Ramones: most influential group of the past 30 years?

[woodstockbirdybird]

OK, I'm sure anybody opening this thread is aware that Joey Ramone died today. This, along with a couple of the Beatles threads in this forum lately, got me thinking: are the Ramones the most influential rock group after the Beatles? I'm sure having a hard time coming up with anybody more worthy. Hell, even big arena rock stars like U2 and Bruce Springsteen admit they were inspired by them. I can understand if you don't like them, but to paraphrase a line from one of the Beatles threads,if you wanna deny their originality the enormous contribution to rock'n'roll, you don't know shit about popular music. So as far as influence, who else could vie for the crown?