Most influencial musician of all time?
Jul 23, 2009 at 4:06 AM Post #32 of 82
Quote:

Originally Posted by scytheavatar /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Those mentioning MJ need to realize first that music as a whole stopped developing after the 70's, so pretty much any of the 80's/90's/00's musician can't be considered influential in any shape or form.


Well to be fair to MJ, he did influence modern music alot. Why do you think there are soooo many autotuned lip-syncers? Because everybody wanted to dance and sing like MJ but couldn't, so the tech that allowed them to fake it became pervasive in music.
 
Jul 23, 2009 at 4:10 AM Post #33 of 82
Quote:

Originally Posted by roadtonowhere08 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I think you are going to take a LOT of heat from that statement. Where do all of the incarnations of Death Metal factor into this assertion? While I may agree with you if you aimed at U.S. radio music, I think music as a whole is still evolving.


I said music as a whole. All your Death, Morbid Angel, Emperor, Immortal are influential... within their own subgenre. Which is still a niche subgenre that has a limited audience. So while they are influential, and while your death/black metal or your grudge/alternative rock has been evolving you seriously can't consider the bands to be as influential as Beethoven, Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Miles Davis etc.
 
Jul 23, 2009 at 4:14 AM Post #34 of 82
In terms of modern/post-modern, popular music...

The Hutchinson Family Singers - First American pop group. Brought a blend of folk music and, you guessed it, blackface songs. Established the four part harmony of American pop music. Not only influential for making white popular culture authentic, but also established the popularity of abolition prior to emancipation.

Leadbelly - Most influential blues artist.

Chuck Berry - Basically started electric rock and roll with the two string bend.

Led Zeppelin - Started all the heavy rock stuff.

The Replacements - Brought about all the alternative rock we've heard since the early nineties.

Daft Punk - Brought House music mainstream and everyone since has really become an imitator.

You can't really say there was one influential musician because influences build on each other. You've got to put them in their prospective historical contexts or genres.
 
Jul 23, 2009 at 4:33 AM Post #35 of 82
Quote:

Originally Posted by scytheavatar /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I said music as a whole. All your Death, Morbid Angel, Emperor, Immortal are influential... within their own subgenre. Which is still a niche subgenre that has a limited audience. So while they are influential, and while your death/black metal or your grudge/alternative rock has been evolving you seriously can't consider the bands to be as influential as Beethoven, Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Miles Davis etc.


Bold part: nor would any sane person consider making that assertion.

What you are saying by including music as a whole and the lack of any development past the 1970's is like saying that the development of the car has not progressed after the introduction of the assembly line. Modern ones still have the same four wheels, windows, seats, engine, etc.

In addition, what makes the 1970's so special as a cutoff point? The very basis of music is a gradual progression of ideas building on each other. The Beatles just took ideas from a generation before them and expanded upon them. They did not pull anything out of thin air, contrary to what many fans might believe.
 
Jul 23, 2009 at 6:08 AM Post #37 of 82
I think MJ might be the king of pop culture, with his music videos, etc. But I'm sorry, he's definitely not the king of pop. The Beatles seem to take that throne rather easily.
 
Jul 23, 2009 at 6:45 AM Post #38 of 82
I would define 'most influential' as a kind of 'inevitability of influence' and as such it's hard for me to think of a better example than Richard Wagner. By stretching tonality to its limits he basically shaped the whole of 20th century music (classical and beyond).

I would also like to put down some 'honourable mentions' for people who took up a certain instrument and showed its potential in ways no one had even dreamed about beforehand:

Niccolo Paganini: Violin
Franz Liszt: Piano
Jimi Hendrix: Electric guitar
(Those are the best examples I can think of right now.)

And oh yeah, I find it pretty funny that some people seem to think that J.S. Bach invented well-tempered tuning. Sorry, he didn't, that's a myth. In fact, he probably never even used well-tempered tuning as we know it today.
 
Jul 23, 2009 at 12:09 PM Post #39 of 82
Quote:

Originally Posted by Drosera /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I would define 'most influential
And oh yeah, I find it pretty funny that some people seem to think that J.S. Bach invented well-tempered tuning. Sorry, he didn't, that's a myth. In fact, he probably never even used well-tempered tuning as we know it today.


Link ?

If we talk about most influencial interpreter it would be Glenn gould to me.
 
Jul 23, 2009 at 3:21 PM Post #40 of 82
Quote:

Originally Posted by bidoux /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Link ?


If Bach wrote the Das Wohltemperiertes Klavier for a well-temperament tuning, it was probably the Werckmeister temperament. Although plenty of alternatives, such as something akin to Kirnberger III tuning have also been proposed.
What it certainly wasn't is 'twelve-tone equal temperament' which is the tuning system in common use today. Today's tuning would have sounded horribly off-key to Bach's ears.
 
Jul 23, 2009 at 4:35 PM Post #41 of 82
Not sure why people are mentioning Bach, Beethoven and Mozart. None of them influenced with their musicianship. Maybe that was mentioned earlier. I kind of skipped some posts. It was their compositions only that changed music. And most musicologists have put Bach as #1 (laying the foundation for western music), Mozart #2 (some say the best), and then Wagner #3 for changing the whole direction of classical music.

I think Andre Segovia. He took the guitar which was usually played in pubs into the concert hall and spawned a whole new generation of guitarists.
 
Jul 23, 2009 at 5:23 PM Post #42 of 82
Quote:

Originally Posted by robm321 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Not sure why people are mentioning Bach, Beethoven and Mozart. None of them influenced with their musicianship. Maybe that was mentioned earlier. I kind of skipped some posts. It was their compositions only that changed music. And most musicologists have put Bach as #1 (laying the foundation for western music), Mozart #2 (some say the best), and then Wagner #3 for changing the whole direction of classical music.


All three of these were both composers AND performers. And I do believe the OP meant 'musician' in the broadest sense, since the first post already mentions Mozart.
 
Jul 23, 2009 at 9:32 PM Post #43 of 82
Quote:

Originally Posted by robm321 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Not sure why people are mentioning Bach, Beethoven and Mozart. None of them influenced with their musicianship. Maybe that was mentioned earlier. I kind of skipped some posts. It was their compositions only that changed music. And most musicologists have put Bach as #1 (laying the foundation for western music), Mozart #2 (some say the best), and then Wagner #3 for changing the whole direction of classical music.

I think Andre Segovia. He took the guitar which was usually played in pubs into the concert hall and spawned a whole new generation of guitarists.


But composing is one of the most essential parts of being a musician........ No musician who doesn't compose can have as drastic an influence as a musician who's composition have become the most explored music of all time.....

Take Charlie Parker....I consider Charlie Parker a limited composer, but probably one of the 10 most important musicians of the last 100 years. Put his influence up against Stravinsky who is again one of the 10 most important composers of the last 100 years.............Ultimately I have to admit that Stravinsky's influence is a bit broader......
 
Jul 23, 2009 at 10:25 PM Post #45 of 82
If we're talking rock, when I went to a private Sting concert in Las Vegas, he said that The Beatles were, and still are, the most influential of that genre. For a solo performer I would say Elvis. After all he's still the King.
 
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