Most Important American Band...of all time!

Feel free to replace "Important" with "Favorite" or "Best"...but no solo artists allowed!

Some nominees:

The Beach Boys
The Supremes
REM
Public Enemy
Fleetwood Mac
The Ramones




[Edited on Jun 19, 2005 by PointBlank]

The Velvet Underground or the Ramones

You beat my Ramones edit, curse you!

heehee.

Also throw in The Byrds, the Stooges, and the Talking Heads.

But are we just listing the most important American bands, or are we supposed to argue about who was the definitive "most important American band"? I could make a fairly strong case for the Velvet Underground, for example.

i would scrap the beach boys and simply say brian wilson

the guy is... i dunno, you just cant put into words how important he was

I'd say Bad Religion, even though I know it makes no sense, but since they are the "oldest" band I really like they win for me.

Plus the Temptations, Nirvana, The Jimi Hendrix Experience (although probably too much of a solo act).

Miles Davis quintet.

i'm going to go with the ramones. or the supremes. depending on what you're trying to argue.

thank you for not saying nirvana.

[Edited on Jun 18, 2005 by Keith]

True, but after listening to the re-released Smile I'd say that I like Pet Sounds better. You just can't discount Carl or Mike's vocals.

Plus, I said no Solo Artists!!

It's true. I don't get into much of anything outside punk, metal, hardcore, etc. And most every band I've heard pre-BR just doesn't do it for me.

I was going for an all around "influential, important, best" category, but I knew that someone would respond with "Oh, the Beach Boys?? I hate them...I'll say Tool!! They are awesome!"

**Hands Brinstar a Bad Brains CD**

It's very difficult to narrow it down to one, but I'll have to cast my vote for The Beach Boys.

Actually, thats what started this discussion for me. Some friends and I were talking about the Supremes, and how many fucking hits they had.

If you were allowed to include backing bands, Motown, James Brown, and Stax would own.

The Doors
The Ramones
The Beach Boys
Allman Brothers
Jimi Hendrix Trio-OK that one doesn't exist but how can you not have his work somewhere on this list.

Yeah I had like 10 Bad Brains songs downloaded back in the day. Not my thing.

I mentioned him a couple of posts above...And the name of the band is "The Jimi Hendrix Experience".

i dunno... important suggests that alot of bands that were influenced by the band were also very credible but ive found little has come close to fugazi, if u get what i mean

Sometimes i feel that Fugazi's importance musically is eclipsed by their importance in other spheres (politics, economics).