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[Kill.kenada]

Ok, so I'm compliling a list of the most influential or important bands of each decade.

I'd preferably like 5 for each decade (starting at the 60's)

I won't list what I have so far, but I'd like to see what everyone else thinks, also might sprk up some healthy debate...

[Be My Head]

I'll bite

60s
The Velvet Underground
Miles Davis
AMM
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Simon and Garfunkel

70s
Yes
The Mahavishnu Orchestra
Kraftwerk
Can
Black Sabbath

80s
Venom
Slayer
Watchtower
Pixies
Sonic Youth

90s
The Flaming Lips
Death
Kyuss
Pavement
Cynic

[Aegir]

Which one are we doing, important or influential? Important (a very subjective term) and influential (which is more objective, sort of) are two completely different things. For example, I doubt Be My Head honestly thinks that AMM influenced more people than the Beatles did.

[Kill.kenada]

Yeah, I was thinking the same.
I guess influential then.

I meant important as in their contributions to music and culture. How they shaped the decade etc.

Iconic maybe? I don't know.

Just create your list from your own interpretation of the question

[Nodaisho]

Beatles should definitely be in there for the 60s, while I haven't studied music enough to name how they have influenced things, I would put a big wager on them being a major factor in the sound of a lot of bands.

[Be My Head]

The Beatles influenced ROCK bands. Are we listing Jazz, Metal, Classical, Electronica...? What? Be more specific if you want me to list Rock bands who influenced other rock bands.

[Nodaisho]

I dunno, it is somewhat difficult to list the top 5 and represent all genres. Especially when, using your 90s examples, you have three metal bands all of different sub-genres, all of them important for their own type of music.

[michaelicious]

The Beatles influenced ROCK bands. Are we listing Jazz, Metal, Classical, Electronica...? What? Be more specific if you want me to list Rock bands who influenced other rock bands.

You did list rock bands though.

[Kill.kenada]

Ok, but if you say 'the most influential' It doesnt necessarily mean the most influential from each genre.

Which do you consider to be the most influential to music in general

[Thrillho]

If we're talking influential, then I suspect a lot of people on this forum will hate a lot of these bands, and this will be predominantly Angolcentric.

60s
Beatles
Rolling Stones
Velvet Underground
Scott Walker

70s
Ramones - most influential band of this decade.
Stooges
Pink Floyd

80s
Joy Division/New Order
Minor Threat
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Michael Jackson

90s
Oasis (no, really. Even in America, tons of big bands from now and the previous decade or so said they were influenced by Oasis. You can't really deny it.)
Notorious BIG
Tupac
Radiohead

00s
Arctic Monkeys
Eminem

That's all I've got off the top of my head.

[Be My Head]

Of the Rock bands I did list, none of them got any musical inspiration or ideas from The Beatles. The Beatles were more influential to the music business and the way things were done in the studio. I don't see how any of the bands I listed are less important in their areas than The Beatles, or why they are less deserving of a spot.

[imapiratearg]

60's:
The Beatles
The Velvet Underground
Jimmy Hendrix
The Rolling Stones
The Who

70's:
Pink Floyd (post-Syd Barret stuff seems to be more popular)
Neil Young-related stuff (Neil Young & Crazy Horse/Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, etc.)
Television
Joy Division
The Ramones

80's:
Dinosaur Jr.
Sonic Youth
R.E.M.
Minor Threat
Talking Heads


90's:
Pavement
Built to Spill
Oasis
Nirvana
Slint

Some might bridge more than one decade, I guess.  I stuck mainly to influence in less-mainstream music.

[Kill.kenada]

Thanks for the contributions so far. Keep em coming.

There seems so to be a concensus on certain artists, a couple of surprises too.

More, more, more.

[Alex C]

The 5 bands limit makes this hard. Also, what about solo acts?

[Kill.kenada]

yeah, solo acts are fine.

And 5 was just a guideline, list more if you need to

[Dazed]

60's
The Beatles
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Velvet Underground
James Brown
Cream

70's
Yes
Led Zeppelin
Mahavishnu Orchestra
Black Sabbath
Tower of Power

80's
Sonic Youth
U2
The Pixies
Talking Heads
Rush (slight carryover from the 70s, but w.e)

90's
Pearl Jam
Nirvana
The Smashing Pumpkins
Tool
Oasis (sadly)

00's
I've tried to ignore most of this so far tbqh

[RedLion]

The most influential overall, I think, have been The Beatles, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, U2, Tool and Nirvana. Not that those are all the "best" bands, of course.

[BlahBlah]

Tool? How?

[timmykillah]

70's

Can
P-Funk
Pink Floyd
Wire (I don't know how people can list The Pixies and not these guys)
Led Zeppelin


As for Tool I don't think we've seen their influence much yet, but it'll come.

[Alex C]

'60s
The Beatles
Bob Fucking Dylan
James Brown
The Rolling Stones (their rich tradition of stealing from the black man is just too copied at this point not to list them)
Jimi Hendrix

'70s
Parliament-Funkadelic
Kraftwerk
Black Sabbath
CSNY
Ramones

'80s
Public Enemy
REM
Sonic Youth
New Order
Iron Maiden, although they're also 70s-ish, although they peaked in popularity here. They or Judas Priest need to be in this damn list somewhere.


Over all, I find these lists so far hilariously lacking in R&B and black people in general. I mean, seriously, I'm still thinking of bumping off the Ramones, CSNY or Black Sabbath in favor of Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder or something just to rectify the gaping hole. Motown and the subsequent rise of their greatest talents into more indepentent artists was a really, really big deal and the only reason it's not properly accounted for in my list is that I'm unsure who to give the credit to.

[Inlander]

Over all, I find these lists so far hilariously lacking in R&B and black people in general.

And yet for your 60s list you mention the Rolling Stones but not Muddy Waters? I mean no, he wasn't a product of the 60s, but he was active then and it was in that decade that a thousand English kids started paying attention to him.

Also Sam Cooke.

[Alex C]

If we had started this up any earlier than the '60s he would have been in. I mean, really, dude had been 'round since the '40s.

[David_Dovey]

Tool are an incredibly influential band. There are approximately one kajillion metal and alt-rock bands that are jacking their ideas out there. Don't let your personal distaste for Tool or most metal cloud your judgement people.

Of course Tool did steal a lot of ideas from King Crimson and Mahavishnu Orchestra and Led Zeppelin and so on, but art isn't created in a vacuum.

[Spluff]

I feel more like Muddy Waters influence came mainly to the surface in the sixties - The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Cream, Hendrix were all massive, and inspired by him (and I'm sure these bands boosted Water's fanbase just by association- kind of like how people started listening to alternative bands via Nirvana). If this went to the fifties, he'd be there, but he really didn't do much during the sixties.

[StaedlerMars]

I feel like Sugarhill Gang, if not, than at  least the song Rapper's Delight, should be included in these lists. R&B and Hip Hop are quite clearly the predominant music type in today's charts, and have been for the past ten years or so. Rapper's Delight, I feel, definitely kick started this popularity.

[Thrillho]

But that one song, whilst essentially starting the trend, was just one song. Other hip-hop artists - Dr. Dre, for example - have had far more impact on the whole of hip-hop or R'n'B.

[StaedlerMars]

I suppose it would have broken through eventually yeah.

[BlahBlah]

This thread is severely lacking in The Fall. No Pavement without them.

[Alex C]

Yeah, I'd put Public Enemy, Grandmaster Flash, NWA, Run DMC, Kool Herc, Rakim and Afrika Bambaataa as overall more influential than Sugerhill Gang, since they really did have just the one song and obviously didn't create it in a vacuum.

[KharBevNor]

This is my trying to be objective, probably failing, because I don't know shit about pop or hip-hop, or other forms of crap music, gonna put more than five because it's a silly limit:

60's:
The Beatles
Jimi Hendrix Experience
Bob Dylan
Silver Apples
Miles Davis
Hawkwind
The Temptations
Black Sabbath
Scott Walker

(hardest decade)

70's:

Kraftwerk
Television
Throbbing Gristle
Joy Division
Parliament
The Ramones
Motorhead

80's:
The Art of Noise
Sonic Youth
The KLF
The Cure
Psychic TV
The Pixies

90's:
The nineties sucked

[Alex C]

Gabbly made me realize that I had completely and utterly snubbed country music in my list. 5 bands is nowhere near enough.

[Alex C]

Tool are an incredibly influential band. There are approximately one kajillion metal and alt-rock bands that are jacking their ideas out there. Don't let your personal distaste for Tool or most metal cloud your judgement people.

Of course Tool did steal a lot of ideas from King Crimson and Mahavishnu Orchestra and Led Zeppelin and so on, but art isn't created in a vacuum.

I like metal a lot and actually rather like Tool. That said, when you jack an idea from tool, you're rarely jacking anything original.

[Be My Head]

I just want to clear something up, Tool have had 0 influence on any metal band. So you can scratch that, they may have had influence on alternative rock bands though, but likely only ones starting in the mid to late 90s and 00s.

[Spluff]

That sure is a mighty fine opinion you've got there.

[Be My Head]

Tool themselves aren't metal, so it's impossible for them to have had influence on any metal, since metal was well established by the time they started playing music.

And that "Alternative Metal" is a legitimate form of metal is laughable, it's more a legitimate form of Rock music.

Progressive Metal can be traced back to the 80s with Watchtower and Dream Theater.

[Spluff]

That first part is an opinion. I consider Tool to be progressive metal. And even if they weren't metal, how exactly does that mean they can't influence any metal bands? To name a few examples, Opeth were influenced by Porcupine tree, Neurosis were influenced by Joy Division, and Agalloch were influenced by GYBE.

[Scandanavian War Machine]

I just want to clear something up, Tool have had 0 influence on any metal band.

really? you've personally sat down and asked EVERY SINGLE METAL BAND EVER if they were influenced by Tool?

wow you must be, like, really really fast or something. Are you The Flash?



p.s. you're an idiot.

[Be My Head]

Well I should not have said 0 influence, but it's obvious they haven't had any really notable impact on the metal scene, or the progressive metal scene in particular. I would attribute that to other bands.

I still stand by my statement that most of the bands they've influenced are probably alternative rock bands. Unless you consider Chevelle and System of A Down heavy metal. Which I don't.

[Scandanavian War Machine]

you know "influenced by" has nothing to do with "sounds like" right?
it's like at the beginning of movies where they say "inspired by a true story." that could mean literally anything.

for example:
"i saw a documentary about giraffes and that inspired me to write a book about hang-gliders."

They have nothing to do with each other but one could be said to have inspired the other.

[Be My Head]

I was under the impression we were discussing bands that consciously said to themselves that they wanted to sound like that band or take a part of their sound and use it.

[Spluff]

No, we're discussing bands that influenced other bands.

[Dimmukane]

Tool and Meshuggah have been quoted as saying they influenced each other, if that makes any sense.  Whatever. 

[Be My Head]

I guess Meshuggah influenced Tool's last album somewhat. I...don't really hear it, but if they say so.

[Nodaisho]

Tool and Meshuggah have been quoted as saying they influenced each other, if that makes any sense.  Whatever. 

Makes sense to me. I don't see why that would be impossible. I don't listen to either, but it doesn't seem odd that two groups could influence each other.

[Be My Head]

Meshuggah is like super heavy metal where the drummer basically plays a 4/4 beat with his hands and does poly-rhythms with his doublebass, and then the guitarist plays super heavy industrial sounding chugga-chugga riffs, while the vocalist basically yells at you, and the bassist is pretty much ignored.

Tool is like mellow at times and 'heavy' at times art-rock with funky at times bass and minimal guitar, with interesting at times, but ultimately not extremely heavy drumming, and a singer who kind of seems slightly angry but slightly pseudo-philosophical.

[RedLion]

I don't see how that qualifies as not being "metal." Tool has been described as metal, or prog-metal, by just about everyone I know who classifies it.

[Thrillho]

Gotta say, I think this is the first time I've seen metal elitism on this forum.

[Inlander]

You're kidding, right? C'mon, you've been around longer than that!

[Thrillho]

You're probably right, but the thing is the previous metal elitism has mostly been about bands that Khar listens to and as such I've never heard of, and as such didn't know they were or weren't metal ahead of time.

[nufan]

Not one of you mention Prince? Not one! Or Bob Marley! BOB FUCKING MARLEY!

Also, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye pretty much have to be in the list for the 70's. Also, Stooges. Also, Beach Boys. Also, Johnny Cash.

Basically I think we can conclude that this is pretty much impossible without sub-division into genres.