Most influential band in recent history

Setzer · Post by **Setzer** » 2007-03-04 09:37am

Which band has had the most influence on music in the 20th and 21st centuries? It can be for music as a whole, or just a particular genre.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2007-03-04 11:27am

Beatels, ABBA or any other of the megasupergroups.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2007-03-04 11:40am

That really depends. Metallica has annoyingly had a good deal of influence in terms of file sharing and DRM. Ozzy, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, et al have had a good deal of influence in rock/metal. This really is a bit of a vague question.

Maraxus · Post by **Maraxus** » 2007-03-04 12:20pm

Not really a band, per se, but I'd put my money on Robert Johnson. His innovations in playing guitar have influenced most of the major rockers, from Bob Dylan to Eric Clapton.

JLTucker · Post by **JLTucker** » 2007-03-04 12:24pm

Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, The Beatles (yuk!), and Led Zeppelin are the first that come to mind.

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2007-03-04 12:33pm

Then you've got the Backstreet Boys ushering the age of the Boy Band! Ew.

Dartzap · Post by **Dartzap** » 2007-03-04 03:02pm

Oasis were certainly one of first bands who started off the whole Indie rock sub genre, despite their many, many faults.

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2007-03-04 04:22pm

Shroom Man 777 wrote:Then you've got the Backstreet Boys ushering the age of the Boy Band! Ew.

New Kids on the Block where first.

I'd go with The Beatles, no other band in this world influenced more types of music. Even Ozzy says they where a major influence on his career.

phred · Post by **phred** » 2007-03-04 06:03pm

Beatles, Run DMC, Nirvana.
the first for the sheer range of people they influenced, the second two for ushering in new styles of music

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2007-03-04 06:57pm

The Beatles are the big name in modern Western musical song structure, in my humble opinion. Black Sabbath have already done all the best riffs. I would also defer to the Beatles overall for most shaping the music of the second half of the 20th century.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-03-04 06:58pm

The Beatles, in terms of sheer impact and influence, definitely.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2007-03-04 08:00pm

Shroom Man 777 wrote:Then you've got the Backstreet Boys ushering the age of the Boy Band! Ew.

No, that would be The Beatles and their millions of screaming fans.

Drewcifer · Post by **Drewcifer** » 2007-03-05 01:49am

Dartzap wrote:Oasis were certainly one of first bands who started off the whole Indie rock sub genre, despite their many, many faults.

What? One of the first?? Oasis was about 25 years too late to be a first and they're anything but an indie band.

What about all the underground folk and psychedelic blues bands in the 60's?
What about all the DIY punk rock in the 70's?
Or the new wave and college rock stuff in the 80's?

Besides, the album that made them famous was on a major label, iirc.

Sorry, you lose the thread

Regarding the OP, and to not repeat what's already been said...hmmm
60's - Blue Cheer, Black Sabbath
70's - Bad Brains, Clash
80's - REM
All bands that helped start or mature their respective genres.

Post by **weemadando** » 2007-03-05 02:17am

Moving on from the early rock era which the major players have been listed (except for The Doors - FOR SHAME PEOPLE!), I'll say Run DMC - they brought Hip-Hop to the mainstream, popularised it and proved that it could be an enormous commercial success.

From them we get so much (good and bad) that its hard to go past them as iconic.

Drewcifer · Post by **Drewcifer** » 2007-03-05 02:25am

I'm the king of rock, and none is higher
Sucker MC's should call me sire
To enter my kingdom you must use fire

Hell ya, RunDMC rocked.

You know, to be historically accurate, NWA should be mentioned in the Rap/Hip-hop catergory too. EazyE, Doctor Dre and what-his-nuts. They really changed the face of rap. Before them we had Grandmaster Flash and The Sugar Hill Gang rapping things like "come on everybody, clap your hands, 'cause we bad, oh yeah, we bad." Then NWA comes out saying things like "Straight outta Compton, mutha fucka, yo fuck the po-lice".

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2007-03-05 11:43am

I read the title and assumed of the last 10-20 years, so I'd say Nirvana (It's been sixteen years and they're still a primary influence on new rock bands, after all), and since the focus of mainstream rap in the last decade seems to have shifted from talking about thug life to talking about material goods, whichever rapper was first to do that (Ludacris?)

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2007-03-05 11:55am

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi wrote:I read the title and assumed of the last 10-20 years, so I'd say Nirvana (It's been sixteen years and they're still a primary influence on new rock bands, after all), and since the focus of mainstream rap in the last decade seems to have shifted from talking about thug life to talking about material goods, whichever rapper was first to do that (Ludacris?)

You mean rap actually talked about anything besides guns, killings, money, cars, hos and drugs?

Drewcifer · Post by **Drewcifer** » 2007-03-05 02:29pm

General Zod wrote:You mean rap actually talked about anything besides guns, killings, money, cars, hos and drugs?

Yes! Although rap has sadly devolved into thug-life machismo, the following is one of the first 'rap' songs ever, from 1971:

Gil Scott-Heron wrote:The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,
Skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be brought to you by the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.

There will be no pictures of you and Willie May
pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
or report from 29 districts.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.

Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
news and no pictures of hairy armed women
liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be right back after a message
bbout a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.

The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.

FTeik · Post by **FTeik** » 2007-03-05 03:01pm

Rolling Stones, Queen, David Bowie and Tina Turner come to mind.

Spin Echo · Post by **Spin Echo** » 2007-03-06 02:21am

Lord Pounder wrote:
Shroom Man 777 wrote:Then you've got the Backstreet Boys ushering the age of the Boy Band! Ew.
New Kids on the Block where first.

No, that would be the Monkees. I don't count the Beatles because they could actually play their instruments, whereas the Monkees were there to look pretty.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2007-03-06 08:52am

Willie Dixon, who ghosted for EVERYBODY

Plekhanov · Post by **Plekhanov** » 2007-03-06 07:00pm

Dartzap wrote:Oasis were certainly one of first bands who started off the whole Indie rock sub genre, despite their many, many faults.

Oasis re-enlivened the indie genre they didn't start it, indie grew out of the post punk scene in the early 80s with the indie scene initially getting going with bands like the Smiths, it's kept on going ever since with bands like the Stone Roses, Oasis & the Arctic Monkeys breaking through to the mainstream every once in a while and inspiring a whole bunch of copy cat bands.

As for the most influential band of recent history I'd look to people who actually kickstarted broad genres. After the likes of Chuck Berry got rock and roll going everything the Beatles, Led Zepplin, Sex Pistols, Nirvana... did was variations within the template he and other rock and roll pioneers set out.

The next thing to come along and radically change popular music was probably hip-hop with maybe Grandmaster Flash as good a pioneer as any to focus on.

He's not the best known figure but I'd also put Frankie Knuckes the guy who did more than any other to create 'house music' which has spawned a varied and massively popular range of music styles right up there in terms of influence.

Darth RyanKCR · Post by **Darth RyanKCR** » 2007-03-06 10:48pm

I would say that Tangerine Dream would have had a big influence on the tecnology that is used to make music today. They pioneered (could say the same about Kraftwerk too) the use of electonic instruments: sequencers, drum machines, sampler's, etc.

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2007-03-07 01:46am

Would Ray Charles and his band count? (He all but invented a new style of "Gospel" influenced Jazz, though I'll need to double-check to see that he was the first, and wasn't outdone by others).

Also I'll add another "vote" for "The Beatles" (Literally everyone has heard of them, you can't tell me that they haven't influenced many a budding artist), as well as "Pink Floyd", Queen & David Bowie (To a slightly lesser degree).
I've heard that Bruce Springsteen might also be applicable in terms of Country rock/music at the least (My dad is a huge fan)