The Null Device

NME names The Smiths as the most influential artist of the past 50 years, edging out the Beatles. In the Plastic thread, there is some outrage from people who don't understand why a pack of whining nobodies could be more influential than the Beatles, and countercriticism questioning whether songs like "She Loves You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" are that much more significant than the likes of "Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Loves Me" or "The Queen Is Dead".

Meanwhile, the Stone Roses are at #3; which seems a bit odd. (I don't mind the Stone Roses, but are they really the third most influential band of our time?)

There are 7 comments on "":

Posted by: Graham http:// Wed Apr 17 08:50:19 2002

umm. where's kraftwerk in all this?

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Wed Apr 17 09:05:00 2002

It's NME. Who, these days, are something like Smash Hits for twentysomethings.

Posted by: Jimbob http://the-fix.org Thu Apr 18 01:59:20 2002

The list seems to be based on how often the band appeared in NME, rather than how much they actually INFLUENCED other artists. I can't think of too many artists who's style of music has been really influeced by the Smiths...which isn't to say they weren't a great band, and that lots of artists claim to be fans of the Smiths. I can see the inflence of the Beatles, Sex Pistols, Public Enemy, Paul Weller being legit. And surely Joy Division/New Order should have been on there.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Thu Apr 18 05:26:59 2002

If there were no Smiths, would the twee pop movement as we know it exist?

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Thu Apr 18 15:32:19 2002

I can't wait for NME's list of most influential artists in a few years' time; I imagine half of it will be overproduced all-girl R&B-pop bands or something.

Posted by: Jimbob http://the-fix.org Fri Apr 19 03:18:18 2002

Twee will eat itself.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Fri Apr 19 07:49:40 2002

It probably will. Though I must confess to a soft spot for various Sarah Records acts (the Field Mice, Even As We Speak and such).

Belle and Sebastian's overdoing it a bit though (partly because of their 1960s retro too; at least the Field Mice were contemporary and fairly sharp), And I haven't heard any of the garage bands from the US twee scene labels (Kindercore/Twee Kitten/whatever).