No, that’s more what I’m thinking - there’s already the official history, which everybody knows, but I’m looking for more of the parallel history of the more underground bands.
I agree with most of the selections here (Entertainment! is probably my favorite album, but I didn’t include Gang of Four because I think “I Love A Man In Uniform” was a minor hit), though Delaney & Bonnie wouldn’t count to me - too mainstream/middle of the road, even if not necessarily huge.
It’s hard with some of them because, as Exapno Mapcase points out, many groups were huge in the UK without making a dent in the charts here, but I think bands like Roxy Music (at least up until Manifesto) would fit the criteria - musically, at least, they were different enough from the other pop acts of the time to qualify. Which reminds me: Brian Eno.
These two listings right here (in particular The Meters) are more influential musically, even if not culturally, than any of the other bands that I have seen mentioned so far in this thread.
Almost every serious musician I have ever known or read about, in just about any genre, seems to go out of their way to give The Meters the veneration and respect that they never got from the general public at large.
They are the very definition of “musicians’ musicians”
When you have as diverse of a group of sources like Bob Dylan, Joe Strummer, Willie Nelson, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, Jerry Garcia, Jeff Tweedy, Tony Bennett, Paul Weller and Bonnie Raitt singing your praises, you must have been doing something right, even if 99% of the Unwashed Masses have never heard of you…
I think if you’re including Wire (which hit #2 on the Modern Rock tracks in the US with “Eardrum Buzz”), you’d have to include Gang of Four (whose best showing is #14 on the modern rock tracks with “Don’t Fix What Ain’t Broke” and #9 on the US Hot Dance Club Play charts with “Is It Love?”, along with a few other showings on the Hot Dance Club Play charts) Especially given just how incredibly influential they’ve been with bands in the early 2000s. I could have sworn Wire’s “Kidney Bingos” charted, too, but it appears not.
Also, the Replacements hit #1 on the Mainstream Rock charts with “I’ll Be You,” so, yeah, gotta include Gang of Four. I would guess the vast majority of average music listeners would have no idea who they were.