The Velvet Underground & Nico : The Velvet Underground & Nico

The Velvet Underground & Nico

 is the debut album 

by American rock band

 The Velvet Underground, 

released in March 1967

 by Verve Records.

Accompanied by 

vocalist 

Nico

 the album was recorded

 in 1966

 while the group were 

featured on 

Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic

 Inevitable multimedia event tour,

 which gained attention for

 its experimental performance 

sensibilities

 and

 controversial lyrical topics, 

including drug abuse,

 prostitution, 

sadism

 and

 masochism

 and 

sexual deviancy.

Though the record was 

a commercial failure

 upon release

 and was almost

 entirely ignored 

by contemporary critics, 

The Velvet Underground & Nico 

is now widely recognized 

as one of the greatest 

and most influential albums

 in the history of 

popular music.

It ranked 13th on 

Rolling Stone magazine's

 list of 

the 500 Greatest Albums 

of All Time 

and was added to

 the 2006 National Recording

 Registry by

 the Library of Congress.

In 1982, 

musician and producer 

Brian Eno 

famously stated that 

while the album i

nitially only sold 

30,000 copies,

 everyone who bought 

one of those 

30,000 copies

 started a band

 Genres that 

were significantly

 informed by the album 

include art rock,

 punk, 

garage,

grunge, 

shoegaze, 

gothic, 

indie,

and most 

other forms of

 alternative music

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