a wildlife photographer, and a musician, and is the author of Volume 3 of this series.

John Borgmeyer attended the University of Missouri-Columbia and currently works as a staff writer for the C-Ville Weekly Newspaper in Charlottsville, Virginia.

Richard Skanse is the editor of Texas Music magazine and a freelance writer whose features and/or reviews have appeared in Rolling Stone, Tracks, Harp, Performing Songwriter, Sing Out, The Journal of Country Music, Austin American-Statesman, CMA Close Up and New York Magazine, as well as assorted Web sites such as RollingStone.com and LoneStarMusic.com. He has also contributed entries to The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll and The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Before returning to his native Texas in the spring of 2001, he spent four years in New York City, where he worked as an editor for RollingStone.com.

Rob Patterson has written for classic rock magazines like Creem, Circus, Crawdaddy, Spin, and Musician. He has been a contributor to The Rolling Stone Record Guide, and his music writing has appeared in hundreds of daily newspapers syndicated by United Features Syndicate and Newspaper Enterprises Association. He currently writes about music for Harp magazine, Texas Music, Country Music People in the U.K. and The Progressive Populist. Rob Patterson conceived of and co-produced the 1995 album Austin Country Nights. He sang on the Terry Allen album Human Remains alongside David Byrne and Lucinda Williams, has done publicity for Ozzy Osbourne, and worked as a road manager for Don McLean.