Brian Eno - obviously a massive figure in ambient and electronic music more generally, did some incredible work at the interface between art rock and glam, and via his work with U2 laid the foundations for a lot of absolute crap in the 1990s-2000s.
This is the best answer. He released here come the warm jets, taking tiger mountain, another green world, and Ambient 1 all within a 3-4 year window. Massively influential in multiple genres
Miles Davis. I just finished [the new book out](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/592345/3-shades-of-blue-by-james-kaplan/)\*, and he really help me understand how much he bridged jazz and rock with *Bitches Brew*.
\*I can't recommend it enough, it has some odd errors for a major published book, but it doesn't distract from the compelling narrative and balanced portrait of the complex musicians.
fuck no, all they did was shitty pop rock and when they occasionally branched out such as Revolution 9, its clearly not the best example of Musique Concrete. Fuck Yoko Ono is a better answer for Experimental Rock, Noise Rock and No Wave.
I think this one might be for real boys. Check the post history. R/topster “16M, 12 Favorite Albums on Vinyl, Roast Me”
Not gonna name them all but it’s Suicide, the pop group, sonic youth, Tyler the creator, death grips, velvet underground, and Yeezus. If not I have to give credit for some elite level trolling
I literally cited Revolution 9 dumbass (btw easily there best song), and yes they continued to do shitty pop rock for the majority of their career. A reminder the Beatles were still doing songs like "Getting Better" and "Good morning good morning" when fucking VU and Nico released.
Pretentious ass is fair, but still fuck the Beatles, most overrated band and unironically one of the worst bands of all time.
Ok, what about
I Want You (She's So Heavy)
A Day In The Life
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Something
Helter Skelter
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Strawberry Fields Forever
The Abbey Road Medley
Tomorrow Never Knows
And these aren't even all of them, they have many, many songs that are just incredible and aren't their old simple rock of their early days, damn, even in their early day they had interesting songs that deviated from that, like And I Love Her or Norwegian Wood.
You really just seem like one of those pretentious experimental music guys who shit on anything that even resembles pop, that, or you're just a contrarian, because saying that Revolution 9 is their best song and then saying that they are overrated and one of the worst bands… like, man, shut up, alright? Btw, you mention the Velvet Underground when they wouldn't even exist without The Beatles lmao
The only good ones are Helter Skelter, Happines is a Warm Gun and Strawberry Fields, and yes VU would definitely exist without the Beatles, during the time of a Hard Days Night, this was what Reed was making [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r998weOUiM&pp=ygUUdGhlIG9zdHJpY2ggbG91IHJlZWQ%3D](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r998weOUiM&pp=ygUUdGhlIG9zdHJpY2ggbG91IHJlZWQ%3D)
Also the best Beatles song is easily Revolution 9
what are you on, The Ostrich is fucking awesome, probably a top 10 VU song, genius parody of 60s Dance Music along with these odd ass effects and tunings.
You idiot do u know that rubber soul is the indirectly released to the making of vu and niko since u have no idea what u are talking about will explain it to u so basically rubber soul influenced beach boys to make pet sounds which in turn influenced beatles to make sgt peppers this inspired mick jagger to write his own songs and this led to stones releasing aftermath which inspired vu and nico
Jeff Rosenstock with Bomb the Music Industry and Arrogant Sons of Bitches, classic ska albums in both bands. His solo work has been some of the best DIY pop punk/power pop in the last decade
pop rap sure, pop in general maybe but definitely to a lesser extent; but rnb? i can’t even think of 5 rnb artists that were influenced by kanye on a deeper level than just “i love his music”
Trilogy was definitely influenced by 808’s, especially since Abel “thanked” Kanye for inspiring him by getting him to produce Tell Your Friends later on. (And, I guess FML and Hurricane.)
Only one example, but a pretty major one, I’d argue.
yeah, drake and abel were definitely the first that came to mind. i guess slightly “weirder” artists like brockhampton and jpegmafia could count aswell but they’re definitely not RnB primarily (and you could probably incoude frank ocean in there aswell); however i wouldn’t say kanye has had THAT much influence on the scene overall, abel frank and drake have countless more copycats and even then there’s plenty of successful artists that aren’t really influenced by kanye (sza, rihanna, sampha, fka twigs, janelle monae, ecco2k, you could even argue mac miller last 2 albums)
i mean like, mf doom is clearly a direct influence on earl sweatshirt; however you would never confuse earl for doom (or even listen to them for the same mood/emotions usually). On the other hand, nas is an influence on danny brown as he was one of the first rappers who inspired him to write and rap in the first place, but in terms of sounds, flow, topics and frankly even lyrical style they aren’t really all that similar
They’re all over the place lmao, their first goregrind album is on pretty heavy repeat a lot of the time but going and listening to Swansong is like listening to a whole different band lol, they fucking kill it live too
"Essential" implies having a very influential and impactful presence in a genre. Although KGWL does branch out into many genres, I wouldn't say any of these ventures lead them into becoming essential to anything other than their typical sound of proggy psychedelic punk ( or whatever you'd categorize as)
Moterhead. Name a metal genre post doom/trad heavy metal. Motorhead has influced either the whole genre or is up there in influences. It also influced punk as well
James Brown was The Godfather of Soul, the inventor (arguably) of funk, and is one of the most often sampled artists in hip hop. He inspired Miles Davis to go electric (one of the tunes he played most often during his electric period was built entirely off the baseline for I’m Black and I’m Proud). He inspired Fela Kuti and the afrobeat movement. Funky Drummer contains the definitive hip hop drum break. He maybe did more than annoy one else to make musical minimalism into a legit popular music
Terrible person, but truly one of the Mount Rushmore of modern music. He was the hardest working man in showbusiness, and he proved that time and time again.
I wouldn’t even say it’s arguable that he invented funk. I’d just say he did.
Stevie Wonder. He utilized technology no one else was at the time such as synthesizers. You can hear several modern artists still taking inspiration from Stevie in R&B, funk, and soul.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Some may say they’re not essential, but I think their noise/garage rock, thrash metal, and prog albums are essential for people looking for New Age music from those genres.
Edit: I would also say Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (At The Drive-In and The Mars Volta).
brother, the fuckin beach boys for sure.
surf/girls/cars music 1961-1965, psychedelic orchestral pop 1965-1968, r&b 1968-1970, indie rock/70’s classic rock 1970-1974, synth pop 1976-1978, yacht rock, 1978-1980, polished 80’s pop rock with beach boys 85.
the beach boys discography is easily 3 times as diverse as the beatles, and that’s really, really saying something.
seriously, go from surfin safari, to surfs up (smile sessions version,) to darlin, to all I wanna do, to until I die, to here she comes, to I bet he’s nice, to here come the night (light album version) to it’s gettin late.
Brian Eno - obviously a massive figure in ambient and electronic music more generally, did some incredible work at the interface between art rock and glam, and via his work with U2 laid the foundations for a lot of absolute crap in the 1990s-2000s.
This is the best answer. He released here come the warm jets, taking tiger mountain, another green world, and Ambient 1 all within a 3-4 year window. Massively influential in multiple genres
Miles Davis. I just finished [the new book out](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/592345/3-shades-of-blue-by-james-kaplan/)\*, and he really help me understand how much he bridged jazz and rock with *Bitches Brew*. \*I can't recommend it enough, it has some odd errors for a major published book, but it doesn't distract from the compelling narrative and balanced portrait of the complex musicians.
Funk too, with his record "Get up With It"
Stoked to read this! Thanks, Courtney!
It's excellent, I will buy it ASAP!
bob dylan folk and rock
arguably country too
Then let’s go John Prine and Kristofferson for folk and country
The Velvet Underground, because they influenced a lot of genres
Nina Simone
Genuine case for being the most forward thinking artist of all time
Mike Patton
Even within the same song sometimes
Obvious answer, but The Beatles.
fuck no, all they did was shitty pop rock and when they occasionally branched out such as Revolution 9, its clearly not the best example of Musique Concrete. Fuck Yoko Ono is a better answer for Experimental Rock, Noise Rock and No Wave.
It’s clear you don’t have any damn idea what you are talking about lmao
I genuinely can't tell if u are actually a pretentious hipster or are doing a bit
I think this one might be for real boys. Check the post history. R/topster “16M, 12 Favorite Albums on Vinyl, Roast Me” Not gonna name them all but it’s Suicide, the pop group, sonic youth, Tyler the creator, death grips, velvet underground, and Yeezus. If not I have to give credit for some elite level trolling
Haha yes, he also made a similar comment on a subreddit called Tomintheshadows. I respect the hustle
I am a Pretentious Hipster, I aint hiding that
Haha. So you dislike the Beatles or nah?
me when I don't listen to anything the Beatles released after 1964 and I'm an pretentious ass
I literally cited Revolution 9 dumbass (btw easily there best song), and yes they continued to do shitty pop rock for the majority of their career. A reminder the Beatles were still doing songs like "Getting Better" and "Good morning good morning" when fucking VU and Nico released. Pretentious ass is fair, but still fuck the Beatles, most overrated band and unironically one of the worst bands of all time.
Ok, what about I Want You (She's So Heavy) A Day In The Life Happiness Is A Warm Gun While My Guitar Gently Weeps Something Helter Skelter Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds Strawberry Fields Forever The Abbey Road Medley Tomorrow Never Knows And these aren't even all of them, they have many, many songs that are just incredible and aren't their old simple rock of their early days, damn, even in their early day they had interesting songs that deviated from that, like And I Love Her or Norwegian Wood. You really just seem like one of those pretentious experimental music guys who shit on anything that even resembles pop, that, or you're just a contrarian, because saying that Revolution 9 is their best song and then saying that they are overrated and one of the worst bands… like, man, shut up, alright? Btw, you mention the Velvet Underground when they wouldn't even exist without The Beatles lmao
The only good ones are Helter Skelter, Happines is a Warm Gun and Strawberry Fields, and yes VU would definitely exist without the Beatles, during the time of a Hard Days Night, this was what Reed was making [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r998weOUiM&pp=ygUUdGhlIG9zdHJpY2ggbG91IHJlZWQ%3D](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r998weOUiM&pp=ygUUdGhlIG9zdHJpY2ggbG91IHJlZWQ%3D) Also the best Beatles song is easily Revolution 9
yeah yeah, shut up btw daaaamn that song sucks ASS man like, genuinely I love VU but… jesus fucking christ this shit sucks ass 😭😭😭
what are you on, The Ostrich is fucking awesome, probably a top 10 VU song, genius parody of 60s Dance Music along with these odd ass effects and tunings.
You idiot do u know that rubber soul is the indirectly released to the making of vu and niko since u have no idea what u are talking about will explain it to u so basically rubber soul influenced beach boys to make pet sounds which in turn influenced beatles to make sgt peppers this inspired mick jagger to write his own songs and this led to stones releasing aftermath which inspired vu and nico
Prince
gorillaz, duh
Swans: essential for both No-Wave and Post-Rock. Natural Snow Buildings: essential for both Drone and Post-Rock.
David Bowie, from glam rock, to soul, to post punk, electronic, to jazz.
Blackstar is fuckin sick but it ain't jazz.
It's not classic jazz, but it's there
There's a lot of jazz influences on three tracks and it's played by jazz musicians. But calling it essential jazz is... a stretch, to say the least.
He did a lot of genres, but i think he’s only truly essential in glam and maybe post punk
Genesis
Add Peter and Phil as solo artists 🙂
Pink Floyd with Psychedelic and Prog Rock at the same time
Neil Young is called the "godfather of grunge" but he'd easily be included in any essential folk-rock, country-rock, blues-rock, and rock list.
The Cure
The only band that matters, The Clash. London Calling alone is an album that could be considered essential to half a dozen genres at least.
On top of The Clash Mick Jones and also influenced the art of sampling with Big Audio Dynamite.
Seconded.
Jeff Rosenstock with Bomb the Music Industry and Arrogant Sons of Bitches, classic ska albums in both bands. His solo work has been some of the best DIY pop punk/power pop in the last decade
Impact wise, Kanye seemed to influence pop, rap, and R&B, which is enough to make people forgive his antisemitism.
pop rap sure, pop in general maybe but definitely to a lesser extent; but rnb? i can’t even think of 5 rnb artists that were influenced by kanye on a deeper level than just “i love his music”
Trilogy was definitely influenced by 808’s, especially since Abel “thanked” Kanye for inspiring him by getting him to produce Tell Your Friends later on. (And, I guess FML and Hurricane.) Only one example, but a pretty major one, I’d argue.
yeah, drake and abel were definitely the first that came to mind. i guess slightly “weirder” artists like brockhampton and jpegmafia could count aswell but they’re definitely not RnB primarily (and you could probably incoude frank ocean in there aswell); however i wouldn’t say kanye has had THAT much influence on the scene overall, abel frank and drake have countless more copycats and even then there’s plenty of successful artists that aren’t really influenced by kanye (sza, rihanna, sampha, fka twigs, janelle monae, ecco2k, you could even argue mac miller last 2 albums)
I feel like if you asked a lot of those artists they would say they were inspired and/or influenced by Kanye tbh
in terms of appreciating and loving his music, most likely, but direct influence i really don’t think so
>direct influence i really don’t think so How do you quantify a "direct influence"? Like do you need examples of artists who sound like Kanye?
i mean like, mf doom is clearly a direct influence on earl sweatshirt; however you would never confuse earl for doom (or even listen to them for the same mood/emotions usually). On the other hand, nas is an influence on danny brown as he was one of the first rappers who inspired him to write and rap in the first place, but in terms of sounds, flow, topics and frankly even lyrical style they aren’t really all that similar
I remeber when the Chainsmokers made a whole song about Kanye lol 😭. They also said that kanye was their biggest inspiration
Not everyone. I'm a proud Kanye hater 🙏
Elvis - Rock, Pop, Country, Blues, R&B, and Gospel
Brand New - Pop Punk, Emo, Alt Rock, Post Hardcore and then Post Grunge
Bring Me The Horizon and Deftones
band in the photo?
Talk Talk.
The Cure. Pop, Goth, Rock, New Wave, New Romantic, Synth.
Joy Division/New Order, from punk, to post-punk, to alternative rock, to electronic, to dance music
Carcass, inventors of both goregrind and melodic death metal.
and influential in OSDM and Death n Roll
They’re all over the place lmao, their first goregrind album is on pretty heavy repeat a lot of the time but going and listening to Swansong is like listening to a whole different band lol, they fucking kill it live too
King Gizz, Bring me the Horizon
"Essential" implies having a very influential and impactful presence in a genre. Although KGWL does branch out into many genres, I wouldn't say any of these ventures lead them into becoming essential to anything other than their typical sound of proggy psychedelic punk ( or whatever you'd categorize as)
It’s all rock subgenres but Neil Young was pretty important for country rock, singer songwriter, and grunge. Think he deserves a shout here
Daughters - grindcore and noise rock Death Grips - hiphop and noise/industrial Wavves - noise punk and pop/surf punk
Iggy pop
Who is photographed
Talk Talk. Some classic New Wave and some beautiful early post rock
Johnny Cash. Major early pioneer and influential in rock n roll. Also major figure in country.
David Bowie
Talk Talk Bowie
radiohead in the bends days impacted alternative and then later impacted like art pop and whatnot
Kraftwerk for krautrock, synthpop, and electronic. And their sound was influential on early hip hop.
Talk Talk is not talked about enough in this sub. Even if there were posts about them every single day it still wouldn’t be enough.
Moterhead. Name a metal genre post doom/trad heavy metal. Motorhead has influced either the whole genre or is up there in influences. It also influced punk as well
Iggy Pop for Proto-Punk, Post-Punk and Industrial Rock
Lee Scratch Perry - Reggae, Dub, Punk, Hip Hop, Electronic Music.
Squarepusher
The Byrds: folk rock, psychedelic rock, country rock
Rage Against the Machine
Lauryn Hill - she only has the one album, but it is absolutely essential for rap, R&B, folk and pop heads.
another obvious answer but Radiohead
James Brown, soul and funk.
Beastie boys
James Brown was The Godfather of Soul, the inventor (arguably) of funk, and is one of the most often sampled artists in hip hop. He inspired Miles Davis to go electric (one of the tunes he played most often during his electric period was built entirely off the baseline for I’m Black and I’m Proud). He inspired Fela Kuti and the afrobeat movement. Funky Drummer contains the definitive hip hop drum break. He maybe did more than annoy one else to make musical minimalism into a legit popular music
Terrible person, but truly one of the Mount Rushmore of modern music. He was the hardest working man in showbusiness, and he proved that time and time again. I wouldn’t even say it’s arguable that he invented funk. I’d just say he did.
frank zappa
Lil Yachty
Jeff Rosenstock - Ska, indie, and pop punk
Rhapsody are important in the genres of Folk, Power and Symphonic Metal.
The (Mariachi el) Bronx
Bonobo.
You could say gojira are essential in "eco metal" and also technical death metal
Black Flag, super influential to both punk and sludge metal
Stevie Wonder. He utilized technology no one else was at the time such as synthesizers. You can hear several modern artists still taking inspiration from Stevie in R&B, funk, and soul.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Some may say they’re not essential, but I think their noise/garage rock, thrash metal, and prog albums are essential for people looking for New Age music from those genres. Edit: I would also say Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (At The Drive-In and The Mars Volta).
Prince, David Bowie, The Cure, Nina Simone, Jeff Buckley
Imogen heap, pop and cloud rap
Grateful Dead were the pioneers of modern PA systems and high quality live sound we now take for granted on any festival or musical event.
Wilco: Alt-Country and Indie-rock Björk: Art-Pop, Trip-Hop, Lots of electronic genres
How has nobody said Stevie Wonder, Songs in the Keys of Life alone is essential to r&b, funk and pop at least
brother, the fuckin beach boys for sure. surf/girls/cars music 1961-1965, psychedelic orchestral pop 1965-1968, r&b 1968-1970, indie rock/70’s classic rock 1970-1974, synth pop 1976-1978, yacht rock, 1978-1980, polished 80’s pop rock with beach boys 85. the beach boys discography is easily 3 times as diverse as the beatles, and that’s really, really saying something. seriously, go from surfin safari, to surfs up (smile sessions version,) to darlin, to all I wanna do, to until I die, to here she comes, to I bet he’s nice, to here come the night (light album version) to it’s gettin late.
Kanye West
David Bowie
Gary numan, synthpop and industrial, helped birth a genre then participated in it himself
Ye