EWB's Fifty Influential Musical Artists

[Liam]

1) Elvis (as much as I hate to say it)

2) The Beatles

3) Black Sabbath

4) Napalm Death

5) The Clash

6) At The Gates

7) The Smiths

8) Led Zeppelin

9) Venom

10) Hellhammer

Mine kinda looks more at metal side of things as well. May not be the 'most', but they are pretty influential whichever way you look at it.

[DMN in the House]

Keeping in mind that my knowledge of music history is lacking, thank you.

1. Johnny Cash - Couldn't decide between The Beatles or Elvis. Neither invented their genre, and neither were as good as their hype. No one else is listing Johnny Cash, so I gave him some love. Did he invent country? No. Did he invent rock? No. What he was is the original rock archtype.

2. The Beatles - Elvis Presley was a hero to most, but he never meant shit to me. Ok, so I used to prefer Elvis' music, but The Beatles have grown on me. I wish I could list The Beach Boys above them, but I'd be lying to myself.

3. Tupac Shakur - Did he invent rap music? No. Still, I dare you to find someone who's impact on the genre matches that of Tupac Shakur. An entire generation of rap fans, no, I dare say all rap fans to come will be influenced by a man who strode the line between gangsta and poet, between hype and hope. A poet and a player.

4. Bob Marley - He gets major points from me for influencing Sublime. His music has had a major influence on several genres, outside of the obvious of reggae. Punk, hip-hop, rock, its all felt the touch of Bob Marley. Another legend gone before his time.

5. Elvis Presley - I know when I started this list I had a quandry between him and The Beatles. Eventually, the fact that he didn't invent, nor really change, the style of music in which he falls, reflects on him. The original poster boy, his looks and 'controversy' did far more for him than did his musical abilities.

6. Frank Sinatra - He is on FAR fewer lists than he deserves. GoGo, I'm looking at you. The voice of a generation, his influence lives to this day, in genre's as diverse from his own as hip-hop and rap. A persona as well as an artist. As a person over, say, 70 now, who their favorite singer is, and chances are they'll say Ol' Blue Eyes.

7. The Beastie Boys - Brought rap to the white masses, made it ok to be a white guy that liked rap, and were kings of the sample. Never has punk rock attitude been brought to hip-hop so well. I love NWA, but The Beastie Boys deserve the spot more.

8. Ice T - Before you laugh, remember that he was one of the originators of gangsta rap, is the frontman for a fucking THRASH band, and convinced the entire world that a metal song was the most dangerous rap track of all time. Yes, I'm looking at you Cop Killa. One of the few rap stars, and maybe the most ironic, to cross over into other genres of entertainment, and you have a man who is both a pioneer, and a great entertainer.

9. The Sex Pistols/The Ramones - I refuse to seperate them. One pioneered the American punk rock sound, the other the punk rock persona. Be it as it may that the Sex Pistols were a packaged band, created to sell records, they went on to be THE definition of punk. The Ramones, on the other hand, understated in leather jackets and sunglasses, created the sound that still lives today. I'm not a huge Ramones fan, but to deny their influence would be sheer stupidity.

10. Black Sabbath - It was a hard call here between them, with Ozzy, and Ronnie James Dio. In the end, the sheer awesomeness of Sabbath wins out. One of the greatest metal bands, nay, simply greatest bands, of all time, with classics ranging from Crazy Train to Iron Man to The Wizard, they did it all, and without the theatrics that came to be the norm for lesser bands in their genre.

Honorable Mentions

The Beach Boys

NWA

2 Live Crew (Krew? Whatever)

The Rolling Stones

Aerosmith

Ronnie James Dio

Marty Robbins

Tennessee Ernie Ford

Hank Williams

Edited March 13, 2008 by DMN

[Skummy]

By the way I'm intrigued by this electronic music you speak of dating to the early 40s, can you cite any names of groups or people I could check out?

There's a decent compilation album out there called "Early Gurus Of Electronic Music" that does a nice job of summarising where it all comes from, which is mostly avant-garde "classical" music, mostly post-WW2. A few names to check out, though, are Pierre Schaeffer, John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Edgard Varèse (specifically Poem Electronique), Morton Subotnick, Iannis Xenakis and La Monte Young. Not all of their work is necessarilly electronic, but it's where a lot of the music stems from, the earliest recognisable experiments in electronic music, and as I said, at the time it was just considered the realms of classical music's avant-garde, the possibility of pop music and electronica crossing over was unheard of. Olivier Messaien used earlier electronic techniques as early as the late '30s, but it's barely recognisable as "electronic" music the way we think of it today.

There were a few people who experimented with "children's music" using electronic instruments in the early '60s, but I can't remember for the life of me what their names were. It was pretty much the invention of the synthesiser that brought electronica into the pop sphere, although mostly it was just used as a keyboard substitute, rather than embraced as a new form of music.

Personally, I'd trace electronic "pop" music to one band: Silver Apples. They were active between 1967 and 1969, and reformed in the late '90s, they were basically a two-piece, just a drummer and a bizarre home-made synthesiser machine thing, that's just a mess of levers, wires, oscillators, guitar strings, and doesn't look at all like a musical instrument. They're a phenomenal band even ignoring the influence they've had and just taking them at face value, and I saw "Silver Apples" (now just a solo show) in December, and it's still phenomenal, one of the best gigs I've ever seen.

[paulbd]

1. Led Zeppelin

2. The Beatles

3. Johnny Cash

4. The Rolling Stones

5. Bob Dylan

6. Bob Marley

7. Black Sabbath

8. Jimi Hendrix

9. Metallica

10. AC/DC

[DFF]

Jeez this is tricky. Now, like others have said before this is with limited knowledge but here it goes.

1. The Beatles (The grandaddy of influencers and probably the most successful band there'll ever be toboot)

2. David Bowie

3. Queen

4. Lonnie Donegan (Influenced Lennon AND Townshend, amongst others).

5. Cliff Richard (Would be higher if he had more influence stateside).

6. Elvis Presley

7. Eric Clapton

8. Pink Floyd

9. Eddie Van Halen

10. The Shadows

Honourable mention: Michael Jackson.

[Pander Opiate]

1.) Robert Johnson

2.) The Velvet Underground

3.) Muddy Waters

4.) The Beatles

5.) Chuck Berry

6.) Elvis Presley

7.) The Stooges

8.) Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five

9.) New York Dolls

10.) Sex Pistols

Edited March 11, 2008 by Pander Opiate

[RazorsEdge]

1. The Beatles

2. Nirvana

3. Led Zeppelin

4. Pink Floyd

5. Rolling Stones

6. Bob Dylan

7. Elvis Presley

8. Johnny Cash

9. AC/DC

10. Jimi Hendrix

That was far from easy.

[Liam]

I really wanna know what people see as influential in some of thier choices. I'm not being nasty, I just really don't get some of them personally.

That was just sparked by the listing of AC/DC, which I don't get >_>

[DMN in the House]

I don't really get the AC/DC listing either. They're a great band, I love them, but if you want to list them, just do the right thing and list KISS instead.

[OGpistolpete]

I think too many people are listing bands that were really good and not bands that changed music and influenced other musicians to follow their dreams.

[DMN in the House]

I tried to be objective with my list. The only ones I think are really iffy that I listed are Ice Tea and The Beastie Boys, but I think I defended them well. In their genres they're pretty influential.

[MalaCloudy Black]

I think too many people are listing bands that were really good and not bands that changed music and influenced other musicians to follow their dreams.

I wouldn't say that, I'm sure AC/DC have influenced just as many people as any other band on anyone else's list. It's all a matter of perspective, I don't think you can call any of these listings "wrong" because at some point in time any one of these given bands or artists has been an influence to someone else's music.

[YI]

I kind of cheated...as I kind of gauged influential/do I like them...how much do I like them...because if I just went with solely 'influential' I'd go into some form of nueroticism spyral and never get it posted.

1. The Beatles

2. Woody Guthrie

3. Velvet Underground

4. Elvis

5. The Clash

6. George Clinton

7. Black Sabbath

8. The Smiths

9. Frank Zappa

10. Bad Religion

"Influence" is a very weird one to judge. As say, give it 5/6 years and if the 'punk-rock' scene goes the way it's looks to be going (the whole 'tech-punk' route...eugh...I hate that name), then Strung Out, Belvedere and A Wilhelm Scream would be HUGE influences...yet...in the larger scale of things they mean nothing to just about everyone. Like Bad Religion...yeah they've had moderate success, signed to a major and all that......more success than the bands I've mentioned. But you might think "they don't deserve to be on the list"...well, hell...pretty much EVERY punk-rock band currently playing cites Bad Religion as a major influence.

Edited March 12, 2008 by YI

[Liam]

Admittedly, I didn't vote for them, but not enough votes for Motorhead.

[RPS]

1. The Clash

2. R.E.M

3. Elton John

4. The Bee Gees

5. David Bowie

6. Elvis Presley

7. Booker T and the MGs

8. N.W.A

9. James Brown

10. The Sex Pistols

[Sabu]

1. The Beatles

2. Nirvana

3. Bob Dylan

4. Elvis Presley

5. Tupac Shakur

6. The Ramones

7. Sex Pistols

8. Public Enemy

9. Queen

10. Black Sabbath

[Benji]

Admittedly, I didn't vote for them, but not enough votes for Motorhead.

As odd as it may be, I've never considered Motorhead influential, they're one of the best (if not, THE best) in their genre, but to me there's a lot of other bands in said genre who feel a lot more influential in terms of writing and performing, and considering how fucking big they are, that almost certainly says more about the genre they're a part of than any kind of knock on Motorhead.

[Liam]

Admittedly, I didn't vote for them, but not enough votes for Motorhead.

As odd as it may be, I've never considered Motorhead influential, they're one of the best (if not, THE best) in their genre, but to me there's a lot of other bands in said genre who feel a lot more influential in terms of writing and performing, and considering how fucking big they are, that almost certainly says more about the genre they're a part of than any kind of knock on Motorhead.

I think Motorhead were influential purely in so far as how loud and heavy you could go. I don't know whether you could argue how influential they were band to band, but for simply pushing boundaries, I think they were pretty influential.

Kinda similar to my vote for Napalm Death, although depending on what you read, ND are also cited as paving the way for many of the forms of extreme metal that were to come.

[Iain76er]

The only person who I've heard expressly name Motorhead as an influence would be Dave Grohl.

[Skummy]

I think Motörhead were a cultural and musical reference point more than people realised; they were pretty much the forerunners of thrash and, like Liam said, an example of how fast, loud and heavy you could get away with music being. They were pretty much a by-word for heavy metal for a long time, and represented the scuzzier, heavier side of metal while everybody else was more concerned with guitar solos and dragons. I think they shaped heavy metal from one side just as much as someone like Deep Purple did from the other, as well as laying the foundations for punk in many ways.

While I perhaps wouldn't put them top 10, they'd be a lot higher than AC/DC, KISS, Deep Purple, or pretty much any hard rock or metal band other than Black Sabbath or, as much as I hate to say it, Led Zeppelin. In a way, I think they're overlooked because people take their influence for granted, as its not necessarily as immediately apparent as some other bands'.