The top 3 most influential American Musicians are...........?

Question

And dont say "Oh man, there are so many......"
Who, in your opinion are THE top three?

Answer 1

First off, those who answered with the Beatles... THEY ARE BRITISH!

Robert Johnson for blues
Elvis for rock&roll
Metallica for metal

Answer 2

Son House or Charlie Patton
Bill Haley or Bo Diddly
DJ Kool Herc or Grandmaster Flash.

My picks would I guess be son house, bill haley, and ... maybe grandmaster flash. Son House was a mentor to both Robert Johnson AND Muddy Waters, which is pretty incredible. Bill Haley recorded what may have been the first real 'rock and roll' record, though its hard to pin that down. Certainly he was massively influenced by black musicians before him, how can I pick the most influential between the black R&B artists around and before them, and those who blew rock and roll open for white america - and ultimately the world - like elvis/haley. Note we're talking influence here, right? Not original necessarily.

Others I'd like to have included would be early house/techno pioneers, and some jazz musicians. Roughly speaking, the 20th century saw blues, jazz, country, rock and roll, house and hip hop all emerge from the US. So I gave more influence to the people who helped kick start those, rather then shape movements within those styles (like the ramones, nirvana, velvet underground, dr. dre, reznor, REM, the gza, public enemy, rage against the machine, metallica, muddy waters, james brown, dave brubek, charlie parker, miles davis, count basie, benny goodman, etc.)

Answer 3

I don't really know what you mean by influential, but if you want the most popular, I'd say....

1) Beatles
2) Michael Jackson
3) Elvis

I really don't see how you could make an argument for anyone other than those 3. The sad thing is that no one else is going to say those 3 because they're all different music styles and all the idiots are going to be biased and put 3 of the same type of musician on there because that's what they like. Look above this for perfect examples.

Answer 4

Hard one. In no particular order I have to say:

Tupac Shakur- Love him or hate him, there's no denying that he changed the way the world viewed rap music. He was the spearhead of what would become a billion dollar industry...

Chuck Berry- Besides making great music, he inspired some of the biggest acts of all time (The Beatles, Elvis, Bob Dylan, etc) and was a direct influence in most of their music...

And finally, B.B. King. Whenever anyone thinks of the blues, they think of him. He's a prominent figure in the genre and we all know how much the genre has influenced damn near every other musical style since....

When are people going to realize that The Beatles weren't Americans?? I mean, come on, "The British Invasion"??

Answer 5

Chuck Berry - rock and roll baby! Could play the guitar just like ringing a bell!

Bob Dylan - "singer" and songwriter, guitar/harmonica/piano, artist

Gene Krupa - made drums a feature instrument back in the late-20s early-30s, everything prior barely heard the drums.



And in case you dont know (many of you obviously don't), the Beatles, The Stones, and Clapton are all British, not American.

Answer 6

I'm not going to answer this quesiton based on my personal taste, but rather the three artists who, without a doubt, influenced the country in terms of attitude, appearences, and values.
Elvis
Madonna
Puplic Enemy

Answer 7

1) Robert Johnson (Blues)
2) Bob Dylan
3) Jimi Hendrix

Answer 8

Elvis, Michael Jackson?, and Marilyn Manson

Answer 9

Chuck Berry, Eddie Van Halen, and Randy Rhodes (Ozzy's first guitarist when he went solo and left Black Sabbath). They totally reinvented how rock music sounded.

Answer 10

Jimmy Hendrix, Elvis Presley, ......BB King/Albert Collins.....Clapton's English right?