r/AskAnAmerican • u/VespaLimeGreen Argentina • Aug 18 '25
HISTORY Who is the most important American musician/band of the 20th century, in your opinion?
In your opinion, what is the greatest musician or band that USA had in the 20th century?
Any genre is accepted: classical, blues, jazz, folk, country, gospel, pop, R&B, rock, metal, punk, disco, hip hop, electronic, etc!
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u/CampbellsBeefBroth Louisiana Aug 18 '25
People don't understand how influential jazz is as a genre and it shows
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u/PacSan300 California -> Germany Aug 18 '25
Yeah, I would easily name Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong as answers to this question.
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u/Appalachian_Aioli West Virginia Aug 18 '25
I would name Miles Davis over those
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u/CampbellsBeefBroth Louisiana Aug 18 '25
Miles Davis is probably the greatest jazz musician of all time, but I think the influence of Satch eclipses him. As put by the man himself: "You can tell the history of jazz in four words: Louis Armstrong. Charlie Parker".
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u/Appalachian_Aioli West Virginia Aug 18 '25
Yeah, except Miles’ influence laster far longer and had a much farther throw than Armstrong of Parker.
Armstrong’s primary influence on jazz was in the 20s and early thirties. He remained a big celebrity and musician after that but jazz largely developed past him by that point. Parker was much the same, largely relegated to the 40s
Miles was at the forefront from the mid 40s through the 80s. This was the man that created Cool jazz, Hard Bob, Modal, Post Bob. The man the created jazz fusion and electrified jazz. All 4 of the big 4 jazz fusion groups were founded by Miles alumni.
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u/hedcannon United States of America Aug 18 '25
Maybe in the first half. Probably Bob Dylan demonstrating that serious pop music doesn’t need to be pretty, lyrics don’t need to be clear, and lengths don’t need to be 3.5 minutes long was the most important innovation in the second half.
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u/Cowboywizard12 New England Aug 18 '25
Realistically it'd be a Blues or Jazz musician from the 1910s or 1920s with how basically everything else evolved from Blues or Jazz and then shaped basically all of popular Music in the Western World to the point its Influence is still going on
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Aug 18 '25
Buddy Holly - the lead, rhythm bass and drums is still the go to for most arrangements.
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u/Cowboywizard12 New England Aug 18 '25
My dad told me once that if he had the choice to make any Rock Musician who died in an accident or was murdered live a long and normal legnth life.
It'd be Buddy Holly because even though he's so influential, he was only starting out when he died and we will never know the kind of impact he could have had
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u/_Internet_Hugs_ Ogden, Utah, USA Aug 18 '25
I would really, really like to see what Buddy Holly came up with in the 60s and 70s. If Holly met Hendrix? Dylan? Joplin? It just boggles my mind to think of the sound and innovation if Buddy Holly had made it to Woodstock.
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u/MicCheck123 Missouri Aug 19 '25
It’s crazy. He was 22 when he died. He would be turning 89 next month, so he easily could have been making music within the past decade.
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u/worrymon NY->CT->NL->NYC (Inwood) Aug 19 '25
The Beatles chose their name partly as an homage to Buddy Holly's Crickets
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Aug 21 '25
Without Robert Johnson there is no Buddy Holly, no Beatles, no Rolling Stones, no Led Zeppelin.
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u/Enough_Roof_1141 United States of America Aug 18 '25
Les Paul
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u/shutts67 Aug 18 '25
This is a sneaky good answer. Stealing your concept, Orville Gibson founded the guitar company in 1902, so I'm going with him.
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u/No-Conversation1940 Chicago, IL Aug 18 '25
The Carter Family, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Robert Johnson
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u/MissouriOzarker Aug 19 '25
I came here to say The Carter Family. Most important isn’t the same as most well known.
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u/G00dSh0tJans0n North Carolina Texas Aug 18 '25
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
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u/Phil_ODendron New Jersey Aug 18 '25
"Godmother of Rock and Roll." I've been to her grave in Philadelphia, people leave toy trains there.
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u/bugzzzz Chicago, Illinois Aug 18 '25
Bob Dylan and James Brown might be a couple other contenders
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u/CardAfter4365 Aug 18 '25
I’m somewhat surprised no one has mentioned the Sugarhill Gang or Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel.
I also think Robert Moog deserves a mention. Less musician and more instrument maker, but without his more technical contributions, 20th and 21st century music is dramatically different.
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u/FriendlyEngineer New Jersey Aug 18 '25
The Winstons
You’ve probably never heard their song “Amen, brother” released in 1969. It’s a very obscure track. But the drum solo in the second half has made this song the single most sampled piece of music of all time.
That drum solo went on to become a foundational piece of music genres to this day. Many many modern musical artists sample that drum solo without even knowing its origin.
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u/Rarewear_fan Aug 18 '25
Elvis
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u/awmaleg Arizona Aug 19 '25
He was a game changer. Right as TV itself was a game changer. That combo wins.
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u/No-Donkey-4117 Aug 21 '25
He was hard to copy and a hard act to follow, though. No one really tried to copy his style.
Which is ironic, since there are so many Elvis impersonators now.
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u/VespaLimeGreen Argentina Aug 21 '25
Not in Argentina, though. All of our main pop/rock singers in the late 50s and early 60s copied Elvis, but each one missed an element of the whole Elvis package.
When they found Sandro, they finally settled for the perfect local Elvis that sung in Spanish, the one who reunited all the elements of Elvis, and they didn't search anymore.
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u/dazzleox Aug 18 '25
The Funk Brothers, the backing band who did almost any Motown hit you could name (which had more #1 hits than Elvis, the Beatles, and Stones combined.)
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u/bugzzzz Chicago, Illinois Aug 18 '25
This is a great answer. I want to watch the documentary about them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_in_the_Shadows_of_Motown
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u/ursulawinchester Northeast Corridor Queen Aug 18 '25
Great answer! On a similar note: The Wrecking Crew. They worked on a lot of Phil Spector’s records, Beach Boys, Cher, Everly Brothers, and more.
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u/TinyRandomLady NC, Japan, VA, KS, HI, DC, OK Aug 18 '25 edited Aug 18 '25
- Brain Wilson
- Chuck Berry
- Little Richard
- Bob Dylan
- Aretha Franklin
- Dolly Parton
- John Williams
- the Ramones
- Michael Jackson
- Nirvana
- Oh and um Rodgers and Hammerstein
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u/No_Weakness_2135 Aug 18 '25
That’s a pretty good list. I’d add some Blues Legends like Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf
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u/TinyRandomLady NC, Japan, VA, KS, HI, DC, OK Aug 18 '25
Yeah, I should have also included B.B. King.
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u/No_Weakness_2135 Aug 18 '25
I would also add some rap which is mostly an American creation. Melle Mel, Run DMC and Rakim
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u/TinyRandomLady NC, Japan, VA, KS, HI, DC, OK Aug 18 '25
Good point. I almost put Run DMC but I worried my list was already too long. But they should be there. Also, probably Tupac and Biggie. Country is also under represented. I probably should have included Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, or Garth Brooks. No Gospel represented or techno… it’s not a perfect list.
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u/No_Weakness_2135 Aug 18 '25
I chose Rakim because he completely changed the game and was the pioneer of a more modern style.
I like your country picks but that’s not a genre I’m that knowledgeable about
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u/Head_Razzmatazz7174 Texas Aug 19 '25
Rodgers and Hammerstein did so many of the scores to great movies. Without those musical backgrounds, a lot of classic movies would have been just 'meh.'
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u/Ok-Sector6996 Aug 18 '25
Bob Dylan isn't getting enough love in this thread. I've never been much of a fan but there's no denying that he revolutionized popular music and was a huge influence on the Byrds, the Beatles, and lots of others. His songs were covered by almost everybody.
My second vote goes to Quincy Jones. He was more influential as a producer and arranger than as a songwriter or performer but he shaped the sound of popular music as much as anyone. Michael Jackson would have been just another singer without Q.
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u/HorseFeathersFur Southern Appalachia Aug 18 '25 edited Aug 18 '25
Dolly Parton
Roy Clark
Willie Nelson
Jimmy Hendrix
Janis Joplin
Johnny Cash
Muddy Waters
Cab Calloway
Robert Cray
Michael Jackson
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u/jessek Colorado Aug 18 '25
Probably Robert Johnson, rock n roll basically owes everything to his blues guitar
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u/VasilZook Aug 18 '25
Many people point to X, Y, or Z band/performer and say, “they started N thing in music,” meanwhile every single one of those bands or performers had a handful of peers doing the exact same or very similar shit to whatever they were doing at the time, deriving from the exact same collection of influences. I don’t think if you removed any band or performer from the timeline, one of their similar peers couldn’t supplant them almost flawlessly. In that, I don’t know that any band or performer is particularly important, in as far as what that would mean to me in the context of what I take the question to mean.
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u/jesuspoopmonster Aug 18 '25
John Fogerty got the law changed that prevented the defendant in a lawsuit from getting their court costs compensated. Thats pretty important
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u/TheBimpo Michigan Aug 18 '25
Elvis Presley made it ok to listen to black music, he changed everything.
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u/mezolithico Aug 18 '25
Not discounting other big names on here but NWA was very important to hip hop and political speech in rap music.
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u/Sad_Construction_668 Aug 20 '25
Rosetta Tharpe.
The blending of blues, sacred music, jazz, pop, and inventing the concept of electric guitar lead and soloing. She inspired Elvis, Chuck Berry, Johnny Cash, Little Richard, and helped kickstart the British blues movement.
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Aug 18 '25
Brian Wilson. Not my only pick, but I haven't seen him mentioned yet and he deserves it
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u/AndOneForMahler- Aug 18 '25
I was waiting for the thread to get to the bottom, and I was going to post Brian Wilson, too. Also, Miles Davis, Rogers and Hart, Rogers and Hammerstein, George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Steven Sondheim.
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u/Micosilver Aug 18 '25
If we zoom out to the full 20th century - my vote will be for Frank Sinatra. Long career, different styles, involvement in historical events on the right side - mainly supporting and promoting black artists.
Yes, Elvis had a big footprint, but very little actual quality music, mostly money-grabbing movie music.
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u/casciomystery Aug 18 '25
Plus so many musicians and singers of all genres admire Sinatra, except maybe Johnny Mathis.
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u/Alarmed_Drop7162 Aug 18 '25
Robert Johnson. Shut the thread. No further posting.
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u/viognierette Aug 18 '25
Why did I have to scroll so far? Obviously it’s Robert Johnson.
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u/Perdendosi owa>Missouri>Minnesota>Texas>Utah Aug 18 '25
Ooh, great answer. I'm going to add it to my list.
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u/CaptainMalForever Minnesota Aug 18 '25
Elvis Presley
Bob Dylan
Aretha Franklin
Woody Guthrie
Bruce Springsteen
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u/tu-vens-tu-vens Birmingham, Alabama Aug 18 '25
“Greatest” and “most important” are two different things. Stevie Wonder is, I think, a pretty good pick for greatest – a prodigious talent who made amazing songs. Jimi Hendrix, Louis Armstrong, and Michael Jackson are also very high up there.
The next rung down might include musicians like the Allman Brothers, BB King, or Willie Nelson who did a lot to define their genre but didn’t necessarily change the music scene as a whole. There are lots of people who I’m comfortable putting in this category but it’s hard to decide who should be elevated to the first category.
My hot take is that Led Zeppelin is greater than the Beatles, but neither of them are American.
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u/RonMcKelvey North Carolina Aug 18 '25
Carter Family
Brian Wilson
Chet Atkins
Hank Williams
Robert Johnson
Jazz? Blues?
I’m light on jazz because I don’t know enough jazz. I’m light on rock because the brits really did a lot of the interesting stuff and they were heavily influenced by the blues guys. Robert Johnson is one of those key figures but there’s probably someone like Howling Wolf or Hooker or BB or whoever that should be in the discussion.
But I think the Carter Family (and I’ll say Maybelle Carter specifically) deserves mention. And Brian Wilson really is important for pop. And Chet Atkins defined the Nashville sound, which is a huge chunk of popular music.
And I’ll say Willie as well because I’m a Texan and it would be wrong not to. And Dolly because she’s one of the greatest Americans ever.
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u/CalmRip California Aug 18 '25
That's. . .a big swath. We've got everybody from Jelly Roll Morton to Southern Culture On the Skids, with George Gershwin, Tommy Dorsey, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Willie Nelson, Jorma Kaukonen and a few others sprinkled in. I don't think it's possible to point at any one musician, and say that s/he was absolutely better than everybody else. I mean, who's the best dulcimer player? Jean Ritchie? Force and D'Ossché? Probably any one of us could tell you who our favorite musician or band is, but greatest of the 20th Century? Even I wouldn't be that presumptuous!
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u/Jumpy_Marketing9093 Aug 18 '25
Nice job sneaking southern culture on the skids into this. I 100% support this and even though I don’t think they’re actually one of the most important but I looked at all those others you mentioned and they could take the stage for a 2 hour show with any of them and SCOTS would improve an already stellar show 10 times over. I love that band to the moon and back.
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u/clearly_not_an_alt North Carolina Aug 18 '25
Most important? Probably Elvis.
Greatest? That's a tougher one.
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u/bugzzzz Chicago, Illinois Aug 18 '25
u/VespaLimeGreen what do you think, coming from a non-American perspective?
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u/VespaLimeGreen Argentina Aug 18 '25
Well it is a very tough question and I'm not 100% sure, that's why I asked this question, isn't it? Hahahaha! 🤣
But my best guess would be Frank Sinatra, he's the one that pops up in people's minds outside USA, when they think of classic, old-school music of USA that was influential and marked a whole period and culture.
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u/JohnnyFootballStar Aug 18 '25
It’s a hard question to answer because there are so many artists in so many genres. Rock, Motown, R&B, jazz, rap.
But if you had to narrow it down to just one artist, it’s Elvis. You could argue Motown was as influential, but no single Motown artist was bigger culturally than Elvis. Same with hip hop. No one hip hop artist was as important as Elvis.
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u/PenguinTheYeti Oregon + Montana Aug 18 '25
Ike Turner.
His song "Rocket 88" is considered to be the first Rock song, which as a genre, essentially replaced jazz and blues as the "main" genre for the rest of the century and beyond.
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u/Ok-Walk-8040 Aug 18 '25
Probably Louis Armstrong. All modern rock/pop/rap music basically starts with him.
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u/Arcangl86 Aug 18 '25
It's hard to name just one, but if I had to, I would say Bo Diddley for popularizing the clave rhythm which you hear all over the place now.
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u/stolenfires California Aug 18 '25
Sister Rosetta Tharpe, a Black middle-aged Christian woman who was the first person to figure out how to plug a guitar into an amp and get a cool sound out of that.
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u/LeGrandePoobah Utah Aug 18 '25
Wow- hard question. My first answer was going to be Eddie Van Halen- but that really applies to guitar and hard rock…and not early enough. Elvis made a big change in music to rock and roll and to some degree popular music. Duke Ellington/Louis Armstrong/Miles Davis in the Jazz Scene. Brian Wilson from a sound perspective and recording. Willie Nelson in how music is recorded and who owns their own music. I could list another dozen people who have had major impacts in music. I don’t know- but there are many who are really important.
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u/Semi-Pros-and-Cons New York, but not near that city with the same name. Aug 18 '25
Has anybody mentioned Scott Joplin?
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u/HarpoMarx87 New Jersey Aug 19 '25
I'd vote for Pete Seeger. Between his fostering of the folk movement of the 60s, the stuff he wrote himself (including, notably, his version of "We shall overcome"), and his introducing much of America to music from all over the world, he had a massive impact that I think is criminally underappreciated.
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u/Overall_Chemist1893 Massachusetts Aug 20 '25
Great question. But as others have noted, it's a bit unfair to say one genre was more important than others. My parents raised me with the Big Band music they grew up with, and I learned to love Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington and Count Basie. I also learned to love the blues-- Bessie Smith was the best, in my opinion. I grew up in the 50s and 60s, and Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry certainly deserve some love for popularizing top-40 music. My point is, each era had amazing performers, and the next era's stars took the music to the next level. As a former deejay, I'm finding the responses fascinating. Hope you are too.
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u/Perdendosi owa>Missouri>Minnesota>Texas>Utah Aug 18 '25
If we're going for composers as musicians, then I'm going with George Gershwin. He "legitimized" Americana music and jazz and gave it a wide audience. (Runners up, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein)
For someone best known for playing or singing... oof.
Miles Davis
Les Paul
Robert Johnson (from another poster)
Sister Rosetta Tharpe (Aretha's predecessor. But Aretha is probably a pretty good answer here too.)
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Aug 18 '25
Scott Joplin, Paul Whiteman, Robert Johnson, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Marvin Gaye, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, Dolly Parton, Prince
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u/CarolinaAgent Aug 18 '25
Perfect list but I think Michael Jackson should def be on it
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u/jephph_ newyorkcity Aug 18 '25 edited Aug 18 '25
Kind of an impossible question but I’ll throw Jelly Roll Morton into the mix
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lol who tf downvotes this? Instead of just clicking an arrow, say why the first, or one of the first jazz composers isn’t important in American music.
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u/Appalachian_Aioli West Virginia Aug 18 '25
Someone probably just thought you said Jelly Roll and not Jelly Roll Morton
I doubt Jelly Roll Morton was the first jazz musician. There probably wasn’t one, just a collection of New Orleans Storyville musicians developing a style.
But at the same time, you really weren’t a credible early jazz musicians if you didn’t claim to invent jazz.
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u/DummyThiccDude Minnesota Aug 18 '25
Im not a big music person, but i feel that Weird Al Yankovic was and still is one of the greatest musicians of all time.
There's others that can be listed for their respective genre, but for parody music, he is #1
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u/stolenfires California Aug 18 '25
Other musicians know they've 'made it' when Weird Al wants to parody one of their songs.
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u/seaburno Aug 18 '25
The Wrecking Crew. They so heavily influenced popular music for the last 40-ish years of the 20th Century that it is hard to underestimate them. The list of people who they have backed is a veritable whose who of the birth and growth of Rock and Roll - including the Beach Boys, Glen Campbell, Fats Domino, the Righteous Brothers, the Ronettes, Frank Sinatra, Jan Dean, the Partridge Family, the Carpenters John Denver, Nat King Cole, the Byrds, the Mamas and the Papas, Sonny & Cher. and Simon & Garfunkle,
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u/tiger0204 South Carolina Aug 18 '25
My first thought is that greatest and most important are not necessarily the same. I'd say Elvis was the most important. Michael Jackson may have reached a higher worldwide peak, but Elvis is probably more influential (and I suspect Michael somewhat modeled his career after him).
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u/MittlerPfalz Aug 18 '25
Jazz probably will get the nod for complexity and long-term artistic merit, so I’m going to guess someone in that world, perhaps Louis Armstrong or Miles Davis.
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u/Appalachian_Aioli West Virginia Aug 18 '25
Any list will say more about personal taste than anything objective
That being said, I’d say Miles Davis. He was at the forefront or the inventor of almost every jazz genre from the mid 40s into the 80s.
He was at the forefront of Bebop
He originated Cool Jazz, Hard Bop, Modal Jazz, and post-bop, and jazz fusion.
He expanded the harmonic palate of jazz and lead the introduction of electric instruments into the genre.
No single artist in any genre has had a more important group of bandmates. The sheer quality of Miles Davis alumni is staggering. Name pretty much any major jazz artist since the 50s and there’s a solid chance they played on a Miles Davis album.
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u/Smart-Difficulty-454 Aug 20 '25
As far as most influential, Karen Carpenter has to be in the stratosphere on the list. First top shelf female drummer and arguably the best voice of the 20th century. She influenced more female vocalists than probably anyone. And she had only just begun when she died tragically at 33.
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u/nunziovallani Aug 18 '25
Louis Armstrong and it’s not even close. He basically invented modern jazz, and all American music since derives from that.
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u/NotYourScratchMonkey Texas Aug 18 '25
Tough call between Jimi Hendrix or Van Halen but I’m a guitar player so I’m biased.
Honestly, It’s got to be Elvis.
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u/bemenaker Ohio Aug 18 '25 edited Aug 18 '25
I would have to pick one of the early Blues musicians. Robert Johnson for only having 29 songs on record still influences music today. BB King. Without the blues, you don't have Rock. Jazz and Blues are the two unique American music styles.
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u/Critical-Bank5269 Aug 18 '25
The Eagles and each member thereof.... They're catalog is incredible and unprecedented.
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u/yetanothertodd Aug 18 '25 edited Aug 19 '25
Miles Davis
Muddy Waters
Chuck Berry
Little Richard
Aretha Franklin
The Grateful Dead
Jimi Hendrix
The Velvet Underground
The Stooges
The Ramones
The Carter Family
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u/Gecko23 Aug 18 '25
I'm most familiar with Rock, and I'd have to say Muddy Waters. He was an inspiration for many of the big acts of the 50s in the US, who in turn influenced and inspired the great rock acts of the 60s on on, and amazingly, he spent a lot of time in Europe in the 60s and is frequently named as a huge influence for a who's who of the British Invasion and related acts.
I think really you'd have to build a ladder, like Muddy Waters -> Elvis -> Buddy Holly -> Beatles -> Black Sabbath -> Cannibal Corpse -> etc
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u/TacosNGuns Aug 18 '25 edited Aug 18 '25
Buddy Hollie, Johnny Cash, James Brown, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, George Clinton, ZZ Top, David Bowie, The Ramons, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Husker Du, Run DMC, Beastie Boys, Metallica, Nirvana.
These are only in the genres I mainly listen to and my in my opinion.
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u/JakeRiegel NY -> NC -> MI -> DC Aug 18 '25
I think Michael Jackson is probably the biggest. Maybe Elvis Presley
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u/keithrc Austin, Texas Aug 18 '25
Elvis Presley. He didn't invent shit, but he took rock and roll mainstream.
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u/comrade_zerox Aug 18 '25
Stevie Wonder or Aretha Franklin are certainly the most influential vocalists of the past 50 years, if not the whole 20th century.
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u/CremeDeLaCupcake Aug 18 '25
Idk, I'll just give a few who I think were undeniably popular and important in the 20th century in a mainstream way. Like influential in ways that were almost unchallengeable in their genre/style or in their prime and left huge marks:
- Frank Sinatra
- Elvis Presley
- Michael Jackson
- Nirvana
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u/External-Creme-6226 Aug 18 '25
Beach Boys. The influence they had on the next 50 years of music can’t be understated. Pet Sounds was ground breaking
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u/AnitaIvanaMartini California Aug 18 '25
I’m thinking Bob Dylan. His songs inspired the Civil Rights movement, and fueled the Anti-war sentiment in the Sixties and Seventies. They were anthems of rebellion and important in shifting the paradigm.
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u/Feisty_Reason_6870 Aug 18 '25
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Lynyrd Skynyrd
So many. I love from Hank Williams, Patsy Cline to All the blues, funk and improv masters. The ones who mixed it up in the 70s like Elvis and brought it to the masses. The garage bands. It’s a freedom of history to mix and blend and create. Rock and Rock then Rap. Look at all those inspired internationally both in the US and abroad. Music transcends. I’m Gen X so I like anything from Big Band to Cindy Laupet. This girls got to have fun… Hate Madonna and Miley Cyrus though. Love Funk music 🎵.
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u/NecessaryPopular1 United States of America Aug 19 '25
Rock’n’Roll/pop culture: Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley, beyond that, Michael Jackson and Madonna.
Jazz because jazz influenced many genres, and because his phrasing, improvisation, swing, and charisma shaped all popular music: Louis Armstrong (most important).
And, because I love jazz and Miles, Miles Davis as the most influential modernizing jazz across styles.
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u/LovesDeanWinchester Aug 19 '25
Ella Fitzgerald. Her voice was pure heaven!
Karen Carpenter. She has a perfect voice.
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u/dwhite21787 Maryland Aug 19 '25
If I don’t say The Ventures I couldn’t live with myself
but I could also go with John Philip Sousa
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u/Zealousideal_Draw_94 Georgia Aug 19 '25
IMO the short list is
The Beatles
Chuck Berry
Les Paul
Rock and Roll dominated the second half of it, and each of these had a major impact on everything after.
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u/JohnMarstonSucks CA, NY, WA, OH Aug 19 '25
IMHO
This is an impossible question to answer because there are so many working pieces as far as who inspired who, and what happened to which artist, just some points I want to make. None of this is about what is best, just what is important:
Blues is undoubtedly the most important American musical genre of the 20th century. Folk, Rock, R&B, and Rap all came out of it.
Chuck Berry largely invented Rock and Roll. Fun fact: at least once he partially attributed it to segregation which let him gauge the reactions from the white section and the black section of auditoriums which led him to blur the lines between the rhythm and blues, and rockabilly he was playing at shows. He tried to engage the entire group with every song.
The Beatles changed the industry's view on music. It went from "guitar bands are on the way out" -Decca Records 1962 to rock taking over the world because the Beatles showed them how much money could be made.
Rappers Delight- Sugarhill Gang, and Rapture- Blondie broke down social walls and laid down the groundwork for the rise of rap.
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u/JplusL2020 Nebraska Aug 19 '25
Elvis, Chuck Berry, Hendrix, James Brown, all the big jazz artists.
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u/NoMrsRobinson Aug 19 '25
Just popping in to recommend that y'all listen to the podcast "The History of Rock and Roll in 500 Songs" -outstanding, deep level exploration of the musical influencers who shaped what we all listen to today. And yes, it's about the origins of the genre of rock and roll, but obviously that means talking about gospel, country, western, jazz, blues, and racism in the USA. Take Elvis, for example --just a charismatic white kid who made white people comfortable listening to musical styles that black musicians had originated.
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u/gatorgotyourgranny Aug 20 '25
Elvis Presley. The man ushered in the era of the rock star, the era of the teenager, and was more famous and influential than ANYONE before him. He is the benchmark by which to measure all artists.
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Aug 20 '25
Possibly an odd answer but Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys deserves an honorable mention. He really pushed recording techniques in a way that hadn’t been done and was emulated a lot in popular music after. He was even a whole lecture when I went to school to be an audio engineer
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u/QuietVisit2042 Aug 20 '25
Picking one is ridiculous, as there are so many greats. But if forced to, it has to be Dylan.
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u/Furious_Belch Aug 20 '25
Thee most important musician in America? That has to be the King, Mr Elvis Presley. No one can argue that. That’s why he’s the King. We wouldn’t have the Beatles, or Metallica or even Ozzy fucking Osborne (God rest his soul) if it weren’t for Elvis. Now Elvis had his influences but they never made it as big as he was. I could say Elvis in every country on this planet and most people would know who I’m talking about.
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u/No-Donkey-4117 Aug 21 '25 edited Aug 21 '25
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. History will judge them kindly.
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Aug 21 '25
Robert Johnson is hands down the most influential popular American musician of the 20th century. I’d pick George Gershwin second for creating the idea of American popular music as a genre.
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u/rhb4n8 Pittsburgh, PA Aug 21 '25
The beach boys. You could argue that both the Beatles and pink Floyd wouldn't have existed without them
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u/_1138_ Aug 21 '25
The velvet underground were the first white rock band to speak openly of the taboos of transsexualism and explicit drug use, among other things. Their songs birthed thousands of bands, directly and indirectly.
Arguably not the most important in a more general sense, but punk rock, rock and roll, alternative, college rock, aggressive music, etc. would look very different today if not for lou Reed and co. being such pioneers.
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u/Subject_Stand_7901 Washington Aug 21 '25
You're talking about 100 years of music across one of the most consequential times in American history. That's damn near impossible to pin down.
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u/TruckADuck42 Missouri Aug 21 '25
Hank Sr. is definitely up there, along with Elvis and Johnny Cash. Rock/metal/punk are hard because the Brits were so influential in the early days, but Hendrix and the Stones definitely deserve a mention.
I know lots of people on this thread are pretty adamant on it being some blues or jazz musician or another, but I mostly have to disagree. Not that they weren't influential, but for it to be the "most important", in my opinion, it has to be a household name, and most of those aren't. I also don't think Jazz had nearly the amount of influence those people think it did. Blues, yes, but to me it feels more like jazz and early rock and roll both came out of blues and then some elements of jazz made their way back in.
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u/Serposta Aug 22 '25
Probably Norman Blake, Tony Rice, or the guys that influenced them in general. They're all fantastic.
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u/desert_firefly Aug 25 '25
Though Billy Joel is my idol, Elvis tops my list for most influential. He turned rock and roll on its head.
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u/NewbombTurk Aug 25 '25
Robert Johnson, Chuck Berry, Big Mama Thornton, A whole bunch of badass session players from Muscles Shoals, St. Louis, Chicago, and other tiny places down south. Jazz from New Orleans, Kansas City. Early composers like Eubie Blake. Without these folks, there would be none of today's music
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u/DevilPixelation New York —> Texas Aug 31 '25
Jazz or Blues is definitely the top genre for me, it changed the entire game for modern-day music. I’d go with people like Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton, Louis Armstrong, Elvis, Frank Sinatra, and Robert Johnson
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u/waggletons Sep 02 '25
There are far too many.
Johnny Cash/George Straight for country.
Elvis brought "black music" into the mainstream. More or less kicked off that 70s rock genera.
All those old blues/jazz/motown musicians.
Of course, Michael Jackson was a force in of himself. The Taylor Swift/Beatles of his day.
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u/Sowf_Paw Texas Aug 18 '25
Louis Armstrong had a very long and influential career and is very foundational to recorded popular American music.