Lisnaholic |
01-21-2014 08:46 AM |
Frownland has posed a great question here, because it sounds like it should be easy to answer, but it requires an extensive knowledge of music to come up with any serious contenders.
Musical history has been built up by thousands of small innovations, and if you are up too close, a small innovation can seem disproportionate. For instance, Mike Ratledge was the first person to connect a guitar "fuzz-box" to an organ, and he discovered a sound that´d never been heard before. However wonderful it seemed at the time, in terms of musical history, it was just a minor blip. I think that´s why Yorkedaddy has fallen so flat on his face with his claims for the Beatles: for reasons of his own he´s wilfully dismissing the big picture.
Mike Ratledge´s eurika! moment happened in about 1965 I suspect, and to be thorough, every serious claim to innovation really should carry a date stamp too. That´s why I´m a bit lost with Klaus Nomi; that clip might´ve been innovative, but it all depends on when he did it.
From my little patch of musical knowledge, these people seem innovative to me.(Sorry too lazy to put dates!!):-
Terry Riley´s minimalism and Brian Eno´s ambient music were both pioneers in inviting us to re-examine the minutae of sounds that constitute music.
Bob Dylan is generally credited with inventing folk-rock, and did more than most in promoting the significance of lyrics in pop/rock.
And among the already mentioned, I particularly agree with John Cage, Kraftwerk, The Beatles, Chuck Berry .
Finally I´d like to endorse what Christian Benteke says about Black Sabbath: influential, definitely; innovative, perhaps not so much. Others who belong in that category are Queen and Michael Jackson imo.
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