The 20 Most Influential Musicians of the 20th Century

I confidently said that George Clinton was in the Top 20 Most Influential Musicians of the 20th Century. I’m sure that’s correct but I’m going to check my work and make a list of twenty. Not listed in an order. NO GROUPS. This has to be individuals. Some of them will represent groups. But I’m using the individuals. Also, I’m not looking at other internet lists while I make this so I will no doubt have huge gaps and spots I missed.

Robert Johnson - the blues happened before Robert Johnson, but blues doesn’t happen the way it does with Robert Johnson and those recording sessions in San Antonio in 1936 are still perhaps the most important things committed to tape in music history.
Carole King - If she had just been a writer she could still be on this list. But she opened a new lane for singer songwriters with Tapestry.
Prince - Obviously. But also, he saw how someone could transcend pop stardom better than maybe anyone else, ever.
Duke Ellington - The greatest jazz composer of all time.
Chuck Berry - If you like great lyrics over distorted guitar raise a glass to a very complicated man, Chuck Berry.
James Brown - I can’t find a truly compelling path to the sound of funk that doesn’t pass through Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag. Sometimes there’s innovations that were bound to happen, it was just a matter of time. The feel of funk is not one such thing. I think without James Brown’s contributions funk might not come to be.
Bob Dylan - He opened the possibilities of what a songwriter could do up. He made it possible to have a unique and in some ways undesirable voice and still have the only voice some people care about.
George Clinton - The sonics of popular black music from 1975-2015 can mostly be found inside of the work of George Clinton. Obviously, he wasn’t an island creating all the sounds, but when you hear a synthesizer doing the heavy lifting on a bassline OR a high register synth. . .it’s his curation. So that might get you there period, but check this out, his relationship with black futurism, with sexual desire, with cocky braggadocio shit. His finger prints are all over culture.
Kurt Cobain - He changed rock so much it’s easy to forget he changed it. But he offered a pretty unique way to be a rock star, a voice of a generation, an icon. And he made people who hate guitar stores want to play guitars. He made room for a lot of people in the rock world.
Mahalia Jackson - It’s somewhat rare for a genre’s ambassador to also be the most compelling and talented artist from said genre. But to my ears there’s something in Mahalia Jackson’s voice and presentation that isn’t matched by anyone, anywhere, singing anything.
Woody Guthrie - I’m not going to act like a dial up Woody Guthrie all the time and give it a spin. But I am under the clear impression that Woody Guthrie was a speak truth to power all star and that shit was wildly important for this century of music.
Miles Davis - If you change the course of music three times you get on this list. So Miles is on this list.
Rakim - Nobody raps like they do today if Rakim didn’t rap like he did. He changed rap music once, but he changed it at such a molecular level. He made it possible for rap to be an art without making it hoity-toity or somehow academic, he just laid out some new levels of expression and of technical facility.
Stravinsky - Playing it safe here. Anytime I read about classical music in the 20th I hear about Stravinsky and I hear about Schoenberg. And I really struggle personally with Schoenberg’s music, so I can confirm I think Stravinsky wrote some amazing things.
Louis Armstrong - Not only an icon, but someone who recalibrated jazz players via early recording and pointed towards solos that highlight one individual at a time.
Ornette Coleman - I don’t think that “someone” was going to come up with what Ornette Coleman came up with. Unless maybe Charlie Haden was going to. But mostly, I believe Ornette Coleman heard a path in music that we might never have gotten to if we hadn’t heard it. That’s so wild.
Bob Marley - A courageous ambassador who cultivated world wide passion for a formerly under-celebrated music.
Aretha Franklin - She’s on the list cause she’s the best. When she sings, you wonder why others bother to. Her majesty as a vocalist is unmatched, not a hot take.
Chuck D - It’s not just his voice. He was a part of the bomb squad. The Bomb Squad is the most compelling collage music peddled to the mainstream. So take that influence and add on one of the greatest voices in the history of music.
Garth Brooks - The modern Bing Crosby. There’s whole formats, venues, radio stations that don’t stand up without the power of Garth Brooks. And I think he sold more records than all of them.