British music magazine, NME, conducted a year-long
Submitted by taryn on Wed, 11/29/2000 - 11:42
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British music magazine, NME, conducted a year-long poll of current musicians and came up with a list of the Top 20 Most Influential Artists. Among the ranks, I'm pleased to see The Smiths, Beck, and Radiohead--and I have to admit I'm thrilled to see who they crowned number one...
I adore David Bowie-- so I'm pleased too! However (and I am no music critic!) is EMINEM really more inflential than Bob Dylan ? I mean, don't you have to be around awhile to be influential. I'll admit I think Eminem sucks, for lack of a better word, but I'm always confused when some relatively new act is touted as influential. Maybe there should be some ten year waiting period before someone can be considered influential?
I'm interested in what all you learned music critic type people have to say about this issue.
This music fan type agrees with you. How much influence can EMINEM have at this point, regardless of any alleged talent? How many bands had even heard his music before last year, and how many of those bands have cranked out an album with the EMINEM influence strung thoughout it yet? Bob Dylan's influence is so great that often band aren't even aware of how controlling his innovations are because they inherit them second or third hand. These lists, like the pathetic, pandering Rolling Stone pop list mentioned earlier, are often doomed to fail to please everyone, but surely they both could have been much better than they were. Bowie's influence is incredible, but many of the other choices are very doubtful. A true list would probably contain mostly artists from the 50s to the 70s. Chuck Berry (who influenced almost all of rock guitar, not to mention songwriting), Jimi Hendrix (who probably influenced the rest of the guitar players), Sam Cooke (R&B/soul, anyone?), James Brown (where would the world of rap, not to mention EMINEM, be without the its godfather?), Dylan, and the Beatles, the Stones, and The Clash are excellent contenders for a decent list.
Ah, well.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
No no no. Beatles are clearly more influential than Bowie! I chose them under that poll, and 51% of the people agreed with me. Beatles EQUAL influence!