You thought wrong.

Just how popular is RTJ? I honestly have no idea. Among music fans it's obviously mainstream, but I don't hear any plebs talking about them. As far as I know RTJ is more high profile but El-P is just as well known even if his actual albums are a bit more under the radar. And sounds to me like El-P's **** will be talked about for longer even if it's not all quite as accessible in general.

They're filling up arenas like El was never able to do. I do think that El-P's music will have a lot of staying power and won't suffer as much from being dated in the future, but I think RTJ has simply reached people on a far wider level than either artist has and that's a large factor in what we call classics.

...Or is it? Half of my reasoning for making this thread is wondering how the bar for how we define classics has changed. Do personal favourites have more pull now? Or does it just make a lot more sense to have genre classics instead of simply "The Essentials of [Time Period]"? Because come to think of it, while I think RTJ will be remembered on a widespread level because of them being a big voice in festival culture, El-P will definitely be considered to be the more classic artist among the heads.

RTJ are quite popular. They performed on the main stage at Glastonbury quite high up the queue for what that's worth.

I think it's fair to say that RTJ is a cross-cultural success that does deserve recognition as a major force on the cultural zeitgeist in this decade. Like others have said, they have been selling out shows and playing main stages at multiple fests over the past few years. I've also seen songs show up in TV shows and video games, which isn't the most accurate means of testing something's cross-over success, but it's something at least.

Yep. Their track with DJ Shadow was on the closing credits for an Ozark episode I watched last night for example.

Would a random person off the street definitely know who they were?

I'm gonna go with yes with that qualifier tbh. Do you think that's a relevant enough factor in what's considered a classic these days?

I predict Another Eternity by Purity Ring will become a classic.

:rofl: