Greatest artist of all time?

walshb

Of all the greats from 1950 onwards who gets your vote as the greatest pop/rock/rock n roll artist? Who in your view had the biggest single impact and influence over the past 50 or so years?

After going through so many I feel that Little Richard was historically the most significant and influential of them all. He is not my favourite, one of them, but overall I think he was the GOAT!

Thoughts and views and picks?

regress

Springsteen. Although Elvis more popular.

rednik

Robert Plant

Five years ago he resisted huge pressure to tour with Led Zeppelin, but continues to reinvent himself and his music. He is a true rock icon and an absolute gentleman.

Temaz

Bob Dylan.

Cosmicfox

Kate Bush. Plenty of female artists can hardly breath without being compared to her in some way, even if the comparison is flimsy at best.

Da Shins Kelly

Billie Holiday. Pretty much every vocalist owes something to her.

Hannibal

Tough question to answer.

The first that springs to mind is The Beatles, as they have influenced nearly every rock and pop band and musician ever since in some way plus the unparalelled success they had. The Beatles were influenced by the likes of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly etc but none of these are good enough or have the legacy to be considered the greatest.

David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, Ray Charles, Bob Marley, The Kinks and The Bee Gees all spring to mind as having both commercial success and a lasting influence over their peers for decades.

walshb

I would agree that The Beatles were the more popular and commercial, but as for influence and impact and respect, so so many great great acts, including the Beatles (particularly Paul), really idolised Little Richard. He influenced so many othert greats. Elvis, The Stones, Prince, Tina Turner, ACDC, Michael Jackson, Elton John, Freddie Mercury to name a few; and one of the greats of all time, James Brown, idolised Little Richard.

Richard really was the pioneer of rock n roll. The originator.

RikkFlair

Ralf Hutter & Florian Schneider (Kraftwerk), one of the first groups to bring electronic music to the masses which paved the way for all sorts of electronica/dance music for the past 30+ years, and a big influence on a lot of conventional rock bands to boot.

Klaas

I think Michael Jackson was the greatest artist of all time. He wasn't only good at singing and dancing. He wrote lots of his songs and his lyrics and he was the artistic director of his live shows. He was capable of doing everything. And he was doing it very well.

ButtersSuki

Prince. Considering his mastery of so many instruments, his lyrical ability, his longevity and his constant reinvention for me he is above all the other greats. If you've ever seen Prince live (11times and hopefully counting!) you'll likely agree that he puts on a show. Yes, he's bonkers at times, but small price to pay for this level of genius.

notnumber

Pink Floyd..no question .Relevent in each decade from the 60-90's and an outstanding discography of classic album.Beatles do not compare.

kippy

Should the thread not be entitled "Greatest artist since 1950"?

kunst nugget

notnumber wrote: »

Pink Floyd..no question .Relevent in each decade from the 60-90's and an outstanding discography of classic album.Beatles do not compare.

Bollocks. The Beatles’ timelessness and innovation have made them relevant in every decade since they were around. And it was done on 4 track.

This predated the likes of the Chemical Brothers by nearly 30 years:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tisjsgsgtZU

What Pink Floyd did with making the studio an instrument in their albums in the seventies was just a continuation of what the Beatles had done before them. I'd say the Beatles were the greatest artists of the last 50 years but with the Beatles I'm including their producer George Martin and their innovative engineers like Geoffrey Emerick.

NIMAN

Jon Bon Jovi.

I'll get my coat...

notnumber

kunst nugget wrote: »

Bollocks. The Beatles’ timelessness and innovation have made them relevant in every decade since they were around. And it was done on 4 track.

This predated the likes of the Chemical Brothers by nearly 30 years:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tisjsgsgtZU

What Pink Floyd did with making the studio an instrument in their albums in the seventies was just a continuation of what the Beatles had done before them. I'd say the Beatles were the greatest artists of the last 50 years but with the Beatles I'm including their producer George Martin and their innovative engineers like Geoffrey Emerick.

The Beatles’ timelessness and innovation have made them relevant in every decade since they were around

Well you do have Popular Opinion on your side

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-artists-of-all-time-19691231/the-beatles-19691231

http://stereogum.com/495331/vh1-100-greatest-artists-of-all-time/list/

Pink floyd are IN MY OPINION but then again some of their music was too complex for mainstream success such as the beatles enjoyed.Beatles where a Boy Band in the 60's I dont think it makes them consistently great..altough they did mature and produce better music as time wore on.

Cienciano

Spice Girls. Their "girl power" motto was very empowering for women. It dragged women out of the kitchen and onto the celebrity supplement of the cheap tabloids.

Seriously though, I think the boy band label on the beatles is a little unfair. They weren't a manyfactured pop band who were given songs and told what to wear, say and do as we boy bands do today.
They played popular music, were young and had millions of screaming female fans, that's the only similarity they have with boys. And changing their style from a pop band so popular to what they became will never happen again.

There's obviously no correct answer to the OP's question, it's all opinion. My opinion is that The Beatles had the biggest influence and impact since 1950. But the best band, no question (imho) were Pink Floyd, probably the only band I never ever get tired of listening to.

kunst nugget

notnumber wrote: »

Pink floyd are IN MY OPINION but then again some of their music was too complex for mainstream success such as the beatles enjoyed.Beatles where a Boy Band in the 60's I dont think it makes them consistently great..altough they did mature and produce better music as time wore on.

Ah come on, Dark Side of the Moon is only beat by Thriller and Back in Black as the biggest selling album ever, outstripping the nearest Beatles album by nearly 20 million sales so they are hardly non-commercial artists. Also to dismiss the Beatles as a boy band is wrongheaded. They went from Love Me Do in 63 to Tomorrow Never Knows in 66 to Revolution No. 9 in 68 with every album from Revolver on liberally sprinkled with experimentation. This is the band that at the height of their popularity could release something as wonderful complex and profound as Strawberry Fields Forever. To consider them as merely a commercial pop entity is to ignore the likes of A Day in the Life and great swathes of the White Album.

NIMAN

This is a pointless argument as music is so subjective.

People will mention artists or bands on here that many will loathe, and the thread will produce a list so long you will never find the 1 single artist that was the greatest.

old hippy

Impossible to say. It's a subjective thing and what criteria should we go by?

Having said that, I reckons

Bob Marley
Bob Dylan
Kraftwerk (an incredible influence on New Order, Bowie, Gary Numan and countless other electronica outfits right up to the present day)

kunst nugget

NIMAN wrote: »

This is a pointless argument as music is so subjective.

People will mention artists or bands on here that many will loathe, and the thread will produce a list so long you will never find the 1 single artist that was the greatest.

But isn't that the point of these threads? You know, for discussing things?

kippy

kunst nugget wrote: »

But isn't that the point of these threads? You know, for discussing things?

This has been "tried" and done countless times before.
There will be no definitive outcome to the greatest artist of all time (especially if it's just since 1950)
Just a thread that goes round in ever increasing circles before it dies a death.

NIMAN

kunst nugget wrote: »

But isn't that the point of these threads? You know, for discussing things?

True, true.

In that case, I'm sticking with Jon Bon Jovi.;)

How do you define greatest though? Is it great voice, number of hits, album sales, biggest tours, awards. most influential etc?

I would have to say either Elvis, Michael Jackson, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles or Jon Bon Jovi.

old hippy

I should add Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, who was one of the most successful "world music" artists to bring the genre to greater recognition with western audiences through collaborations with Peter Gabriel and his own incredible output. A huge influence on one Jeff Buckley, too.

NIMAN

Never heard of this person. Surely if they were the greatest music artist ever then I would have heard of him/her/them?

megafan

notnumber wrote: »

The Beatles’ timelessness and innovation have made them relevant in every decade since they were around

Well you do have Popular Opinion on your side

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-artists-of-all-time-19691231/the-beatles-19691231

http://stereogum.com/495331/vh1-100-greatest-artists-of-all-time/list/

Pink floyd are IN MY OPINION but then again some of their music was too complex for mainstream success such as the beatles enjoyed.Beatles where a Boy Band in the 60's I dont think it makes them consistently great..altough they did mature and produce better music as time wore on.

Have to agree the Beatles in their seven years or so of existance had a huge impact (& still do) on modern music & yes Pink Floyd (& others) were massive but the Beatles opened the door to the States which allowd others to flourish...

kunst nugget

NIMAN wrote: »

True, true.

In that case, I'm sticking with Jon Bon Jovi.;)

Ah now, sometimes there's subjective and sometimes there's just plain sh¡te.

kunst nugget

megafan wrote: »

Have to agree the Bealles in their seven years or so had a huge impact (& still do) on modern music & yes Pink Floyd (& others) were massive but the Beatles opened the door to the States which allowd others to flourish...

Yes, Ian's Caff was a hotbed for all sorts of musician types

old hippy

NIMAN wrote: »

Never heard of this person. Surely if they were the greatest music artist ever then I would have heard of him/her/them?

Well, it is subjective, as pointed out. But Nusrat made huge inroads into western listenership and as such, was certainly one of the greats. Even if you haven't heard of him.

I'm guessing you haven't heard of Miriam Makebe or Fela Kuti, either?

NIMAN

You guessed right!!

Are they the 2nd and 3rd greatest of all time??

Da Shins Kelly

NIMAN wrote: »

Never heard of this person. Surely if they were the greatest music artist ever then I would have heard of him/her/them?

Just because you haven't heard of him doesn't mean he wasn't influential.