Far more adventurous than the rest of their British Invasion colleagues, The Who were influential on genres as polarizing as Punk (with their aggression and three-chord attacks in their early years) and Prog (with their concept albums, upbeat songwriting, atypical drumming, and live showmanship).

In the early years they rocked harder than their contemporaries & always took risks & forged their own path. Like all innovators some things went better than others however to me there has never been a bad Who album. Some just took a little longer to love. My personal favourite is Quadrophenia closely followed by Who's Next & their most underrated album Who By Numbers.

One of the all time greatest rock bands. Several unique & wonderful rock albums they have released are totaly original masterpeice. There are few rock bands as great.

Fantastic Rock Band! Groundbreaking multiple times. Masters of the Rock Opera. Punk Pioneers. Killer songwriting from Pete Townsend, best rock vocals ever from Roger Daultry and the best rhythm section with Entwistle on bass and Moon on drums. Not the most prolific and not always consistent, but there's still enough of a critical mass of outstanding, seminal rock music there that they are/should be in the discussion as the greatest.

A 60s-70s group that were way ahead of their time, even with all the acclaim they received in their era. They've influenced genres from hard rock, art rock, progressive rock to punk rock, heavy metal and hardcore. Amazing band. Amazing talent. The only band to have a lead singer, lead guitarist, lead drummer and lead bassist.

Still think Who Sells Out is a underrated masterpiece.

Love The Who. Fantastic run of albums, right up until the early 80's. Live at Leeds (the original vinyl LP) arguably the greatest Live album ever.

Who's Next is amazing, too bad I find getting into double concept albums to be a chore...

My favorite band and artist of all time, bombastic live, genius at the studio, and the craziest rhythm section ever.

Regarding the comment "old mans music [sic]" by InsanityPrawnBoy:
actually, this is very much young man's music - simply young men from a different time. music (at least that being sold to the public) has been a "young man's game" for a long time. Ragtime wasn't old people music, Swing wasn't old people music, Be-bop wasn't old people music, Motown wasn't old people music, etc. The music of The Who is filled with the vibrance of youth, the energy of youth and their lyrics speak to the listener from a youthful perspective (though at times also an "old soul" view of the world). Today's "young people music" will seem "old" to younger people 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now. But a young person with perspective will understand that this music comes from the mind and body of young people and that certain truths of the life experiences of young people will resonate in that music forever. But I guess you were just looking to be snarky.