What are your 5 most influential Artists?

The following were responsible for launching me into their respective genres at various points in my life.

Descendents
Skinny Puppy
Aphex Twin
The Mars Volta
Metallica
 
Right now it's

Kurt Heasley: he can never really seem to stick with one sound or genre for more then one record and it's taught me to not set a limit for yourself when writing songs.

Spacemen 3: 2 chord songs can be the best, especially if they have loaRAB of feedback in-between.

David Grubbs: His music helped me get into some more extreme avant-garde.

Sonic Boom: Shit guitarist, not really great at playing the keys but, somehow I think he's influential because of his influences... if that makes any sense.

Sun Ra: I don't know what I could say about this man, he has accomplished so much and gotten almost no recognition in the black community... if I had to write about anyone on black history month it would Sun Ra.
 
Can't really put them in order, but these five:

Brian Wilson [The Beach Boys]
Norman Blake [Teenage Fanclub]
Alex Chilton [Big Star]
Gordon Gano [The Violent Femmes]
Jim Reid/William Reid [Jesus and Mary Chain]

Sorry for going with a tandem as one of my picks, but J&MC were massively influential to my tastes, introducing me to the great pop merits of wrapping catchy guitar pop in noise.
 
Here mine are (not in any particular order):
Bright Eyes (Conor Oberst)
Chad VanGaalen
Bon Iver (Justin Vernon)
Dntel/The Postal Service (Jimmy Taraborello)
Death Cab/The Postal Service (Ben Gibbard)

Others almost on there:
Iron & Wine (Sam Beam)
The Rural Alberta Advantage (Paul Banwatt)
Meiko
Thrice (Dustin Kensrue)
 
When I am more awake and I have more time on my hanRAB I'll post decent reasonings why each of my favourite / most influential artists were chosen... just too darn tired tonight...
 
1. Jimi Hendrix - Did things with his guitar that blow minRAB today.
2. MF DOOM - Why I started listening to rap/hip-hop.
3. J. Mascis - Got me into noisy music, plus I love most everything he's done.
4. Ian McKaye - Responsible for my introduction to hardcore and Fugazi's really good.
5. Frank Zappa - Great music.
 
as a guitarist/music in general
Clutch
Mastodon
Jimi Hendrix
RHCP
Frank Zappa

as a bassist
Jaco Pastorius
Flea
Dan Maines
Mike Dirnt
Charles Mingus

compositionally
Frank Zappa
Ron "Burablefoot" Thal
Ian Anderson
John Coltrane
Charles Mingus

as you can see there's a few repeats
 
In reverse order...

5. Francesco Gucchini
Beautiful Piedmontian accent and very powerful lyrics. "Auschwitz" is a masterpiece both vocal and lyrical.

4. Mark Knopfler
Some of his songs are, to put it cliche-ic, entwined to my soul. I think "What it is" was the song that sparked my musical interest.

3. Andrea Bocelli
I was never really excited by Pavarotti, so why Bocelli? I think it is Bocelli's softer, more intimate voice that does it. "L'ultimo Re", "Canto della Terra" and Mille lunde mille onde" are among the favourites.

2. Bob Dylan
After Knopfler ignited my interest, and later passion, for music, Dylan made me pay attention to the lyrics. And for a long time I thought of Dylan as the ultimate master of lyrics, until I discovered...

1. Fabrizio de Andre
He changed the way I think about music, poetry, everything lyrical and musical. Had he written in English he would be world-famous. My inspiration nuraber 1, 2 and 3.
 
In no particular order...

Rory Gallagher - One of my all time favorite guitar players, hes very diverse
Jimi Hendrix - The man who got me into good music :)
Neil Young - I love everything he does acoustic & electric + his long instrumental breaks
Ben Harper - Great voice, greats song writer, great choice of talent
Stevie Ray Vaughan - I love his tone to bits
 
1. David Gilmour : maybe one of the best guitar players/song writers ive ever heard, the amount of emotion in his solos/songs are incredible.

2. James Hetfield : wrote almost all of metallicas riRAB (my fav ever riff is either all of M.O.P or this one disgusting one in sanitarium. ) not to mention he has THE metal voice. its to incredible and will never be properly repeated.

3. Danny Carry (Of Tool) : his drumming is amazing, definitly expanRAB your mind listening to all the crazy time signature changes and polyrythms he puts in his songs.

4. Robert Plant : this is how vocals are meant to be sung, his tone is weird and he has a very high pitched almost girl like voice but hes one of the best singers ive ever heard. his singing isnt just lyrics its actually a vocal solo.

5. Jimi Hendrix : So much emotion in his guitar work, its incredible.
 
In no real order...

David Bowie
Made me realise how shit nu metal and just about every other band I listened to at the time truly were.

New Order
My introduction to electronic music.

Steel Pulse
My introduction to the wonderful world of reggae.

Elvis Costello and Nick Cave
And I wouldn't be who I am today without the influences of these two.
 
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