Most influencial

[philosopherqueen]

Who was the most influencial musician to you and why?

[Aristoddler]

Maynard James Keenan.

Lead singer of Tool, and Perfect Circle.
His voice is phenomenal, he has great range, and his songs have meaning, which is more than I can say for almost any musician that has risen in the past 30 years.
He's done duets with Tori Amos, Deftones, and Luciano Pavarotti.

Smart dude, and a great singer.

[Wizzy]

Immortal Technique

Great rapper, refuced to become comercial, great meanings in his songs..
Never done his music to earn money or fame, just because he wants to tell the world of what he have to say..
"Land of the Gun" <- one of the best songs ever..

How about you?

[de Silentio]

Pink Floyd. There's something about they way David Gilmour sings with his guitar that gives me an ethereal experience.

Tool is another great band. Maynard sings with an immense amount of passion. Well, he used to at least.

However, I don't think music has much of an 'influence' on me, like say reading a book or having a discussion would. It is more passive enjoyment. (Although, when I listen to an album like Anema, I feel like getting into a fight!)

[de_budding]

Originally Posted by Aristoddler

Lead singer of Tool

You got taste Aristoddler- as far as Tool goes there is non better for vocals, what is most intriguing is the vocals in songs like Stinkfist- which are intentionally filtered to remove that strikingly human frequency range that we are all drawn to, and placed further back in the mix than most bands dare. The vocals in Stinkfist are a protest against the fact that the musical laymen is attracted to the human voice's frequency range in a song, especially when it is put front and centre of the mix (front-back of a song is derived from amplitude and reverb.)

Also the man’s practically a poet, the lyrics to The Pot are again teasing the less musically capable fans who don't 'listen' to the bands music in the way the band would like. The title is 'the pot' which weighed against the cunning content of the mix seems to refer to the drug cannabis, what it actually refers to is the 'the pot calling the kettle black' and all the cannabis references are deliberate mispronunciations of words to trick the less observant listeners into misconstruing the songs actual content.
Also the pot was nominated for a Grammy.

The drummer- is the best rhythmical drummer there is
The bassist- is in the best rhythmical bassist there is
And the guitar work and singing displays such a competent knowledge of time signatures, polyrhythm, polymetre etc. That it is not too extreme to automatically start referring to Tool as one of the most artistic bands of modern music.

So obviously Tool are my main influence, but not because of all of the above, but because they execute the whole lot with maximum subtlety, no showing off, no needless solos- the song structure and flow gets as much attention as the rest and this is the most impressive thing by far, many people listen to the drummer and dismiss him as of average talent, but he is one of the most competent and rhythmically fluent drummers I have heard.

After Tool I am only enclined to listen to bands that technically impress me, which is usually thrashing trashing metal and black metal.

Jazz, swing and soul are my other great loves in music but they all require brass sections to play which I have never had available to me, so I can only ever play along to the likes at home alone .

[philosopherqueen]

I love Pink Floyd. I'm so glad someone else mentioned them!!!

If you haven't heard of jamestown story, I recommend that you listen to them. They have one song called Goodbye, where they speak out against suicide and incourage people to get help. They even list the number in the song.

[Vasska]

I guess I have to say Nightwish around 2003-2006 for it introduced me to other forms of music (metal, Gothic etc) and from that I gently turned to other bands in the same genre, and slowly to the music I listen today.
But many bands have influenced me in different ways, far to numerous to mention. It would be hard to make a soundtrack of my life by the numbers of artists.

I must admit that *Nsync was the first group that I bought a single from, I was 12 back then. So in a way *Nsync was my first entrance to (populair) music.

[urangutan]

Musician would have to be Jean Michel Jarre, he took the step beyond Vangelis unless you don't want to count the Synthesizer as an instrument, which would leave me with Dave Brubeck. Bob Dylan and Neil Young are a close tie and Pink Floyd as a band. If I have to comment on pop, I will just say I am in it for the beat and a good voice, which reminds me I do like that little Icelandic chic, Bjork. She reclassifies good caberet. I know that most if not all of you have never heard of Andy Durant, but he encapsulated songs that catergorised Australia that come out of the sixties and learnt in the seventies. Anyone who performed at his memorial concert will stand by that.

[Didymos Thomas]

Robert Johnson.

Basically, everyone mentioned in this thread depends upon his genius. And you would be hard pressed to find a better example of solo blues performance.

But there are so many to chose from!

Robert Johnson is a heavy influence to me even without his own recordings. Imagine the careers of Eric Clapton or the members of Led Zeppelin without those Johnson tunes. No Crossroads, no Traveling Riverside Blues. Next to Robert Johnson, Led Zeppelin would be my primary influence. As a drummer, hearing John Bonham for the first time was mind-blowing. When I imagine what a band should be, Zeppelin is the archetype.

For more modern examples, the choice is a split decision between 311 and Sublime.

[Aedes]

Easy, Tom Waits and Bob Dylan. Absolute geniuses with words, images, and ideas.