The 100 Most Influential Artists of the 20th Century

Hey, I welcome comments. I did this in the span of four days, and wihle I'l pretty confident about relative placing, it's nice to have people willing to challenge me to defend myself (or to capitulate to a more informed opinion)

Run-DMC is at 45... I just figured that the controversy with 2 Live's album content set the tone for the lyrical content of a Too $hort, Master P, and a slew of argued-about rappers. That oughtta count for something. Plus their bass-heavy sound had repercussions (no pun intended), especially throughout the South.

My omission of the Byrds is a huge oversight. Thanks for reminding me; I'll definitely need to fix that soon.

As far as the Beatles go, I'm heavily influenced by "Revolution in the Head" by Ian McDonald. So I gave them the number one (almost by default, honestly) because they synthesized the work of conceptual artists (Stockhausen), self-contained songwriters (Buddy Holly, Dylan), indian musicians (take your pick) into something that untold numbers of musicians drew from. Did Lennon invent feedback? No. Did Sir Paul and Sir George invent the mainstream potential of string? Nope. But I gotta give them the ultimate honor for taking on so many experiments, having so many succeed, and thus serving as a model for nearly everyone with artistic ambitions since.

Plus, there's Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which, while still amazing in retrospect, really sent a shockwave. I mean, when you have the Bee Gees and Neil Diamond attempting conceptual and visionary albums, you've really done some mad damage. The Beatles really were light-years ahead in their belief in what rock could do.

I love Mr. Berry, so we shall see. He was the first great rock 'n' roll lyricist, really made the music a universal form rather than the borderline salacious fare it typically was. I gave Elvis the nod because of his more overt fusion of blues, country 'n' rock, which has been discussed to death by more qualified people than I. Again, a book that heavily influenced me here was The Beatles Anthology, where at least three of the lads marking their first listen of "Heartbreak Hotel" as Ground Zero for their incipient lvoe of rock 'n' roll. Chuck wrote the language, but Elvis seems to be the ambassador.

Mr. Perry is probably too high, but I stuck him there because of his role in reggae's expansion, and his relentless pursuit of mind-blowing studio sounds, which anticipated and then filtered into much of today's electronica, esp. dub, drum 'n' bass, and ambient house.

Mr. Marley, like Mr. Presley, was an ambassador. His music has surely impressed as many bad white jam bands as freethinking rastas, but as a non-American making grooving, political music, his influence is major. I can think of the mid-90s boom of alternative rappers (De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Fugees) as well as an influx of world musicians (Manu Chao, of course reggae in general) as a couple of examples.

It's not just mainstream rock, otherwise I'd have to drop Beat Happening. I decided that I wanted to make value judgments (as best as my easily-swayed and partial mind can make 'em) about the relative worth of each artist's influence. the Pumpkins re-established the musical ideas of 70s arena rock into alternative, which, as it turns out, has had a bigger impact on today's pragmatic modern rock than Nirvana's more dogmatic strain, which has been copied in form but less in approach.

I'm not sick of any comments. If you have more, send 'em my way, please. This may come out poorly - but it's not meant to - I would love to see other people's lists! The website for whom I did this wants lists of all stripes, and there are a ton of more knowledgable people on this site who would create some thought-provoking stuff.