# The most influential music of all time **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 8, 2007, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influential-music-of-all-time/391299 "2007-02-08T02:17:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![solkoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@solkoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solkoe)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influential-music-of-all-time/391299/1 "2007-02-08T02:17:48Z")
and why it was so influential. ---
**Author:** ![HoboStew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f17d59/32.png) [@HoboStew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoboStew)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influential-music-of-all-time/391299/2 "2007-02-08T02:21:01Z")
**The Shaggs** - _Philosophy of the World_ The apotheosis of music. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influential-music-of-all-time/391299/3 "2007-02-08T02:21:42Z")
That would be Jeff. He was the first person to pound a bone on a hollow tree trunk. Invented rhythm, he did. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influential-music-of-all-time/391299/4 "2007-02-08T02:48:27Z")
**Free Bird** , of course. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influential-music-of-all-time/391299/5 "2007-02-08T03:09:47Z")
Happy Birthday! It brought on a huge tradition that spans cultures. It is also the only time when many people agree to sing in front of friends and strangers alike. ---
**Author:** ![Smith8762](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Smith8762](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smith8762)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influential-music-of-all-time/391299/6 "2007-02-08T03:17:22Z")
Black Sabbath… Created heavy metal in 1970. Sure Led Zep was around in '69 and sure their music was heavy. But it was bluesy rock at the core. Sabbath created a dark brooding new sludge. Their influence is too much to quantify. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influential-music-of-all-time/391299/7 "2007-02-08T03:28:48Z")
Oh, Good Lord. Might as well, if we’re sticking to popular American music go with Scotty Moore popularizing power chords in ‘Jailhouse Rock’ and thereby changing the world and creating endless bands without technical chops. Or Chuck Berry inventing the guitar god concept? Or go further back to Robert Johnson and the bluesmen of the 20s and 30s. Without them there’s never any rock and roll in the first place. And that means no rock, no metal, no singer-songwriter, no hip hop, no nothing. Or, going back even FURTHER, the classical composers of the renaissance. Those structures ended up strongly influencing English and American folk music styles? Without that we’d be missing a LOT of quality populist music like all the stuff Woody Guthrie inspired. Or even FURTHER and find the African genius who invented the predecessor to the guitar and the banjo? Really, it’s a question without referent or answer. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influential-music-of-all-time/391299/8 "2007-02-08T04:00:55Z")
Og clap hands. Hands make noise. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influential-music-of-all-time/391299/9 "2007-02-08T04:09:41Z")
Sex Pistols, no explanation needed, I am sure Bauhaus. Brought the dark wavey, gothicky, undergroundy movement to the front. The Cure, for prostituting what Bauhaus started and giving it to the masses. U2, for remaining current, relevant and influential for 30 years. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influential-music-of-all-time/391299/10 "2007-02-08T14:14:14Z")
[QUOTE=Sapo] The Cure, for prostituting what Bauhaus started and giving it to the masses. [/QUOTE] You should be aware, The Cure was founded in 1976 and released _Killing an Arab_ in '78. Bauhaus was only \*formed \* in 1978, and released _Bela Lugosi’s Dead_ in 1979. So if Robert Smith is a prostitute, he’s a prescient one. As to the OP? Impossible to answer. ---
**Author:** ![solkoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@solkoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solkoe)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influential-music-of-all-time/391299/11 "2007-02-08T19:22:26Z")
[QUOTE=Jonathan Chance] Really, it’s a question without referent or answer. [/QUOTE] Why? People are creative. Some do things differently than others. I understand from the smart answers that we can’t go back to caveman times to find the first person to make music but in recent history there are people who were the first to present a certain style or people who took odd ideas and made them acceptable. The ideas I’ve gotten from this thread are great. Anymore? ---
**Author:** ![rivulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rivulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rivulus)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influential-music-of-all-time/391299/12 "2007-02-08T19:37:25Z")
Well, if “anxiety of influence” is any measure, Beethoven symphonies would be right up there. ---
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influential-music-of-all-time/391299/13 "2007-02-08T19:48:13Z")
[QUOTE=HoboStew] **The Shaggs** - _Philosophy of the World_ The apotheosis of music. [/QUOTE] Well played, good Hobo, well played. Someone below mentioned the Sex Pistols, which I won’t dispute. But I do think that both the Ramones (who pre-date the Pistols) and the Clash are more influential and important. The Ramones for, well, essentially inventing punk and the Clash for nearly perfecting it (IMHO) and then actively going after new sounds (ska, reggae, dancehall) and production techniques (the Sandinsta album). Of course, that’s just influential punk bands. (Honorable mention to Gang of Four). I’d be curious as to what classical artists were considered influential by their peers & also by future generations, beyond the assumed pantheon of Beethoven, Bach, et al. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influential-music-of-all-time/391299/14 "2007-02-08T19:59:44Z")
Haydn’s symphonies (I can’t narrow it down because all 104 are interchangeable.). He wasn’t the best, but he was most influential. And how about the music of W.C. Handy? ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influential-music-of-all-time/391299/15 "2007-02-08T20:02:53Z")
\*\*Powerhouse \*\* by Raymond Scott. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influential-music-of-all-time/391299/16 "2007-02-08T20:07:32Z")
[QUOTE=Sapo] U2, for remaining current, relevant and influential for 30 years. [/QUOTE] Gotta disagree with that one. I don’t think U2’s been relevant since at least _Achtung Baby_ (I’d personally pick the 80s as their cutoff point, but I know a lot of people consider AB to be an important album). As far as current, it seems to me they regress more with each album, to the point where they just sound like hundreds of other classic rock bands now. My pick for (rock/pop) music would be, of course, the Beatles, without whom virtually none of the others listed here that came after them would have existed. Also Louis Armsstrong, The Velvet Underground, Husker Du and James Brown. ---
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influential-music-of-all-time/391299/17 "2007-02-08T20:11:36Z")
[QUOTE=woodstockbirdybird] Also Louis Armsstrong, The Velvet Underground, Husker Du and James Brown. [/QUOTE] I see your Husker Du and raise you one Replacements. And we all know the Velvet Underground would’ve never existed if not for the Shaggs. Thankfully, that’s been covered. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influential-music-of-all-time/391299/18 "2007-02-08T20:25:02Z")
I’ll go with Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier - at least for Western music. At the time, scales led to different notes - unlike today, G# was NOT the same as Ab - due to the strict math used to calculate each key’s set of tones. However, since harpsichords and other instruments needed to play all of the scales - not many folks could afford to have one harpsichord for each key! - composers and musicians began to develop “temperaments” - different ways to slightly tweak each scale so that the notes weren’t \*too \*far off from the mathematically-accurate spot, but musicians could play multiple scales on one instrument. Bach wrote TW-TC to demonstrate that “well tempering” - as opposed to other temperament approaches warring to become THE standard - worked. He wrote contrapuntal melodies in each key simply as a demo to show how the same instrument could play in each key and sound good. The fact that the demo’s were utterly brilliant and musically beautiful - well, I suppose it swayed the masses to adopt well tempering, but it has also led the musical work endure to this day. So Bach set the technical standard for scales that was adopted by all Western music and was not challenged really until 12-tone and atonal music of the 20th century - and I suppose by the return to older temperings that some Old Music groups now use. Oh - and did I mention that Jazz owes a huge debt to Bach? Charlie “Bird” Parker the legendary be-bop sax player was a huge Bach fan - because Bach’s use of scales and modulation (changing keys) form the basis for Jazz improvization. My $.02 ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influential-music-of-all-time/391299/19 "2007-02-08T20:48:09Z")
[QUOTE=WordMan] The fact that the demo’s were utterly brilliant and musically beautiful - well, I suppose it swayed the masses to adopt well tempering, but it has also led the musical work endure to this day. [/QUOTE] Not correct. Bach backed the loser - even temperament was the victor. ---
**Author:** ![guppy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7feea3/32.png) [@guppy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guppy)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influential-music-of-all-time/391299/20 "2007-02-08T20:50:22Z")
The single most influencial band ever is: STYX! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influential-music-of-all-time/391299.md?page=2)