A question for Thorolf

[Ballaw de Quincewold]

Thorolf, I would have sent you a message, but I figured everyone would benefit from this. In one of the latest posts "Who is the most influential musician" you mentioned several names of certain bands and proclaimed them influential. I am familar with works of two of the people you mentioned (The Beatles and Kraftwerk) and I fail to see how they are influential (I understand Kraftwerk a bit, but not the Beatles). Don't misunderstand me. I am not saying I disagree, I simply don't understand. So, I have posted here so that you might enlighten me as to how these people have influenced music. (don't limit yourself to the two bands I mentioned, please explain about everyone you feel is necessary).

[Thorolf]

Originally Posted by Thorolf

For influence I’d like to add Olivier Messiaen and Igor Stravinsky, Lennon/McCartney, Miles Davis, Kraftwerk and Public Enemy.

I will say that influence comes in two varieties: Kick-starters and concluders.

Igor Stravinky must be said to be a main rule-breaker: Writing using his ears and imagination, rather than rules, he has paved the way for truly intuitive composing, expressionism and maximalism.

Olivier Messiaen is on my list because he concluded and took to even a new level everything that Stravinsky started.

Lennon/McCartney is on the list because they did very much what Stravinsky did, only for pop music, effectively kick-starting a new era where everything were possible in pop songwriting, and brought it to the masses.

Miles Davis did a lot of the same thing for jazz, always being totally up front with new ways of directing improvisation, effectively blurring the boundaries between collective composing and improvising.

Kraftwerk pioneered exploring composition through electronics, not just using it as another instrument, and bridging the gap between uncompromising experimentalism in its field, and pop music that actually reached all kinds of audiences, including laying down basics for most electronic music, inside and outside the conservatories ever since.

Public Enemy more or less invented the DJ as a full blown band member in rap, and paved the way for considering DJ mixing and scratching as full blown compositional and performing musicians tools.



Regards