Originally Posted by Frownland

Well first I'll say that I don't find him to be as inventive as he's made out to be because he expounded on and refined well-established styles as opposed to inventing his own. The kind of attitude towards music that zeroes in on inventiveness didn't really take off until after World War II, mostly because of advances in communication. Music was more of a one-time experience for most audiences during Beethoven's time, so it's not that crazy for Aphex Twin to have a higher caliber of inventiveness since he's been heavily influenced by John Cage and he also had the benefit of continued advances in music technology.

As far as Beethoven being overrated, I say that because he's one of the big 3 names in classical music that your average person can (consciously) name: Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach. So I guess fair play to TH on calling out that discogs comment as being ignorant. I do find Beethoven's music to be a bit bloated, but that doesn't strip away the context and I still hold him in high regard. I think he's within the top 15 composers of all time, but I feel that there are far more worthy contestants for the top 5 classical composers.