Last Culturally Impactful Musician

Kanye

Up until about 20 years ago, music had gatekeepers and a relatively small number of bands made it into mainstream consciousness.

Now, we are our own "station managers," with our own "playlists." Streaming services have algorithms that suggest new music to us that aligns with our personal tastes... It's never been easier to discover small indie bands...

I'd say it's going to be tough for a musician/band to unite us again.

But that's kind of true of all media/entertainment.

Kurt Cobain was the last culturally impactful musician.

IF there is some pop star since then that is impactful, it is not in a culture I I reside in.

The top five culturally impactful musical act of all time would be:

The Beatles (i.e.: Magical Mystery Tour)

Jimi Hendrix (i.e.: Are You Experienced?)

The Clash (i.e: London's Calling)

The Sex Pistols

Nirvana

The Beatles were the most culturally impactful band by far, with several distinct derivations, to their credit.

You are all disconnected from reality. Ever heard about Michael Buble?

99% of the reason why young males entered the music industry was to get girls.

With the Internet and social media it became near impossible for a pop star to have sex with a groupie - she would brag about it on Twitter the next day.

Now #MeToo and cancel culture has put the final nail in the coffin of the music industry.

It's the reason pop is increasingly dominated by women. There will never be another truly great band.

Culture in general is dying in the rest. We will produce about as many great bands, movies, writers, artists in the next 50 years as Pakistan has in the last 50.

Musicians aren't culturally impactful. What a pretentious notion.

seattle prattle wrote:

Kurt Cobain was the least culturally impactful musician.

FIFY

Kurt was the poster-boy for an MTV scam where they picked a garage sound to counterpoint all the hair metal, butt rock and hip hop they'd been dishing out all 80s long. By their 2nd big album they were already in decline. His "cultural impact" was the legend spun out of his death.

Of course you'll get all bent out of shape just because someone points out your favorite band wasn't really driving the scene. Jane's Addiction and the Chili Peppers had a more solid following and made far better music. Stadium megatours by mainstream acts like U2 overshadowed everything. The Dead overshadowed even that.

The Dead have had more cultural influence than probably the next 5 on the list combined. Countless people reorganized their lives, their minds, their entire world view around that one band and its traveling hippie megacircus.

Bad Wigins wrote:

The Dead have had more cultural influence than probably the next 5 on the list combined. Countless people reorganized their lives, their minds, their entire world view around that one band and its traveling hippie megacircus.

Umm yeah. We call them weekend hippies.

easy roadie wrote:

Sinatra, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana.

All of these artists impacted music and everyday life in ways that still resonate today.

To a lesser extent Chuck Berry, Led Zeppelin, Skynard, RHCP, and Sublime also have songs that can carry you back to a moment in time instantly.

The White Stripes, the Strokes, and Black Keys are great but I don't think their music carries a lot of emotional or cultural weight to most.

After about 2010 I can't think of a song or band that strikes me as "important". There are still talented bands and singers but music seems to have morphed into dozens of sub niches without any truly generational icons.

Discus-

Kid Cudi

Bruno Mars will be considered a 2010s icon in music history

Watch Unplugged in New York and its obvious Nirvana, and Kurt in particular, was the real deal. I'm not foolish enough to think that Nirvana would have put out 10 more blockbuster albums if Kurt had lived but their sound was distinct from Jane's Addiction, Pearll Jam, Soundgarden, etc and the reaction to them was real.

I like the Dead's studio music and include them on the list of culturally impactful bands.

Andre 3000

easy roadie wrote:

After about 2010 I can't think of a song or band that strikes me as "important". There are still talented bands and singers but music seems to have morphed into dozens of sub niches without any truly generational icons.

Discus-

McLuhan said that low culture is more important to high culture than middlebrow “intellectual” culture (like NPR/The New Yorker audience). Any honest assessment would say “emo rap” as a “genre” (genres are just marketing schemes) will probably be the most culturally significant - the next James Joyce or Rilke isn’t listening to Kendrick Lamar or , he’s probably listening to Lil Peep.

Lil Ugly Mane is probably the most important artist of the 2010s. I’m confident that in 100 years he’ll be the only artist of the past 10 years that will still be talked about. One of the only people to really capture the present moment through complex art. Truly the William Blake/Shakespeare/Joyce/ of our time.

A long, long time ago ...

The problem is you guys are cranky old men who don't actually know anything new.

This happens to every generation.

seattle prattle wrote:

Kurt Cobain was the last culturally impactful musician.

IF there is some pop star since then that is impactful, it is not in a culture I I reside in.

The top five culturally impactful musical act of all time would be:

The Beatles (i.e.: Magical Mystery Tour)

Jimi Hendrix (i.e.: Are You Experienced?)

The Clash (i.e: London's Calling)

The Sex Pistols

Nirvana

The Beatles were the most culturally impactful band by far, with several distinct derivations, to their credit.

Stating The Sex Pistols were more culturally impactful than Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan or Elvis and masquerading it like a fact...not a smart take. Also it’s “London Calling.”

The OP’s mention of Sublime must be a joke.

A lot of incredibly stupid opinions in this thread.

Kanye? Drake? Kendrick?

All three of those artists have changed the music landscape to some extent, arguably as much or more as any of the artists listed already (except maybe The Beatles).

Listen to 808s and Heartbreaks by Kanye and then listen to any #1 hip hop album from the past 10 years. Almost all of them were influenced by Kanye, even Drake, the biggest musician of the past 10 years, has a remix of a song off of 808s on his first mixtape.

In the way that Nevermind caused grunge to go mainstream, 808s has inspired the generation of artists who made rap the #1 genre in the US. People like Lil Uzi Vert, Kid Cudi, Juice Wrld, and pretty much any other new artist say they got a ton of inspiration from Kanye. I can't think of much more cultural impact than being the main influence on the largest genre in the world.

And Kendrick caused real political discussion with songs like Alright, and had people protesting in the street with his lyrics on their signs. Whether or not you agree with the message, I'd say having your lyrics be part of the largest protests in history is culturally impactful.

Anyone in here saying there hasn't been a musical cultural icon since Kurt Cobain is not paying attention to the current landscape of music. Their parents rolled their eyes at Jimi Hendrix or Nirvana, and now they're rolling their eyes at Kanye and Drake.

DonDonDon wrote:

A lot of incredibly stupid opinions in this thread.

this x10000