Is the debut by The Red Hot Chili Peppers an influential album?
Yes, undeniably so. While I’m hardly a specialist on funk-rock or the Californian music scene in the ‘80s, it’s hard not to consider them an innovating funk-rock band. Their influence on rap/funk-inclined bands such as The Beastie Boys and Rage Against the Machine is obvious, while they probably paved the way for vaguely similar bands like Fishbone, Living Colour, Infectious Grooves and countless contemporary bands as well. Taking their cues from P-funk and Funkadelic, they added a rock/punk flavour to it that wasn’t done yet, except for maybe by Gang of Four’s bass-heavy agitprop. That said, I find the band’s love for punk somewhat overblown: there are hardly any instances you can point out and say “Hey, listen, this is what they got from listening to Bad Brains or Black Flag.” Now, since this website isn’t primarily concerned with what’s influential and what not, let’s get on to the 2nd question: is the debut by The Red Hot Chili Peppers a good album? Well, no. It certainly isn’t a d
