How is being inspired not a result of some kind of influence? My hunger could INFLUENCE me to go pick up some food. I think everything you mentioned definitely points to an influence by the Misfits...whether you find it a good or bad influence is up to you.

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That's just semantics that don't directly affect the argument at hand.

Do I think The Misfits influenced others? Totally! I'm a huge Misfits fan and enjoy their mix of punk and metal. The later sins of their Graves and Only eras don't change the fact they made some excellent music.

semantics...true...but still the things you were pointing out actually are a result of being influenced. and i stand by my point that listening to a band and being inspired to pick up an instrument and start a band yourself is showing that band has a GREAT influence on you. so if all that the misfits was was 10 songs and 1000 kids starting bands because of it...yes i would say they are highly influential.

Had I been born later, I may have found myself thinking the same thing. Luckily I wasn't. It's sad that that's the impression people are getting these days, and we know who to thank for that.

You're listening to the wrong Misfits.

who?

Graves and Only...the ones that kept the band going after Danzig. And their label/promoters, perhaps.

Graves was just a hired gun who was recruited when Jerry Only and Doyle reformed the band and is no longer a member so you can't blame him too much. It's really all on Jerry Only and to a lesser extent Doyle. They should never have resurrected the band.

On kind of a different subject, one of the weirdest things about the Misfits to me is that their popularity seems to increase exponentially by the year. My understanding is that they weren't well known at all during their original run with Danzig as frontman. It wasn't until Danzig got popular as a solo artist in the late 80s/early 90s that more people got into the Misfits and even then they were definitely a niche band. But these days they've somehow managed to permeate the culture to such a degree that their logo has become some kind of pop fashion accessory. Very strange.

I'd say it happened before that. Loads of thrash metal bands were wearing Misfits shirts long before Danzig released anything as a solo artist.

That's certainly how I became aware of them.

i think the merch has gotten to be such a pop culture icon that people don't even really know the music as much as the merch. i've talked to someone about the misfits before because of the shirt they were wearing and they couldn't even name an album of theirs. it was sad.