I will give you Madonna, you are absolutely right about her. But even the greatest of female artists - Aretha, Janis, Diana, Whitney, still do not have the impact of thier male contemporaries.

I think an arguement could be made for Madonna in the 80's but that's about it.

I'm really surprised that no one has agreed with me on Dylan for the 60's The Beatles are a good choice and probably my 2nd pick, but they never turned turned too introspective till meeting Dylan. He also broke the mold on having a "good" voice to sing and basically inveted the country-rock genre.

50's: Elvis Presley & Chuck Berry
60's: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Cream, Jimi Hendrix
70's: Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, KISS, Thin Lizzy, UFO, & Van Halen (whose influence carried over through the 80's)
80's: Iron Maiden, Metallica, U2, Motley Crue (for good or bad - that's up to you), The Police
90's: Nirvana (again, for good or bad depending on your point of view), Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, Pantera

Not to take this down another track but to say that she's only been influential during that decade is naive.

60's - The Beatles
70's - KISS
80's - Bon Jovi
90's - Pearl Jam (Have to give it to Pearl Jam over Nirvana because almost every band on the radio today tries to sound like Eddie Vedder.)

Madonna was at her peek in the 80's and her influence has carried on past that through the likes of Brittany and Aguileria, etc.

50's: ELVIS
60'S BEATLES
70'S: So many, but keep in mind Elton John was a superstar from 71 to 76.
80's: Madonna
90's: Rap hip-hop was big and their background music was from the 70's. So I say nobody. NIRVANA sounded like CHEAP TRICK. This was the decade that music stop being music.

I like your post cause I agree with it more than any other post so far. However, you say that rap doesn't qualify because they stole all their music from the 70s, and yet you have Elvis in there, who stole all of his music from black people.

Wow. It's hard to say that people's opinions are wrong, but yours certainly borders on it.

Not every artist sampled beats from other artists, in fact, it was more the exception than the rule. But they didn't steal the content of their songs, and the style was revolutionary.

Nirvana and Cheap Trick? That's just very nonsensical. Cheap Trick was a power pop band with very little originality. Nirvana ushered in an era of music and were originators of a new sound and attitude. If you can name ONE Nirvana song that sounds anything like Cheap Trick, then I'll take you seriously.

Agreed. She's been influential to artists that perform today, but she made her big "splash" in the 80's & early 90's.

Was going to say the same thing...Cindy Lauper more influential than Madonna?!?!?!? No way.

OK, I'll play:

1920s: Bessie Smith
1930s: Billie Holiday
1940s: Ella Fitzgerald
1950s: Ruth Brown
1960s: Aretha Franklin
1970s: Debbie Harry
1980s: Madonna
1990s: Ani DiFranco

Now compare them with my earlier picks:

1920s: George Gershwin
1930s: Robert Johnson
1940s: Hank Williams
1950s: Antonio Carlos Jobim
1960s: The Beatles
1970s: Bob Marley
1980s: Grand Wizard Theodore
1990s: Nirvana

With the exception of the 1980s (and my slightly tongue-in-cheek pick), the women don't compare. Nirvana less influential than Ani DiFranco? Aretha less influential than the Beatles?

C'mon man, let's be realistic.

JAA,

Put Radiohead in the 00's - it seems like right around the end of 99 and beginning of 2000, EVERYONE jumped on their bandwagon, and all the bands of the day started saying they were influenced by them, and all the music rags overused the word 'Radioheadesque'.

1930s: Louis Armstrong
1940s: Hank Williams
1950s: Willie Dixon
1960s: The Beatles & The Stones
1970s: Sex Pistols
1980s: Public Enemy
1990s: ?

Doing my list from the perspective of people having long-lasting influence.

In my earlier post I chose Van Halen for the 80s. Well. driving to work this morning I heard "Pour Some Sugar On Me". The first thing that came to mind is this thread and how so much of the 80s sounds like Pyromania and Hysteria. Van Halen is a lot better band but I think Def Lepard had a bigger impact on the overall sound of the 80s.

1920s Louis Armstrong (hon mention to Charlie Patton, Bessie Smith, & Jimmie Rodgers)
1930s Louis Armstrong (hon mention to Carter Family, Robert Johnson (tho influence was later), Duke Ellington)
1940s Frank Sinatra (hon mention to Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker, Bill Monroe, Bob Wills)
1950s Hank Williams (hon mention to Muddy Waters, Elvis Presley, Hank Snow, Howlin Wolf)
1960s The Beatles (hon mention to Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, James Brown, Smokey Robinson, John Coltrane)
1970s - 1990s lotta great music but fragmentation of pop culture limits 'influence' (or is this just BOF perspective?), was Hendrix "influential"? I mean other than kids being super impressed with his innovation, do you ever play a song and say, wow, that guitarist is clearly influenced by hendrix?

TTFN,
Tim

Now that I think this thing over... what, exactly, did Madonna influence? I'm not questioning her popularity, or her ability to maintain herself in the media spotlight for decades, but in terms of artistry, what has her music added?

Playing Devil's Advocate, I would argue she only embraced previously unheard-of styles of music but only years after they first emerged. If anything, she's responsible for Kylie Minogue ( ), Britney Spears ( ), and any musician where the image was more important than the music.

I don't know enough to formulate an opinion, I'm just throwing that out there because I'd like to learn more.

She's made it much easier for attractive young women to achieve popularity less through talent and more through looks and an aggressive sexual persona. As such, her impact on popular music over the past 20 years as been incalculable. This is a great thing, because attractive young women used to have a really hard time breaking into the entertainment industry.

You know what? I never put my picks in there but thought about it. You mentioned everyone that I was going to say.

no offense, but whoever said this must have been beaten in the head when they were a kid.

I wouldn't say Cheap Trick; I would say Nirvana sounded a lot like Pixies, except of course Pixies were a better band.

Too true.

Gee...she's also a songwriter and has written some amazingly kick-ass pop music over the last two decades. Not to mention that she's beat Elvis' record amongst others...and her current concert tour will gross more than any other female artist ever.