This year marks 50 years of Rock `N’ Roll in our culture (give or take a year) and my question to fellow Doper’s is simply this:
Who have been the most influential pop music acts (solo, duo, group, etc.) over the past 50 years. I’m not looking for record sales as a barometer of influence. My choices would be:
[ol]
[li]Everly Brothers[/li][li]Velvet Underground[/li][li]Beatles[/li][li]Stevie Wonder[/li][li]Donny Osmond (seeing if you’re paying attention and just joking)[/li][li]The Clash[/li][li]Prince[/li][li]Johnny Cash[/li][/ol]
If you’re going by influence alone, it’s pretty much the Beatles at number one. You could make an argument that Black Sabbath is pretty high up, and the Ramones too. And don’t forget Elvis, either.
I think that Elvis was a product of the influences before him (R&B, C&W, etc.) rather than him necessarily being an influence.
The difficult thing, of course, is to try to determine the influence of recent artists as opposed to older ones. The problem in my mind is that most artists in the last 10-15 years have been more content to imitate rather than innovate.
In my mind pop and rock can’t be separated over the last 50 years in much the same way that it would be difficult to separate R&B/Funk/Soul etc.
I would add a definitive yes to Dylan and Hendrix. Hendrix is the quintessential guitar god (should that be capitalized?) of the last 50 years.
It’s also interesting to note the correlation between “pop” and “social context”. One of the most popular songs of 1966 was the Barry Sadler song “Ballad of the Green Berets” followed in 1967 by Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence”. Can’t say that pop music doesn’t follow historical & political trends.
Beatles
Elvis
Pink Floyd
Led Zeppelin
The Doors
Janis Joplin
Jimi Hendrix
Black Sabbath
Metallica
Ray Charles
Miles Davis
P Funk
Grandmaster Flash
Public Enemy
Nine Inch Nails
Nirvana
Smashing Pumpkins
Digital Underground
Tupac
Notorious BIG
Aerosmith
Tom Petty
Bee Gees
Depeche Mode
Joy Division
The Stooges
Sex Pistols
Madonna
Prince
Garth Brooks
The Velvet Underground
Hell, we could go on for days, but that seems like a good list.
it’s a good AMERICAN list, but some of those people couildn’t get arrested outside of the US. All I know about the Smashing Pumpkins is that they were on the Simpsons (“Hello Billy Corrigan, smahing pumpkins”; Homer: “Hello, Homer Simpson, smiling politely”).
Who are P Funk? Garth Brooks means nothing outside the US, Aerosmith are seen as Zep/Stones clones in Europe, Tom Petty is a minority interest (I quite like him, but he doesn’t chart) Digital Underground? Who they?
From a british point of view people like:
Cliff Richard and the Shadows
The Who
Small Faces
Kinks
Deep Purple
Stock Aitken and Waterman
Joe Meek
Tom Jones
Yup that’s what I mean. No one in britain is influenced by the Smashing Pumpkins as they’re not well known. Bands like Husker Du and the Pixies mean more over here than the Pumpkin people, not to mention New York Dolls, television, Velvet Underground etc.
So a band growing up in England would have some of the influences on that list but others would be as powerful. That band could go on to be influential in their own right - think Depeche Mode (who were never as big here as in the states).
P.s we theink the Doors are wankers and can’t be doing with the Grateful Dead. Mind you, our number one at the moment is “Is this the way to amarillo?” (yes that one).
The question is “Most influential”, not “Most well known”.
Billy Corgan worked out the guitar sound that ended up being Nirvana’s trademark. He was working with the producer Butch Vig who produced Nevermind. The irony of it all was that Nirvana wasn’t that happy with the way Nevermind sounded, and Billy Corgan scrapped that sound so as not to come off as a Nirvana clone. Then all the Nirvana clones over the next 15 years ripped off that guitar sound.
Billy Corgan has produced albums for Marilyn Manson and Hole, James Iha is in A Perfect Circle.
P Funk is one of the originators of Funk, they have maintained a very powerful cult following for the past 30+ years, and are an influence for basically ALL Funk and Hip Hop that have come since. So you not hearing of them has little bearing on their influence. They had a much more deep and dirtier sound than James Brown or Rick James. They are like a darker Kool and the Gang. George Clinton is their front man.
Digital Underground is a rap group that’s been around since the 80s.
Jim Morrison is one of the prototypical rock stars. His influence is more in his words and personality.
Aerosmith, I could care less about them, I just kind of threw them in.
As you have not heard of some on my list, I also have not heard of a couple from your list.
One’s you may not know from my list (and why they matter)
Cliff Richard and the Shadows. Cliff is important as he was the first real british rock 'n roller. (he’s since become a family entertainer in a Pat Boone sort of a way). The Beatles and the Stones (and every other Brit beat boom band) owe something to Cliff. His backing band were the Shadows who’s guitarist was Hank Marvin who had a great big impact on the likes of Beck, Clapton, Page etc. Hank was the first british guitar hero.
I’m assuming you’re au fait with the small faces, who and the kinks!
Joe Meek was a one-off producer who was basically the closest Britain had to a Phil Spector type (and was equally mad). He produced Telstar which was the first British record to get to number one in the USA opening up that market for the groups that followed. He killed his landlady and himself.
Stock Aitken and Waterman are the people behind Kylie and a load of other bubblegum pop from the 80s and 90s and are responsible for the whole infantilisation of the pop charts - not necessarily a god thing, but an important thing.
And I can’t believe that no one has suggested Bob Marley!
Why would they? Just how much pop do you hear that is influenced by Marley?
Are people here just naming their favorite bands, or really considering who is infuential?
Black Sabbath, while in most opinions, weren’t as good (definitely not as popular) as Zeppelin, if you listen to anyone from ]Metallica to Soundgarden, their influence is much clearer. And the bands will tell you as much.
I don’t see the great influence that Smashing Pumpkins has had or even Pink Floyd.
The amount of influence Dr. Dre has had on the pop scene for the last 15 years is incredible.
I think that you’re really starting to see the influence of U2 on the scene, with bands like Oasis, Train, and Coldplay owing a lot to their sound.
Naming Garth Brooks completely misses the point. There were tons of people doing “neutered country” before Garth Brooks. He is one of the current generation influenced by lame-o’s before him, like Hank Williams Jr. and Randy Travis. They’re the ones who removed the balls from country. Garth just sold more.