Fenxy

Jimi Hendrix , and definitely James Brown.

Ella Fitzgerald. Without a doubt.

Kurt Cobain.

I've got some odd ones:

1. Billie Holiday
2. Dr Dre
3. Michael Stipe

Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Pink Floyd, Megadeth, Nirvana... all have shaped the sound of modern metal.

Any list that doesn't include Pearl Jam is incomplete, they laid the ground work for nearly every band that came out in the 90's.

Frank Sinatra, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai. Most well known musicians look up guys like these themselves.

Some of these are older than 25 years.

But Steve Reich.

Nick Drake,
and probably Elvis - but I would not know about that.

25 years people, that means no performer pre-1982, although the Note starter seems to have broken his own rule with at least 2 of his choices.

Louis Armstrong. I'm continuously amazed at how often he is still cited today as one of the most influential jazz musicians, if not the most influential one.

Flaming Lips, guys. Come on! Here's another vote for Ella Fitzgerald, too.

And The Kleptones for everything they're doing for the mashup scene.

Metal/Rock:

Metallica
Megadeth
Led Zeppelin
Dream Theater
CKY
Deftones
Pantera
Alice in Chains
Stone Temple Pilots
Guns n Roses
Jimi Hendrix
Rush
Van Halen

Jazz:

Charlie Parker
Gene Quill
Louis Armstrong
Pat Meheny

Soloists:

Steve Vai
Joe Satriani
Victor Wooten
Billy Sheehan
Buckethead

Ahh this list could go on and on and on.

Dr. Dre
Jaco Pastorius
John Williams
Akin Euba*
Phillip Glass
John Meyer*
Metallica
Bjork
Aphex Twin
Dave Matthews

(*May classify as more than 25 years, though currently still working)

Older than 25 years, but still 20th century musicians:
Karlheinz Stockhausen
John Cage
Steve Reich
Robert Moog (Inventor of the Moog Synthesizer)
The Beatles
Pierre Schaeffer ("Inventor" of musique concrete)
Vladimir Ussachevsky
Igor Stravinsky

There are a host of folks from the electronic music/musique concrete camp which could easily qualify on this list since, after all, just about everything you listen to today is a result of their work. (Wendy Carlos, and The Silver Apples are two examples.)

If you haven't heard of most of these guys, don't worry: unless you're planning to spend a fair amount of time in a studio, you never will. Know, however, that they are the shapers of things to come.

Last 25 years is hard, since we're sort of still living that quarter a bit and can't see what's been most influential until time's passed some. It depends on what you mean by influential, too. (Politically? Religiously? Sales? Female or male? Genre-wise?) For instance, I say Loreena McKennitt for being a world/Celtic musician and vocalist who made it to the Billboard charts ("The Mummer's Dance", for anyone interested), thus opening up some people's eyes to that genre of excellent music. But then, on the other hand, I can also Linkin Park, whether you like them or not (it's a love-hate thing for me), for bringing out nu metal. I also agree with the aforementioned Kurt Cobain and Pearl Jam.

Sigur Ros also definitely comes to mind for being so innovative in their style, and thus appealing to people from many walks of life and from many different interests in music.

As for the past 50 or so years, I'd say Elvis. He caused quite a stir with his music at the time, and from a societal viewpoint, his name lives on strongly, many years after his death. That counts for a lot, I'd say!

Led Zeppelin for sure, although most of their good stuff was written in the '70s. I guess Mile Davis falls into that category as well (good stuff written early in his life). Hendrix and the Beatles were also pretty darn influential, along with composers Britten, Glass and Williams. I'll throw in Bowie as well...

Oh, and I definitely second Gnorb's suggestions of Steve Reich and John Cage. I'd forgotten all about Reich.

I'd have to echo Kurt Cobain, and top that with Smashing Pumpkins.

Billy Corgan is seen by many (okay, by the people I talk to) as the voice of our generation. I can't explain how thrilled I am that the SP are back together and putting out a new album.

Nas :)

If there's one thing I've learned on the Internet it is that what one considers to be a major influence, about three trillion others consider to be a waste of time, mediocre or just plain bad.

Let's just take Miles Davis. Those into his electronic phase acknowledge the early stuff but wouldn't put it on if someone paid them for it, the fans of the earlier phase wouldn't touch his later material if a comet was about to hit the planet.

Kurt Cobain? You mean the guy who wrote stuff that was incomprehensible, egoistic, plain altruistic and utterly forgettable? Or the one who moved music more than a notch forward?

I have my own cornerstones that moved my own listening experience forward. There was Schumann who made me appreciate piano music. Or Mussorgsky whose compositions took that appreciation a step further. Or Schoenberg, whom I didn't understand but found fascinating and who pushed me into new areas.

There was Charlie Parker whose recordings have abysmal audio quality but who made me listen to jazz with my heart.

There was Stanley Clarke who I think sucks but who was brought into my life by a very good friend who thought I had heard enough heavy metal ... and who ultimately succeeded in turning me onto fusion jazz and more.

There was John Bonham who I thought was totally in the tradition of Gene Krupa; loud, outgoing and a showman to boot. That was my way into Led Zep.

There were the Sex Pistols who - in my mind - revolutionized music tons more than that Cobain dude.

There was Satie whom I discovered later in life and who spun my view of classical music several thousand degrees around and turned everything upside down.

There was Tomasz Stanko whose soundscapes I find endlessly fascinating and who turned me on to a whole new (musical) ballgame.

There was Louis Armstrong whom I hated when I was young and whose artistry I didn't understand until 40 years later.

There was Ella Fitzgerald who had a voice to blow any modern diva out of the water ... cold.

There was Santana who made me appreciate that South-American twist and who, after having abandoned him completely, made me search for real music from that southern part of the continent, from Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and other places.

And so on.

Music is a personal thing.
Experience.
Surprise.
Learning.
Expanding your own universe.

In that vein I could name a hundred and more artists that I would call most influential ... in my life.

Probably not in yours though.

@deus62:

For the most part, I agree with what you said: most of this list seems to comprise artists who may have individually been considered great, and who may have meant a lot to the person(s) naming them, but who other people may not find influential.

What should be kept in mind when answering this question is that what's influential isn't necessarily what you (or I) liked, it's what has affected large segments of music in the future.

For example, a minor influence that seems to have had some influence in some popular music (Papparoach, Linkin Park, Dragon Ash (jp), etc) was the collaborations which occurred in the early 90's with groups like Onyx/Biohazard, who for the first time successfully crossed styles like hard rock and rap.

Likewise, individual artists like Elvis Presley had a HUGE influence on future music (both rock and modern country owe a huge debt to the work of Elvis). Conversely, Elvis owes a huge debt to sources like New Orleans jazz and Southern Gospel. What marks him as "special" is the influence he, as an individual has had on the music industry.

Personally, I don't like John Cage all that much. Some of his music is great to listen to, but most of it is best lisened to in order to entertain intellectual curiosity. Yet, his works from as early as the 1920's have had a marked effect on the music of today. (Read his essays in the book Composers on Music by Josiah Fisk to see where I'm going with this. In that book he predicts the use of electronic instruments to create music with sounds that could not be imagined at the time, and with 'non-musical' sounds. Enter techno: The Silver Apples are fine examples of the begining of this realization -- 40 years later.) Another artist to pay attention to is Toru Takemitsu, who composed music for old Samurai movies (check out Kurasawa's films), but whose influences can be felt across many of the film music today.

The measure of a musician's influence isn't what has influenced him or her (although the ones who influence the most are often the most widely influenced, such as Igor Stravinsky who could write in styles from mideval music to 12-tone.), it is who they influence. Like someone mentioned here, 25 years is a pretty short time to really measure any artist's influence, mostly because it hasn't spread enough. Within one industry, influence can travel quick. It is when you start crossing boundaries that you have the potential of becoming influential. (This is why I mentioned Dave Matthews. Personally I'm not a huge fan of his, but I know good music when I hear it. His influences come from various sources, including Zydeco, Jazz, Blues, Folk and Rock (which came from Jazz anyway -- sort of) but the fact that he has already worked with so many differing styles (fusion jazz, techno, rock, jazz, blues, etc.) is what may make him very influential. Someone who had that potential as well (but whom I haven't really heard about in a while) was Fiona Apple, whose music I -- surprisingly -- love.

By the way, Erik Satie was a gread addition, especially when you listen to a lot of the modern atonal work, especially in films. Also, someone here mentioned Jimi Hendrix, who has had a HUGE impact in modern popular music. Dr. Dre has basically defined modern rap, with his franchising of artists like Emminem and Snoop Dog, then following up with artists like 50 Cent and G-Unit. In rock, the standard has become Metallica, although their "influence" really hasn't been all that obvious (maybe because it has become so ubiquitous?) Then there are artists like The Sex Pistols, which have defined Punk Rock artists for years (frankly, I hate their music). Then you have smaller players within punk rock like Screeching Weazel (sp?) who have influenced tons of smaller groups. (I know: I've been in enough clubs to hear the influence.)

Anyway, I could go with this all night, but the point is this: who artists influence is what measures their influence. The more of an artist you hear in other artists, the greater their influence. (At least insofar as this question is concerned).

Don't make me have to pull out the Beethoven/Beatles influence combo...

@desu62: Also, I forgot: you're totally right with Carlos Santana as a MAJOR recent influence.

@Gnorb

Of course I agree with most of what you said, but I think people forget all too often that there is very little consensus as to who really was influential.

Sure, there are the various lists written up by knowledgeable people, there are the artists cited by renowned encyclopedias or studies of various music styles or genres, but if you are a veteran of some of the major music forums around the globe, which are usually populated by tons of very knowledgeable experts (the Organissimo forums come to mind), you also know that as soon as someone says the words "influential", "most important", or "genre-defining", you get half of the board up in arms saying that it's all baloney.

It always makes me laugh because when it comes around to influential artists, most of the people who know their music and music history usually agree on being unable to agree.

I'd second the Rush mention, not only for their musical influence (just ask the Smashing Pumpkins, Dream Theater and Muse), but also for their independent attitude and their ability to surprise.

A couple of surprising influences come from the pop world: Japan, OMD, and (especially) Talk Talk, who largely kick-started Post-Rock with The Colour Of Spring, Spirit Of Eden and Laughing Stock. Without them there would be no Tortoise, Portishead or Coldplay! (Hmmm..?)

I third Rush! I saw them when they came to Toronto at the end of their 30th anniversary tour, and they totally showed why they're a top musical influence.

And I can't speak for everyone here, but as far as people who affect my musicianship, etc...

Stevie Ray Vaughan
John Petrucci
Herman Li

Thats just now, and how my musical style is atm.

My list changes weekly, I think I have a short attention span. But this week:

Massive Attack

Well I'm very disappointed... Why am I the first person to mention Radiohead?

Rush?
RUSH?
You have got to be kidding me. Please say it is so.

We're talking about music here, not twiddling, fiddling, and producing lifeless, numbing, but technically brilliant elevator music.

Fire away.

P.S.: And don't get me started on Dream Theater.

All emo bands are influencial

deus62, don't get you started on Dream Theater?

Dream Theater has put out some of the most beautiful and emotionally compelling music that i've heard. There's something that just sends a tingle down my spin when I listen to some of their songs.

They've also inspired a vast number of brilliant prog bands.#

On the other hand, it's taken me about 3 years to get into Dream Theater, at first I didn't like them at all.

I think people are forgetting Queen as one of the influential artists. Glam rock won't be as they were without them.

But let's go to the parts we wouldn't like to admit.

New Kids On The Block jump started the modern boyband fad.

Britney Spears took the teeny bop songs to new heights.

They aren't artists I covet, but they have their main influences, and I do like some of their songs. I'm not that bias.

@Kamigorosh: While you have a valid point, the thankfully truthful part is that they aren't so much "influential" as they are "memes". Except for Queen, though thankfully their "influece" insofar as Glam rock is concerned is mercifully over.

NKOTB: They're not influential so much as they have copy-cat acts, none of which are actually led by the music but rather the business itself. This is like saying "Well, the Monkees were influenced by the Beatles," when actually The Monkees were a business-decission driven band put together to jump on the Beatles' popularity bandwaggon.

Britney Spears: Again, not influential, but more of an excecutive/market decission. Name any musicians that actually drew influence from her or her music. Like NKOTB before, she may have influeced the business side, but certainly (and mercifully) not the music side.

If influence is limited to music then no, neither of these artists are influential. If we're talking about other matters (fashion, marketing, business models within the music industry) then you may indeed have a point.

Alright, going on about Rush and Dream Theater, I guess you could be trying to be devil's advocate here.

But Rush? Dream Theater? This is going to be biased, as they are two of my favourite bands, just a note. First thought that pops into my head is that you're not a musician by any stretch, and can't appreciate not only the 'technical brilliance' (Dream Theater brings it to a whole new level, but Rush clearly showed it to them) but the lyrical content, orchestration and the impossibly deep and winding/circling story lines. 2112? Scenes From a Memory? Xanadu? Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence? Mike Portnoy's 7 AA Songs? Ring a bell? Well, if they don't then your thoughts are completely baseless. Listen, and then go to DTFaq or Wikipedia and read about the stories. Don't even get me started on the 'Full Circle' theme on Octavarium.

Also, I know a lot of people that say because Dream Theater is so technically proficient and JP plays so fast, etc... That theres no emotion. You want music with no emotion? Rusty Cooley. Sure, he can play faster than like anyone, but it is what it is. Both Rush and Dream Theater have produced some of the most deep and emotional music, with Rush finding a huge audience and commercial success, and Dream Theater finding a huge and dedicated fan base that will defend them like this. Dream Theater can bring their music to the heights of melody, and the depths of dissonance and it will be great every time.

If you have heard and understand at east one example of each band (check 2112 for Rush and SFAM for Dream Theater) and still have the same opinion, then its entitled, and if you already have... Then I dunno . :P

And I forgot one: Genesis. Think Eddie Van Halen invented tapping on the guitar? Take a listen to "Dancing with the Moonlight Night", and hear it 10 years before. Theres sweep picking in there too! Innovation? Yes.

Sorry, but although I've tried many times, Rush and Dream Theater are far from what I would consider music. Me culpa, I'm probably just dumb.

Want an example? Have a listen to John Petrucci's and Jordan Rudess' recent (well, 2004) recording, "An Evening with ..." and compare that to any of the Dream Theater fare. If you do, on that 2004 release you'll hear music, as if they were finally allowed to inject some emotionality into what they were doing (some great stuff on that CD), as opposed to that mind-numbing Dream Theater noodling which is about as alive as a dead fish on a Scandinavian market.

Sorry, but as I said above, it's probably my fault. But as a drummer of 30 years I also consider that aspect of both band's music to be equally unmusical. Technically top-notch, but aside from that, nothing but fireworks. I wonder if those two guys have ever heard of the concept of dynamics and actually giving music space to breathe instead of nailing every hole shut with a triplet or - worse - an insanely useless drum break.

I am aware that there are two camps - the one that defends that kind of "music" to the last drop of blood and the one that would rather get caught in a nuclear war instead of accidentally ending up in a room in which Rush or Dream Theater music is playing. I'm squarely in the latter camp and do believe that nuclear war could be oodles of more fun. ;)

I could ramble on ... but I'll refrain.

Oh so you're a drummer and you don't like Rush? The Professor! Neil Peart is considered by drummers as one of the best! And Mike Portnoy is quite obviously influenced heavily by him.

Are you like an emotional drummer or something?

That is certainly NOT correct.

In most of the drummers' forums I hang around (try just about any one from the Pearl forums to vdrums.com) there's a larger group of drummers that acknowledge his technical abilities (as do I) and some love the guy, but many, many if not most others would put him faaaaaaar down the list of people they would consider musical or even influential. Actually, many dislike him with a passion (like I do).

Try Ed Thigpen or Jeff Hamilton in Jazz for musicality, try Steve Gadd and a trillion others in pop, etc., etc., etc. There are so many that are better at their game musically that the list would be endless. And just about any drummer of some repute was more influential, unless you mean spawning endless lines of the Prof..

I would love to participate with more examples right now, and I may return at a later date, but right now I'm (supposed to be) working.

@ConnorWilson

Connor, I'm going to turn my take on things on Rush et. al. into a future blog post, also to not spam the discussion here. If you'd like, I'll let you know when it's up.

Alright, sure, let me know. But for the record, Rush has some full our pop tunes, and when Peart played his solo when I saw them back in 2004, half way through the "Hey, look how technical I am" he stood up and the kit rotated around him to a jazz kit, and he played long with a great trumpeter (forget the name).

Oh you were talking about the actual music sense not the industry as a whole?

Then I stick with Queen. Glam rock ain't that bad you know. :) Those were the days indeed.

When I didn't like Dream Theater I was only listening to the technical stuff. But check out Another Day, Wait to Sleep, Peruvian Skies, Hollow Years, Through My Words, Fatal Tragedy, Through Her Eyes, One Last Time, The Spirit Carries On, Finally Free and about half of Octavarium if you like emotional stuff.

But I agree with Genesis being a big influence. Helloween and iron Maiden have influenced the entire power metal genre, so i'd say they're directly responsible for my favourite bands.

Gotta be James Brown!

Now if someone already said this and I missed it I am sorry, however, I think Michael Jackson was very influential. I am not saying I like the guy, but you have to admit he changed the way a lot of people view pop music.

Smashing pumpkins are back together?! ROCK ON!

David Bowie all the way...grab Ziggy Stardust album. One of my all time favourite

The real modern influence according to me are:

- The Rolling Stones
- The Red Hot Chili Peppers (yes, they're already 20 years old)
- All classical music
- Elvis Aaron Presley

If we're talking "influential" as opposed to "musicians I like", I think you have to go back at least 25 or 30 years in order to consider whether or not their work has had any influence over subsequent generations of singers and songwriters.

Patti Smith - Horses.

Sonic Youth.

To whoever listed Pearl Jam, seriously?

The past 25 years? Hmmm....

Flaming Lips
Beastie Boys
U2(even thought I'm not a fan)
Nirvana
Pearl Jam
Grateful Dead
Phish
Public Enemy
Red Hot Chili Peppers

There's more, but those are the ones that I can think of now.

Oh yeah,

Run DMC