Most Influential music artists ever.
 

i dont want the most underrated nor the best. i want the most influential- bands that did the most for music or started a new movement/ genre.
5 of the most influential bands in my opinion are:

• kraftwerk- way way waaaaaaaay ahead of their time. their stuff wouldnt sound out of place in the contempory electro-dance era.
  the Damned- **** the sex pistols, punk in britian really kicked off with the release of damned damned damned.
  bob dylan- every singer/writer with an acoustic guitar is trying to be the new dylan. took songwriting to new levels.
  the pixies- they were doing grunge well before the early 90s boom.
  led zeppelin- zeppelin I sounded so different to everything done before it.

this list is my opinion. many will disagree. i just want to see who you believe to be the most influential. oh btw, there was no order to this list.

elvis

the ramones

Velvet Underground (Lou Reed's solo stuff too)
The Pixies
Pink Floyd
Tupac, influential in bad ways too though...
Minor Threat
Mozart
Frank Sinatra
Black Flag
Stan Getz
The Chemical Brothers
The Dead Kennedys
Alice Cooper
I'm adding:
The Beatles
The Stooges
MC5
The Doors
The Kinks
The Byrds
The Who
The Sex Pistols
Jimi Hendrix
Nirvana
David Bowie
Queen
And, Led Zeppelin

Snickers, you beat me to alot of them.
But I must add Sublime to this list. Several of the same type of ska/punk/reggae bands that we also love were spawned from their sound.
REM I think should be here too. Stipe's vivid and abstract lyrics hit high notes with shy and expressive dorks everywhere. :hphones:

For me, the most influential artists ever would have to be the Clash, they were probably the most experimental band of the seventies punk movement. They brought in a whole host of other genres to the table (reggae, ska, dub) but kept true to the punk ethics, add to this Joe Strummers and Mick Jones' suberb song writing talents and you have what I, and pretty much every punk/rock band formed since, consider the most influential.

^^100% agree^^

black sabath....even though i don't listen to them....a lot of bad shit sprawned from their music...

REM, Green Day, Blink-182 (Look at all the bands that the 2nd two spawned).

Green Day - Caused a lot of todays punkpop bands
Sex Pistols - 'Initiated' The Punk Of The 70s...which the clash finished
The Beatles - Despite the fact their music is in no way appealing to me, they are responsible for OZZY so i am forever glad.
Darude - Brought Ibiza culture to its most popular, Sandstorm of course the tune most familiar with even non club-goers.
Metallica - An unlikely choice? on kerrang tv awards every band that was interviewed seemed to mention this band and thank them for it was them who gave them the motivation to start - ESPECIALLY when they were introduced into the hall of fame

the kinks, the byrds and the who all came about because of someone else- the beatles. although i think the "you really got me" riff changed peoples attitudes towards the guitar for many years i dont think any 3 of those bands did anything to really trigger a new movement or style..not on their own anyway.

Ah yes, Metallica was very influential. They just did everything BIG.

great post. too many people in my opinion undervalue the influence the clash had on not just punk but music as a whole. more musical capability then the pistols, damned and buzz****s combined. the only punk band to really get close to them in terms of ability on their instruments is the stranglers. but influence well.....the clash by a long way.

This is what most people expect me to pick and for a good reason, I am not blindly allied to the band, I just recognize the talent. Metallica had always said they wanted to be the Anti-Motley Crue, and I think this brings them down to a punk mentality. They never played 3 min pop accesible songs about women or drugs (in a good way) or parties, they played songs about the corrupting force of narcotics and the horrors of war. Thier first CD might have had "lets fight" songs or "let drive fast" song but from Lightning on it was all meaningful lyrics, they never wasted a song, or a note. And to me, the latter is the most important. I don't care if you sing about Donald Duck not wearing pants, its the music is there, then so am I. Im unfamiliar with how many bands actually had multiple movements in a song like metallica did, but when I read articles today about how Jazz and Metal are similar, I know that metallica's classical influences helped push the genre farther than it has ever gone with another band. Their music accented moods created by the lyrics and to me, they are as close to progressive without being progressive as it gets.

These boards are overpopulated with a bunch of kids who listened to load and everything after and think Metallica sucks, and to me it doesn't matter what they do anymore because they've already laid the groundwork for musical advancement that has yet to be matched. It may not be popular opinion, but to me they are the Jimi Hendrix of Metal, the miles davis of metal, the beatles of metal.

No band souded like them before they arrived, and everyband has been trying to emmulate them in at least some fashion ever since 1984.

^ Good post. I'm not really a fan of Metallica or metal in general, but you can definatly see that they have had a major infulence on alot of bands and styles of music.

A-****ING-MEN! I could hardly have said it better, and I'm quite articulate.

What about Rush?! They influenced a lot of the sort of blues-rock of the late 70s, 80s, even early 90's for example Ten Years After, Dream Theatre, Etc. Also Eric Clapton with Cream

whooop i got quoted.

Did you see the S&M concert they did with san francisco symphony orchestra? that nothing else matters piece sends shivers down my spine and gives me goosebumps. For me that was them ON FORM James' voice was un-be-lieveable. And as for Lars Ulrich's drumming - i know he gets called a narcissistic this and an egotistical that - but for a damn fine reason. His drumming on for whom the bell tolls was insane.

The best thing about metallica - the majority of songs didnt sound the same, something some bands (including my beloved green day) struggle to uphold.
When you compare 'one', 'for whom the bell tolls', 'i dissapear' and 'nothing else matters' purely just for example, those 4 songs couldn't be any more different whilst still being in the heavy metal genre. A class act which no poor finale album could ever tarnish.

I know its a great post, cuz, for once, no one's harassing you about what youv'e written!!

Robert Johnson's blues from the mid to late 1930's is directly responsible for what is known as rock music today.

He only recorded around 30 songs, and while he was not the first to play a blues type guitar, he was the first to play what is now known as the blues format. The Delta Blues explosion that followed in the 40's, eventually evolved into the birth of rock and roll in the 50's.

The rest is history.