Top 10 Most Important Albums in Punk Music History

I know Iggy, the Dolls, and The Velvet Underground paved the way. But I was there, this started it, this made punk take off. Now check out all the other albums, we've heard this one enough.

They shaped the entire genre. All the other bands on this list wouldn't exist without them.

Half of the others on this list would not even exist were it not for The Ramones!

It's very easy to claim that the Sex Pistols were nothing more than a calculated way to sell a specific image to a targeted demographic because, well, it's kind of true. However, whether the Pistols were posing or not is almost irrelevant when it comes to the importance of Never Mind the Bollocks and the influence it had on punk bands to come.

Even if the Sex Pistols weren't as big on anarchy as they claimed to be (although who says that they couldn't be disaffected with the government while also making money playing music?), that doesn't change the very real anger and sense of danger that took hold of future punk bands.

Great album. I was introduced to it as an angry 14-year-old, being bullied at school and ostracized for my weird tastes in music and clothing.

Blazing riffs, humor, and searing social commentary. In my opinion, the best punk band ever.

Weird mix of hardcore, surf, horror, American apple pie, left-wing politics, and Buddy Holly... One of the greatest records of all time.

The Dead Kennedys pointed my life down a trajectory that I have yet to recover from. If that's not influential, I don't know what is.

This record marks the point where punk rock shed its limits. Before this, punk was a limited range of sounds, but after this, punk was an idea about expression.

Best distillation of music, lyrics, thought, and voice in all of punk. The Clash made an album for the ages. It resonates with both American punk and European punk.

This album should be in the top five of the all-time best albums, so why it's down at #12 below Sandinista! I cannot understand.

Essential to everything that came after. Put the rage back in garage.

The first punk album, no questions asked.

This is the real father of punk.

This album reignited the punk sound during a time when the genre was in a bit of a slump. It influenced so many bands after it, in sound and style. This album is as important today as it was when it was released. Bad Religion is a consistent and always relevant band. Amazing album by arguably the best punk band of all time.

While I consider Against the Grain and Generator to be superior albums as a whole, as far as importance in the history of punk rock, here you have it.

I have a Black Flag tattoo, and I have been to different countries and found people with the same tattoo all over the place. Sure, the Ramones started this, and the Sex Pistols added the craziness, but Black Flag brought the power, rawness, and completely took it to a whole new level.

Listen to everything else that was out at the time. Most punk bands still sounded like Television, Talking Heads, Modern Lovers, etc., which are great bands, but this was the first release to really crank up the volume and aggression that we all associate with punk today.

Don't spit all over this. It may not be punk in the traditional sense, but it popularized its 90s derivative, pop-punk.

If it weren't for the Ramones, most of these bands wouldn't even be here.

One of their first albums that helped shape the genre.

Influenced many hardcore punk bands.

Influential, but not necessarily for what people in the comments here say. I'd say it was more important in influencing skate punk and pop punk, with love songs and themes of angst. It is still a hardcore album, but it is much less heavy than your typical hardcore album. More melodic. That's what makes it stand out. Also, it's catchy. And great overall.

This is the definition of hardcore punk. As punk as it gets. So punk, in fact, that there's a song called "I'm Not a Punk." That's punk rock.

This album should be top 5. From start to finish, this album is a masterpiece. No, ALL!

First punk album (1969).

Sorry for the double, but the first I added didn't have the band's name with it.

My favorite album of all time. Start-to-finish perfection.

Amazing album. I am still listening to it today.

To this day, the best album I have ever heard!

Smash opened a new world of music to me back in the day. So I consider it most important.

I grew up on The Offspring. Bad Habit, Gotta Get Away, Self Esteem... some of my favorites to this day.

Like Dookie, this album was responsible for the 90's punk revival scene.

No one does it better than Rancid. ...And Out Come the Wolves is their all-time best!

Classic, relevant, and still fresh!

How this is ranked below The Offspring and Green Day is beyond me.

I lived this when it happened. Real.