Least influential big bands

Ocean Colour Scene's entire guitar sound and production is largely influenced by Queen. Also, Extreme was highly influenced by Queen.

I'd rather say ELP. They represented a culmination of something that people simply didn't want any more of at that stage.

o...wait

...it seems a lot of AOR bands sell millions of records but influence no-one, or at least in the way that you or I would understand "influence". All of the above (correctly identified) un-influential acts tread tha AOR path.

er, oasis? or quo-asis as we so aptly dubbed them back in 1993?

(Qu)Oasis, Motorhead, a whole lot of 80s metal bands paid respect to the Quo.

The Manics is an interesting one as they are quite derivative of a lot of other influences and didn't arguably have a unique distinguishable sound. It could also be argued that they are too recent to be seen as influential and that current climates mean that quasi-political indie rock just isn't in fashion.

Masked Gazza on Queen: Do you really think Axel Rose and Billy Corgan were directly influenced by Queen? I see what you're getting at but as they sound kind of similar - some of the guitar tones and stuff, but the songwriting, singing style and general aesthetics are totally different. You don't get many bands banging on about how "Good-Old Fashioned Loverboy" or "Killer Queen" were a big influence on their sound. I only remember "Paranoid Android" by Radiohead being compared to "Bohemian Rhapsody" as it was a pop epic made of several different bits.

The Eagles
Fleetwood Mac
Bryan Adams

The Eagles must have influenced so many people. Hotel California alone has been referenced in loads of songs which..err.. which escape me right now... but but they must!

Fleetwood Mac is tricky, I haven't heard a whole lot by them but I know that guitarists round the world are mad for them. I know the Pumpkins were big fans and covered "Landslide".

Bryan Adams suffers for the same reasons as the Manics. It's just mainstream rock that sounds like a whole lot of other people. His songs are famous but they're not famous for being Bryan Adams songs - they're famous for being played everywhere.

There's negative influence too.

(And as mark s would say, a million other words that are more accurate and descriptive than 'influence')

Anyway, that said...The Police?

Tears for Fears = Mansun

(just you wait, people, just you wait - they are Rumours-era Mac incarnate, with bloody great slices of Brian Wilson and Wayne Coyne and mmm...)

Also: U2? Apart fro maybe The Stereophonics, U2 haven't had much effect.

If there are any bands out there influenced by Huey Lewis & the News, I sure as shit never want to hear them.

1994, sorry. i just remember i was living in student halls at the time. first time i heard those fuckers was on an NME cover-tape - cigarettes and alcohol - and i thought it was one of the shittest things i'd ever heard in my entire life. o well.

Simple Minds?

The U2 copyists were mainly Irish weren't they - Zerra One, Cactus World News etc etc?

and a raft of electroclash tripe. I could happily blame Lennox and Stewart for Miss Kittin.

um, yeah, for starters. i'd say the eagles are one of the MOST influential big bands ever.

i sometimes wonder where exactly steely dan's influence manifests itself, though.

maybe I should start on thread on this, I've always been bothered by the "I've been influenced by" school of thought. I mean, has this taking of influence/s gotten narrower, more stupid, less informed by a larger awareness of what music has been, is and does, over the years? In the '50s and '60s, pop musicians would always say "I listened to the Rev. Julius Cheeks, and a lot of gospel at my mama's knee, but my daddy drank and dug blues, so I ran away from home and now I play a combination..." Now, is it just more slavish? Like all those bands "influenced by Big Star" ten years or so ago...taking only the most obvious components of a sound without thinking about it further?

Spice Girls?

as the Charlatans did with the Zombies, for example?

Ben Folds Five

I think Fleetwood Mac is a good answer. People like them and cover them, but I'm not sure how much musicans try to sound like them. (That might be because Fleetwood Mac had three songwriters, all with distinct styles.)

Prefab Sprout, David + David, Deacon Blue, Danny Wilson, Thomas Dolby, Jellyfish and Phoenix, to name but a few...

You know who didn't seem to influence anyone? Elvis Costello. Seriously, other than Aimee Mann, whom he's dated, and a couple of emo kids trying and failing to bite a couple of his most obvious pop moves.

wrong. he was a big influence to a huge amont of singer songwriters, produced the specials and allsorts.

The Lightning Seeds, Dubstar and Saint Etienne to thread!

It is not unlike Louis Armstrong, there are plenty of trumpet players and most probably nicked something from his style, but there is only one Satchmo.

Hip-hop acts as a self-contained industry. Others had gone before them, nobody did it with as much skill as them though.

Sure, for *ILM*, these bands might qualify... but what about that morass of Guitar Center employees and all their friends?

Actually, when you think about it, that whole early '70s school of metapop - Rundgren, 10cc, Steely Dan - who took up the gauntlet they threw down?

Prince? Outkast? Momus?

They influence each other if nothing else. Plus Toto is digged by session men all over the world, which must have led to some kind of musical influence.

One of the most influential acts ever. Influenced the entire early 80s New Romantic scene, for starters.

Virtually all of the best Italo stuff predated Pet Shop Boys, who were heavily influenced by Italo disco btw.

Billy Corgan is a huge Queen fan. He's said that Queen II is one of his all-time favorite albums.

Big influence on the VW Jetta.

Oasis covered "Cum On Feel The Noize", but yeh no one really rates Slade a whole lot.

I mean, for a guy like Eminem, I'm sure he was probably inspired to see some of his fellow caucasians make it in the rap world. But other than the both of them being white acts, the connection stops there. Stylistically, I see little to no Beasties influence in his work.

On the other hand, outside of the rap world is probably where they would/will make any sort of impact. I'm sure most people would point directly to Beck in that case.

Either way, I don't know if i've really seen their mark be made on too many successful copycat acts. Should they be blamed for 311 or Limp Bizkit? If so, may god have mercy on their souls.

Dropkick Murphys?

It's funny-- for a band as big as the Doors, there's really no one who tried to emulate them that much. I can't think of anyone who sounds like them.

Ian Astbury has a pretty big Morrison emulation thing going, but yeah...The Cult has never even approached Doors territory. (Ian did sing for the New Doors, though.)

Band-wise I can't think of anyone off the bat, but vocally, there's Ian McCulloch as the most obvious.

Definitely can hear vocal imitators, but in terms of overall sound, not really.

Hmmmm loads of garage and psych bands have nicked from the Doors over the last 30 years.

How about Bon Jovi? Not early on the hair metal boom, but bigger than the rest, and no one ever tried to copy them, did they?

big bands, you say?

http://i.imgur.com/eGY6vE2.jpg

(oh,...Geir Hongro already made that joke in 2005...)

:(

The Stranglers had quite a big Doors influence, also lots of dodgy goth bands from the 80s

Huey Lewis & the News?

I hear a lot of Doors influence in The Dream Syndicate and SST-era Screaming Trees, not that either of those bands are hugely notable.

It's funny-- for a band as big as the Doors, there's really no one who tried to emulate them that much. I can't think of anyone who sounds like them.

There's the Canadian band, The Tea Party.

I've always heard the Doors in loads of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds songs, especially on Dig Lazarus Dig!!! and the period from Henry's Dream to Murder Ballads.

Iggy could do a fair Jim Morrison. As could Alice Cooper. Ian Curtis tried but didn't quite succeed.

There was a series on BBC about, ooh, fifteen years ago, that looked at various rock'n'roll threads. iirc the confrontational stagecraft/glam/art rock one started with Jim.

Funny someone mentioned Fleetwood Mac seven years ago, i hear their inflluence all over the place in the past years.

E.g.: Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Best Coast, Sharin Von Etten, Mumford and Sons, Taylor Swift, Haim.

Also balearic acts from the 70s and 80s borrowed heavily from mystery to me and tango in the night.

Jim Morisson's stage presence and long hair-and-leather pants look alone has influenced more people's ideas of what a Rock Star is than probably most anyone aside from the Stones.

True, but no human being ever aspired to sound like Ray Manzarek.

I feel like Mazarek circus solos are somewhat to blame for Steampunk and crusty fire-dancer types that wear striped socks. Add in "Whiskey Bar" and you get AFP and her ilk and why not throw in Victorian cosplayers.

Steve Nieve? (j/k)

I feel like Krieger's occasional bottleneck guitar has maybe had some influence, but it really shouldn't've.

Wow, Manzarek sucks so hard (or Nieve's that good) that I literally didn't realize until this moment that they played the same kind of keyboard.

I think Julian Casablancas sounds a bit like Morrison.

Enrique Bunbury: douche who copies his voice and looks from Morrison, really popular in latinamerica and spain due to his involvement in seminal rock band Heroes del Silencio. I hate all of his artistic output but cant deny the influence he had on spanish rock.

Keiji Haino said something once about being inhabited by the spirit of Jim Morrison.

i'm not a huge doors fan or anything but, um, jim morrison's spirit inhabits every rock and roll frontman and frontwoman who's ever put on a black leather jacket and even thought about doing something subversive, which is to say, all of them. plenty of non rock and roll frontmen and frontwomen too.

as noted, Morrison was huge for Iggy ("might as well call me Mick Morrison or Jim Jagger" etc), and Iggy by extension carries the influence pretty far

yeah, doors aside, morrison's influence has been huge. esp visible in the likes of iggy, danzig, stiv bators, nick cave, michael gira and ian astbury.

Patti Smith also seems to have found Morrison useful as a figure of the singer-as-oracle, part of an (invented) "tradition of men who cannot be bought": http://www.oceanstar.com/patti/poetry/amprayer.htm. It's clearly a strongly romanticized view of Morrison, but perhaps it helped make room for something like Smith's "Land" or "Poppies" (along with the common model of Rimbaud).

the beards trend owes a lot to Jim too

iggy loved the doors
johnny ramone said the doors were the only good US rock band of the 60s

so they basically invented punk i guess

Joy Division and Smashmouth, boith influenced by the Doors.

were the early goth bands big on the doors? that would kinda make sense

The Doors invented punk, goth, prog, and spoken word. IN YOUR FACE VELVET UNDERGROUND

I thought everyone knew that Jim Morrison is ground zero for the doomy goth rock voice

i'm not a huge doors fan or anything but, um, jim morrison's spirit inhabits every rock and roll frontman and frontwoman who's ever put on a black leather jacket and even thought about doing something subversive, which is to say, all of them. plenty of non rock and roll frontmen and frontwomen too.

― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, April 10, 2013 3:32 PM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Jim Morrison influenced Gene Vincent and Link Wray. Hm.

I nominate the Carpenters for this thread btw

Ok, that's The Doors nailed then..

i'm not a huge doors fan or anything but, um, jim morrison's spirit inhabits every rock and roll frontman and frontwoman who's ever put on a black leather jacket and even thought about doing something subversive, which is to say, all of them. plenty of non rock and roll frontmen and frontwomen too.

― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, April 10, 2013 3:32 PM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Jim Morrison influenced Gene Vincent and Link Wray. Hm.

― Pope Frank is the messenger of your doom (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, April 10, 2013 3:23 PM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he didn't invent leather but morrison is the prototype "rock star" unless you are really trying to be contrary

Elvis?

I mean I know he didn't mean shit to you but

elvis was influential too! so was james dean! so was howlin' wolf!

the thing about jim morrison is, if you installed him as the frontman of any rock of the '80s or '90s or '00s or '10s, it would be perfectly believable. if you did the same with elvis -- any elvis at all, '56 elvis, '68 elvis, whatever -- people would want to know who that old dude was.

shakey i was somewhat aware of elvis actually, he's the charlie feathers type dude that recorded a few sides in memphis correct?

yes, moody bluesy arty campy american rock fronted by a drunk leering rambling bellowing quote unquote poet in leather pants, no band ever bothered treading this ground again, total dead end

Agreed on the frontperson part, but name any reasonably well-known band that has an instrumental section that sounds anything like the Doors-- specifically the organ sound, which is pretty much their hallmark.

Also, care to name a band that fits this bill? i understand from your comment that you believe this to be commonplace, but aside from possibly the Stooges, I can't think of any other band that fits this specific description. i think it's more of a character archetype than an actual thing that's been replicated as endlessly as you are suggesting.

moody bluesy arty campy american rock fronted by a drunk leering rambling bellowing quote unquote poet in leather pants, no band ever bothered treading this ground again, total dead end

has an instrumental section that sounds anything like the Doors-- specifically the organ sound, which is pretty much their hallmark.

Music Machine
Inspiral Carpets

The Music Machine predates the Doors. Their song "Talk Talk" (which has that organ sound) came out before the first Doors album was released. Also-- Inspiral Carpets? They might have an organ, but it seems a stretch to say that their instrumental section sounds anything like the Doors.

I realize now that "least influential" is not the way to describe the Doors; I think a better way to say it is to say that their instrumentation and general sound (aside from Morrison) has not been rotely copied very often. I'm willing to be proven wrong on this, but it seems to me that many bands have tried desperately to emulate the sound/feel of the Beatles and the Stones and the Kinks, but it seems like few have truly labored to copy the eerie, unsettling instrumentation of the Doors in the same way that it was originally presented.

Commercial Rain lick is a total Doors rip come on now

I realize now that "least influential" is not the way to describe the Doors; I think a better way to say it is to say that their instrumentation and general sound (aside from Morrison) has not been rotely copied very often. I'm willing to be proven wrong on this, but it seems to me that many bands have tried desperately to emulate the sound/feel of the Beatles and the Stones and the Kinks, but it seems like few have truly labored to copy the eerie, unsettling instrumentation of the Doors in the same way that it was originally presented.

this is OTM, they were very influential but relatively seldomly imitated

Doors ripped the organ sound from the Seeds anyway.

They got it from Sun Ra.

The Doors did not invent the organ. The Seeds did not invent the organ. Music Machine did not invent the organ. The organ is an instrument that can be purchased from a store. The question is how the organ is used in the overall sound profile.

Yeah organ was p common in the mid60s, but love it or hate it you're silly to argue that manzarek didn't have a pretty distinctive style

Not that they didn't have an influence (BEP, neo-soul) but back when The Score sold a billion copies in 1996 I was sure there'd be a ton of Fugees inspired hip hop on the radio for the next few years. Instead they were just sort of their own thing.

Ultravox?

Rush was influenced by Ultravox; Neil Peart was a huge fan of theirs in the 80s.

Doors ripped the organ sound from the Seeds anyway.

They sorta ripped off the Seeds template tho: keyboard player to the fore, sort of weird guitarist who avoids playing straight chords, jazzy + not very rock drummer... admittedly Jim Morrison probably only sounded like Sky Saxon when he was 8 years old

I can't believe i never made the Seeds/Doors connection, but yeah "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" came out in '65 and was a hit in Southern California. The piano solo in that is straight-up "Crystal Ship".

but it seems like few have truly labored to copy the eerie, unsettling instrumentation of the Doors in the same way that it was originally presented.

bands like Beach House, Mazzy Star, or Brightblack Morning Light have some of that mellow, eerie, beachy, "riders on the storm" vibe.

sure maybe nobody sounds exactly like the doors, but nobody sounds exactly like love or the seeds, or music machine, or 10,000 other great '60s bands that were popular at the time either.

yeah, they are certainly not the most influential band of all times but I don't see how they could be considered the least influential band !

Mazzy Star is actually a good call. "Mary of Silence" sounds more like the Doors than anything else I can think of.

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

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

check out this one http://youtu.be/a4eTBaGyz7A

I'm struggling to think of anyone who has shown a clear Mamas and Papas influence in the past 30 years or so.

Wilson Phillips?

I was gonna say She & Him but that isn't quite right

Belle and Sebastian?

I rarely think about, and even more rarely listened to, Trip Shakespeare, but for some reason they stick in my mind as having a slight Mamas-and-Papas thing happening with the harmonies.

How many pop groups can you think of that have been influenced by The Mamas and Papas unique sound. There are many vocal groups comprising male/female harmonies that owe more than just a nod to The M's and P's.
I'd love to hear any more suggestions I may have overlooked, as I'm always eager to discover underrated bands from that golden era of pop!

Here's a few to start things off;
FROM the USA
The Fifth Dimension
The Free Design
Spanky and our gang
The Cowsills
The Love Generation
The Peppermint rainbow
The Groop
The Looking glass
Salt water Taffy
The Sunshine Company
Eternity's children
The Collage

From the UK
Brotherhood of man
The New Seekers
Design
Blue Mink
Arrival
Middle of the road
Pickettywitch
The Settlers

From Canada
The Poppy Family
The Bells
The Sugar Shoppe

ABBA from Sweden admitted The M's and P's were an influence in their early days, and their first 2 singles sound remarkably like them, especially He is your brother.

Just tried Pickettywitch. Ugh.

I don't know about LEAST influential but I sometimes think that post-Meddle Pink Floyd has a pretty high ratio of record sales and critical acclaim to number of bands that seem to overtly try to sound like them. Alan Parsons Project comes closest of any band I can think of (which is pretty close, admittedly). There are a couple of Radiohead tunes that fit, sure, but on the whole, it's rare that e.g. I think "that vocalist is emulating Roger Waters" or "that guitarist is emulating David Gilmour" or even "that arrangement is emulating Dark Side of the Moon."

Interesting question. (My wiseguy answer is the Woody Herman band.) I thought of Jefferson Airplane--who I love--then immediately realized that they probably influenced X, and I've also heard at least a couple of forgotten late-'60s bands where their influence is unmistakable. (One whose name escapes me right now sounded like a tribute band.) So I'm not sure.

feel like the whole cramps/birthday party/gun club/died pretty whatever punk vampire blues type shit was inherently doorsy even if they didn't sound like the doors

throw chris d/flesheaters/divine horsemen in there too

The Doors was the first comparison that came to mind when I first heard Closer, actually: not only the voice but the keyboards and monotonous melodies reminded me of them. (Also the first comparison when I first heard the Birthday Party.)

Belle and Sebastian?

― Van Horn Street, Thursday, April 11, 2013 4:58

I dunno. There's lots of worship of some of their releases from twee indie-pop bands

Doors were definitely a recognised influence in The Stranglers weren't they and probably a stack of other bands so I'm pretty surprised they came up.
Even seemed like there were a spate of bands taking off the rock theatre thing ala The End in around '68. I certainly hear it in the Serpent Power, Guess Who on Wheatfield Suite and several others.
Other aspects of Morrison's lyricism seemed pretty influential too. Think he was another person who influenced a turn to pseudo intellectual poesy besides Dylan. Though Morrison's do seem to scan well when he's singing. Don't look as good on paper though I don't think.

I think Van Horn Street was implying that Belle & Sebastian bear some Mamas and the Papas influence

I thought of Jefferson Airplane--who I love--then immediately realized that they probably influenced X, and I've also heard at least a couple of forgotten late-'60s bands where their influence is unmistakable. (One whose name escapes me right now sounded like a tribute band.) So I'm not sure.

yeah, I was thinking of them too when I mentioned the mamas & papas. Early Amon Duul II has a definite JA influence, but they're basically contemporaries. you can find a few examples here and there but overall I still think there were so many huge '60s bands that didn't leave much of a lasting influence, that it seems crazy to me to consider the doors anything but one of the most influential bands from that era.

the first Fairport Convention album and the first Jefferson Airplain album always have sounded like twins to my ears

This is the JA soundalike I mentioned earlier:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7sAvb4xVas

Well...more the music than the vocal. I can definitely some affinity with Fairport's "Time Will Show the Wiser."

"definitely hear"

one of the things i like about a.r. kane circa 69 (one among many), is that they seem to map out a pop that never happened, a psychedelic fusion of experimental noise and abstract soul. they never had many hits, and that probably explains their lack of direct influence better than anything else, but given the esteem in which some hold them, i'm kind of surprised by how few followed them down that tunnel of fur and knives.

which is to say, please tell me about music that sounds like 69.

^ least influential small bands

The Doors is a ridiculous answer. Dire Straits upthread is a pretty good one though.

Simply Red sold an absolute fuckload of records and surely no one has ever admitted to being influences by them? Ditto UB40.

Surely knopler influenced a bunch of blues guys ive never heard of

OTM. A lot of these people are hugely influential in musical spheres that no one on ilx gives a shit about.

I think Knopfler influenced a bunch of faceless dudes that you only read about in Guitar Player.

yeah knopfler was probably the aspirational guitarist role model for at least the decade after Brothers In Arms & whatever else came out. Possibly still is in ters of music schools etc isn't he?
Weren't there elements of the production of that lp that were heavily aped too. But Eyeball Kicks says the orbits that were influenced by these probably aren't around spheres of much interest for this board. But every other bar across the world may have to listen to that influence nightly.

Weren't there elements of the production of that lp that were heavily aped too.

Supposedly, it set some kind of digital recording/sound quality standard. Sounds sterile as fuck to me, but I guess in 1985 it was a big deal.

sterility was the goal

Three Dog Night?

Surely knopler influenced a bunch of blues guys ive never heard of

― gentle german fatherly voice (President Keyes), Friday, 12 April 2013 12:10 (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think Knopfler influenced a bunch of faceless dudes that you only read about in Guitar Player.

― Pope Frank is the messenger of your doom (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 12 April 2013 12:34 (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah knopfler was probably the aspirational guitarist role model for at least the decade after Brothers In Arms & whatever else came out. Possibly still is in ters of music schools etc isn't he?

Would be interested to hear names.

dave matthews apparently

(was influenced by mark knopfler)

Oh, I can see that. (Never really understood what was so great about MK myself tbh.)

Without Three Dog Night, Sonic Youth, the Arctic Monkeys, and LMFAO are unthinkable.

Other than helping to popularize the Moog synth, which is something of note, I don't think Keith Emerson is all that influential as a musician. ELP sold a gazillion records in a few short years in the 70s.

Yeah that's a good one, unlike Three Dog Night they were actually popular all over the world. Have heard some Italian prog bands that were obv. influenced by them tho.

Prog-era keyboards are really heavy and delicate to lug around and to carry up and down the stairs to the crappy second-floor and basement clubs, and those places have been the breeding ground of new things for the last 30 years. That whole rock organ sound (also Edgar Winter and Deep Purple) might not have many descendants for some practical reasons.

In a kinder world, there'd be tons of melotron goth.

Little Korgs that can be played in metropolitan apartments fueled the 00s synthpunk and electroclash thing for opposite reasons.

US Maple have sold over 30 milion albums and I don't hear that much influence elsewhere

Other than helping to popularize the Moog synth, which is something of note, I don't think Keith Emerson is all that influential as a musician. ELP sold a gazillion records in a few short years in the 70s.

― earlnash, Tuesday, April 16, 2013 8:06 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I dunno, I think he influenced Geddy Lee's approach to synths (for whatever that's worth).

Not sure who's more influential between Emerson and Rick Wakeman, but that's like trying to determine which carton of expired milk tastes worse.

200+ posts and nobody's mentioned Wings?

Meat Loaf?

Santana
Alanis Morrisette
Simon and Garfunkel

200+ posts and nobody's mentioned Wings?

― bowling for bitcoins (Lee626), Tuesday, April 16, 2013 2:14 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Haha, I remember reading an interview w/A.C. Newman a few years ago, around the time Twin Cinema was released, talking about New Poronographers influences, in which he said "Always Wings, never The Beatles."

Has Geddy Lee mentioned Emerson as an influence? His approach to synths seems much more restrained.

Peter Frampton

Ha, I'd assumed the talking guitar on "Livin' on a Prayer" was a Frampton nod.

Pete Drake did it first.

As I suspected, Lee mostly listed new wave guys as synth influences here: http://www.2112.net/powerwindows/transcripts/19840900keyboard.htm

Which synthesists do you listen to?

The Fixx and Tears For Rears; they make really synthesized records. Almost everything in them is synthesized in some way or another. Peter Gabriel and Larry Fast have some pretty high-quality stuff that's state-of-the-art. I also listen to Simple Minds, Ultravox, Talk Talk, the Eurythmics, and Kind Sunny Ade. Lately, I've been listening to Howard Jones' Human's Lib [Electra, 60346-1]. I think it's a real contemporary record, keyboardwise and vocally. I like the new King Crimson album [Three Of A Perfect Pair, Warner Bros., 1-25071]. When you have musicians like these educating people, discovering sounds, and utilizing new techniques, it really sets the pace for synthesizer players. I feel that I can't just go into the studio and use some token sound. A lot of thought should be given to try to find new sounds that are fresh and different.

Also stresses his lack of keyboard chops in that interview, which is fairly different from what Emerson was doing imo.

Simon and Garfunkel

c.f. this post on the whimsical light-hearted indie commercial music thread:

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

Yeah, weren't Low influenced by S&G too?

Btw, thanks for the Pete Drake tip but are we sure that Sambora wasn't influenced by Frampton?

Fleet Foxes, Belle and Sebastian, She & Him, a whole raft of twee indie poppers are all heavily indebted to S&G

As I suspected, Lee mostly listed new wave guys as synth influences here: http://www.2112.net/powerwindows/transcripts/19840900keyboard.htm

Ah, good call. I was mainly thinking of the synth stuff from Farewell to Kings through Moving Pictures which, granted, isn't exactly chopstastic, but bears a textural resemblance to Emerson.

tears for rears......

Duran Duran?

'cept the 1975, brandon flowers, etc.

"Not sure who's more influential between Emerson and Rick Wakeman, but that's like trying to determine which carton of expired milk tastes worse."

I'd say Wakeman as he is on some of the big Yes epics which a lot of people still dig. The Nice is the stuff by Emerson I find interesting, as they kinda had a mod edge in some of their tunes.

Modern Talking probably - sold something like 200 million records in a short three, four years, were played every night in pretty much every disco in the world, but even the people who bought those records forgot about them let alone took inspiration from them.

surprised not to see Cream here

Cream were hugely influential in their day -- like, along with the Beatles and Stones, they're one of those bands that always gets cited by 70s rock bands as being an influence. You don't hear a lot of popular bands like them now (tho you could argue acts like Black Keys and John Mayer are direct descendants of Cream), but Cream were at the focal point of what became entirely new genres, eg prog and metal.

They pretty much started the whole Power Trio thing. Probably one of the most influential bands of their era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9SJ8k4A314

OP post slagging Queen because they "haven't seemed to make much of an impression on the rest of the pop world" is so dead wrong it's insane.

Red Hot Chili Peppers. I can't think of many bands aping their sound.

funny given your user name, I think that a lot of rap-metal from the late 90s was pretty strongly influenced by RHCP. Also, !!!

yeah, there's that whole 311 wing that is kinda unthinkable without RHCP. and then second- and third-tier acts like idk, Sprung Monkey. thought we had a whole thread on this but all i can find is What is the best song on this mix CD of vaguely funky major label alterna-metal songs from 1992-1995 and, more importantly, what songs am I missing? which isn't really the right kind of stuff.

Almost 11 years later, I think Genesis remains the best answer.

Maybe depends which era/sound? Over on TS: Paul McCartney's "Pipes of Peace" vs "Press to Play" Naive Teen Idol argues that e.g. Press to Play is an attempt to get an Invisible Touch sound, though Alfred points out the chronology may not entirely hold up. But surely there must be other records like that, and not talking only about the Colilns gated-drum sound.

Last year there was a big article on how Mark Knopfler was a major influence on Touareg guitarists who later formed bands like Tinariwen and did that whole "desert blues" thing.

Also, the Police were a big influence on popular Latin alternative rock bands of the late '80s, though I can't remember exactly which ones - Caifanes used to cite them, I think.

Rush had a big Police copycat phase

Also, the Police were a big influence on popular Latin alternative rock bands of the late '80s, though I can't remember exactly which ones - Caifanes used to cite them, I think

Definitely Maná from Mexico

iirc I was thinking of Cream's influence since the 80s, but yeah in the short term they had play and so they're had their influence. thinking of the singing too.

Not a revelation but Kate Bush seems pretty informed by Gabriel-era Genesis to me. In a very different sense, I believe Iron Maiden cited early Genesis as an influence, especially Hackett's guitar playing. And there is Marillion. Unless we're only counting Collins-led Genesis as a big band. "Shut Up and Dance" does sound like them but, yeah, maybe not the most influential. In general, I agree with walter kranz above that any big band has some significant influence.

Modern Talking probably - sold something like 200 million records in a short three, four years, were played every night in pretty much every disco in the world, but even the people who bought those records forgot about them let alone took inspiration from them.

this one seems a plausible candidate to me because i have no idea who it is

i mistakenly thought Modern Talking was all produced by frank farian or somebody, didn't know until know that their early hits were all self-produced!

didn't know until know now

Stereophonics

Without The Police, there's possibly no Miles Copeland, so no IRS Records. I'd call that influence.

The Police had some pretty instant cachet as being the band older groups (Rush, ZZ Top, Stones etc.) ripped off when they 'went New Wave'.

Maybe I'm getting old but https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_band

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_250/MI0000/448/MI0000448494.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

Hmmm. Among the most influential big bands, I guess you may count Glenn Miller's and Duke Ellington's. No idea which ones were the least influential ones...

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, April 20, 2005 5:37 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

supertramp

I'm sure I read some thing where the guy from Tame Impala was waxing lyrical about Supertramp's influence on his work

Supertramp are tough because I can't separate their sound from the lead vocals at all, so I wouldn't really recognize it if a band was like, oh yeah, let's totally jack Supertramp's rhythm section or whatever.

Men at Work were Police-influenced maybe?

Supertramp is a good one, having a hard time thinking of anything that reminds me of them. Probably time for a revival.

"divine" by sebastien tellier really reminds me of supertramp, for some reason.

Feel like they may have influenced later bands to adopt "Super" names - Superdrag, Supergrass, etc.

When everyone was comparing Radiohead to Pink Floyd, I thought they reminded me more of Crime of the Century-era Supertramp. Probably not intentional, though?

And it was kind of vague and impressionistic.

I second Moka's nomination of Santana within the rock universe, though I'm sure there's a deep well of Latin jazz fusion he influenced.

Supertramp can be blamed for some loopier moves by Styx.

"Do It Again" has to be Santana-influenced?

(by Steely Dan)

Without Supertramp we probably wouldn't have Digital Love.

mars volta
311

(re: santana)

w/r/t 311 it's specifically carlos' guitar tone.. pretty sure the dude plays a PRS

A lot of these do seem like good answers, tbc, considering that the question is about "least" and not "zero". It's just fun to think about exceptions.

Paul Young

(not a band, I guess)

http://www.band-graph.com/paul-young.html

lol wow, that site. How did we our discussion of Supertramp overlook their influence on Spock's Beard, Big Wreck, Rocket Scientists, and Erik Norlander (formerly of Rocket Scientists)??!

(They might actually have something with Air, but i feel like actually using that site to further this thread would sorta take the fun out of it. The Phoenix namecheck just baffles me.)

Always thought that Deserter-era Mercury Rev was going to be the next-Supertramp.

It's the Wurlitzer. They're infrequently-enough used so that whenever one shows up on a record, it instantly evokes Supertramp.

(For that reason, I thought the same thing about Mercury Rev.)

Oh yeah, Deserter's Songs!

I still stand by my initial post upthread. Actually nowadays there are probably some perky Brit school types for whom Simply Red were a profound influence but I can't imagine even the lamest band citing UB40 as an influence.

Primus?

the answer is The Pretenders. never met any fans of them, never heard of any bands being influenced by them. they're totally a critic-wank band.

UB40 were so commercially successful that they must have been a gateway into reggae for a lot of people though, so I'd guess they have some influence to that extent even if ppl don't tend to explicitly cite them. and I thought that "actually, UB40's first three/four albums are really good" was practically orthodoxy now (and they are!)

I mean.... Pretenders had three albums go gold and two platinum (US), six UK top-ten hits including a #1, two US top-tenners... definitely interesting to think about whether they influenced anybody but them having no fans seems kinda implausible. There aren't that many critics out there!

Slash is a noted pretenders fan.

Coming from a UK perspective, Deserter's Songs felt like the first of the modern arty Amerindie stuff that would come to more prominence in the 2000s. Maybe Aeroplane Over The Sea also holds this title but it wasn't half as popular here at the time.

UB40 is interesting. I always felt like my band had an unacknowledged UB40 influence thanks mostly to me having grown up with my parents playing them a lot.

A lot of the 90s ska revival bands were probably influenced by UB40?

UB40 weren't ska

Did I say it was?

I dunno... there's not a lot of crossover between the two sounds in my opinion. Those ska bands were more about Americanising things like Bad Manners and the Specials or looking towards the more mod-influenced reggae from the late 60s. Save for their very early work, UB40 occupied an easy-pop hemisphere shared by the Police and Simply Red. During the great yacht-rock phase at the turn of the decade, I wondered if some hip band would ever come out that directly referenced those bands, all of whom came from vaguely punkish backgrounds but were so influenced by lovers rock and soul that they ended up doing blue-eyed pop versions of these styles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_artists

"I saw her play in Central Park [when the Pretenders played in August 1980]," Madonna recalled. "She was amazing: the only woman I'd seen in performance where I thought, Yeah, she's got balls, she's awesome! . . . It gave me courage, inspiration, to see a woman with that kind of confidence in a man's world."

xp Kind of amazed that Rihanna has outsold Mariah, who have each vastly outsold Beyonce.

Coming from a UK perspective, Deserter's Songs felt like the first of the modern arty Amerindie stuff that would come to more prominence in the 2000s.

I wasn't commenting on whether Deserter's Songs was influential, esp because I don't really think of Mercury Rev as a 'big' band in the sense that most of these bands are. I just meant that I can see how it recalls Supertramp.

Seems to me that a lot of these groups were very influential at a certain moment-- like when I saw RHCP mentioned earlier I assume the poster was nowhere near an American college in the early 90s, like every other unsigned band was funk-punk-metal.

amazed that Rihanna has more certified sales than Michael Jackson

Of the people on that wiki list I'd have to go with Chicago.

Chicago were extremely influential in the 70's, but then everyone stopped taking trombone lessons and bought drum machines.

Ha, ever since a friend pointed out similarities between Bon Iver and Chicago, I couldn't un-hear it.

so much wrongness at the start of this thread. genesis and moody blues? even if the moody blues had died in a hot air balloon mishap after the release of days of future passed they would have been one of the most influential prog bands on earth.