The Jimi Hendrix Experience-Are You Experienced (1967)

This is undoubtedly the album that would shatter the foundations of easy-listening pop-rock in the late sixties. The Jimi Hendrix Experience's debut album established the electric guitar's importance as a leading instrument in the world of rock. While it's true that Hendrix drew inspiration from blues greats like Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, and T-Bone Walker, he combined traditional blues with elements of psychedelia and avant-garde music, revolutionizing the role of the guitar in hard rock, heavy metal, funk rock, jazz rock, and any other genre that would emerge. Surrounded by two phenomenal musicians, jazz drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Reading, Jimi Hendrix created a spectacular album brimming with exciting and powerful sounds unlike anything heard before. Songs like the jazzy "Third Stone From The Sun", the pulsating funk rock "Foxy Lady", the heavy hard rock "Manic Depression", the blues "Red House" and "The Wind Cries Mary", the overflowing "Purple Haze" or the atmospheric "May This Be Love", make this album a fundamental piece in the history of contemporary music in general and rock in particular.