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Most Influential Modern Bands


Floophead3

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I would think that clearly Nirvana was highly influential, being responsible for kind of bringing the second wave punk movement out to the masses in a big way.

 

But anyway, I think you have to be around for a while before your influence can grow, since you generally need a new generation to grow up on your music and integrate into their own styles I think, and then have time to become known themselves. So it doesn't seem like it would generally happen in too much less than a decade.

 

And I guess Run DMC and NWA would be considered hugely influential bands at this point, given how much hip hop culture has permeated youth culture and music, though they are a bit more than a decade back as well.

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los lonley boys.... Great young band,, who just might drag modern music back into the reality that you need solid skill sets and traditional values. Those young guys from texas can really lay it down. Solid vocals ,, great songs , and good guitar playing.

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To list a band as influential, you should be able to also name someone who was influenced by them. Some are pretty obvious:

 

The Counting Crows started the whole whiny-lead-singer-pouring-his-heart-out thing. Cold Play obviously takes a lot of their vocal stylings from them. As does Dashboard Confessional, plus a few others.

 

There are a whole bunch of bands that I consider "grunge 2.0," that is, the bands that were directly influenced by that pioneering group of retro-punk bands coming out of Seattle in the 90s. (Yes you can be pioneering and retro at the same time.) Godsmack is a direct descendant of Alice In Chains. Pearl Jam gave birth to Creed. Nirvana led to the Foo Fighters and a whole slew of knock-offs.

 

Jack Johnson and John Mayer's success has led to a sort of singer-songwriter renaissance. The genre of "dude with a guitar" seems to be coming back.

 

As far as truly new sounds, those seem more prevalent in the R&B/hip-hop areas. Outkast and the Black Eyed Peas seem to have created a new sub-genre in their area.

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To list a band as influential, you should be able to also name someone who was influenced by them. Some are pretty obvious:


The
Counting Crows
started the whole whiny-lead-singer-pouring-his-heart-out thing.
Cold Play
obviously takes a lot of their vocal stylings from them. As does
Dashboard Confessional
, plus a few others.


There are a whole bunch of bands that I consider "grunge 2.0," that is, the bands that were directly influenced by that pioneering group of retro-punk bands coming out of Seattle in the 90s. (Yes you can be pioneering and retro at the same time.) Godsmack is a direct descendant of Alice In Chains. Pearl Jam gave birth to Creed. Nirvana led to the Foo Fighters and a whole slew of knock-offs.


Jack Johnson and John Mayer's success has led to a sort of singer-songwriter renaissance. The genre of "dude with a guitar" seems to be coming back.


As far as truly new sounds, those seem more prevalent in the R&B/hip-hop areas. Outkast and the Black Eyed Peas seem to have created a new sub-genre in their area.

 

How could I forget Outkast! Thank you :cool: Regarding Coldplay, I'd say that Radiohead influenced them much more than Counting Crows. I hear a guy and a piano and thats about it when it comes to Counting Crows and Coldplay. If you hear Coldplay's early material they were definitely ripping some of Radiohead's aura. Queens of the Stone Age can be added to that list. Also Sleater Kinney.

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Well, at first I was going to say Radiohead, but then again I didn't dig their latest album. Flaming Lips, yes they're good, I love them, however there's a few things that erk me about them.

 

To be honest, I have no modern band that I go crazy over. I miss the days of huge bands being about improvisation and less pre-planed events. Like back in the day when the guitar solo had a boundry with respects to the song (a certain "sound,") though the solo itself was nothing near the recording and all coming out of the guitarists soul/mood/whatever. This exists mainly on the medium-small venue level, and less and less on the larger band scales.

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If there were more bands influenced by The Replacements....there'd be better music on the radio.

 

(I might just make that my sig)

 

Seriously, though, there are lots of influential bands out there, but they're not doing anything interesting or contributing to the whole. We get 100 crappy bands for every good one because of this.

 

Anytime I hear something interesting, I try to take note...regardless of whether or not I like it in the long run.

Wilco/Son Volt/Uncle Tupelo and Ryan Adams/Whiskeytown are my current favorites...but:

White Stripes

My Morning Jackect

Muse

Radiohead

Foo Fighters

Kasey Chambers

Drive by Truckers

Pearl Jam

'Pumpkins

The Arcade Fire

 

...are all examples (plus many more) of bands/artists that are doing cool stuff that will hopefully catch on (at least in the world of music-lovin' folk like us).

 

--BB

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Which bands do you find boring and uninspired?

 

I don't want to start nothin'...

 

;)

 

 

Let's just say that most of the bands listed here seem tepid or retreaded to me. But then I've been listening to rock for 50 years plus... I really have heard it all before.

 

And, I'll be frank, some of the stuff I do like seems kinda retread to me. I can't say much nice about the new album (because it's crushed to unlistenability by some tin-eared, music-hating "mastering engineer") but I sort of liked the first few albums by the shameless repackagers, Interpol. (Best little '80s Brit new wave band to ever come out of late 90s New Jersey. :D )

 

Or Art Brut -- I love these guys. But it's mostly because it takes me back to my lost 20-somethings and that sometimes amazing era of promise and innovation of the late 70s/very early 80s. But it's not exactly new music... it feels a lot more like a band from back in the day that simply got lost. Take away references to vibrating cell phones and it's pretty much right there...

 

Heck, even the compulsive iconclasm of The Mars Volta seems, at times, like tossing 70s King Crimson and Yes and some reggae and latin into a blender and setting it to chunky...

 

 

And -- I'll be frank about myself, too -- although I was pushing my limits as much as possible 8 or 10 years ago, in the last few years I've retreated increasingly to my own partricular rootsy retread material... so... you know...

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Obviously that's a matter of opinion, else they wouldn't have been influential, eh?

 

 

Of course!

 

It's all about subjective appreciation.

 

That's why I wrote:

 

... how boring and uninspired
I find
many of these more or less arguably influential bands...

[italics added]

 

 

No such thing as bad music -- if someone enjoys it, that's what counts. One man's Mrs Miller is another's Beverly Sills...

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As far as the acoustic scene that I know, Dave Matthews definitely. John Mayer was highly influenced by Matthews' stuff although he doesn't like to admit it. Especially in the acoustic poppy stuff he did earlier on until he moved to blues with his trio. Jack Johnson seems somewhat influential perhaps to the everyday acoustic dude that only plays bar chords. But for me, Dave Matthews is high on my list of influences (probably why I think he's so influential :p).

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Noticed the Foo Fighters come up in the influential list a lot. Im just curious as to why...

 

I dont think they are bad... but they have always just seemed to be one of those bands that no one loves and no one hates. Like the songs will come on the radio and people are like, oh yea, that sounds pretty good. But i havnt yet mwet anyone who loves them and goes out buying their albums and stuff. Yet they are huge... and get huge media coverage.

 

 

It seems to me that what Foo Fighters have done is just be a few normal looking guys playing normal straight forward rock and roll, Which isnt a bad thing of course in a industry of angst ridden emos.

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Noticed the Foo Fighters come up in the influential list a lot. Im just curious as to why...


I dont think they are bad... but they have always just seemed to be one of those bands that no one loves and no one hates. Like the songs will come on the radio and people are like, oh yea, that sounds pretty good. But i havnt yet mwet anyone who loves them and goes out buying their albums and stuff. Yet they are huge... and get huge media coverage.



It seems to me that what Foo Fighters have done is just be a few normal looking guys playing normal straight forward rock and roll, Which isnt a bad thing of course in a industry of angst ridden emos.

 

 

Well, I will admit I'm addicted to Foo. I have quite a number of friends who are die-hard fans as well, but I do agree with that last statement. But if you look at what their music has evolved as, they've helped bridge the gap between the Nirvana grunge era to modern mainstream rock. I don't want to go as far as to say they're singlehandedly responsible for modern mainstream rock, because I'd probably get punched in the face, but I believe they are one of the key transition bands. Not to mention Dave Grohl is a god.

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I guess by your standards, Jane's Addiction isn't modern, but they single handedly shaped the future of Alternative rock. I guess Nirvana is about as close as I can come to influential. Personally, Alkaline Trio has been life changing for me...just everything about them has been influential for me on more than just a musical level.

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But to me, the best musicians and songwriters are the ones who can translate their weird and bizarre musical fetishes into something that a mainstream audience can identify with.

 

 

wow! i think we have a winner! that...was really like deep. (i'm not being sarcastic i agree)

 

If a band can turn their niche sound but somehow mold it to where it has a mainstream vibe(BUT NOT INTENTIONALLY). This is definitely something that comes natural. Those are the ones that are successful.

 

This makes think if that's why certain bands become big versus others on myspace.

 

EDIT: HAHA! I didn't even look at who wrote it and it was you sabriel. Awesome!!

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from the electro perspective. i maybe to ahead for what's going on but whatever.

 

(it's about time we got our reign on the internet, it's getting huge)

 

i'm doing the bands that FOR SURE effecting other bands in this subgenre are:

 

these electro bands have been on the radio:

Panic! At The Disco

HELLOGOODBYE (some not all have heard this one)

 

these are the ones taking it to the extreme in a fun and different way:

BREATHE CAROLINA

THE MEDIC DROID

SECRET HANDSHAKE

 

(i'll always bring them up lol) You may not hear them now, b/c electro isn't really heard yet. But trust me, 2008 will be the year you start hearing that New Wave/Electro/ and 90s retro hip hop stuff on the radio, but it'll be in small doses cause it'll be too fresh and different for the mainstream audience.

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