# 5 most influential rockbands of the 20th century



## snowgoon (Aug 23, 2008)

Yo heard me.
I want *5*
no more.
Let other ppl answer.
we'll make a big list after.

I'll take some i find to be the less obvious ones.
This is purely based on thinking.
No preference.
Just because someone puts a band on tehre list dosen't mean that they like them.
So please no trolling.
Debate. Sure.
But no trolling.

1. Cream
2. Iron Maiden
3.Black Sabbath
4.Nirvana(hey started grunge after all)
5.KISS


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

The Beatles ... err, they're The Beatles...
John Mayall's Bluesbreakers ... started the white guy blues boom (along with the Yardbirds)
Led Zeppelin ... took the white guy blues boom and ran with it, spawning heavy rock in the process.
Pixies ... _they_ started the whole grunge thing; Kurt copied what he heard.
Pearl Jam ... Does every male rock singer now have to sound like Eddie?

But that's an impossible task. You limited it to 5, which means the Stones, the Who, the Doors, Deep Purple (how many bands did DP spin off?), Pink Floyd, get left out.
On the heavier side, I'd argue Judas Priest more than Iron Maiden, even if only because that's who IM were copping licks from. UFO, AC/DC, Then there's Motorhead, without whom we wouldn't have all the thrash (thanks Lemmy ) -> Metallica. For that matter, Diamond head were very influential, even if not particularly successful. 
Van Halen spawned an entire decade + of copiers. 
The Fall, My Bloody Valentine, Joy Division, Smashing Pumpkins, Sex Pistols! 
Jimi Hendrix was left out because that was a 'he' not a 'they' really, despite how good the Experience & Band of Gypsies were. Same for Janis. Elvis! Mind you, Bing Crosby invented the singer as a star, and he was followed by Frank. 
Then there's the whole Genesis / Yes / ELP / VdGG (seems weird, but no Peter Hammill, no Sex Pistols) end of things...does that still count as rock?
How about REM? U2? Tangerie Dream? 

The Velvet Underground!!! 

This is impossible...


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## snowgoon (Aug 23, 2008)

ahaha i know!
i wanted 5 form everybody!
we could go on all day if we listed all of them!


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## Tarl (Feb 4, 2006)

The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
Bill Haley and His Comets
Led Zeppelin
The Hollies


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## Accept2 (Jan 1, 2006)

Eddie Cochran
The Ventures
Black Sabbath
Kiss
Metallica..........


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath.

Everyone listed was heavily influenced by someone - For three of the five above, you could add Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters. Chuck Berry for two of them. List goes on.


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

*Beatles*, Sgt Pepper and The White Album

*Stones*, Let it Bleed and Sticky fingers

*Jimi*, Axis Bold as Love and Electric Ladyland

*Zep*, I and IV

*Yes*, Fragile and Closer to The Edge


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## snowgoon (Aug 23, 2008)

Van Halen and Aerosmith were also influential in there own way.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

The five bands who influence ME the most were (in no particular order):


Rush
Supertramp
Deep Purple
Pink Floyd
Gentle Giant


Of course in general terms, bands like the Beatles, Stones, and others probably influenced more people than bands on my list, but this IS all about me after all.


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## al3d (Oct 3, 2007)

Not in any particluar order..

Led Zeppeling
Iron Maiden
Van Halen
Black Sabbath
The Who.


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

in terms of influencing the general public, and in terms of how that affects other musicians,
1-elvis
2-the beatles
3-hendrix
4-zeppelin
5-nirvana

yeah, elvis and hendrix werent bands, but they used bands.
not unlike what cobain did with nirvana, just without his name at the forefront


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## DimebagTributer (Aug 12, 2008)

one.. elvis is not a rock band buddy haha sorry 

but id say..

-AC/DC
-Iron Maiden
-Led Zeppelin
-Guns n Roses
-KISS


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## Stratin2traynor (Sep 27, 2006)

Led Zeppelin
Iron Maiden
Jimi Hendrix Experience
Pink Floyd
The Backstreet Boys


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Paul said:


> I would have expected Frank Zappa and/or Dixie Dregs on your list. Gentle Giant is a very cool thought.....I haven't listened to them in years. The stereo 8 track player is still broken.:smile:


Only five bands is tough.

I still listen to Giant a fair bit. 


and FZ


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

DimebagTributer said:


> one.. elvis is not a rock band buddy haha sorry


well it was rock and roll some 50 odd years ago- and a whole lot of the rock guys we know of today got started after seeing or hearing elvis. and he was a band. dont recall ever hearing him without a bass player and drummer, let alone guitarist.


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

DimebagTributer said:


> one.. elvis is not a rock band buddy haha sorry


Without Elvis, it's arguable there would have been a wide audience for Chuck Berry, and I don't see much really in AC/DC other than Chuck Berry played louder and a bit faster...not that that's a bad thing. Exactly what Led Zeppelin did with Willie Dixon's music too. Talking of which, a lot of Robert Plant's stylistics can be traced to Elvis and Eddie Cochrane too (hey, try listening to Dread Zeppelin and you'll hear it). I once saw a documentary about Elvis, and they showed what was on the TV on the other channel at the same time as his debut on Ed Sullivan...I think it was Perry Como, wearing a cardigan, singing about toasting marshmallows by the fire or something in a rocking chair. _That_ was what most people were listening to before Elvis. _That_ was popular music. That was why Elvis had such a huge impact. Same sort of thing the Sex Pistols did in the 70s, injecting a bit of rebellion and energy into it.

Surprised Kiss keep coming up? I loved them when I was a kid, and Ace was one part of why a lot of people picked up a guitar in the 70s, but without Alice Cooper (actually, without Alice's drinking problems and his retirement to dry out in 71/72) there might not have been much room for them either. Again their _music_ is very derivative of early rock n roll blended with the Beatles and the Stones. Were they really that influential? Moreso than the Stones? I can't see how any list like this without the Beatles or the Stones holds much water at all. 

*I don't actually _like_ Elvis or the Beatles very much, but there's no denying they were hugely influential.

Now if by rock you mean metal or hard rock or whatever then that's a different story.

I'd be interested in hearing who are the most influential bands of the 21st C so far.


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## Accept2 (Jan 1, 2006)

I was going to to put Alice Cooper instead of Kiss, but AC never did influence the music business as much as Kiss did. He may have been first, but that didnt make him influencial. Same with the Beatles and Stones. Yes they were very successful, but I think they were more at the right place at the right time than being influencial. Of course it depends on what your talking about influencing. They had a huge impact on the audience and musical taste thru record sales, radio hits and concerts, but they really didnt leave a wake of clones, or impact the industry the way bands like Kiss did. Kiss didnt even sell that many albums, but their impact went beyond the sales of albums.............


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

Accept2 said:


> I was going to to put Alice Cooper instead of Kiss, but AC never did influence the music business as much as Kiss did. He may have been first, but that didnt make him influencial. Same with the Beatles and Stones. Yes they were very successful, but I think they were more at the right place at the right time than being influencial. Of course it depends on what your talking about influencing. They had a huge impact on the audience and musical taste thru record sales, radio hits and concerts, but they really didnt leave a wake of clones, or impact the industry the way bands like Kiss did. Kiss didnt even sell that many albums, but their impact went beyond the sales of albums.............


You're kidding right? No Beatles or Stones clones? There was a while there in the 60s pretty much all bands of white guys were Beatles clones. 
I can't think of any Kiss clones, not really, and I was a huge Kiss fan for years as a kid.


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## DimebagTributer (Aug 12, 2008)

also as u must realize is that some of us were around longer than others. and this is kinda too general of a topic....

is it classic rock?
metal?
hard rock?
could be such a wide variety that 5 bands isnt enough to name.. so of course everyone will argue about these bands... but its almost impossible to be wrong.. (within the boundaries)

KISS, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Elvis, Rush... see where im going... already in those few "bands"... are different styles of music....


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

To make it a little more interesting and prolly easier for us to list bands would be to break up the categories? Like if you asked 5 most influential metal bands you would get 5 good answers. Rock, Pop etc.


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

well the way i looked at it was like this-
metallica was influenced to a degree by black sabbath, and tony iommi couldve first picked up a guitar after seeing elvis or the beatles on tv-
so although convoluted, guys like elvis and the beatles influenced, however indirectly, a whole lot of other people.
like sure, acdc influenced a lot of bands, but as already mentioned, acdc gets a big part of their thing from chuck berry, who in his day influenced all kinds of guys, like keef for example, who went on to influence several generations of bands.
i dont know about breaking it into catagories, cause at some point, those metal bands were influenced, however indirectly, by the likes of elvis, buddy holly, chuck berry, the beatles etc.
maybe i thought too deep lol.


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## snowgoon (Aug 23, 2008)

no fraser i agree with you.
elvis in his own way spanned rock music in general.
although indirectly.


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

snowgoon said:


> no fraser i agree with you.
> elvis in his own way spanned rock music in general.
> although indirectly.


I agree with fraser too -- I think you can almost stop counting at Elvis / Beatles / Stones as (almost) everything in rock since is in some way derived from those. Even the Velvet Underground. 
Tony Iommi lists Hank Marvin of the Shadows and Django Reinhardt as his influences. The Shadows were Cliff Richards' backing band, and _he_ was created as a nicer cleaner sunday school approved British version of Elvis.


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## snowgoon (Aug 23, 2008)

sdsre

Doesn't that look like Tony Iommi?

Being very young I can't really call Elvis and the Beatles my influences.
However, they influenced my influences.
So they are still a huge part of my music.


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## suttree (Aug 17, 2007)

Paul said:


> 1) Louis Jordan and his Tympani 5
> 
> 2) The Archies
> 
> ...


interesting list, that one.

i'll say the following: 

1) muddy waters band, that's the beginnings of the modern rock band in a nutshell. 

2) dick dale & the deltones

3) led zeppelin

4) the beach boys (especially pet sounds)

5) jimi hendrix


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

I could always go further back,.... Elvis, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley.


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## Accept2 (Jan 1, 2006)

devnulljp said:


> You're kidding right? No Beatles or Stones clones? There was a while there in the 60s pretty much all bands of white guys were Beatles clones.
> I can't think of any Kiss clones, not really, and I was a huge Kiss fan for years as a kid.


I must be kidding, after all none of the top 40 bands right now are using the Kiss Inc. business model, and none are trying branding like Kiss. We are filled today in the top 40 by bands following in the footsteps of the Stones and the Beatles. Kiss made a huge impact on the industry, maybe you dont see it, but everyone who knows its a music business sures knows the Kiss Inc. business model inside and out. One of if not thee greatest influence on the entire industry from the top level right down to the consumer. Those guys werent stoopid........


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## Hamm Guitars (Jan 12, 2007)

devnulljp said:


> ...
> I can't think of any Kiss clones, not really, and I was a huge Kiss fan for years as a kid.


Anyone care to recall Twisted Sister from the eighties?


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## Perkinsfan (Oct 17, 2007)

Zeppelin
Sabbath
Beetles
Stones
Yardbirds
Maybe not in that order,but thats my abbreviated list.
I thought The Doors would make more lists?


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## starjag (Jan 30, 2008)

And who could forget the revolutionary (and influential!) ballroom music of the early 1900s... in those days it was very popular for restaurants to have dance floors.


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