It's a definite yes for me. This isn't Rolling Stone, this isn't Pitchfork, this is musicbanter hall of fame and Elliott Smith is definitely representative of a huge amount of people's tastes here. I mean he won the Best Artist poll in 2007 and he was one of the artists that looked like they were going to onto the final poll this year (I should finish that thing.) His thread is typically one of the more discussed ones and its definitely one of the longer artist threads and he's regularly in the top 5 on our last.fm group. So to suggest he isn't liked around here is completely ridiculous, as for not being influential enough well of course not.
Saying he hasn't had any kind of impact strikes me as very ignorant. I personally know several starting singer/songwriters (myself included) who completely fashion their style and mood around Elliott's music. You don't even have to look to the underground or up and coming to see that anyway. After his death the amount of artists that came out with songs dedicated to him was pretty extraordinary, you had his friends like Ben Folds all the way to a straightforward rock band like Sparta. He was already making an impact on the Northwest scene when he left for L.A. anyway. Carissa's Wierd clearly took several pages out of his book as did (I know this one isn't flattering) Death Cab For Cutie, A Weather, if you lived around this indie scene you'd be able to hear it in every melancholic frontman that he's touched them in someway. In the early 90s this scene was very much covered in bands trying to be the next Nirvana, hell even Elliott's first band Heatmiser were of that ilk. So when he came along with an acoustic guitar it was very against the grain but not only that it showed people that they didn't need Smells Like Teen Spirit to have a music scene. He was one of the first people to get signed on Kill Rock Stars (basically a Riot Grrl label at that point) which led them to widen their base and thank god for that. Kill Rock Stars has become one of the best independent labels the Seattle/Portland/Entire Northwest has now and if it wasn't for them doing that who knows if Sub Pop would've decided to go a similar route and quit obsessing over grunge. I mean if guys like Elliott Smith had gone off to Omaha or something instead of making way in Portland, Seattle and Olympia, etc. more than likely the Pacific Northwest scene right now wouldn't have given the world Modest Mouse, The Shins, M. Ward, Fleet Foxes, The Microphones, Deerhoof, Thao Nguyen, The Decemberists, Mary Lou Lord, Calvin Johnson, The Blow, and tons of other. They probably would've gone somewhere else and not sounded remotely the same or not of existed at all.
Not to mention he was a pretty flawless songwriters. I'm aware there are plenty of people around here who dismiss him as generic, "emo", etc but he created some astoundingly touching pop songs on XO, Figure 8 and some of Basement when he dove into experimenting more. I mean post-Beatles I don't really see how pop gets any better than Shooting Star or Independence Day. Not to mention it's very difficult to create the songs he does. Someone in here said he didn't have enough passion? Why because he wasn't screaming? The quiet intimacy to his music was extremely touching and I've never connected with anyway in the way I've connected with him. I've listened to his albums hundreds and hundreds of time and they're still as exciting to me as the first listen and now they're more meaningful. If there's one thing it has (I know you'll hate this boo boo) it's feeling.
Musicians are very important in our everyday lives and no one's more important to me than Elliott. Songs are something that are indescribable and this why I've never tried to describe how much his songs to me because it would be impossible plus I'd sound really cheesy. But someone can fall in love with a song, they can cry with a song, they can mourn loss in a song and some songwriters have the ability to do this to you over and over and when someone does that very well their loss hurts. People were crying in the streets when John Lennon died. When Kurt Cobain died people gathered in the streets of Seattle with candles. I was extremely young when I saw all this and I didn't even know who this guy was but it was touching the way everyone was crying and you just got caught up in the moment. Sure Nirvana never invented a new genre but it was heartbreaking to see the way they connected with all those people and then for the thread to just snap. Elliott Smith died years ago and I still get caught up and very sad when I think about what a loss that was. Nothings ever been able to make me feel the way his songs make me feel and nothings ever been as comforting to me as his voice. When someone can save you in a song, love you in a song and build a bond and a relationship with you in song the way like Elliott Smith does they should be as treasured as they are mourned.
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Originally Posted by METALLICA89
Ive seen you on muiltipul forums saying Metallica and slayer are the worst **** you kid go suck your **** while you listen to your ****ing emo **** I bet you do listen to emo music
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