Most Important Bands of AT

Surprised it took the 4th page for someone to mention Queen and only been mentioned once as they were the first band that came to mind.

For me personally, it would be Blur, Oasis, The Strokes and The Libertines.
 
I'd also have Suede as more influential than Blur, in their immediate context anyway. Probably the first truly "Britrock" band with recent influences such as The Smiths but also casting back to Bowie and T-Rex.

Blur's first album was heavily influenced by Madchester and Shoegaze imo which were both de rigueur at the time. I'd argue Blur went on to have a more interesting and varied career but their debut was very much of its time.
With all this talk of the Strokes, I'd add another name to the mix, one who has influenced probably every band I (and I assume countless others) have loved over the last 25 years....

 
changingman said:
I'd also have Suede as more influential than Blur, in their immediate context anyway. Probably the first truly "Britrock" band with recent influences such as The Smiths but also casting back to Bowie and T-Rex.

Blur's first album was heavily influenced by Madchester and Shoegaze imo which were both de rigueur at the time. I'd argue Blur went on to have a more interesting and varied career but their debut was very much of its time.
With all this talk of the Strokes, I'd add another name to the mix, one who has influenced probably every band I (and I assume countless others) have loved over the last 25 years....

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Bliney haven't heard that in years, completely forgot about it.

Have you read, See you in the bathroom? It's a great book chronicling the NY punk scene of that time - a decent read.
 
No Pistols without the New York Dolls and Ramones.

But hey, my offering is Robyn Hitchcock (with or without the Egyptians) / The Soft Boys.

Huge influence on the 80s paisley guitar revival in the States, inc REM.

And….. and….. AND…… you can’t tell me that the song Oceanside from 1991 Hitchcock album Perspex Island did not have a massive influence on the sound Noel Gallagher wanted for Oasis! And even Liam’s vocals
Oceansiiiiiiiiiiide Sunshiiiiiiiiiine!
 
The_Lizards_Jumpers said:
But you're looking at it from a musos perspective - that's not what you said, you claimed Blur were instrumental in getting people to move away from dance music / boys bands as they'd impacted on popular culture before Oasis.

I can guarantee that I was one of probably 3 people in the 5th year of Acklam Grange who'd heard Modern Life is Rubbish when it was released, everyone else was still listening to SL2, UB40 and Apache Indian, and didn't start to listen to guitar bands until mid-late 1994 and into 1995 when both Oasis and Blur gained momentum and widespread recognition.

They were still playing the Old Trout in Windsor and Aylesbury Civic Centre in 1994, or headlining the tent at T in the Park such was their level of influence beyond indie kids.
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SL2. Now you're talking.
 
Brian Marwood said:
How about The Sugarhill Gang for first bringing rap to the mainstream?

Without them we wouldn't have had Kanye West and Vanilla Ice.
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There's an argument for Blondie then, as they had the first hit single with rap, Rapture. She was very into the underground scene in NYC and got to see rap as it started to gather a scene and wanted to adopt it and got Fab 5 Freddy to work with Blondie. The impact from that single then paved the way for people like Public Enemy, Run DMC and on to the Beastie Boys etc.
 
BoroMart said:
There's an argument for Blondie then, as they had the first hit single with rap, Rapture. She was very into the underground scene in NYC and got to see rap as it started to gather a scene and wanted to adopt it and got Fab 5 Freddy to work with Blondie. The impact from that single then paved the way for people like Public Enemy, Run DMC and on to the Beastie Boys etc.
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Hmmm Rappers Delight was 1979 and Rapture was 1980. The scene was almost over by then.
 
BoroMart said:
and they wouldn't exist without the Stooges, and I'd argue they wouldn't exist without some of the Beatles work like the White Album.
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There is a through-line from Helter Skelter to so bands/styles in my opinion. Still prefer the original slower demo version though. (y)
 
The mid to late 80s period of white people doing a rap song was amazing. Wham Rap! Ant Rap! I think people quickly realised they were terrible and so instead of doing a whole song they would put them in place of the guitar solo. I'm serious as cancer when I say rhythm is a dancer.

It's also worth pointing out that Debbie Harry's rap in rapture is toe curlingly bad.

And you get in your car and drive real far
And you drive all night and then you see a light
And it comes right down and it lands on the ground
And out comes a man from Mars
And you try to run but he's got a gun
And he shoots you dead and he eats your head

No amount of drugs can excuse that.
 
Brian Marwood said:
Hmmm Rappers Delight was 1979 and Rapture was 1980. The scene was almost over by then.
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If you're going to look at the birth of hip hop then it's got to be DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaattaa and Grandmaster Flash who were running the original block parties and started to mix and scratch, as well as paving the way for the B-boys who helped define hip hop culture, which in turn paved the way for people like Kanye, Jay-Z and the Beasties.

I'm not sure that Public Enemy are name checking Blondie as an influence, even if she brought it to a white audience who perhaps wouldn't have heard it.
 
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