The Velvet Underground & Nico arrived in 1967 like a transmission from some darker, more honest future. Lou Reed's street-level narratives about heroin and sexual deviance, John Cale's droning viola, and Maureen Tucker's primitive drumming created a sound that rejected the Summer of Love's psychedelic optimism.

Initially dismissed and commercially ignored, Andy Warhol's banana-adorned album became rock's most fertile blueprint. Brian Eno's observation proved prophetic: barely anyone bought it, but those who did formed the template for punk, alternative rock, and art rock's next three decades.