Sonic Youth vs Killing Joke
 

A friend of mine in work claimed today that Killing Joke are more influential than Sonic Youth. I think he is so wrong. What does any one else think?

Their influence is probably even.

I think that calculating influence is one of the more tiresome and pointless preoccupations of "music aficionados."

I'm unaware of Killing Joke's influence just as I am about Sonic Youth's.

Oh, my second answer was, "who gives two shits?"

But I'm too nice of a person.

I've never heard a single Killing Joke tune.

Complete nonsense. While Killing Joke are important on some levels (and, incidentally, a band I really like) to compare them in terms of cultural or musical importance to SY is missing several points, massively.
Probably Killing Joke's main contribution to popular culture is the riff for Come As You Are ;)

I dunno how influential either band is, really, but I do know that Thurston Moore himself is a pretty influential figure to a lot of people, so there you go.

killing joke is not even close.

sonic youth have affected 100 times more musicians and bands

Killing Joke is really not one of Moore's better works, and certainly not one of his more influential. From Hell, Swamp Thing, Promethea, Watchmen...

Wait, what? ;)

hahahahh!!!!!!!!!!!

I would never have put these 2 bands aside each other, but its an interesting exercise. I really dig the first 5 K-Joke lps. They really created a new and powerful sound. I'd assert K-Joke were a better singles band than SY. Revelations remains one of my all time favorite albums. And Thurston never quit his music career and went to Iceland with his fans because he thought the world was going to end. When Jazz did that T was still selling popsicles on the street. really.

I think if you were to add up the total record sales of bands influenced by each, you'd probably find that Killing Joke were the more influential. The whole industrial metal scene has one hell of a lot to thank them for. Not that that's necessarily a good thing, of course.

Killing Joke are one of the worst bands I've ever heard. They should have called themselves The Joke.

Haha, let's not forget that Killing Joke influenced Metallica!

I can think of more bands off the top of my head that SY obviously influenced than I can the Joke, who were an early influence in that industrial metal thing for sure but you can't really say someone like Static X probably has any kind of clue who they were...

I love early Killing Joke, but I fear that the main influence they may have had on a lot of bands is to say that if a good post-punk band were to compromise their principles and let the producers and label call the shot, they could be marketed as "alternative" and make a stab at the mainstream. Thankfully that proposition didn't influence Sonic Youth, who never made the equivalent of a "Brighter Than 1,000 Suns" or "Outside the Gate".

eighties.

heard one killing joke song!

was proper wank!

Old thread but thought I'd chime in...I wonder if in 2015 more people would now say Killing Joke is at least as influential if not more influential than Sonic Youth. Killing Joke is really one of the big three postpunk bands, Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Killing Joke, and they did all sorts of crazy and experimental things with music and guitar that even probably influenced Sonic Youth, let alone tons of other bands, for years more than Sonic Youth did. If you listen to, e.g,. Killing Joke on Revelations, Fire Dances, and Nighttime, even their earlier two albums, or Siouxise and the Banshee's Join Hands album, or even the song Monitor on Juju, etc, they really do predate some experimental things Sonic Youth did. (Incidentally, same with King Crimson, they did a lot of experimental things Sonic Youth did later, if you listen to their album Red or Larks Tongue in Aspic, or even their less-good 80s stuff). Killing Joke--their early records, up through Nighttime, are hugely challenging and experimental and often have drums and guitar and bass parts and tones and song structures that are highly influential on music as we now know it, including likely on the music of Sonic Youth.

The thing is, Killing Joke, Siouxsie, and Joy Division influenced tons, tons, tons and tons of bands, and it would be hard to think that Sonic Youth, who were so into music and obscure bands and experimental bands, would not have listened to a ton of these three original postpunk bands and have been influenced by them. Check out, e.g, Revelations and Fire Dances by Killing Joke--not just some of the guitars, but I think a lot of the really crazy drumming by Steve Shelley on Sister and Daydream Nation is possibly influenced by the crazy tribal, tom-heavy, complicated Killing Joke drums, as well as the song structures and guitar sounds, etc.

That said, there is a lot of not-good Killing Joke, their best records are probably Revelations, Fire Dances, and Nighttime, in my opinion. Most of their stuff after Nighttime, especially their 90s stuff could be mostly considered really bad. That said, I really like Evol, Sister, and Daydream Nation, and never liked Sonic Youth's post-Goo stuff very much, but the best of Killing Joke and Sonic Youth are amazing. Anyway, I think more and more people realize how influential bands like Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Killing Joke are, they really influenced all of punk/postpunk/emo/experimental/alternative music, at least as much as if not more than Sonic Youth I would think, even just given that by the mid/late 80s/90s when SY hit their stride, Killing Joke etc. all had already been very influential for a very long time. Killing Joke were already very popular in the early 80s, influencing the very musical environment in which Sonic Youth started getting popular in the late 1980s/1990s.

I don't know Killing Joke's music I must admit. interesting fact though, Alex Paterson was Killing Joke's roadie plus influenced by them and therefore you could say they have little part in creation of The Orb (completely different music tho.)