Iconic Musical Performers (MJ inspired thoughts)

Awesome, JonJacob!

Thinking we can stick with Nirvana for the 90s and I really like Radiohead for 00s thus far. I never got into them and never listened to any of my friends' nerdgasms over them so I didnt even think of them. They may fit the bill if we conceed that by the 90s, the parameters have to change... the times they are a chaaaaangin'

*cue harmonica*

Radiohead nicks every move from Can and they're iconic? No way.

Public Enemy is absolutely iconic, and they remain the greatest hip hop act of all time. I am so thankful that I got to witness White America's reaction to the rise of acts like PE and NWA. That was the last time, probably in history, that popular music was truly dangerous and threatening.

In fact, if we look through Black music, I think we'll find that there are many tremendous, iconic figures there:

James Brown
Marvin Gaye
Sam Cooke
Jimi Hendrix
Al Green
Isacc Hayes
Tina Turner
Sly Stone
George Clinton (and Bootsy Collins)
Stevie Wonder
Grandmaster Flash
Miles Davis
Sun Ra
Robert Johnson
Nat King Cole

And on, and on, and on.

Nina Simone doesn't get a mention? Jeez...

I think it's far too early to call the 00s. I'm not even sure it's not too early to call the 90s, although Nirvana is a good choice.

I was thinking of Elton John for the 70s as well. ABBA's actually not a bad choice either, but the Bee Gees are probably better. They scream 70s, in music and style.

mjl1783 wrote:

Nina Simone doesn't get a mention? Jeez...

Nina Simone is great, but ten years ago, I didn't have a clue who she was.

As for '80s icons, I was in college from '83 to '87, and there were four major pop icons at that time: Prince, Madonna, Michael Jackson and Springsteen. For bands, it was definitely U2 and REM and to a lesser degree, the Police. These aren't my favorites, but it was impossible to ignore any of these acts at that time.

90s? Nirvana for rock and The Prodigy for dance music.

Michael Barnes wrote:

In fact, if we look through Black music, I think we'll find that there are many tremendous, iconic figures there:

James Brown
Marvin Gaye
Sam Cooke
Jimi Hendrix
Al Green
Isacc Hayes
Tina Turner
Sly Stone
George Clinton (and Bootsy Collins)
Stevie Wonder
Grandmaster Flash
Miles Davis
Sun Ra
Robert Johnson
Nat King Cole

And on, and on, and on.

True but it's always seemed weird to me the way that American's focus on race in music. I could make a list like that of all white performers, and I should be able to do it for asian performers too... but I can't. In Canada it seems different to me, movies like Crash go right over my head because where I grew up these issues weren't there in the same way that American's feel them.

Many people have tried to tell me that Rock is black music but there is just as much white influence as black.. it's just American music to me. Chuck Berry credits Jimmie Rogers and Bill Monroe as much as he credits Willie Dixon and Muddy Waters and for good reason. He played the notes of blues with the driving rhythm of bluegrass (and the little hammer on your E string and the same note on the B string hammered on from the D note bues/Berry trick seen in Johnny B Good... Berry says blatantly that he got it from Monroes' Mandolin technique). But yes...America had many great Black performers but up in Northern Ontario and even still here in B.C. Vancouver I find that the race of the performers means jack shit to me. As a kid I just liked PE because it was rocking and revolutionary... I didin't think about the race stuff in any real way until I was older.

Perhaps Radiohead nckied this Can stuff.. couldn't tell you as in my opinion they either should do a better job nicking shit or steal from someone else b/c I have no time for that band. I can never tell where the home note is because they wonder from vague chord to vague chord without any real punch. Although I don't mind a song or two from their second and third discs. Just saying that they seem like a very powerfull force in music and either your right and no one has noticed except you but the style strikes my as whiny and way too ambitious for the talent they have.

They take themsleves more seriously then Cohen takes himself... but based on their lyrical power they don't have the right.

I still think they're iconic though, but that's based on popular opinion... not my own.

I really like Radiohead, and they are definitely a major band. But I don't think they're iconic, because they are faceless to the general public. Everybody knows faces like Jim Morrison or Prince or David Bowie. But with the exception of Thom Yorke, I don't even know the names of the guys in Radiohead, and I couldn't pick any of them out of a police line-up. Maybe I'm just ignorant, but I suspect that I'm far from alone in that ignorance.

Shellhead wrote:

I really like Radiohead, and they are definitely a major band. But I don't think they're iconic, because they are faceless to the general public. Everybody knows faces like Jim Morrison or Prince or David Bowie. But with the exception of Thom Yorke, I don't even know the names of the guys in Radiohead, and I couldn't pick any of them out of a police line-up. Maybe I'm just ignorant, but I suspect that I'm far from alone in that ignorance.

Johnny Greenwood is pretty damned famous and recently had even more fame with his surprisingly good soundtrack to "There Will Be Blood". I don't know any students who don't know and listen to Radiohead... they're big. Even my Dad has a couple of their albums. But it could just be that when you teach guitar you get to know a different brand of kid because I base a lot of my opinion on what's popular from the kids. Haven't they always been the best litmus test?

I really like Radiohead, and they are definitely a major band. But I don't think they're iconic, because they are faceless to the general public. Everybody knows faces like Jim Morrison or Prince or David Bowie. But with the exception of Thom Yorke, I don't even know the names of the guys in Radiohead, and I couldn't pick any of them out of a police line-up. Maybe I'm just ignorant, but I suspect that I'm far from alone in that ignorance.

You are not alone. You are correct. Most of the music in the 90's and 00's will, in my opinion, not stand the test of time.

True but it's always seemed weird to me the way that American's focus on race in music. I could make a list like that of all white performers, and I should be able to do it for asian performers too... but I can't. In Canada it seems different to me, movies like Crash go right over my head because where I grew up these issues weren't there in the same way that American's feel them.

Yeah I've always been baffled by this, as well. It's interesting though that Prince and Michael Jackson have always been able to transcend the "Black" label when music or performers are discussed.

As a Black Canadian growing up in Western Canada I've had the great pleasure of being exposed to all kinds of music, cinema, literature etc. without racial baggage.

I guess, I don't understand the relevancy of such categorizations.

As a side note: I fucking love Radiohead!

Oh, the whole "Racial baggage" thing is definitely an American problem. When Michael Jackson came out with "Thriller", there were radio stations that wouldn't play it. It was revolutionary that a Black entertainer made the level of crossover success he did- before "Thriller", there was a much more definite divide among music listeners along racial lines. R&B, Soul, and Funk were for Black people. Rock and pop were for white people.

I grew up and still live in the South. The American South, sadly, is notorious for racism and I'll tell you that I still encounter racist ideas and attitudes even today. One of the reasons I quit working at a corporate record store was because I was specifically told by corporate management that I needed to keep a closer eye on my Black employees- not to mention the company started taking the theft deterrent devices off of all the white music, but left them on the hip hop and R&B CDs.

So what you guys are talking about is something that you've been very, very fortunate to not ever have been around. But by the same token, I think you guys missed out on how incendiary NWA and Public Enemey were when they started getting popular- particularly among white kids. I was already into punk and metal and I really responded to the anger and resentment directed at white, middle class America. It was like a bomb going off in the suburbs.

That being said, to grow up without race ever being an issue either way is truly a blessing. I can't tell you how many times I've had to deal with casual, everyday racism from people that are like these "well, between us two white people" comments- from cops, store owners, people in the street, teachers, waiters, and on and on.

I think we all gotta remember that Ska_Baron was looking for iconic, rather than plugging our favorites. The Coke/Monopoly/Kleenex of the world.

I'm not a particularly big fan of Nirvana, but I put them in that role because they were totally unescapable in the 90s, and all of a sudden, everything sounded like them (except the hip-hop/R+B stuff, of course)

Also, I must disqualify Radiohead as being a band of the 00s as all of their best output was in the 90s.
Kid A was in 2000, but that's still the 90s to me.

Other folks have mentioned U2, Springsteen, etc. All big bands, with worldwide popularity. Many of them I enjoy a lot. But honestly, none of them held the sustained public fascination of Jackson or Elvis or the Beatles.

Fuck, I was rabid U2 fan for over a decade, and I can't even listen to the last few albums without getting pissed off.
But I did see Public Enemy live because of them, so current sins don't erase past deeds.

Oh, and dividing things up into decades sort of robs people with a long career arc like Bowie.

Or JAMES BROWN. You want an icon, there's one.

But is he 60s? 70s? who can tell? He wasn't in the public eye as brightly as MJ, but he sure cranked it out a lot longer, with publicity coming and going.

The Stones are another band with a confusing timeline. Are they a 60s band if all the best albums are from the early 70s? Do you have to hold "Miss You" against them in the 70s? I mean, it's disco, everyone's doing it, man...

But by the same token, I think you guys missed out on how incendiary NWA and Public Enemey were when they started getting popular- particularly among white kids. I was already into punk and metal and I really responded to the anger and resentment directed at white, middle class America. It was like a bomb going off in the suburbs.

Good point.

It's funny but my younger brother and his friends (mainly white) were totally into NWA, I think a lot of it had to do the music but there was a definite appeal toward the profanity which at the time was unheard of in mainstream music.

I took more to PE myself.