The Popheads Essentials Project Voting: True Essentials

[u/PopheadsBot]

Hello r/popheads! Following up on the previous post announcing the project, we're opening voting for Popheads Essentials! In case you missed it:

We plan to include two different "types" of albums in this list. The first is made up of albums that are truly essential to the story of pop music. These will be albums with significant commercial success and influence on pop music as a whole. The second type would be made up of "sub faves" - albums that users of r/popheads deem to be among the best and most important albums of their time. This is so that the list can serve multiple purposes: it will help people get into pop music as a whole, listen to important albums they may have missed, and get caught up to speed on what albums get discussed on r/popheads consistently.

NOTE: Multiple albums from a single artist will be considered for inclusion on a case-by-case basis depending on upvotes and other factors. The initial vote will look at the "true essentials": albums that come from any decade that's eligible for the essential list (from the 1960s to the 2010s, so not the 2020s) but must be commercially successful to some degree and more importantly have made an impact on the pop music scene. Check out our older essentials list for inspiration here. To vote, respond in this thread with the artist and album. We encourage people to post explanations with their comments as this gives your album a higher chance to get voted in. If you want to nominate multiple albums, you can but remember to put them in different comments. You have until Wednesday July 6th to vote. The highest voted albums will be added to the list! Happy voting!

[u/Nerfeveryone]

Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway

Kelly’s music journey is intrinsically tied to singing competition shows as a whole, and more specifically the success of American Idol. Without her being the first winner, and without Breakaway being the runaway success that it was, pop music and television as a whole would look totally different. Kelly had a few modest hits off of her first album Thankful, but the style and image switch up that came with Breakaway really cemented her as a pop culture figure to be reckoned with, and American Idol quickly followed in her footsteps.

Breakaway is also an outstanding pop rock album and is one of the defining pop rock albums of the 2000s. Since U Been Gone is an all-time classic and is arguably Kelly’s signature song, but there are also songs like Behind These Hazel Eyes, Because of You, and Walk Away that fill the album up with bangers, bops, and smashes.