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There have been moments in the last couple years where I have been at a show enjoying myself immensely, and when I turned around, I saw every person in that room obviously enjoying themselves just as much, and that included people ranging in age and walk-of-life from teens to middle-aged record collector and various ethnicities, orientations, and gender identities. And we were all enjoying music which was diversely influenced. Therefore, I do suppose that the band would have diverse influence going forward.
Generally, bands that are diversely influenced may become diversely influential. And vice versa.....like, skapunk for instance. Whereas the first few bands to introduce ska to punk rock were hugely influential, helping usher in the enormous dub influence evident in postpunk, there was a certain evolution of skapunk which narrowed itself into oblivion after spiking the punch only minimally with an inbred strain of pop-punk and "melodic hardcore" in the early- to mid-90s. Checking back on the development of other strands of evolution tracing back to the Specials via the Pop Group and Mark Stewart + the Maffia, you would find stuff like Scorn and too many genres of techno and jungle/dnb to name half of them.
What is the most influential is the best of what's happening in any era, and that's why I would just suppose anyone who calls themselves a "serious" music fan to at least try it on for size. (And if they don't like it, just wait for the next thing, or start your own band. Hey, I account for variances in taste!)
So, what's next? Shall we argue about what I mean by "serious" or "fan"?
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