Rock's original power trio, Cream, opened up the expressive possibilities of the blues in the mid-‘60s, making it louder, funkier, and more focused on improvisation, and inspiring subsequent bluesy power trios Taste and ZZ Top in the process. They pushed it into mind-expanding areas, as picked up by Jimi Hendrix, introducing the monolithic riffing that Led Zeppelin later honed to a lethal edge.