Top ten most influential bands.

[SpotcheckBilly]

Feb. 7, 2002 -- Who are the greatest rock bands of all time? In its latest edition, Spin Magazine lists its top 50 picks. On Talk of the Nation, host Neal Conan invites NPR listeners to name their top 25.

TOTN Listeners' Top 25 Most Influential Bands of All Time

1. The Beatles
2. The Rolling Stones
3. Led Zeppelin
4. U2
5. Pink Floyd
6. The Velvet Underground
7. The Ramones
8. Nirvana
9. The Doors
10. Grateful Dead
11. CSNY/Neil Young
12. Bob Dylan/The Band
13. The Jimi Hendrix Experience
14. The Who
15. The Beach Boys
16. The Clash
17. The Sex Pistols
18. Eric Clapton
19. Elvis Presley
20. Metallica
21. Parliament
22. REM
23. Black Sabbath
24. The Byrds
25. Iggy Pop and the Stooges

I'll put up the top ten, for starters as a poll. We only get 10, so post you're fav, if not listed.

Link here (http://www.npr.org/programs/totn/features/2002/feb/020207.rockbands.html)

[norton23]

The Beatles were great but not Greaful nor Dead

[Ballbuster1]

I gotta go with the Beatles. I remember seeing them
on Ed Sullivan and watching the crowd go wild.
Their music helped shape a generation.

[Stinkysteve]

I voted for Pink Floyd from the poll list.

I would have liked to see Little Feat on that list.

My order is:
Jimi Hendrix: Band of Gypsys / Experience
Pink Floyd: Before Roger Waters left and they turned inot an elaborate "cover" band.
The Clash: Many different styles went into their stuff!
Little Feat: Before Lowell George's heart exploded. They still put on a kick-ass show!
The Who: That kid toucher's music has a whole new meaning today.
The Kinks: One of the best live shows back in the late 70's and early 80's (especially during their drinking days).
Cream: Some of the best stuff Clapton ever did.
The Stones: Until the late 80's... ugh....

[SpotcheckBilly]

Originally posted by norton23
The Beatles were great but not Greaful nor Dead

The Warlocks were formed when Garcia and Lesh went to see "Hard Day's Night". The Beatles were their inspiration for the band, with Pigpen as the frontman.

[Silent Game]

zep and especially Sabbath influnced soooooo many..(so did the Beatles but I don't like 'em)..lol

Physical Graffitti...best album eva!!!

[Sinn Fein]

I voted for Zeppelin. They have influenced (and are ripped off by) more acts than I can count.

As far as this list goes:

U2 does NOT belong above Pink Floyd.

Nirvana is influential, but not that influential.

Sabbath should be higher-up.

The Doors should be lower.

[PAbeerbong]

How did U2 even make this list? I like them and all but influential? I'm not so sure. I'm a bit biast so I must go with Sabbath. I do think Nirvana should be a bit higher. They started the whole grundge thing. Even though it's all but dead now.

[wackadoo]

where are the jimi slot? or the bowie slot?

personally i do not think floyd was very influential. they are one of my favs and i have seen them in concert, but seriously, how many bands sound even remotely influenced by floyd?

u2 does deserve to be ahead of floyd. IMO.

[SpotcheckBilly]

Originally posted by wackadoo
where are the jimi slot? or the bowie slot?

personally i do not think floyd was very influential. they are one of my favs and i have seen them in concert, but seriously, how many bands sound even remotely influenced by floyd?

u2 does deserve to be ahead of floyd. IMO.

Added Jimi and Bowie for ya wack..not my poll, but maybe we'll build our own out of the results from this one. :bigok

[SPEWEY]

The Clash should be higher ranked than 16th.

[T.W.A. Tea]

for influential you gotta go with Zep

you can't turn on the radio without hearing something that they inspired.

[SpotcheckBilly]

Originally posted by SPEWEY
The Clash should be higher ranked than 16th.

I agree..added.

[SPEWEY]

Originally posted by T.W.A. Tea
for influential you gotta go with Zep

you can't turn on the radio without hearing something that they inspired.

They have inspired a lot of musicians but I think more have been inspired by the Beatles though.

[norton23]

Originally posted by SpotcheckBilly
The Warlocks were formed when Garcia and Lesh went to see "Hard Day's Night". The Beatles were their inspiration for the band, with Pigpen as the frontman.

What's up spot. I saw the voting as "who do you like best" but yes the beattles were extremely influential to all these bands. After all there would be no Ozzy without the Beatles.

[SpotcheckBilly]

They have inspired a lot of musicians but I think more have been inspired by the Beatles though.


What's up spot. I saw the voting as "who do you like best" but yes the beattles were extremely influential to all these bands. After all there would be no Ozzy without the Beatles.

For all wondering, this is a test poll. I'm gonna redo this as a Wackbag poll, when all the results, and polls are in.

Hi nort..How are ya? :biggrinfl

[PyThomas]

R.E.M. should be in the top 10. Their influence is not just their music but the way they stuck to their guns in terms of creative control.

[SpotcheckBilly]

Originally posted by PyThomas
R.E.M. should be in the top 10. Their influence is not just their music but the way they stuck to their guns in terms of creative control.

Agreed..REM now no.6 The Velvet underground are gone. nobody knows who they are anyway.

[SPEWEY]

Originally posted by SpotcheckBilly
Agreed..REM now no.6 The Velvet underground are gone. nobody knows who they are anyway.

Dude, if it wasn't for the Velvet Underground REM would have never existed. They were Stipe's favorite band and biggest influence. They did like 4 or 5 VU covers.

[Stinkysteve]

The Velvet Underground was much more important than REM. The first 4 or 5 REM albums were pretty good, but after that they started doing these Gay patraitoic dance songs! They should lose all their money so they can produce some listenable music again.

[SPEWEY]

Originally posted by Stinkysteve
The Velvet Underground was much more important than REM. The first 4 or 5 REM albums were pretty good, but after that they started doing these Gay patraitoic dance songs! They should lose all their money so they can produce some listenable music again.

Right on man. The Velvet Underground is easily 10 times more important in influence than REM.

REM was an awesome band until Stipe decided to become the groups 'poster boy' as he put it, with the release of Green.

[SpotcheckBilly]

Sorry, I put them back up. No offense intended.

[Stinkysteve]

No offence taken here.

How about some of the old Delta Blues musicians that the old British groups and Elvis Presley stole a lot of licks from? ? ?

edit:

By the way, I think the Kinks were more influential than the Beatles... they came out with the first "concept" album, they were the first rock band to use a sitar on one of their songs...(thank God it was on just one song!)

[FOFOLINA]

I just wanted to add. I picked Led Zeppelin.

[Stinkysteve]

Now that the thread and poll progressed, I want to change my vote from Pink Floyd to Robert Johnson!!!
Thanks Spot!

[cringeradio]

ok people,. thats it. lol heres my thoughts , and i'm ready to defend each and every one of them.


remember this is INFLUENTIAL, not your favs or just not nessery greatest overall. althought thats plays into a bit but not as much.. Like i love u2 but thier more of a great realy great band overall but not realy influential persae. you;ll see some obvious ones and some not obvious ones.

velvet underground
The band that created alterative rock. the split between "classic rock" and this music. as far i;m concerned , a band is either alterative or its classic rock/mainstream/etc or any subgerne of those two. so they sure as hell better be on here. thier reponsible for roughly 50% of the bands that ever played after 1967. goth,punk, grunge,hardcore , alt pop, etc . they pinoneered it they never sold even a gold record, but this a this isn't a list for commercal sucess.

beatles
clearly the band that made rock a art form. period. shaped rock music to make have a life after its inception in the 1950's. nothing more needs to be said. rock is what it is casue of the beatles.

kraftwerk
Invented eletronic music. A astronomcal infleunce, . without them you would have any music that used electronc sounds. disco, dance, modern pop, techno, ambiant, freestyle, helped in the way rap/hip hop is made.thier influnece cannot be overstated.

nirvana
no one made pain and misery sound so beatiful and no one will again .they re shaped modern music. they changed the course of rock music. thier a milestone.

parliment
reponsable for the growth of rap/hiop hop. urban music. a huge huge influence on urban music. put the "thump" in urban musics sound.


elvis presely
the first rock star, and showed that rock n roll had arrived and was going to shape our very culture. changed history period, not just music history. laid the groundwork for the trumimps and challenges that rock music ever faced since then. his lead singing not too bad either.

led zepplin
showed a band can be diverse, and had a big impact on rock guitar. big part in heavy metal, helping shape the sound.

black sabbath
had the most impact on metal and even non metal bands soemtimes too. laid the groundwork for a sound that no one band can realy escape thats wants to be heavy in any way. and dark themes as well .

hendrix
changed the way the guitar is approached. another sound that you realy can;t avoid being influencecd by. he;s woven into part of rock guitar as we know it.

korn
weather any one likes it or not, this band changed metal. the new way of being extreme. any one who intends on playing hard music now has been influneced by korn.

[Stinkysteve]

Good work cringeradio!
I would have just added Cream to that list. They made the 3 person power band an artform. Their live recordings were awesome! They could make a lot of noise for just 3 guys on stage!

[SpotcheckBilly]

Added Kraftwerk. Parliament/Funkadelic. Elvis and Cream. I know the list has gotten out of hand, and people have already posted. We'll distill this later in a WB poll. All ideas, will be used in the new poll. Thanks,

[cringeradio]

i think some people mistake greatness for influnce. like as far as breaking new ground goes. Like i wouldn't put bob dylan on here cause, he didn't break new ground. thier was folk before him. however, no one did it as good as him and not since him. thats why he a legend. same for stones, bon jovi, pearl jam,aerosmith,the who, floyd etc. They didn't break new ground as much as they just excel at what they do play. Or they might have inspired people to play music but nessery be a direct musical influence. but they were on the idea of someone else should try rock music. Like trent trenzor was inspired by kiss to switch to rock music, but as you can hear, kiss is not a influnce on the actuly music.

i think thier is a second tier of influental bands that are importent, like well david bowie at the top of the list. mabey realy should be on the first ten and korn be the top of this one. but in addiction to that, janes addiction, chili peppers,run dmc, ramones, black flag, van halen, rem, sonic youth, rage. mabey rush too.

[Darkstar]

This is influential and REM weren't all that influential. U2 was good, but I don't know about being that influential.

The Beatles
The Stones
L.Z.
The Dead
Nirvana

My top 5.

Each had an influence on a particular style of music or decade.

[SpotcheckBilly]

After reading all the posts, over and over. I have tried to distill them all into a top 12 list. Taking the votes into consideration, and everyone's comments as well. If I'm not wrong, the new poll will go as follows.

1. Elvis Presley
2. Muddy Waters (For reviving an almost dead form of music, and saving the Blues for generations. )
3. The Beatles
4. Jimi Hendix
5. Led Zeppelin
6. The Velvet Underground
7. Black Sabbath
8. Kraftwerk
9. Nirvana
10. Korn
11. The Grateful Dead
12. The Rolling Stones (for Exile alone, god bless Keef).

If this looks good to everybody, I'll put it up as the top-12 Wackbag most influential bands.

[Stinkysteve]

Originally posted by SpotcheckBilly
After reading all the posts, over and over. I have tried to distill them all into a top 12 list. Taking the votes into consideration, and everyone's comments as well. If I'm not wrong, the new poll will go as follows.

1. Elvis Presley
2. Muddy Waters (For reviving an almost dead form of music, and saving the Blues for generations. )
3. The Beatles
4. Jimi Hendix
5. Led Zeppelin
6. The Velvet Underground
7. Black Sabbath
8. Kraftwerk
9. Nirvana
10. Korn
11. The Grateful Dead
12. The Rolling Stones (for Exile alone, god bless Keef).

If this looks good to everybody, I'll put it up as the top-12 Wackbag most influential bands.

I'm not sure about Korn, Nirvana, and maybe even the Stones. I love these bands dearlly... (maybe nor Korn so much...), Nirvana had some really great albums and the Stones took the decadent lifestyle to the maximum and had some really great albums, (Exile.... Sticky Fingers....), but as far as influence... I don't think so...
The Grateful Dead... If I had a penny for every brain cell that was killed at their concerts, I would be able to put O & A on the radio in more cities than they were on in before....
I think the Ramones should be there, (a band that could hardly play their instruments broke the way for a lot of other bands with little hope!
The Sex Pistols... I can't begin to think of stuff to say about them. They are a corner stone of music!

[SpotcheckBilly]

I'd be happy to add the Sex Pistols..The Ramones were a great garage band, but so were the Seeds!

There would be no Grunge, if not for Exile. Or Country-rock without Mick ripping off Gram Parson's. (wild horses..)

[Stinkysteve]

Very true. Good point Spot!

[100 Grand]

I not a fan of the Stones but my favorite song from them is Wild Horses...with Sympathy for the Devil in a close 2nd.

Remember the point of the poll people...most influential!!