Totally the sugar babes

elvis prob

What about bands that influenced rise against? I personally dislike rise against. They are a bunch of sellouts. But they do have an OK cover of minor threat by minor threat. And this is for the most influential band, not your favorite band. I challenge you to name one band they have influenced besides your ****ty garage band you started with your friends that writes about how hard it is being forced to go to school.

Nirvana since they influenced popular bands such as green day, linkin park, rise against, pretty much all of the alternative/ metal rock genre, and linkin park. Did i mention they influenced linkin park? xD

The Beatles!

I probably should have made this include individual artists, because in my opinion Elvis is equally influential to music as the Beatles are. Also, in my opinion, his music ages much better than the Beatles' music does.

Nirvana is one of my favourite bands, but I don't think their influence on popular music lasted very long. It essentially lasted until Kurt died. The later 90's kind of sucked.

Though I don't listen to The Beatles, I'd say that they are the most influential band that you listed. Most rock bands claim that they where influenced by The Beatles.

Every one thinks nirvana started grunge. But they didnt. These guys did: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvins

Nirvana didn't start it, but they definitely brought it to the mainstream.

They were also one of the definite pioneers of "grunge" music. When they began, there was a thriving music scene in Seattle, and Nirvana was influenced by punk music and other local bands. So they weren't really trying to be a "grunge" band, that's just what the media labeled a lot of bands that were influenced by that music scene.

nirvana shouldn't even be in this thread. sucked and is overrated, all their work scaled pretty poorly and only had a handful of listenable tunes. smells like teen spirit had a catchy hook + chorus and that's it.

if you want to talk about rock/metal talk about deep purple. this was recorded in 1969/1970:



ya...(1:55 still gives me chills)

if we want to talk about modern metal then we'll have to discuss Gothenburg Sweden's melodic death metal scene, which you can hear in all the "core" genres (metalcore, deathcore, etc) today. this song was from the early 90's:



I mean how often have you heard this riff?



Again, early 90's. That band was basically before its members split for Hammerfall, In Flames, At The Gates, and Dark Tranquility (all which were ongoing projects while Ceremonial Oath existed). <3

That's completely subjective to your opinion. There is no doubt that they were influential in the early 90's. They made way for a lot of bands like Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, etc. I do agree that they are slightly overrated, but what band in this list isn't?

I find a lot of their stuff listenable and catchy. Smells Like Teen Spirit being the least of them.

Their sphere of influence does not compare to the likes of the other bands. They may have popularized grunge/alt rock but that's nothing compared to creating/reviving/shaping entire genres. Bands like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple helped shape rock and metal in general. That's big.

Elvis would probably get my vote. I don't know why but there's something about a man shaking his hips in a time when it was frowned upon that strikes me as game changing.

I swear I love you.

The Beatles are the ones who influenced major music genres of today! For example, they started the heavy metal sound with, "Helter Skelter", and I think, "Lets Do It In the Road".

I agree with The Beatles as a choice, as for single artists who went through many bands. I would have to say Muddy Waters, all of the greatest guitarists of rock can trace their techniques and influences to Muddy Waters. True Rock & Roll is just edgy blues and R&B.

Although, a close second would be Bob Dylan. As he wrote many of the greatest hit of rock and also joined together Folk and Rock & Roll by playing an electric guitar at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1965. Blowin' In the Wind is an amazing example of this combination, as is Maggie's Farm.