SY. Most influential band ever? Asks the NME
 

on the cover of this weeks edition. Don't know yet what conclusion they've drawn - one of the most inluential at least.

The distiction between "influential" and "inspiring" is often overlooked.

I would love to believe they are, but if you asked 90% of the apply in my demographic who Sonic Youth is they would not have a clue. Its sad.

i got SYR7 finally the other week, and told some friends at work. I'd downloaded it with an i-tunes voucher they got me for my birthday.
they thought it was a game....

i cried a bit

Very true.

Yeah, but I think SY did more of both than just about anyone, except for the goddamn Bealtes, whom I love, and the Velvet Underground.

Used to be a saying that everyone who heard the Velvets picked up a guitar and started a band. I think it's close enough to the truth.

There's just no way that Sonic Youth can come close to either the Beatles or the Velvet Underground.

Probably the Sex Pistols were more influential too.

Sonic Youth were quite possibly the most influential band of the 1980's, though! Things like the Smiths might give them competition even there.

I guess the 80's is close enough to "ever" for NME!

As much I love SY, I don´t think they have made not much somebody else has made before. I think they just made unique mix from the before heard elements. Here are few examples from the sixties, that could put into some SYR-release and no-one notices, it isn´t SY:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDhg6xi1qgo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYxNE3Y6uPk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ob4G...eature=related

But of course if the question is also how many have heard those and how many SY, then SY is really influental.

THANK YOU those links are so good I am going to check that shit out

No fucking way. Sorry. Are they the best band ever? Possibly. But its the Beatles. No question.

Those crazy Fins, this is pretty whacked and far out, upon a quick listen that stuff relates more with a band like the Dead C. than SY, as Sperm is not very accessible sounding (however I love it and need to find this stuff!). SY tried and somewhat successfully straddled the line of being accessible rock/pop and at the same time be avant, experimental and free form, there have been other bands and artists who have done this of course but i don't think any have been as successful at doing both, but that can of course be debated... i have to agree that the correct term is "inspiring" in looking at music as a broad spectrum, they have of course been labeled as "influential" but really there strongest influence has been on a smaller scale... ie 80's/90's indie rock and the 00's noise scenes.

I agree about that SY is the band that could bring noise-elements much more popular than any other. But disagree about the Sperm relating SY, I really hear lots of same in Airaksinen´s 60 stuff and SY SYR-stuff. Of course it´s very possible Thurston and co have never heard Airaksinen, but it´s not also impossible. In the nineties Thurston liked a lot Finnish eighties hardcore. And it´s some US labels that have re-released the Sperm and Airaksinen. Also Sperm guitarist gave Sperm album to Kim Fowley and he ask him to give it to Frank Zappa. Fowley was produsing Wigwam that time in Finland. Anyway Airaksinen was really ahead of his time, because guitar-based noise music started in the other side of the world in the middle of seventies. But he hasn´t do any guitar-noise after seventies.

Sorry I didn't know the history of Sperm or Airaksinen, so i was shooting in the dark and just drawing a quick opinion based on those youtube samples, but i will agree with you in relation to alot of the SYR, I'm very intrigued by both of these groups... as much as its made public how much of a musicologist thurston is, i would be suprised if he knew nothing about this Finnish music... with that said i really dig those youtube tracks and i need to hear more!

Where is that Sperm record available? Sounds great.

I knew I saw it reissued a while ago

http://www.discogs.com/Sperm-Shh-Hei.../master/164104

its been on a few blogs too, pre-megaupload meltdown.

oop al label: http://destijlrecs.com/039.html

here you go: http://www.midheaven.com/item/shh-by-sperm-lp

I'm not even sure they were the most influential of the '80s US underground.

Many would say it was the Pixies.

Sonic Youth is the most influential band of the last 32 years.

I think this is really the meat of the matter right here. And it was said so early on that it kind of makes the discussion a moot point. People see SY, or hear SY, and are inspired by the fact that a band that's totally doing its own thing can be successful. They think, "hey, maybe I can do that too!"...

Then they pick up guitars and write derivative music that's nowhere near as good.

Bands really have failed to acknowledge the best thing about Sonic Youth: their music. Instead, they try to replicate their image and their ethos. That's not to say that Sonic Youth's image and ethics regarding industry aren't admirable, because they are, but those things do not make them the great band they are.
So many bands cite SY as influences, and so many critics reference them as influences, but very few bands have actually taken musical cues from Sonic Youth. Very few bands have ever attempted to actually sound like them, but hundreds have tried to be like them in other ways.

Florida doesn't have a clue, period. Gorgeous state w/ little interest in the arts. Or perhaps, the arts have little interest in Florida. I can see how playing the state might seem a little out of the way for more notable touring bands.

I enjoyed living there. I still enjoy visiting it periodically as parts of it are beyond pretty....but so seldom do touring bands actually play there anymore. Whenever Kid Rock plays Club La Vela folks go ballistic. I was shocked Mudhoney played there a few years ago. At that time they said it had been ages since they last played FL.

The most influential band over the past 30 years? How does one even go about determining this? Even further, what qualifications must one have to be a trusted to come up with such a determination?

A ton of music has occured over the past 30 years. I'd say Nirvana was pretty damned influential, as their influence can still be heard in plenty of today's music...however, Nirvana was also known to quote dozens of bands as their own influences, not to mention they were notorious for blatantly stealing the riffs of other bands (this is very common place in rock music).

Were the Sex Pistols an influential band deserving credit as being as such? For sure...even though they were basically (as countless others have) ripping off The Stooges and tons of New York shit (Sorry, Johnny...but Richard Hell DID do it first...or at least before you did. I still think yr cool, though).

I can't be bothered with this sort of jazz. That said, I still think in a perfect world Sonic Youth should be just as big, if not bigger, than the Beatles. I mean, they basically approached their influences in the same way...taking elements of what they like from other artists, and blending it together into a sonic stew.

What would Nirvana have been without the Melvins? Would they even exist? I personally feel confident in saying I don't think so...at least, not as we know them. But Nirvana are, and will always, be bigger than the Melvins. It's all a shame. A shame that doesn't matter. Who'd the Melvins have been without Black Flag?

Rock Magazines pretty much always suck. They'll write about any 'ol bullshit people will buy(mostly lame folks lacking anything in the way of an intellectual outlook toward music...the sort that will say "of course Page was badass, he was voted #3 best ever on such-n-such poll). lol.

I know who the best/most influential are to me...and that's all that matters.

Some asshole get's paid money to write about the most influential artists over the past 30 years...and people find that interesting? Don't waste yr coin, please, kiddies. Go buy some records and form yr own reviews instead.