Who is the most influential artist(s)
Posted by Leedsboy on 4 April 2008 - 2:30pm.
Using the new and probably unscientific method of googling the artist name and the word influential and seeing who has the largest number of results.
I'll start with:
"Beatles" + "influential" = 305,000 records
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a fun waste of time
160,000 records for "Rolling Stones" + "influential.
Richard Thompson
154,000, considerably more than Bowie (124k) which shows the benefit of having some original ideas rather than filching other peoples'?
On the other hand the Bonzos get a modest 12,400....
(Bosses voice) get on with some bloody work!
Rolf Harris
9,020. Not too bad actually.
quotes
sorry didn't put " " in. It's only 865.
"The The" Influential
256,000,000. What have I won?
Sooty
Sooty (solo) gets 26,200 - and only 4,230 with ex-partner Sweep, which shows, Mr. Band Member, your solo career can take off!
Putting this into perspective...
Kiki+Dee+influential gets 17,000 hits. Looking at the top result, the word "influential" is used on the same page as Kiki Dee's name, but in reference to the Temptations and not the fabulously talented Ms Dee. On that basis, I'd say this is a less than reliable method for judging the influence of a recording artist. Maybe the fact that a search for "influential Kiki Dee" and "Kiki Dee's influence" (using quotation marks to limit the search) both return zero results is a better indication of the Kiki's place in musical history.
Milli vanilli
7,980. Surely some mistake?
Miming pretty boys?
Miming pretty boys? No, I'm sure they haven't had any influence on the pop business at all.
Some stats...
Oasis - 172,000
U2 - 156,000
Public Enemy - 155,000
Joy Division - 101,000
The Beach Boys - 97,400
Marvin Gaye - 87,400
Pixies - 74,500
The Supremes - 20,500
The Spice Girls - 20,400
Maybe that Dido cover was the right decision after all
Dido+influence - 160,000
Winehouse + influence
6,764,300!
Blimey! But most of them included "under" as well.......
Otis Redding -
Otis Redding - 32,200
Foreigner - 423,000 (!)
Elliot Smith - 859,000
Lee 'Scratch' Perry - 105,000
Talking Heads - 1,440,000
Liam Hatchet - 5,260
Are you doing it right though?
Just to try and get some consistency (and I can't believe I'm typing this when I have appraisals to do...)you do need to type the artist name in quotation marks, have a + and then put influential in quotation marks as well.
Done this way, Elliot Smith gets 16,500 which I would suggest is about right against the Beatles benchmark of 305,000.
James Brown + influential
272,000
A few for the hair product person, but most for the dude that went "AAAAOOOWW!"
It's Prince
"Prince" + "influential" gets a cool 492,000
Add a few for the "untypable squiggly symbol thing" and "T A F K A P " and its all over for The Beatles
Dumpy's Rusty Nuts + influential...
wait for it, wait for it...
80
how about that then?
"supertramp"+"influential" 22,900
First entry says 'In the end, one would be hard pressed to describe Supertramp as being in any way influential'
but then second entry says 'How is it possible that supertramp, being one of the most influential prog-rock bands, hasn't been inducted yet?'
Where does your vote go?
Not.
What other artists are "school of Supertramp"? I can't think of anyone. Mind, it is early.
The Feeling spring to mind
if the word artist stretches that far