EWB's Top Fif -- er, Thirty-Three Influential Artists: THE RESULTS

[GoGo Yubari]

Hendrix not getting higher was a crime. I'm honestly just glad he made it in; a lot of it was from sort of a relatively last minute rush.

Sister Rosetta should be much much higher and everyone should click on her video and go to 1:25 so you can see just how badass she was, but I'm glad she's in at all. *High fives Skummy.*

EDIT: Michael Jackson deserves higher also, but. Yeah. It should not shock anyone that this is going to be a bit of a rockcentric list.

Edited May 23, 2008 by GoGo Yubari

[MalaCloudy Black]

Hey wow I had no idea Sister Rosetta was born in Arkansas. I mean fuck, I've even been to Cotton Plant and talked to people there and she's never been mentioned, not even by the old timers.

[KevinStorm]

REM beating Prince and AC/DC, and Michael Jackson not being in the top 5, are both crimes.

[GoGo Yubari]

Basically the only real joy I get out of REM's presence was being able to link to that video.

Edited May 23, 2008 by GoGo Yubari

[METALMAN]

Can we just pretend Prince won please?

[GoGo Yubari]

1. Prince (99999999 points, appeared on 999999 ballots)

[METALMAN]

You are an amazing person. And Prince is clearly too good for youtube.

[Guest Dr. Potato Head]

REM a) shouldn't be that high and b) should have Bill Berry in the picture.

[VerbalPuke]

Whaaaaaaaaaaat. NWA and Hendrix should be SO MUCH HIGHER.

Fuck yeah Cloudy. Hendrix is fucking awesome, and I don't think people understand just how fucking influential he was. Some folks may think of him as hippie rock, but the man was playing some heavy shit for his day. I love Jimi Hendrix.

I'm glad to see Sister Rosetta Thorpe make the list by the way. Kudos to Skummy and GoGo for voting for her, I know I didn't. You guys should look into Big Joe Turner if you love her as much as you do.

R.E.M. fucking sucks by the way. They are completely fucking gay.

[Benji]

The Black Man is being stuck to by the man, deal with it

[Skummy]

Sister Rosetta, fuck yes. Without Rosetta and her ilk, it's highly likely "rock and roll" might never have happened.

Pixies I love, and while for a few years many people (myself included) heavily over-rated exactly how influential they were, they did have a pronounced effect on shaping alternative music into the mid-'90s, and continue to have some effect today, especially seeing as they pretty much created Nirvana's beloved "loud-quiet-loud" dynamic that so many bands employ.

Robert Johnson's rather good - he's not one of my favourite blues singers, and I'd have placed Son House higher than him in terms of influence, but Johnson was instrumental in "selling" blues music, and black music in general, to a white audience, and that sort of cult following really lead to the blues side of rock and roll, so while I'm not the biggest fan, his influence can't be denied. Probably should be much higher, actually.

Grandmaster Flash, fuck yes. Actually surprised he made it, as most music lists on EWB tend to lean on the rock side of things.

Jackson, well we had a whole thread about him. I've never cared much either way for him, but I can see how he's influenced pop music, although more from a cultural and mass-media perspective than in the more pure musical way that others on this list have.

NWA, again, I'm not surprised they're so low because EWB tends to have a rock bias. I don't think I voted for them, for a start.

Hendrix is an obvious one, and I'm surprised he's so low, and that so few people voted for him. Again, I don't think I voted for him, as I'm not a huge fan of his or much of the music he's directly influenced.

R.E.M., what the fuck? From what I can understand, they influenced "college rock", which seems to be a purely American phenomenon, as I have no idea what that actually means. They've had a handful of good songs, none of them musically especially groundbreaking, I fail to see how they can be considered influential on any real scale, certainly not more influential than those that have come before them in this list.

QUOTE(Iain76er @ 21st May 2008, 10:31 am) *

Zappa is only remembered for naming his daughter Moon Unit. He's influential in celebrities naming their children stupid names.

... all you, Skummy. Have at it.

Right - aside from proving my point; Zappa's only remembered by "the masses", even by most music critics it would seem, as someone to reference to make yourself look learned in the ways of music, as the token avant-garde eccentric to namedrop, and stuff like calling his kids Dweezil, Moon Unit, Ahmet Emuukha Rodan and my personal favourite, Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen, and songs, or rather song titles, like "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow". In reality, though, between Zappa's Mothers Of Invention and Captain Beefheart's Magic Band, music was re-invented and re-imagined and deconstructed in the '60s and '70s in a way that's not been repeated since - listen to a track like "Willie The Pimp", a Zappa track with Beefheart providing vocals, or "Who Are The Brain Police?" by The Mothers Of Invention, to name but two songs, and you'll hear that he was decades ahead of his time, so much so that it's essentially impossible to pinpoint exact points of influence, but I think it's safe to say that, along with The Velvet Underground, he's partly responsible for the increased "intelligence" of "rock and roll" music, for fusion of genres, for elevating rock music above "something for the kids", for introducing a level of satire to music that had thus far been mostly absent, for introducing the concept album - more than anything, though, for a spirit of creativity and innovation that's basically unparalleled - only Beefheart came close, but he retired (unless he's involved with The Residents, which is another story for another time) while Zappa continued breaking boundaries, and frankly it's doubtful Beefheart would have kept up with him - not that he needed to, given the strength of the work he left behind.

[VerbalPuke]

Wow, that was an awesome diatribe about Frank Zappa. Another thing to keep in mind with Zappa, he was attacking the insipid hippie music of his generation, and openly mocked the fucking Beatles with his album cover "We're Only In It For the Money". I'm thankful that I have a friend or two that are huge Zappa fans.

As I've said before about Zappa, he's not just a rock and roll musician, he's a brilliant vocalist, a lyrical mastermind, and an extraordinary composer. His work transcends rock and was always ahead of it's time or completely deviating from the norm of the current era of rock (be it the 60s, 70s, or 80s).

Just as a stupid side note, my friend that is a huge Zappa fan has told me that his parents saw Zappa live in the 80s. They say that it was the most incredible live musical experience they have ever seen.

And one more stupid side note, Zappa was alongside Dee Snyder and Jello Biafra in the war against the PRMC (I think that's right? The group against Tipper Gore), fighting against the censorship of music.

[Skummy]

That's true, which in itself is pretty wonderful, because the guy was really conservative, politically - he was vehemently anti-drug use and pro-capitalism. I suppose he was kind of a libertarian conservative.

But, yeah, Zappa was very critical of, and essentially transcended, the "hippy" ethos of the '60s, and it's interesting to see how the people who did that, who kind of struck against the grain - Zappa, Beefheart, Velvets, Silver Apples to a lesser extent - have really outlasted the hippy status quo in terms of their music still sounding fresh and relevant and influential today, and in terms of never having "sold out" or jumped on to the next bandwagon the way so many of the "hippy" bands of the '60s did.

I'll confess, though, I'm not nearly as knowledgeable on Zappa as I'd like to be - he's one of those artists whose body of work is just so immense and inpenetrable that you just never know where to start, so like VP, I'm pretty thankful to know a couple of big Zappa fans otherwise I'd be utterly clueless as to what to look out for.

[VerbalPuke]

That's true, which in itself is pretty wonderful, because the guy was really conservative, politically - he was vehemently anti-drug use and pro-capitalism. I suppose he was kind of a libertarian conservative.

I think it was through my buddies that I heard this through, but Zappa was looking to run for political office through the Libertarian party. If you're interested, there are some good videos of him on youtube schooling people on CNN's "Crossfire" in the late 1980s.

I've never voted, and probably never will, but if Zappa were alive, he'd most definitely get my vote.

Edit - And one more fun story about Frank Zappa. Alice Cooper's first two albums were produce by Frank Zappa. The Alice Cooper band were told by Zappa to "Come to LA at 8 O'Clock for an audition". Alice Cooper and his band show up at Zappa's front door at 8 A.M., when Zappa had meant 8 p.m. Zappa was so impressed by their gumption and dedication to make music, that he signed them up on the spot.

As a fun side note, Alice Cooper's face paint on stage was borrowed from Arthur Brown. Alice asked Arthur Brown if he could borrow the style and Arthur said yes, which is funny because Arthur Brown's "Crazy World of Arthur Brown" album sort of reminded me of a macabre version of Frank Zappa.

Edited May 24, 2008 by VerbalPuke

[gunnar hendershow]

That's true, which in itself is pretty wonderful, because the guy was really conservative, politically - he was vehemently anti-drug use and pro-capitalism. I suppose he was kind of a libertarian conservative.

But, yeah, Zappa was very critical of, and essentially transcended, the "hippy" ethos of the '60s, and it's interesting to see how the people who did that, who kind of struck against the grain - Zappa, Beefheart, Velvets, Silver Apples to a lesser extent - have really outlasted the hippy status quo in terms of their music still sounding fresh and relevant and influential today, and in terms of never having "sold out" or jumped on to the next bandwagon the way so many of the "hippy" bands of the '60s did.

I'll confess, though, I'm not nearly as knowledgeable on Zappa as I'd like to be - he's one of those artists whose body of work is just so immense and inpenetrable that you just never know where to start, so like VP, I'm pretty thankful to know a couple of big Zappa fans otherwise I'd be utterly clueless as to what to look out for.

While I agree Zappa and Velvets at the least both sound a bit more fresh today, it's in large part because an entire 5 years of rock music weren't spent by everyone emulating their sounds whereas as soon as Monterey Pop happened you had bands everywhere start up trying to have a Psychedelic sound. Zappa's one of my favorite figures in music for a lot of reasons, but if there's one thing about him that is even more pronounced than with other artists it's that his detractors disregard his importance entirely, while his hardcore fans think he's the most important musician ever.

[GoGo Yubari]

25. Link Wray (14 points, appeared on two ballots)

23. Metallica (14 points, appeared on three ballots, not making the top ten for possibly the first time in EWB music list history)

23. Bob Marley (14 points, appeared on three ballots)

22. James Brown (14 points, appeared on four ballots)

21. Tupac Shakur (15 points)

[MalaCloudy Black]

You skipped 24.

And wow, Metallica not in the top 10.

[GoGo Yubari]

No, I didn't; Metallica and Bob Marley tied at 23 so there was no 24.

[Guest Dr. Potato Head]

There was no 24 because there was a tie for 23.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Overlooked that.