Led Zeppelin
4 Pennsylvania Plaza, New York, NY
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Led Zeppelin formed in 1968 out of the ashes of the Yardbirds, and across four founding members — Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham — built a catalog that fused blues, folk, and hard rock into a sound that became foundational to the development of heavy metal and hard rock as genres in their own right. The band's fourth album, released untitled in 1971 and commonly called "Led Zeppelin IV," contains "Stairway to Heaven," one of the most played rock radio songs in history, and the album itself has sold more than 37 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums ever recorded. Led Zeppelin built their reputation as much through legendary live performances as studio recordings, and drummer John Bonham's death in 1980 led the surviving members to disband the group immediately rather than continue with a replacement, a decision that's kept their catalog frozen at four members' worth of work rather than diluted by a lineup change. The band's influence on the development of hard rock and heavy metal is difficult to overstate — Page's guitar work and production techniques, Bonham's drumming, and Plant's vocal range collectively set a technical and stylistic bar that shaped how an entire generation of rock musicians approached the genre after them.
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- Top 6 Rock Musicians of All Time
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