This Album Influenced That Album – Stone Temple Pilots Influenced Def Leppard

September 2024 – Scott Gregory

This Album Influenced That Album – Stone Temple Pilots Influenced Def Leppard

Hi everyone out there in Sonic Collective Land. It’s me, Scott G without our September album pick. Now, if you’ve been following along the last couple months, you already know we’re doing a look back at albums we think may have inspired others. Darren, Scott, and Alain have all given really great options for us to pick from, and I think we’ve seen fingerprints of past albums all over the work of these more recent artists. That’s great! Music is a creative endeavor that can build off what’s come before and be the richer for it.

While trying to pick my own pair of albums, a thought occurred to me. You have bands like the Rolling Stones, U2, solo artists like Madonna and Cher, all with careers that span literally decades. The genres they mastered and innovated in are changed by subsequent artists, and they continue their own journeys to grow as artists and stay relevant in an ever-changing music industry.

So there must be examples of these artists taking inspiration from albums and artists in their own right, right? If I was 20 years into my career and inspired by a new genre of music and wanted to take a kick at the can, I wonder how much I’d sound like the people that interested me in it in the first place.

And so I went digging and landed on Def Leppard. They fit the bill of a band that’s been in the business forever. We’ve reviewed their work here before, giving some pretty solid scores. They’re polished and have their own highly identifiable sound. But, tastes change, bands change, and the business makes demands. What does a glam metal band do when they age into the 90s grunge and alternative scene?

Their 1996 album Slang answers this question. Giving it a couple listens, I see fingerprints from a couple bands, but one of my favourites stands out. In 1994, Stone Temple Pilots released the album Purple. I think the big radio tracks were Vasoline and Interstate Love Song, and if you were a big fan of the original The Crow movie, you may even recognize “Big Empty”. It was very well received at the time, holding the top spot on rock charts for months. It’s easy to imagine other bands looking at its quality music and chart performance and being influenced by it.

So with that in mind, and not wanting to make too strong a case one way or the other before we hit the end of the month, I give to you Def Leppard’s 1996 album Slang and ask if you can see any of Stone Temple Pilots’ fingerprints on it from their album Purple. As always, Darren, Scott, Alain and I will get back together at the end of the month and give our opinions, and we always love hearing what you all think. So join us at the end of the month and let us know here in the comments or on all the usual social media channels like Facebook and X what you thought of the albums and also if you agree with any our takes.

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