Which musical acts are most universally respected and liked among their peers in their genre?

Cafe Society
1

No musician or band is loved and respected by EVERYONE. I’m sure even the Beatles have their detractors. So, my question:

Which music artists and bands are nearly unanimously liked and respected by the other musicians and fans of their genre? I’m talking about artists where you would find it darn near impossible to find a detractor.

Here’s a couple I think qualify:

Country: Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline (self-explanatory)

Metal: Motorhead (I have never heard anyone in metal say anything bad about them or about Lemmy - probably because Lemmy is the coolest person in rock).

Jazz: Lots, but let’s go with Wes Montgomery for starters.

2

The first band that comes to mind is Pink Floyd.

3

Queen

Prince

4

Radiohead. Wu-Tang. Aphex Twin

5

Prince is not much liked by many people. Respected, yes.

I came in here to post about Motörhead and Lemmy, but INRS! used him the OP. Lemmy is a great guy. He’s exactly who and what you think he is: a blue collar beer & whiskey drinking hard rocking hard living motherfucker who doesn’t give or take a lot of shit. He has been living the dream for about 40 years now, and I hope he gets at least 40 more.

6

“Pink Floyd sucks!” – Johnny Rotten

“Who’s Johnny Rotten?” --Pink Floyd

7

I’m going to go with Jeff Beck. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a guitarist talk about not liking Beck, and most heap him with praise. Deservedly so.

8

While Faith no More is very “underground” to many (They did a lot of stuff WAY better than 1989’s, ‘Epic’), but I’ve read lots of interviews of bands in the rock genre who cite them as a great influence.

9

I’d say Kate Bush is the definitive answer.

Interviewed after she won a Brit Award, Annie Lennox said “I thought Kate Bush would win it, because she’s phenomenal, and I really admire her…she’s on her own, she’s innovative…”.

She was discovered by Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd and loved equally by John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten), being the point of connection between the two. Prince called her “My favorite woman” (dragging praise out of Prince is an accomplishment). She’s loved by artists as different as Big Boi of Outkast and Nigel Kennedy who said “I think she’s one of the greatest composers of the century”.

One would be hard pressed to find any songwriter or performer who doesn’t, at the very least, respect her.

10

Yeah, Kate Bush, definitely. Peter Gabriel too. Has anyone worth oxygen ever had a bad word to say about Kate and Peter as artists, musicians and human beings? No.

11

I got the impression that Montgomery took a lot of flack when he started recording pop songs late in his career (and arguably for good reason). I think maybe Duke Ellington would be a better choice. I’d say Louis Armstrong, but I know that he too came under heavy criticism for a time, in his case for a perceived lack of sensibility to racial issues.

12

Stevie Wonder. Who’s going to diss Stevie, huh?

13

I’ll posit Eric Clapton. I’ve never heard or read anything negative about him as a musician or person. (Although he admittedly has had difficult periods in his life regarding drugs and women…but then who hasn’t? :D)

14

Which musical acts are most universally respected and liked among their peers in their genre?

The OP specified In their genre. I think most replies so far have missed the point. I would offer that in the genre of bluegrass, Allison Krauss and union station are held in high regard for instance.

15

Very true.

But it’s even more surprising when an artist is respected far outside their genre.

16

George Harrison might have had a thing or two to say.

17

Tori Amos. She’s well-regarded among pianists, I hear.

18

Yeah, I can’t think of any bad things said about Tori Amos as a person, nor as a musician once you forget that her first album exists.

Yep. To use Kate Bush as a prime example, she’s praised unreservedly by people as diverse as the already-mentioned John Lydon (Johnny Rotten), plus Tricky, Goldfrapp, Placebo, Natalie Cole, Coldplay, Utah Saints and Trio Bulgarka, just to name a handful of very different artists. Hell, Tupac Shakur was a huge fan, which pretty much floored me when I found out.

19
20

The Ramones.