I swear to god. If you spout this untrue meme of yours one more time, I’m going to have an aneurysm.
Rock music outsells all forms of rap and R&B combined. If you consider “alternative” and “metal” as subsets of rock and not their own genres, rock music outsells the combined sales of rap, R&B, country, christian/gospel music and a bunch of other smaller genres.
I know I’ve said it before but I’ve always thought that Teenage Fanclub will one day be seen as one of the most influential bands of the 90’s. Kurt Cobain loved them, Noel Gallagher famously called them “the greatest…er, the second-greatest band in the world,” and Ben Gibbard called them “my favorite band.” I ask you, what else do Nirvana, Oasis, and Death Cab for Cutie have in common? Actually, any number of modern power-pop bands who critics claim to be influenced by Big Star sound more influenced by Teenage Fanclub to me, honestly. And if that weren’t enough, Norman Blake’s earlier projects like BMX Bandits helped launch the whole “C86” scene, which influenced Belle and Sebastian and a whole raft of similar acts.
Nine Inch Nails (Surprised it hasn’t been mentioned yet)
I would add Bush, but I think enough other bands have been mentioned that they could easily be left out.
The days of influential rock music acts were largely over by 1990. I can’t think of any rock act that was really big fromm even the earliest years of that timeframe that wasn’t a sort of consolidation of previously rendered sub-genres.
I would reverse the question and wonder about what popular rock groups from that time period would not be considered influential.
Good lord - how did I miss them? And I am a huge fan. Great call. **An Arky **- you’re right about how music after 1990 or so feels like a restatment of earlier genres, but at least Jack White walks a great fine line - sounding both primitive and primitivist at the same time.
Duke, as a big Big Star fan, I have come to Teenage Fanclub as a powerpop apologist - meaning I love them but understand that their amazing universal pop goodness doesn’t translate to hugeness. I have yet to find a band that captures that full powerpop feel that really breaks out and has a sustained crossover career…and that bums me out.
Counting Crows? They were massive in the early 90s, and I think brilliant, but I wouldn’t say they were influential.
I have tremendous respect for White. But I question how influential he is. I see him more as sui generis.
I think there are certainly plenty of artists worthy of consideration and in another era, they would have been influential. However, nobody cares anymore. The average consumer consumes both the horrible and wonderful with the same spoiled, nonplussed ennui. The Big Bang is now just a bunch of space dust.
He’s hugely influential - he’s on more Guitar magazine covers than Slash was during G n’ R’s heyday (that’s an exaggeration, but not by much). And in terms of bringing a rock/blues/raw/analog sound and feel back to the front - also very influential amongst musicans…
And yeah, **Counting Crows **don’t strike me as influential - they filled that strummy rock niche for a while in the 90’s but not in any profoundly new sorta way. I always found his voice so darn whiny, but that’s my issue and has nothing to do with their relative influence…
You might be able to squeeze the Pixies in there, although it depends on how you define the timeline, as they’re split right across the late 80s/early 90s. Their most influential stuff would have been released from 1987-1989, but I think their impact wasn’t realized until the 90s and beyond.
Yeah, I know I am - because I specified rock and specifically said not rap or R&B.
What do I mean by rock? For the sake of this thread, to keep it simple, let’s say that it requires guitars. Being played by the musician in question, not sampled! This may be a really simplistic definition but I feel it works in the context of this discussion.
When I saw Nirvana on the list I immediately thought “Pixies.”
I think Animal Collective will be the 00s/10s version of the Velvet Underground. They’ll never be huge in the mainstream, but they’ll be an influence in 10 years, and in 30 years, they’ll be seen as visionaries.
I’m actually a big Smashing Pumpkins fan, but I don’t know how influential they were. They certainly were HUGE in the 90s and the synthesis of a lot of different influences, but I’m not entirely certain who they directly influenced. Perhaps the Silversun Pickups?
I think the distinction is that the Pixies can be said to have been the primary influence on the previous generation of rock bands, aka the 90s bands (Nirvana, Radiohead, Weezer, etc) that have since gone on to influence the rock of the 00s and 10s.
At the time, I thought Lemonheads and Soul Asylum were guaranteed spots in the pantheon of rock greats, but they both dead-ended pretty fast. Gin Blossoms as well. Tori Amos has reinvented herself a couple of times since the 90s (and her 90s glory days were a pretty radical reinvention themselves of her “Y Kant Tori Read” stuff in the 80s) and if she’s influential these days, it isn’t for “Silent All These Years.”
I’ve already mentioned the Smashing Pumpkins, but what about Pearl Jam, perhaps the biggest rock band of this era? Who did Pearl Jam influence? I can’t think of a single band that would be a direct influence of theirs. (OK, maybe Creed or somebody like that). Hell, was Nirvana even that influential? Don’t get me wrong–I love all these bands to varying degrees, but I don’t really see their influence in the way I see the influence of bands like the Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain, Neu!, Led Zeppelin, etc., on bands like this.
R.E.M.
They were still going strong in the early 90s, and they mentored a lot of indie acts.
Guns N Roses!