The most original musician of all time is....

[franknputer]

What is "Not posting on internet message boards", Alex?

[ajeales]

I would have to go with Beethoven, because he pretty much defined the notion of being original, rather than following the requiements of patrons. He wrote music that specifically challenged his audiences rather than following the instructions of a patron, and as such established the notion of a composer/musician being an "artist" stting the agenda for themselves.

Obviously there have been original musicians throughout the ages, but it was in Beethoven's time that radical originality was made possible by changes in western society, such as the emergence of paying audiences (rather than patrons who made particular demands on the composer). From his earliest classical compositions as a student of Mozart and then Haydn, Beethoven started to push back against the perceived boundaries, and it was not long before his radicalism exploded and he set the scene for every composer that followed. He was the turning point in music history.

The only significant comparisson I can think of would be the emergence of commercially successful recordings for the masses in the mid 20th century, although that was not focussed so particularly around one individual as was Beethoven's acheivment.

So it's Beethoven.