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== [[Anime]] ==
* The [[Harem Genre]] was invented by ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]'', but was ''re''-invented in [[The Nineties]] by ''[[Love Hina]]'', which set new rules for the genre: namely, an [[Unlucky Everydude]] male protagonist who lives with a bunch of girls (the violent [[Tsundere]], the [[Bottle Fairy]], [[The Ojou]] with the [[Hime Cut]], the [[Shrinking Violet]] and the Exotic Foreign Girl) who all fall in love with him simply because he's a nice and sensitive guy, with the gaps in the plot smoothed over with dollops of fanservice. Almost every harem series since has followed its lead. Haters of this cannot forgive Ken Akamatsu.
** Akamatsu can rest easy knowing that actual credit for re-inventing the genre goes to [[Tenchi Muyo!]] which refined and popularized the "harem anime" formula a full six years earlier. ''Love Hina'' was one of the first to apply the formula to a pure comedy with no fantastic elements, though.
* It was [[Men Don't Cry|NOT okay for men to cry]] in anime before ''[[Fist of the North Star]]''. Afterwards, however, tears became a symbol of [[Manly Tears|honorable masculinity]] tempered by [[Tender Tears|a kind and gentle heart.]]
* The original ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'' basically revamped [[Humongous Mecha]] genre, single-handedly invented most [[Real Robot]] plot devices, and, along the way, ushered the [[Otaku]] subculture into existence (though to be fair, other shows helped it in the latter).
* ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'' marked the shift from fantasy to sci-fi in the Digimon series.
* ''[[Yami to Boushi Toto Hon no Tabibito]]'' and ''[[Kannazuki no Miko]]'' showed that [[Yuri]] anime could be profitable; ''[[Simoun]]'' showed that it could be [[True Art]].
* ''[[Akira (Manga)|Akira]]''. Before it came out, it was distressingly common to see anime films and shows targeted toward older audiences horribly [[Macekre|Macekred]] so they could fit into the [[Animation Age Ghetto]]. After it came out, people in the West finally got the idea that anime movies didn't have to be targeted towards kids at all.
** Ironically, ''Akira'' was released by Macek's Streamline Pictures studio.
 
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** Point of order: it is generally accepted that [[The Flash|Barry Allen, the second Flash]], was the character that kicked off the Silver Age, complete with sleek, form-fitting, cape-less costume, more [[Science Marches On|scientific...ish]]...origin, and a [[Rogues Gallery]] of gimmick villains.
* [[Jack Kirby]]'s move to DC. [[The New Gods]] is often considered the beginning of the [[Bronze Age]].
* ''[[Watchmen (Comic Bookcomics)|Watchmen]]'' and ''[[Batman (Franchise)|Batman]]: [[The Dark Knight Returns]]'' more or less ushered in the [[Dark Age]] of comicbooks. ''[[Kingdom Come]]'', in turn, would end it.
* ''[[Peanuts (Comic Strip)|Peanuts]]'' changed [[Newspaper Comics]] permanently. It gave strips the license to address deep and (sometime) dark issues and not just be simple gag-a-day escapaism. However, Charles Schulz's signature simple artwork gave newspapers the idea to reduce the size of the comic panels and force all the future artists to simplify their artwork to the point where all the art look like rushed cut-and-paste jobs.
** And again with ''[[Calvin and Hobbes (Comic Strip)|Calvin and Hobbes]]'', which marked the beginning of the pushback against the "Schulzian" simplification.
* Harvey Pekar's ''[[American Splendor (Comic Book)|American Splendor]]'' showed that comics could depict adult life without idealizing it.
* ''[[The Adventures Of Luther Arkwright]]'' was an independant New Wave style [[Science Fiction]] comic made by Bryan Talbot in the 70s, the techniques and story telling he used have had large impact on many other writers and artists. [[Warren Ellis]] has said "LUTHER ARKWRIGHT invented the tools. ARKWRIGHT informs Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman, Garth Ennis, me, and all the rest of us. It's probably Anglophone comics' single most important experimental work."
* R.Crumb and others started the alternative and art comix movement in the late 60s.
* The French ''Métal Hurlant'' magazine and its American equivalent, ''Heavy Metal'', introduced a lot of influential science fiction and fantasy comic book creators like [[Moebius]], Enki Bilal and Richard Corben.
* ''[[Two Thousand AD (Comic Book)|2000 AD]]'' started in 1977 and has been the most popular Britsh comic of the past few decades, granted it's faded a bit but it was the starting place for influential creators like [[Alan Moore]] and [[Grant Morrison]].
** More than just them, too. Chances are if there's a significant British creator from the last 30 years, he's almost certainly done something for 2000AD, even if it was just a one-shot Future Shock.
* [[Alan Moore]] starts writing [[Swamp Thing]]. From one writer no one in America had heard of on a dying thrid-string title at DC we eventually got the whole of [[Vertigo Comics]], Marvel's Max Imprint and not a few smaller publishing houses (Avatar, for example).
* [[Chris Claremont]] starts writing the [[X -Men]]. [[Marvel Comics]] had been soap operas before that point, but Claremont's writing made the soap truly operatic in scope. Mainstream modern superhero comics, including the deconstructions of [[Alan Moore]] and others, were changed forever by the popularity of Claremont's writing style. (Yes, Byrne's art had something to do with it too, but Claremont stayed on the title a lot longer and had a lot more influence.)
 
 
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* "A Fragment out of Time" published in ''Spockanalia'' (a [[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]] fanzine running through the seventies) was the first known [[Slash Fic]] to hit wide distribution. Virtually ''every'' [[Yaoi Fangirl]] can thank the unknown fanfic writer.
 
 
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[HeavensHeaven's Gate (Filmfilm)|Heavens Gate]]'', although not for the same reasons as most of the other examples: it was so bad, it [[Genre Killer|killed]] the [[The Western|Hollywood Western]], [[Creator Killer|United Artists as an independent studio, and director Michael Cimino's career]]. It and other high-profile flops (''One From the Heart'', ''Sorcerer'') also killed the [[New Hollywood|auteur period]] in Hollywood.
* [[Wes Craven]] made ''[[Scream (Filmfilm)|Scream]]'' in an effort to kill the [[Slasher Movies|slasher movie]] once and for all. [[Springtime for Hitler|It did the exact opposite]], [[Popularity Polynomial|breathing new life]] into a once-dying genre and starting the late '90s/early '00s [[Post Modernism]] craze in horror.
** Before that, ''[[Halloween (Filmfilm)|Halloween]]'' did the same thing, basically starting the modern slasher genre. Two years later, ''[[Friday the 13th (Filmfilm)|Friday the 13 th]]'' turned the slasher flick into a [[Horror]] staple by focusing on the exploitation part of it.
* ''[[Die Hard (Film)|Die Hard]]'' did this for the action movie. Sure, there were smart thrillers beforehand -- ''[[Die Hard (Film)|Die Hard]]'' itself could be seen as something of a remake of ''[[North Sea Hijack]]'' -- but after it came out, there were far fewer action films that featured invincible, unstoppable heroes (Schwarzenegger, Stallone) whose plots depended entirely on [[Ass Pull|Ass Pulling]] solutions out of thin air than there were before. Plus, not many films rewrite the rules for the genre so heavily that an [[Die Hard Onon an X|entire subgenre]] forms around them.
* A decade later, ''[[The Matrix]]'' did the same thing, introducing mainstream Western audiences to [[Heroic Bloodshed|Hong Kong-style gunplay]], fight choreography living up to Asian action film standards of sophistication, and [[Trope Codifier|codifying]] the use of [[Bullet Time]].
* And just a few years after that, ''[[The Bourne Series (Filmfilm)|The Bourne Identity]]'' took action movies in the other direction, filling them with grit and stripping them down to basics in a seeming backlash against the over-the-top style of ''[[The Matrix (Film)|The Matrix]]''. It also took cinematic [[Spy Fiction]] away from the flashy, over-the-top "[[Tuxedo and Martini|Martini]]" style seen in the [[Pierce Brosnan]] [[James Bond (Filmfilm)|Bond]] films and more in a "[[Darker and Edgier|Stale Beer]]" direction, to the point where even [[Casino Royale (Film)|the most recent]] [[Quantum of Solace (Film)|Bond films]] followed its lead.
* ''[[Forbidden Planet (Film)|Forbidden Planet]]'' was the film that revolutionized film and television science fiction.
* [[Sergio Leone]]'s [[Dollars Trilogy]]. These films weren't the first [[Deconstruction|deconstructionist]] [[The Western|Westerns]] -- the classics ''[[High Noon]]'' and ''[[The Searchers]]'' came out a decade before them -- but they left a far more lasting impact on the genre than those two films did. All of a sudden, the [[Black and White Morality]] that was nearly omnipresent in the genre vanished, replaced with the grittier, more morally gray attitudes seen in such films as ''[[The Wild Bunch]]'', ''[[High Plains Drifter]]'' and, much later, ''[[Unforgiven]]''. Every single Western made since the mid-'60s owes something to Leone's masterpiece.
* ''[[Star Wars]]''. While ''[[Jaws (Filmfilm)|Jaws]]'' is usually regarded as the first modern "blockbuster" movie, this was the one that proved that kids -- a demographic ignored by most 1970s movies -- were audience members too, that [[Merchandise-Driven|merchandising spinoffs]] were a potential gold mine, that escapist sci-fi wasn't as [[B-Movie|disposable as once thought]], and that fantasy in general was an untapped resource. The whole [[George Lucas Throwback]] genre originated here, and while [[Follow the Leader]] meant there were many crappy imitators within the years that followed, it did lead directly to [[Superman (Comic Book)|Superman]] getting [[Superman (Filmfilm)|a big movie of his own]], thus launching the rise of cinematic comic book adaptations. It was also helped launch the revival of rival series ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]''. Indeed, some blame this movie for hastening the end of the "New Hollywood" era and leading to the dumbed-down [[Summer Blockbuster]] mentality of the industry today. Especially once the ''sequels'' arrived...
** Furthermore, ''[[Star Wars]]'' fundamentally changed how movies were made because of the huge success the franchise had with marketing. Sure, the movies were profitable, but the real money was made in action figures and toys and posters and other kinds of merchandising. Any kind of family-friendly blockbuster is going to have a cute character of some sort designed to appeal to children and sell toys to them.
* The ''[[Superman (Filmfilm)|Superman]]'' movie proved once and for all that comic book adaptations didn't need to be cheesy or silly, with terrible budgets & special effects.
* Although there have been occasional big budget [[Comic Book Adaptation|comic book movies]] dating back to ''[[Superman (Filmfilm)|Superman]]'' (and filmed serials before that), the current boom in comic films got its start when ''[[Blade (Filmfilm)|Blade]]'' was a hit at the box-office, followed shortly thereafter by ''[[X-Men (Filmfilm)|X-Men]]''.
** ''Blade's'' influence can be seen thusly: Prior to ''Blade,'' the ''only'' theatrically-released movies based on Marvel Comics-owned properties, ''ever'', were a [[Captain America]] serial from the 1940s, ''[[Red Sonja (Film)|Red Sonja]]'', the 1989 [[Dolph Lundgren]] version of ''[[The Punisher (Filmfilm)|The Punisher]]'', and ''[[Howard the Duck (Filmfilm)|Howard the Duck]]''.<ref>Yes, there was also a 1990 adaptation of [[Captain America]] and a 1994 adaptation of [[The Fantastic Four (Filmfilm)|The Fantastic Four]], but the former went [[Direct- to-video Video]] and the latter was never even released.</ref> Now, you can't have a summer without one.
* In an amazing coincidence, just as ''[[Watchmen]]'' and ''[[The Dark Knight Returns]]'' took comic books in a [[Darker and Edgier]] direction, ''[[Dark Knight Trilogy|The Dark Knight]]'' and [[Watchmen (Filmfilm)|the film adaptation]] of ''[[Watchmen]]'' seem to be having the same effect on comic book movies.
** Whoa whoa, ''[[Batman (Filmfilm)|Batman]]'' easily did that first twenty years earlier.
*** Both films have marked major turning points for the comic book movie. The influence of Tim Burton's ''[[Batman (Filmfilm)|Batman]]'' cannot be denied but neither can the influence of the ''[[The Dark Knight Saga (Film)|The Dark Knight Saga]]''.
* While we're still on the subject of comic book movies, the notorious ''[[Batman and Robin (Filmfilm)|Batman and Robin]]'' has been described as the moment when Hollywood realized that they couldn't just churn out crappy adaptations and expect the "built-in" fanboy audience to eat them up. Rather, they had to start treating their properties with at least a modicum of respect.
* ''[[Psycho (Film)|Psycho]]'' and ''[[Night of the Living Dead (Film)|Night of the Living Dead]]'' are, along with the ditching of the [[Hays Code]] and its replacement by the MPAA, widely credited for helping to turn the [[Horror]] genre from "stories that are a bit spooky and feature the odd death" to "stories where [[Anyone Can Die]], deaths are bloody and brutal, and sometimes even [[The Bad Guy Wins]]."
** Each of those films also helped to launch their own sub-genres of horror -- ''Psycho'' is considered to be the [[Ur Example]] of the [[Slasher Movies|slasher genre]], while ''Night'' single-handedly invented [[Our Zombies Are Different|modern zombie fiction]].
* ''[[Shrek]]'' ushered in a period of [[Deconstruction]] for fairy tales, resulting in [[Fractured Fairy Tale|Fractured Fairy Tales]] such as ''[[Enchanted]]'', ''[[Happily N 'Ever After]]'', and ''[[Hoodwinked]]''. The genre has recently begun [[Reconstruction]], with ''[[The Tale of Despereaux]]'', ''[[The Princess and Thethe Frog]]'' and ''[[Tangled (Disney)|Tangled]]''.
** Shrek is also blamed by fans of traditional animation for [[Genre Killer|ending the dominance of traditional animation]] and about the rise of [[All CGI Cartoons]] laden with [[Shout-Out|pop cultural references]] that would become dated within months, an over-reliance on [[Toilet Humor]], overuse of [[Parental Bonus]] and [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]] to the point where it gets annoying, and gratuitous celebrity casting. Granted, [[Looney Tunes|Warner Bros.]] had done pop cultural references [[Older Than They Think|back in the]] [[Golden Age of Animation]]; [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney]] often cast big name celebrities in their films since ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', and pretty much EVERY animation studio has slipped crap past the radar in their films, but Shrek and [[Shark Tale|similar]] [[Madagascar|movies]] are the culmination of these trends, for better or for worse.
* ''[[Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs]]'' showed that not only can animation be entertaining and longer than 5 minutes, but that the audience can be emotionally connected with animated characters.
* The ''[[Harry Potter (Filmfilm)|Harry Potter]]'' film series arguably did this for the entire [[Summer Blockbuster]]. At least, in [[Moviebob]]'s [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/3688-Harry-Potter-and-the-Deathly-Hallows-Part-II opinion:]
{{quote| [''[[Harry Potter]]'' is] a film series that, for better or worse, seems to have kicked off and excelled at every major trend in modern movie-making for the last decade. Things like the boom in the [[Fantasy]] genre, to the reliance on [[Derivative Works|recognized franchise names]], to the idea of [[Marvel Cinematic Universe|long-running cinematic continuity]], can all be traced back to this one game-changing production. Like it or not, the entire scope of movies are now living in the world that ''[[Harry Potter]]'' created.}}
** The ''Potter'' films most clearly sparked a trend towards more faithful and straightforward adaptations of novels, particularly fantasy novels aimed at children and/or young adults. The prior trend of combing seperate installments of a novel series into one film was killed in favor of adapting each novel individually in the hopes of creating a money-spinning movie franchise. When the live-action ''[[Chronicles of Narnia]]'' movies were first planned, [[Executive Meddling]] was aimed at relocating the story to America. But after the success of the first ''Potter'' film, the executives suddenly didn't have a problem with keeping the British setting of the novels.
* Together with the aforementioned ''Potter'', the ''[[The Lord of the Rings (Filmfilm)|Lord of the Rings]]'' films greatly raised the prestige of fantasy movies, much as the books had done for fantasy literature. Before then, fantasy films had mostly been (at best) [[B-Movie|B movies]] like ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'' or kids' films like ''[[The Neverending Story (Filmfilm)|The Neverending Story]]''. After ''The Return of the King'' went home with eleven Oscars, though, few people could successfully argue that a movie wasn't [[True Art]] [[Fantasy Ghetto|just because it featured elves, trolls and wizards]].
* ''[[Blade Runner]]'' was a disappointment in a crowded summer box office when it came out. Repeated showings on cable and its release on video not only made it one of the first films to develop a strong cult following that way, but introduced the first entirely new way of visualizing the future in sci-fi films since ''[[Metropolis]]'' a half-century earlier. Not only did its wet streets reflecting neon signs at night get copied widely in other films, commercials and music videos during the 1980s, it arguably influenced the look of urban space in the ''actual real-world future'' ([http://www.flickr.com/photos/59303791@N00/2518314792/ See Times Square, ca. 2008]).
* The ''[[Alien]]'' series firmly established in futuristic stories, any major female character is expected to pull their weight in the face of danger or combat like Ellen Ripley.
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== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' wasn't the first fantasy novel, but it set up most of the devices of modern fantasy.
** And of what Tolkien didn't start, [[CSC. LewisS. (Creator)Lewis|CS Lewis]] probably did with ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]''. Not surprisingly, the authors were friends.
** Terry Brooks was the first fantasy author to be a best-selling author, and is considered to be the author that turned fantasy literature from a fringe cult phenomenon into a real industry. Interestingly, although his first [[Shannara]] book was heavily influenced by Tolkien, he also introduced some fantasy conventions of his own, such as a less formal writing style.
* [[John W. Campbell]], a popular science fiction writer and magazine editor, is generally credited by Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, and other science fiction writers as being responsible for nurturing their talents and for bringing higher standard of storytelling to the science fiction genre, which had previously consisted mostly of [[Utopia|utopian]] literature, stories of aliens and fantastic gadgets, and [[Space Western|space Westerns]]. Genre historians often date the beginning of science fiction's Golden Age as being 1938, the year Campbell assumed editorship of ''[[Astounding Science Fiction]]'' magazine.
* ''[[Neuromancer]]'' more or less ''created'' the [[Cyberpunk]] sub-genre of [[Sci Fi]].
* ''[[Don Quixote (Literature)|Don Quixote]]'' was not only the first "modern" novel, but it also single-handedly killed "knight stories" ([[Chivalric Romance]], adventure stories with a [[Knight in Shining Armor]] as the main character -- think [[King Arthur]] & co.)
* ''[[Moll Flanders (Literature)|Moll Flanders]]'' changed the novel forever. Defoe's realism made it unlike anything which had gone before; his plot was completely original, in an age of reworking classic plots; and his narrator was something new and very interesting.
* [[HPH.P. Lovecraft]] went from simple stories of the macabre and ghost stories to [[Cosmic Horror]], which changed the face of the horror genre forever.
 
 
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Star Trek: theThe Original Series (TV)|Star Trek the Original Series]]'', despite it not doing spectacularly well in the ratings, spawned numerous short-lived imitators (a few coming from [[Gene Roddenberry]], ''Trek'''s creator) in comic books and television. During the '70's it served as ''the'' template for [[Science Fiction]] television in America (and to a lesser extent, the rest of the world) until the advent of ''[[Star Wars]]'', though the clones tended to only last for a season or two. Even the original ''[[Battlestar Galactica Classic]]'' and other works influenced by ''[[Star Wars]]'' showed its influence. Its impact lasted as late as the '90s, though more in the form of television reacting ''against'' the series.
** ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'''s influence, however, would go on to shape far more than science fiction as a genre; not only is it the [[Trope Codifier]] (and [[Trope Namer]]) for the [[Power Trio]], but things like automatic doors, Kindle, iPods, bluetooth, cell phones and laptops were all first conceived for ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]''. Its impact even goes beyond pop culture and technology; Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman to work in space, was inspired to become an astronaut after seeing Lieutenant Uhura on television as a little girl.
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' had a similar status in the [[United Kingdom]]. It, too, spawned numerous homages, ranging from the long-running but much-mocked ''[[The Tomorrow People]]'' to the dark and cerebral ''[[Sapphire and Steel]]'', as well as many other less well-known examples. Similariy, the 2005 revival is credited with restoring Saturday night family dramas to British television as others began to capitalize on its success.
* ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' and ''[[Star Wars]]'' were (and still are) considered the bastions of American [[Science Fiction]], both being notable for their 'optimistic' views. ''[[Babylon 5]]'' and ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV)|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'' started taking sci-fi in a new direction, away from the space opera/Western in Space concept and made them more character driven dramas, in the vein of cop shows almost. This started a slow but steady shift in the television sci-fi genre that later yielded ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'', ''[[The X -Files]]'', and culminating in the reimagined ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined|Battlestar Galactica]]'' and ''[[Stargate Universe (TV)|Stargate Universe]]''.
* In turn, ''[[Babylon 5]]'' can arguably be credited for the current boom in [[Story Arc|serialized storytelling]] on TV.
* ''[[Lost (TV)|Lost]]'' popularized the idea of shows built around long-term [[Myth Arc|myth arcs]] that [[Mind Screw|jerk the viewer's mind around]], as well as bringing sprawling, [[Soap Opera]]-style storylines into TV sci-fi. While it has its antecedents (''[[The X-Files (TV)|The X-Files]]'', the aforementioned ''B5''), the boom in such programming after ''LOST'''s success shows why the trope is called the ''[[Noughties Drama Series]]'' [[Noughties Drama Series|Drama Series]].
* In the late '90s and early '00s, [[HBO]] shows like ''[[The Sopranos]]'', ''[[Series/The Wire|The Wire]]'' and ''[[Oz (TV)|Oz]]'', with their focus on cinematography, acting, and complex themes and storylines developed through sharp writing and in-depth characters, proved that television productions can be just as good as Hollywood movies, and that cable television could seriously compete with the broadcast [[Networks]] on their own turf.
* ''[[Seinfeld]]'' changed the the way [[Sit ComSitcom]] characters and stories are portrayed so completely that the original series seems [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny|derivative]] in the new context it created.
* For better or worse, ''[[Lizzie McguireMcGuire]]'' and ''[[That's So Raven]]'' invented the modern-day [[Idol Singer]]-centric tween sitcom.
 
 
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* [[Eric Clapton]]'s short, but legendary stint with John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers produced only one album [[Fan Nickname|often called Beano]]. The album is credited to be the first album to feature modern rock guitar. Eric Clapton was the first guy to dare to crank up his amp and take his space. Many people say [[Jimi Hendrix]] was the first modern rock guitar player, but he got his inspiration from hearing this album.
* Eddie Van Halen's 80 second guitar solo on Van Halen's first album was the "Eruption" heard round the world. Shredding was born and rock guitarists became virtuosos in their own right. While the style fell out of favour in mainstream rock in the early 1990s, it's still a major element of various metal and progressive rock scenes worldwide.
* The [[Grunge]] band [[Nirvana (Music)|Nirvana]] is often credited with putting the final nail in the coffin of [[Hair Metal]] and sparking a return to [[Three Chords and Thethe Truth]].
* Rap music received plenty of media attention for most of [[The Nineties]], but most of it was on the back of [[Gangsta Rap|the controversy it generated]]. Then [[The Notorious B.I.G.|Biggie]] and [[Tupac Shakur|Tupac]] got shot, and Sean "Puffy" Combs released his hit album ''No Way Out'', and suddenly [[Glam Rap]] became the dominant form of "urban" music on the radio for the rest of the decade and the start of [[Turn of the Millennium|the next]].
** [[The Nineties]] as a whole were a turning point for rap music. The decade introduced a large array of sub-genres that showed that rap could be more than just block party music, and that it could also have strong messages and themes (much to the chagrin of fans who were use to it just being "fun"). It also saw the growth in rap's popularity outside of [[New York City]], resulting in what is arguably the climax of the Golden Age era.
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** Bob's early output in general has often been cited as a major influence in bringing true art and poetry into pop music writing. It can't be a coincidence that his rising popularity in the first half of the 60's coincided with something of a move away from the up to then ubiquitous hot cars and fast women thematics, when people started listening to songs like "Blowing in the Wind" and "Mr Tambourine Man" instead.
* Almost all of Metallica's first three albums could count as this for thrash metal, being [[Trope Codifiers]] for the genre in different ways.
* [[Black Sabbath (Music)|Black Sabbath]]'s first album for heavy metal. If a heavy metal band says they're not influenced by them, they're lying.
* Venom may have been the trope namers, but it was [[Mayhem]]'s album ''De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas'' that really defined what [[Black Metal]] would come to be known as.
 
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* In the field of video games, ''[[Super Mario Bros.]].'' defined the 2D platformer, as well as ensuring the resurrection of the video game home console in the United States after [[The Great Video Game Crash of 1983]].
** And then another Mario game, ''[[Super Mario 64 (Video Game)|Super Mario 64]]'', set the standard for 3D platformers for years to come, and was the first 3D platformer to successfully use a joystick.
** Yet another Mario game, ''[[New Super Mario Bros (Video Game)|New Super Mario Bros]]'', proved with its high and unexpected popularity that looking to gaming's past is not a sign of creative stagnation. Hence, the massive influx of retro-flavored games afterward, including Nintendo's own ''[[Donkey Kong Country Returns]]''.
** ''[[Prince of Persia]]: The Sands of Time'' made platforming "realistic" with its use of [[Le Parkour|parkour]], and set the stage for, among other things, the ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' reboot and ''[[Uncharted]]''.
** Back in 1989, the first [[Prince of Persia]] did the exact same thing, with its realistic platforming and fighting.
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* The FPS genre seems to be as impressionable as wet clay. After ''Half-Life'' it was once again redefined by ''[[Halo]]'', bringing in regenerating health and losing the massive weapon inventories of older contenders.
** And a year later, ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' also helped redefine the FPS by successfully fusing it with the Adventure genre, creating a first-person shooter where the focus was not on combat, but rather exploration and puzzle-solving. Those had long been staples of video games, but ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' really was the [[Trope Codifier|codifier]] for their inclusion in the FPS genre. To this day, almost every modern FPS plays [[Follow the Leader]] trying to catch up to ''[[Halo]]'' and ''[[Metroid Prime]]''.
** [[Accidental Pun|Rarely]] does [[The Problem Withwith Licensed Games|a licensed game]] redefine conventions. Yet this is exactly what ''[[GoldenGoldenEye Eye007 (1997 (Videovideo Gamegame)|GoldenEye]]'' did long before ''Halo'', showing that consoles were perfectly viable for a [[First-Person Shooter]] while setting the standards for every shooter of its generation.
** ''[[Doom]]'' was the first FPS to offer multiplayer (via LAN or dial-up modem). This new mode of play proved to be hugely popular. Because of ''Doom'' virtually every FPS released since then includes a multiplayer mode, and many FPS fans buy games solely for the multiplayer and never play the single-player.
* ''[[Castle Wolfenstein]]'' invented the stealth game genre, but it wasn't until the success of ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' and ''[[Thief]]'' that the genre began to attract attention. Other stealth game series, like [[Splinter Cell]] and [[Hitman]], have continued this with quirks of their own.
* PC gaming was generally seen as inferior to console gaming until the advent of ''[[Doom]]'', which was made by, of all things, a [[Shareware]] company, causing gaming companies everywhere to rethink their business model.
** On that note, shareware in general (where you gave away part of your program for free, and the user would pay you money for the full thing if they liked it) was seen as a really stupid idea that could never possibly make money. Apogee Software and Epic MegaGames came along and proved that the model ''could'' be profitable, at least with games. Apogee made a lot of money with the game series ''Kingdoms of Kroz'', and Epic with ''ZZT''. Keep in mind this is way BEFORE the days of the Internet, which made distributing shareware easy. Apogee later changed their name to 3D Realms and created ''[[Duke Nukem 3D (Video Game)|Duke Nukem 3D]]'', and Epic went on to create the ''[[Unreal]]'' and ''[[Gears of War]]'' series.
*** Game-wise, ''[[Duke Nukem]]'' (Apogee), ''Jill of the Jungle'' (Epic) and ''Commander Keen'' (Id) popularised Shareware. One from each major company.
** Similarly, ''[[Quake (Video Gameseries)|Quake]]'' was the first FPS game with built-in internet multiplayer, which is now the defining characteristic of the genre.
** ''[[Gears of War]]'' seems to have lead third person shooters as a genre to strategic cover-based gameplay.
* ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' took RPGs down a completely different path. Its emphasis on story and simplistic combat was a major culture shock for US gamers when they got their hands on it (western RPGs at the time consisting mainly of [[Excuse Plot|shallow stories]] and cripplingly complex gameplay), but it definitely had a following, and it spawned the subgenre we now refer to as the [[JRPG]].
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** Steam also helped to create the market for indie gaming by offering a way for small developers to get their games to consumers without the costs and hurdles associated with retail stores. [[Xbox Live Arcade]] and [[Playstation Network]] quickly followed its lead, spreading the indie love to console gamers.
* You have ''[[Tokimeki Memorial]]'' to thank for [[Dating Sim]] girls who actually have personalities beyond "living love doll".
* ...and ''[[Kanon]]'' to thank for giving the ''male protagonist'' a personality, as well as (and the two are connected) making [[Porn Withwith Plot]] [[Eroge]] just as marketable as [[Porn Without Plot]] games (though the developers had previously done ''ONE -kagayaku kisetsu e-, Moon.,'' and ''Dousei'' before forming [[Key Visual Arts|their own studio]], none of these games had the impact that ''Kanon'' had).
 
 
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* Speaking of [[Warner Bros|Warner Brothers cartoons]], [[Tex Avery]] revolutionized both the Warner cartoons and the animation industry itself. At a time when Warner and almost all other studios were hell-bent on imitating [[Disney]], and in which Warner cartoons in particular were suffering from deathly mediocrity, Avery came along in 1936 with his zany, faster-paced, smartassed, [[No Fourth Wall|fourth-wall-breaking]] comedy, and cartoons haven't been the same since. If you watch the Warner cartoon library in sequence and look at what the studio was doing by 1937 or '38, it's amazing to think that this same studio had been producing terminally boring cartoons just two or three years earlier. When Warner cartoons finally became funny, they had Tex to thank for it.
* The short lived ''[[Mighty Mouse|Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures]]'' completely overhauled the expectations of what a television cartoon could do and began the practice of cartoonist-controlled animation and en-masse pop culture references.
* ''[[Batman: theThe Animated Series]]'' allowed comic book superhero <s> cartoons</s> animated series to move past the [[Animation Age Ghetto]] of the [[Super FriendsSuperfriends]], with heroes and villains that have complex motivations and (often) tragic back stories, and spawned a very well-remembered [[DCAU|franchise]]
* ''[[Doug]]'' started a trend for many [[Slice of Life]] shows in the 1990s.
 
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