Influence
 

This is something that always gets thrown around by classic rock fanboys and sane people alike... influence. I was just on Facebook, and saw the same old "if The Beatles never came along your favorite band wouldn't exist" spiel. I'm not going to discredit The Beatles here, but if they hadn't come along, surely someone else would have that would have broken the same ground they did. I believe my favorite bands, or at least similar ones would have come along regardless of the existence of this manifestation, if you will, of musical ground being broken.

Thoughts?

I think it happens regardless of who does it. It's just a matter of the right ingredients at the right time.

Yeah but just because it would happen eventually doesn't mean you shouldn't credit those who actually did it. Certainly, if you did, many great accomplishments (setting foot on the moon for example) would have gone unappreciated.

But he said he's not discrediting them...he just doesn't agree that the same musical ground wouldn't have been broken by someone else.

Its like saying that if Alexander Graham Bell wasn't born, telephones never would have been invented and perfected. Someone would have gotten around to it eventually. But no one discredits him for his accomplishment either.

I've never been able to gage the amount of influence that one artist has on another unless it's completely obvious. I don't say that this band would have never been around hadn't this band came about. Everyone has their own sound. Though sometimes it's pretty obvious. Like in the case of Amesoeurs. They, I believe, started the Black Metal/Shoegaze sort of genre that I've been following closely. I don't know of anyone who was doing it before them, but if anyone was, I'd like to know who. That way I can listen to them/their music for long periods of time.

@ NSW

Exactly. I'd give kudos to whoever does it, as long as it is done. I respect the folks who innovate in music and move it forward into a good place, but I don't think that if it happened to be someone else then they deserve less respect. That wouldn't make sense to me at all.

x3

If it wasn't the Beatles, it would have been another group. It's not like they were the only great and innovative band out there, it's just they were discovered and others either did or didn't at all get noticed.

Exactly. All the right things came together for them at the right time. I think things will always find a way to evolve and I can't say the Beatles would have been the only way for music to evolve that way.

Sure, I'm there there are all kinds of external factors that must be taken into consideration. Market pressure for a "new sound" would certainly have been one of them. Evolving technology is another.

I would be inclined to think that the repressed culture of the 50s had more to do with music evolution than The Beatles did, but what do you guys think?