Re: Single Most Influential 20th Century Pop Musician

[Ndubb]

<< The most influential pop musicians of the 20th century are, in order: 
 
 1) Louis Armstrong
 2) Elvis Presley
 3) James Brown
 4) Bing Crosby
 
 Armstrong and Crosby loom over the first half of the century the way Elvis
 and JB do the second. 
 
 Who's #5? Mahalia? Ellington? The Beatles or Dylan? Hank? I don't know, but
 those first four, man, no one can touch them. --david cantwell >>

Well, in order to reel in this madness, let's focus on rock, instead of pop. 
Who then? Elvis, Dylan or Cash or... ? I still stand by Dylan over Cash 
easily, but there's a good argument to be made that Elvis wins over Dylan. 
After all, he did define the sound, and he gets props for being maybe the 
first punk rocker by virture of swiveling his hips and all. Even still, 
nowadays, it makes much more sense to me to invoke Dylan, as I guess you all 
have discerned by now. And that's not just because *my* singing voice is 
stuck in my nose too.

Neal Weiss
np - Forces of Nature soundtrack