My daughter is taking a "History of Rock and Roll" class at her middle school and her teacher passed out a sheet listing the 30 most influential artists. God Bless the man for even attempting such a project, Lord knows that certain friends of mine would find themselves paralyzed if asked to come up with such a list, but I have some issues with his list, and I think you might as well. Here is Teacher's list in (rough) chronological order:
1. Chuck Berry
2. Little Richard
3. Buddy Holly
4. Everly Brothers
5. Jerry Lee Lewis
6. Elvis Presley
7. Ray Charles
8. Roy Orbison
9. James Brown
10. Smokey Robinson
11. Stevie Wonder
12. Aretha Franklin
13. Beatles
14. Beach Boys
15. Bob Dylan
16. Rolling Stones
17. Byrds
18. The Who
19. Eric Clapton & Cream
20. Jimi Hendrix
21. Grateful Dead
22. The Band
23. Janis Joplin
24. Doors
25. Santana
26. Led Zeppelin
27. Allman Brothers
28. Bob Marley & the Wailers
29. Elton John
30. Michael Jackson
Also listed as "Other Greats":
Bo Diddley
Fats Domino
Eagles
Bruce Springsteen
Neil Young
Kurt Cobain
Paul Simon
Van Morrison
Tina Turner
The Police
John Fogerty
Billy Joel
Crosby, Stills, and Nash
Pink Floyd
Aerosmith
Van Halen
My first reaction was to notice that no artist has had any influence on rock and roll since approximately 1984, which is sad. My second reaction was to notice that punk has been uninfluential altogether, which I am sure comes as a surprise to anyone who has listened to a record since, say, 1984. As far as I can tell, this list is more Teacher's "Bands I Like" list than a "Most Influential" list.
For some reason I focused my (mild, mild) ire on the selection of the Allman Brothers, as their particular brand of laid-back rocking completely misses my sweet spot. Apparently I am not alone, as they only had one song crack the Top 20 in their careers. Still, they may be influential with the music-types.
Let it be a lesson to all you young parents out there that your kids will tell their teachers everything. The next day I was informed that Teacher says that the Allman Brothers are perhaps the most influential band of all time. I balk at this.
Help me out here. In the comments tell me which artists you'd take off and who you'd replace them with. Make it one for one so we're not just listing "Bands I Like."
Thursday, December 11, 2008
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6 comments:
Yeah, that's definitely a "teacher's favorite bands" list - and it makes me wonder if said teacher is under the age of 50.
I think you can credit the Allman Brother's with creating "Southern Rock" (is your beef with them just more evidence of your anti-Southern vendetta ;-), so there's some measure of influence there. I'm not certain it's top 30, and certainly not the most influential of all time.
Here's who I'd lop off from the top 30 - The Band, the Doors (unless you think inspiring Danzig is a good thing), the Allman Brothers, the Who...
I'll put Janis on there just because I don't think she did anything other than popularize and make safe for white people the gutsy female blues singer - not that she wasn't incredible, just not influential.
I'd add (and it's criminal that they weren't on there in the first place) the Ramones (who were/are way more influential than the Allmans, imo), Joy Division or New Order (I can't decide which, but you can't ignore the Manchester scene and all that it wrought), Kraftwerk (the birth of industrial and electronica), Parliament/Funkadelic (hello! hip hop was practically spawned from George Clinton's loins!), and the Velvet Underground.
Jesus, that was hard, and I still feel like I gave whole segments of the rock universe short shrift.
Ah, Roosevelt. I remember that class when I was interning there; it seemed like a frickin' cool class to take at a college, let alone a middle school. I don't think the kids would appreciate it where I work...maybe top 30 country artists of all time?
Anyhoo, I can't even begin to quibble with the list, because it's an overwhelming task. I will say, though, that I guess Rock n Roll is considered to be a very broad genre...and I feel like some of the artists don't seem to belong there in my opinion of what Rock n Roll is (Michael Jackson, for one). Now, if we were talking most influential MUSICIANS, period, that list might be a lil' different...but I may just be ignorant.
As for the Allman bros, you'll have to ask Dan about that. Yes, they were in the Southern rock genre (and I share your thoughts about Southerners in a lot of ways, albeit not as publicly) but they had some kick ass guitar work...and they were, in mine and Dan's opinion, a helluva lot better than Skynard. (Hope no Alabamians read this blog.)
Fun class though, huh?
These lists are tiring and you have to be a bit simplistic to try one it seems to me. Wobs demonstrates how wide you might have to cast your net if you were really going to capture "the most influential" bands. In that light Elton John kind of cracked me up. I have lots of EJ from my youth with fond memories of listening to him while hanging out in my brother's room, but influential seems just a bit of a reach. I guess that gives me one replacement, yes. In that case, The Clash, who like The Ramones, seems like an obvious omission.
Ah! Ramones, Clash, or Pistols?
I had to struggle with those three myself, but ultimately opted for the Ramones a)because of their direct impact and influence on the Clash on their trip to London and b) I hear the Ramones in every power-punk, punk-pop, power-pop ground who ever strung three chords together with a melody.
The Pistols were definitely more "punk," and they were arguable the precursors to Joy Division and the British post-punkers.
And yeah, the Clash have their place in there as well.
Elton John made me laugh - I didn't take him off my list because outside of a few choice songs from the 70s, I really don't like him and I thought maybe that was prejudicing my desire to remove him.
Also, the other greats list cracked me up as well. The case could be made for Ike & Tina, but all I think of Tina on her own is "What's Love Got to Do with It?" and "We Don't Need Another Hero" - hardly tunes that shook the earth. And the Eagles make me want to shoot myself.
i want to weigh in, but am completely paralyzed by the meaning of "influential" and "great" in this context. i think it's like the time that wobs asked OGians to list the bands that had "changed your life"--that means something very specific (and it was carefully spelled out for us). i can't seem to put together what this teacher had in mind when he was thinking about what it means to be influential.
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