That’s why a new ranking from BBC Music Magazine is raising eyebrows.
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At the center of that argument is the album Kid A by Radiohead, which famously abandoned guitar anthems in favor of electronic textures, ambient soundscapes, and abstract songwriting. Released just three years after OK Computer, Kid A redefined what a rock album could be at the dawn of the 21st century.
BBC Music also highlights Rated R by Queens of the Stone Age, which blended heavy riffs with off-kilter grooves, Relationship of Command by At the Drive-In, a frantic, confrontational record that helped pull rock toward a new generation of intensity, and Stankonia by OutKast, which was a genre-blending album that pushed Southern rap into the mainstream.
How the Other Top 5 Years Stack Up
At No. 4, 1972 represents rock at full creative bloom. Albums like Exile on Main St. by The Rolling Stones, Close to the Edge by Yes, and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars by David Bowie pushed rock into progressive, glam, and conceptual territory simultaneously.
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And at No. 1, BBC Music crowns 1971 as the summit of classic rock, a year that delivered Led Zeppelin IV, Blue from Joni Mitchell, Carole King's masterpiece Tapestry, What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye, and Bowie's Hunky Dory within a single, astonishing 12-month span.
Whether fans agree may be beside the point. Rankings like this don’t exist to settle debates. They exist to restart them.
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