Which Individuals Have Had The Worst And Best Effects On Recent Music?

Best Musical Influence: Joey Beltram, Jeff Mills & Mike Banks, those Basic Channel dudes (Moritz and whatshisname), Richard James, Basement Jaxx, Daft Punk, Armand van Helden, Doc Scott, the 4-Hero guys, Grooverider, Richie Hawtin. Outkast, Timbaland & Missy and Jay Z (thank you for making Hip Hop technoid again). Dr. Dre. Can have arguably had more influence in the past 10 years than the preceeding 20. The Beastie Boys whole ethic has had some effect (some good, most bad).

Worst Musical Influence: Beck (smug assholeism), Puff Daddy, Nirvana (good band, almost killed rock music), Pearl Jam (because they're shit), R Kelly, Maxwell, D'Angelo & assorted 'real' soul boys. Wynton Marsalis.

I don't have a anwser handy re. the industry, probably some fat guys at BMG.

I'd actually question whether most of those had had any significant influence whatsoever. God knows what Basement Jaxx have influenced...

...bringing fun back into house music along with the anything goes attitude that was missing from house music for awhile. I know a lot of people got interested in house again through the 'Jaxx. And they almost single-handedly started this brazilian virus in dance music (not always a good thing).

Hey, Omar, if you're going for smug assholeishness, it would be a good idea to include bands like Stereolab, Pizzicato 5... damn, all of a sudden my mind is flooded with smug assholes in music. I guess that's because most of 'em are too cool for school.

Too cool for school, I love it, indeed a very good description for Stereolab (good band, not sure if they really have been influencial though, the whole 94-96 Easy Listening movement would have happened without them methinks). I forgot Master at Works in my somewhat dance- orientated list (sorry about that, there have been other influencial artists I just can come up with all of them :)

worst musical influence: brian pajo

er, meant dave pajo. was mixing him up with brian macmahon there.

STILL James Brown...where would hip-hop, drum n' bass be today without him? Worst influence?..Probably Radiohead....hello JJ72, Muse and other such bands too unspeakable to mention....maybe a good thing too however...Kid A may shake things up a bit.

On the way from work I also came up with Schoolly D: a) he practically invented Gangsta rap b) Chemical Brothers for the longest time sampled his beats, so I would say old Schoolly is responsible for Big Beat too. Not bad.

In UK terms, the people responsible for what has happened to UK radio over the last ten years. Network bosses, programme controllers and heads of music at Emap, capital, GWR, and the smaller groups for rolling out formula stations with ever-decreasing playlists. The BBC for trying to compete with commercial stations for daytime ratings and having to follow the same sorry route. Anyone ever connected with The Evening Session. In general, those who have inflicted the received wisdom on the industry that what people want to hear is music they already know, or music that sounds like what they already know. This betrays such a fundamentally low opinion of people in general that words can't express my disgust for it. The Radio Authority for failing to adequately regulate an industry they don't really understand, and for the farcical digital auctions.

Hmm. Not really an individual here, so let's blame it all on Jo Wylie, who really epitomises for me the redefinition of the same old shite as 'new' music, and the institution of a homogenising style- based, fashion-led, cross-media culture of BLAND.

for what it counts, schooly d also claims to have invented snowboarding. that's not music, though.

But the large majority of people DOES want to hear music they already know. Either that, or unintrusive background music. Sad but true. It doesn't mean people are stupid, just that music isn't a major concern of theirs.

For the worst effect I'd go for Madonna! I'm tired of her being seen as some cultural icon, just coz she had Ali G in her video, played a 20 minute concert to a bunch of b-list celebs and married a wannabe gangster! Some of her songs were okay, but beyond that, what is the appeal?

tortoise- singlehandedly made wobbly bass lines and skittering beats "an album", as long as it came from somebody who used to play hardcore.

weezer - weezer is good at being weezer... Nada Surf, Get Up Kids, Promise Ring, etc. are not.

sunny day real estate - die emo die

chuck mangione - die smooth jazz die

the judgement night soundtrack - who knew?

Errr...Madonna has HAD influence on current music lately?

What a world we live in, incidentally, when someone actually states that Madonna is a cultural icon *because* she had Ali G in a video. I mean, good grief.

Damn Brent... you just dropped a ref. to Nada Surf.

*applauding*

the individuals that have worst and best effect on music puff daddy everybody can hate on puffy if they want he produced one of the greastest storytellers Biggie smalls. Pop would be new kids on the block started the boy band phenomenon nonsense making it obvious no matter how irritating it may maybe it's not going anywhere. Rock best effect is red hot chilli peppers groups like limp bizkit,korn, and all others who infuse rap with rock derives from them they started it all. Janet Jackson choreography in videos came from her more focus on the dancing then the music artists like britney spears jennifer lopez emulate her. Missy and timberland futuristic beats that are untouchable no matter how bad the lyrics are the beat from missy or timberland will save it.

A *very* interesting question :).

Hmmm. Let's deal with the Malign Influences first: in UK chartpop, anyone who went "mature" (Gary Barlow towards the end of Take That started it, but obviously Boyzone and the Ronan Keating Industry turned it into a career choice, and let them rot on it). Surprised nobody's mentioned Oasis in this category; perhaps it's too obvious? Oasis. All who followed them. Whoever it was who initially thought we should get back to "real soul", thus leading us to Macy Gray. Jurassic 5. The Gilles Peterson clique. Enough.

Positive: the thing is that virtually all positive influences have a downside. A few years ago, there were a few substandard analog-synth chancers from the Birmingham area who rode the wave that Pram instigated, but Pram's influence is still exemplary to me (arguably more so than that of Stereolab because Pram didn't really help to legitimise New Easy chancers, as the 'Lab did, though admittedly almost inadvertently). Aphex Twin, I think. Timbaland, no question. Dr Dre is incredibly important, but I wouldn't be endorsing the *worldview* involved. Company Flow seemed for a moment to be having a hugely positive influence, before I got frustrated with undie-rap and I saw how much it was heading up its own arse (but "Funcrusher Plus" still stuns me; the difference is that now I see it as a masterpiece *independent of anything else* rather than anything that started a positive "movement").

This is a tricky one, isn't it? I'll stop now.