It is arguable that every year in the history of popular music is important. Genres are constantly evolving, and even when a particular year doesn't produce as many classic records as another, bands are likely writing, recording, or digesting the music of the past that will come to influence their next release. But when it comes to rock music, some years stand out more than many others as being especially decisive in terms of timely releases that amount to a culmination of the genre to that date, and those that drive rock forward to new pastures.

As many critics have noted, one of these key years appears to be 1971, when a whole bevy of seismic tracks hit record stores and changed rock and roll forever. By 1971, the United States had been rocked by almost half a decade of the "British Inv

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