'Pleasure Principle'

Stop and do this: Think about the top 20 most influential musical artists in history.

Write them down.

Disregard how good the artists were and consider only this question, "If this band/musician didn't exist, it would've set off an irretrievable set of events that would've changed pop culture forever." Meaning, without Band A a whole genre or Bands T, U, V, W, X, Y and Z don't exist.

Disregard, also, the first caveman to whistle or King David plucking his lyre. Also, try to disregard the influences of the influential. Do the Beatles exist without Carl Perkins, Little Richard, Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry? Probably not. But I don't think the Beatles' influence necessary should reflect on Little Richard, who was himself influenced by others.

Also, disregard most classical musicians. 

My list, in no order: The Beatles, The Ramones, Hank Williams Sr., The Clash, Metallica, The Rolling Stones, Beethoven, Run DMC, Tupac Shakur, Elvis Presley, James Brown, Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, Madonna, Bob Dylan, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson, Led Zeppelin and The Velvet Underground.

OK, expand your list to 25 and I dare you not to include Gary Numan. Before you laugh me off the Internet, consider that few were doing with synthesizers and electronic music in the 1970s quite like Numan. His influence would be notice immediately in the New Wave of the 1980s, but the influence I think reaches its apex among more edgey and artistic folks starting with Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails, DJs and dance and house music creators, hip-hop guys and even folks like Animal Collective and others that utilize almost exclusively electronic instruments.

Now, Numan wasn't alone. He was contemporaries of others like Kraftwerk, Can, Faust, the prog bands and Brian Eno. Numan didn't event anything nor what he probably the best, but he made it popular.

Again, Carl Perkins and Little Richard were never going to do what The Beatles were going to do.

Numan did make it popular with Pleasure Principle being his most popular album. Numan himself is not too different from his stage persona (if indeed you define it as a persona that is separate from his own personality). He's suspected of having some social disorder like Asperger's Syndrome. He's been medicated for depression before. His distant and stoic self that's on the stage is little different than that persona at home. He's a dude that doesn't like other people. A true artist.

By the way, listen to "Random" from this album and tell me it could be re-released next week.

'Our Aim Is To Satisfy'

I wonder if I'll ever make it through all of this electronic, house, dance stuff.

'Phaedra' & 'Leftism'

I was set to present these two albums (neither are which are bad, by any means) only because they reminded me of each other only because they're both electronic music with sparse lyrics.

The two are actually very, very different (although I bet Leftfield played the hell out of Phaedra when they were growing up).

Phaedra from Tangerine Dream is a sequencer-driven prog album from the 1970s and, most notably, from Germany. I mean, who was doing weirder shit than the art-school Germans in the 1970s? No one, that's who.

Imagine Pink Floyd if they dumped all of the guitars, drums and bass ... and songs lasted 10 minutes a piece.

Leftism is 1990s British trip-hop. And it's very good. If you're the type to throw a party you probably would not go wrong with this album.

Two different albums, but both are brilliant examples of two important sub-genres of recorded music.

'Music For A Jilted Generation' & ' The Fat Of The Land'

Prodigy is known for one thing, really, and that’s their single from Fat of the Land, “Smack My Bitch Up.” The amount of press that they got for the lyric in addition to the video can’t possibly be placed in some monetary perspective. Although, it’s safe to say that they probably couldn’t have bought that much attention.

The irony is that it’s a sampled lyric.

'Connected'

Robert Christgau, famed music critic, said that this album is "so multifaceted that its functionality is fungible and forgettable."

See, even Christgau didn’t have anything to say about it.

'Better Living Through Chemistry' & "You've Come A Long Way, Baby'

Fatboy Slim – see: Norman Cook, who actually goes by “Norman” although his name is Quentin, which is monumentally cooler – was banned for playing his hometown of Brighton due to a 2002 concert in which 250,000 people pounced on the seaside town. 

Upon his return to the city about five years later, they issued tickets only to citizens of Brighton in order to keep the attendance down. Performances by the likes of Fatboy Slim and other DJs are really popular often garnering large outdoor crowds. I assume this has everything to do with drugs and, thus, dancing.

Cook actually started in the music business as a bass player for The House Martins and only later did he delve feet first into the house music scene and later as Fatboy Slim. Under this pseudonym, he’d breakout with Better Living Through Chemistry and later with the gigantic You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby, both titles being taglines for major corporations.

You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby garnered the evil Parental Advisory sticker after “Fucking in Heaven” featured 108 instances of “fuck” and “Gangster Tripping” had 57 instances of “shit.” Want to sell a million records: Get the Parental Advisory sticker.

'Dummy'

A definite groove album. So low-key that if you blink you’ll miss it. Like falling asleep during a movie you’re forced to backtrack and listen to it again. The second time, however, a bit more adequately.

'Timeless'

I know Goldie because he’s the light-skinned fella faux-gangster from Guy Ritchie’s Snatch. Who knew that he was a drum ‘n’ bass auteur?

Timeless is considered a groundbreaking release because of the way he layered symphonic and “atmospheric” qualities to a genre (drum ‘n’ bass) that typically includes neither. It’s a tough listen unless you’re in the mood: It comes in at a long 75 minutes in length.