top 5 most influential / important music artists per decade
Inspired by nobledonkey's comment on this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/apr/14/lcd-soundsystem-film
I'm not talking your personal favourites, but those artists who were arguably the most significant within their particular decade.
60s:
The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
Bob Dylan
Jimi Hendrix
The Who (not sure on this one)
70s:
Sex Pistols
David Bowie
The Clash
T Rex
Bee Gees
80s:
Michael Jackson
Prince
Madonna
??
??
90s:
Blur
Oasis
Nirvana
Radiohead
???
Agreed?
- Relevant artist taggings:
- The Don't Fucking Cares »[x]
- High Rankin »[x]
- the Accolade »[x]
- Meanwhile Back In Communist Russia »[x]
- Stalingrad Cowgirls »[x]
- 69 Eyes »[x]
- Basement Jaxx »[x]
- Alien Ant Farm »[x]
the Accolade
Meanwhile Back In Communist Russia
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Would add
Public Enemy to the 80's, probably Pixies too and The Smiths.
Pink Floyd in the 70's
Always felt The Ramones were more influential than the Sex Pistols. The Stooges even more so.
massive this for Ramones/Stooges
MC5 even
this on Public Enemy
I think it's really easy to understate just how influential they were. And not just on hip-hop either.
maybe add slint for the 90's??
and defo sonic youth for the 80's...precursor to grunge and all.
Slint?
Dunno about that. They've probably only influenced a handful of people who themselves aren't particularly influential.
well pretty much all of post-rock, sludge metal...
but yeah an underground choice for sure...maybe albini would be a better rep for alt rock in the 90's but then you have nirvana anyhoo...
to me taking both blur and oasis is redundant...tho i loath both so maybe i am biased...
also kraftwerk should be in there for sure...
Velvet Underground over Slint
different decades though innit...
I retract my slint vote forthwith...
of course but what I'm saying is
VU are the ultimate "influencing musicians" band, which includes Slint.
point noted...
*king crimson
love how you bypassed
all electronic music. bravo.
and all hip hop/rap
and the 00's
what is metal?
yeah admittedly it's pretty guitar / white centric
what are your suggestions then you sarky cunt?
well mingeteeth
kraftwerk, black sabbath, afrika bambaataa, aphex twin, bob marley
marley, kraftwerk i can see
got cut off...
sabbath i toyed with, afrika bambaataa and aphex twin don't think so. Marley is a serious 70s contender but dunno who should be removed in favour of him.
sabbath is a definitely possibilty...
pretty much the godfathers of metal.
im not going to convince you
keep thinking that oasis/blur were important and keep listening to kasabian and the enemy.
You should have cher and the autotune brigade down too though.
Yeeesh - this guy!
I'm not saying I *like* Oasis / Blur - i'm saying that they are 2 giants of that particular decade
by having them in the list of influential artists
you're saying they had more of an impact on music than aphex twin.. I disagree.. Im not going to convince you otherwise
how is Afrika Bambaataa not one of the most influential
he essentially started an entire genre of music, possibly two!
Afrika Bambaataa?! LOL. Jog on.
Famous for featuring on one Leftfield track, and that's it.
That's an absurd thing to say
Along with Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash, he invented what is now the most popular musical form on the planet. Good enough?
As a side note, he was also responsible for electro and the path that British dance music therefore took through the 80s.
There's a reason Leftfield asked him to guest with them.
Don't think he'd make a top 5 but good god man!
New Order worked with him
definitely not small time
So he led to (or was influential toward) the rise of racism, misogyny and violence in popular music?
And we're meant to be congratulating him for this?!
What the fuck is wrong with you people?!
Bollocks - were you trolling the whole time?
damn you.
Velvet Underground 60s
I think you need an artist for the Motown/Stax influence for 60s
James Brown/Sly Stone 60s/70s?
Sonic Youth 80s
Public Enemy 80s
60's: no Beach Boys?
And no James Brown anywhere?
As for the 00's:
The Strokes
Kanye West
LCD Soundsystem
Lady Gaga/Red One
Simon Cowell
I realise we're all getting a little dewy-eyed over LCD since the split, Shut Up And Play The Hits etc.
But no. I'd probably put Amy Winehouse there instead. And swap Simon Cowell (just because he's not an artist) for someone like Burial.
i agree - i love LCD
but their influence / importance in the wider context is a little over-estimated i think. Winehouse is a good shout, not sure about Burial though.
Needs a dubstep artist in there and he was probably the breakthrough artist right?
I don't know, it's a field I know practically nothing about.
Agree with Kanye
His production credits speak for themselves!
As much as I love LCD, they haven't exactly been influential have they?
Strokes have done fuck all.
I'm not one of those people who thinks Is This It is perfect, or a masterpiece, or anything close to it
But you'd have to admit The Strokes were probably the most influential guitar band of the 00s. Wouldn't you?
The White Stripes are far more important / influential than the Strokes
Meeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
... yeah you're probably right.
Say's a lot about the 00's though doesn't it?
White Stripes for the 00's?
Allow me to elaborate
The Strokes - Pretty much the firing gun for 'indie' music (basically that post-punk guitar shtick) becoming popular in the 00’s, they were like the boyband that NME readers could like, the first buzzband of our time if you will. Both they and The White Stripes were a sort of ground zero for popular indie music in the 00's, but it was The Strokes that led to Libertines being signed and Arctic Monkeys getting started, both of which were pretty big milestones in the last decade.
Kanye West - as well as his production (of which I wasn't all that aware until that fantastic Kanye Production Poll thread), I'd say he's heavily responsible for lighting the fuse on the Dance/Hip-Hop genre that's taken over, with a little help from Daft Punk. AND there's the genre that Drake et al are ploughing, of which something similar can be found on 808s and Heartbreaks, way before people knew who Drake (or even The XX) were.
LCD Soundsystem - Again, helping to bring dance back to the masses. Maybe not the first, but definitely one of the major acts to get kudos for doing their dance thing from people that were mainly into the rock thing (to put it simplistically). And along with the aforementioned post-punk guitar thing, it was all about the dance-punk followed by new-rave thing. Thing thing thing. Thing. And hey, weren’t they getting calls from Britney Spears and Janet Jackson soon after their first album? Who’s to say LCD SS aren’t in some part responsible for the dance/hip-hop deluge that we’re swimming in?
Lady Gaga/Red One - Her elaborate outfits and videos etc. have definitely caught on with other artists, and his eurodance productions have helped almost every act that’s been in the top ten in the past few years.
Simon Cowell - pretty much made every Christmas no.1 a no-brainer for most of this decade, and taken up the role as the ‘enemy’ of ‘real music’.
Haven’t really researched any of the claims I’m making, just my thoughts from a casual awareness of what’s been hot in the last 10 years. Might be a little contrived or far-fetched in places.
Blur?
come on now
I wouldn't put Blur as that influential
nothing against them, just don't see it that much.
I know that in the 90s, pretty much every American rock band sounded like they were to some extent influenced by either Faith No More, Nine Inch Nails or Nirvana.
Daft Punk for 00s
There really aren't many genres that haven't been touched by their influence to lesser or greater degrees.
ok here's the 00's as i see it
White Stripes
Eminem
Amy Winehouse
Kanye West
Beyonce
Good list
Possible replace Eminem with Dre, and Daft Punk would knock one of them out. Possible Beyonce but that's a tough call.
plus throw strokes over white stripes...
as they started they whole "indie" as genre thing IMO
Tricky this innit
Do you go for the most influential in terms of inspiring bands, if so what bands? Those who sold a lot of records - but they are often shite? I can imagine most people are going for skinny white guys with guitars and the odd pop act, with a sprinkling of a electronic or hip hop artist.
Christ this is hard
60s
Velvet Underground
Beatles
Rolling Stones
Beach Boys
Jimi Hendrix
70s
Sex Pistols
Led Zeppelin
The Clash
Stooges
Bob Marley
80s
Black Flag
New Order
The Smiths
The Pixies
Dinosaur Jr
90s
Massive Attack
Fugazi
Nirvana
Oasis
Green Day
00s
*too soon*
Not sure which decade to put some of these artists specifically, but there we go.
though I like most of your list
alot of it isn't the most influential of the decade, just to people into white guitar music (which I happen to be, ta)
Oasis and Green Day have no place in there though
It isn't a reflection of how good they are
Oasis and Green Day opened the doors for a lot of British Indie and American pop punk respectively to become successful, while also being very successful themselves. And yes, this is for people into white guitar music really. I could pretend I give a shit about how influential someone like Madonna is, but I don't.
the only reason Green Day got signed to a major label though
is because of the success of Nirvana and to an extent the Pixies, I feel basically all 90s guitar music is more or less explained by this (and that it is a mixed blessing).
Not only that, but Green Day are a product of bands like Black Flag and the Descendents, NOFX and Jawbreaker, whereas there are no notable bands who came after Green Day in that field.
Very rock-centric
Amazingly (or perhaps not) no one's mentioned the Spice Girls for 90s, despite them basically kick-starting the sassy girl-group mania that paved the way for All Saints, Sugababes, Girls Aloud, the Saturdays, etc.
And whether you like them or not, leaving Radiohead out is not really an option.
Other than that, good list!
I did have Spice Girls down initially for the 90s but thought better of it.
70s Kraftwerk
have influenced more people/artist than almost any on this thread.
I hear this often said
Who exactly was influenced directly by Kraftwerk? They were the first to use certain pieces of kit and techniques certainly, but I can't imagine many early house acts sitting and listening to Kraftwerk records. I may of course be wrong.
They were more influential on the early techno producers
as they took Kraftwerk as the influence that took dance away from the disco/soul influenced sound of house to the European artificial sound.
As well as the 80s electro-pop lot.
And early hip-hop.
Basically, anything that sounds 'electronic'.
Good shout
I would even argue they, along with Can and Neu!
influenced a lot of punk and post-punk
What?
HAve you heard any early hip hop records?
Planet Rock for instance? Or any of the other 238 tracks that sample Kraftwerk according to 'Who Sampled?' (it's probably more)
Or what about all the late 70s early 80s electro pop acts in England and elsewhere all massively influenced by Kraftwerk?
I think you can make a case for Kraftwerk being one of the four most influential acts in rock history along with The Beatles, Bowie and The Ramones.
techno
This thread
will not end happily.
60s
Velvet Underground
MIles Davis
John Coltrane
The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
70s
Kraftwerk
Neil Young
Can
The Stooges
DJ Kool Herc
80s
The Detroit Three (Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May, Juan Atkins)*
Steve Albini
Beastie Boys
Talk Talk
REM
90s
Tiesto (urgh, but it's true)
My Bloody Valentine
Wu Tang Clan
Blur
Radiohead
*That counts yeah? Cool
I can't do 00s sorry. It prob be Kode9, Kanye, Devendra Banhart, Animal Collective and Ricardo Villalobos
I know I left out metal but I don't realy know anything about the roots of them. If anything this is a hopeless task cos you're ignoring all of modern classical, free improv, industrial and general out there music.
If you're putting Blur and not Oasis, you're wrong.
And MBV probably aren't due to be on there. I'd replace it with someone like Spice Girls as said up thread.
Would disagree on MBV for the 90s
They influenced two eras of shoegaze (shoegaze / nugaze) and I can see a whole raft of post-rock, and latterly drone/guitar based ambient founded in their stuff. They're so frequently cited as a key influence by bands (where I would doubt Oasis/Blur would be).
Alternatively, you could pin all that movement on Spacemen 3?
devendra banhart!??!?!?!?
I don't know if they played an ATP, how is that relavent?
Yeah, I know It was lacking in house and disco or whatever. But I would say that techno and it's routes has been more influential than house. Hardcore, trance, IDM, jungle all came from techno not house. So yeah Levan, Hardy, Knuckles, Heard were influential, but not as much as the detroit three who were not only involved with the original house scene but with the emerging techno scene.
ha, this list is mental
this might be the most correct one
I like Talk Talk
but more influential than Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna?
It depends also on how positively influential they have been
Nirvana opened up the American mainstream to underground rock, but the end result is bands like Nickelback and Staind being huge rather than, say, the Butthole Surfers.
no it doesn't
influence is irrespective of how "good" they were. shitty people have influence - see Hitler.
It matters to me
is all I am saying. Otherwise let's just put the top selling artists of each decade in there. Robbie Williams in the 90s and 00s one.
you are, quite incredibly, mis understanding the definition of "influence".
in the context of this thread.
Whereas people
who think an obscure band who influence a few other fairly obscure bands (but who are bloody excellent) are fine. It is just my opinion, I am not convinced people like Robbie Williams or Madonna have really influenced too many people directly anyway. it is not like they did anything particularly groundbreaking.
I agree with Robbie Williams
But Madonna was hugely influential. I wasn't even that big a fan as a kid but, at the time, she was really shocking, groundbreaking and like nothing else that came before. Without her, we wouldn't have had Kylie, The Spice Girls, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Rihanna, Lady Gaga etc. In many ways, she did in the '80's what Bowie did in the 70's, borrowing (i.e. stealing) from what was going on in the underground scene and putting her own spin on it and making it her own.
(Clearly, Bowie is way better than Madonna though)
Some others...
60's
Velvet Underground
Silver Applies
70's
Pink Floyd, hello!?
Talking Heads
Brian Eno
Roxy Music
90's
Flaming Lips
Pavement
Silver Apples were of course influential on Krautrock and the future electronic scene
But out of 5 people in the whole of the 60s? Silver Apples were more influential on music and culture than The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Terry Riley, LaMonte Young, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman, John Cage, Bob Dylan, Captain Beefheart, The Byrds, MC5, The Stooges, King Crimson, Hendrix, Joplin, Frank Zappa, The Who, Led Zepp etc etc etc. Naaaah
God the 60s were an amazing time for music
Just saying...
Just saying...
You absolutely need Kraftwerk in the 70s.
Wiley is the most influential person of the 00s. Maybe throw in Richard X and RedOne or Stuart Pearce or someone as well
Stop proper thick, guitar centric retards in this thread
never heard of them
so thay're probably not that influential tbh. no offence.
says more about you than them tbh
not really
you've got that backwards.
them than you about more says
Weak
Richard X and RedOne are massive, massive producers
The latter is *arguably* responsible for the amalgamation of dance, hip-hop and R'n'B in modern pop music, a sound and style that is so ubiquitous today people often don't think about how it came about. He produced a lot of Lady Gaga's stuff. You're a lot more intimate with his stuff than you know.
amalgamation of dance, hip-hop and R'n'B in modern pop music....
sounds like a stark raving carnt then ;-)
but probably influential...
Stuart Price obviously I meant
Stuart Price
is an interesting shout. The second Les Rythemes Digitales LP did seem to influence Discovery (and therefore pretty much anything post 2001 that sounds like the 1980s) and I've already laid my stall out about Daft Punk definitely being top 5 but on balance don't think his influnce is anywhere near as wide.
It does raise the question though- if artist A influenced artist B who influenced artist C-Z, who is the more influential one. I'd say artist B as everyone's influnced by at least someone.
well the last point is just another reason why these attempts at stringing together narratives are pretty tedious really. and i think it also ties in with another point i wanted to make below but didn't want to do a tl;dr - that the Situation at the time of the art being released is more important really than the art itself, and really this thread needs to talk more about The Vietnam War, the collapse of the Berlin Wall etc etc
That sounds like an interesting topic for another thread
but you'll probably find it equally as irritating as this one so careful what you wish for...
Also AMM belong here somewhere
For pretty much starting the Free Improv scene which fed into EAI, Onkyo, Noise which have had a massive underground scene and following for decades.
serious point though:
discussions like this aren't really useful or particularly interesting. it can be good to trace a particular artists' favourite bands or whatever but trying to trace some kind of weird meta-narrative throughout the course of the entirety of pop music [where pop means rock, hip-hop, r&b, electronica, those boring blues singers etc] is a futile task and doesn't really add anything to the discussion. pretty much everything discussed in this thread is just stuff that was 'influential' on various strains of western guitar and vocal [usually white] musics. for example, despite most reviews of female artists these days sexistly throwing "kate bush influenced" around as a phrase i haven't seen one article assessing her work in this way.
all that happens in these threads every so often is people having boring discussions which don't add anything to the criticism or making ridiculous claims like LCD Soundsystem suddenly becoming this groundbreaking band that changed the course of music forever. in my opinion, there are few [good] arty indie type acts that i hear these days that don't sound influenced by CocoRosie in some way. but no one else will agree and it doesn't matter anyway.
it's weird how threads like this will always get about 500 replies as well while if people make threads making some good point or recommending a good band they sink off the main page straight away. start talking about actual music again everyone!
we're music enthusiasts
it's an interesting subject, so a debate ensues. It's not THAT weird.
it's not interesting though really, and the level of debate in these threads is especially uninteresting.
dont really understand the question
Alien Ant Farm in the 00s
too obvious.
Falco
ctrl+f 50s
Pfft.
A 50s list would probably be way more 'influential' than any of the other decade attempts so far, no matter how close anyone has got to a 'correct' answer.
Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Elvis, Sinatra, Doris Day, Patsy Cline, Bill Haley, Johnny Cash, Ella Fitzgerald, Jerry Lee, Ray Charles, Miles Davis, Ritchie Valens, Pete Seeger, Leiber & Stoller ...
But even that embarassment of riches came after Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, and, literally, all that Jazz.
Well, I think it's one of the more interesting threads myself! Shoot me. "Dubstep" I find your post particularly uninteresting, all these yawn, why are people talking about this responses hurt me gravely my soul department. I will not subscribe to your general malaise. People can talk about whatever they like, surely that's what the internet forums like this are for. Anyway some people are into old music, some new and some a mix of both.I just ignore one's I'm not interested in. Meinindrag, I admit was wrong about the Silver Apples, I just wanted to throw it in there as I found there stuff really surprising (but also slightly rubbish), certainly don't have much mass appeal.
classic 'boring cunt on a messageboard' - whinging that someone else's posting is negative then going while refusing to engage in a discussion [in this case: is the concept of 'influence' a useful aspect to discuss or not?].
plus all talking about music is kind of useless, something that strikes me more as I get older. I still come on her though...I was hoping someone else would talk about the new Lips album but it aint happening, and it's been a week so I'll take my sustenance where I can!
I still come on her though...
ziiiiiiiing
do one list for the UK
one for America
& one for rest of world
meet me here tomorrow.
One for all the genres too,
with context included.
Good idea but different threads. This one is spent and withered.
arguable, but if you're talking "influential"...
pistols/clash are essentially the same. maybe you could say "punk". same with bowie/t rex ... I know, I know, but still. Marley in the '70s. maybe in the 60s instead of the who you could say, I don't know, Mayall - blues was massive. Or (cringe) Grateful Dead. I also think blur/oasis cancel each other out. Gee, no Smiths or Cure? THANK YOU. we gotta do this right.
Ctrl+F Jane's Addiction?
I have just finished reading "Whores" - Jane's Addiction bio.
It seems that "Nothing's Shocking" pretty much influenced all late 80s/90s alt rock. Growing up at that time I can well believe it - there was nothing else out there at that time quite like it.
As an aside, it's quite something to discover that when they made "Ritual" (one of my favourite records), Dave Navarro was so strung out he can't actually remember playing on it and thought the whole recording process lasted for 5 minutes. I don;t think any of them were in the same room together when recording their parts. You have to be seriously talented to make such a great record in such circumstances.