Genre-defining musicians (MSNBC)

[Brian Damage]

The Beatles/Rock
1964: It’s often recalled as a defining moment in rock 'n’ roll history; general enthusiasts, on the other hand, are more apt to remember it as a decisive year in the advancement of modern music itself. It the year John, Paul, Ringo and George traversed the Atlantic, and invaded the United States. Sporting moptops, black suits and their unique brand of dance-yer-socks-off rock, the British hipsters spawned dozens of chart-toppers, ruling American airwaves for more than a decade with a spate of No. 1 hits, before calling it quits in 1970. Numbers don’t lie: With more than 100 million albums sold — “Revolver” (1966), “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (1967) and “Abbey Road” (1969) among the group’s heavy hitters — the Beatles boys are widely considered to be among the most influential musicians of the century.

[Brian Damage]

The Ramones/Punk
"Live fast, die young and leave a beautiful corpse.” The Ramones’ macabre, if somewhat boiler plate punk philosophy, permeated three decades of musical exploration, raising the band from the depths of utter obscurity as veterans of New York’s rowdy club circuit, to crowning icons of the burgeoning anti-authoritarian movement. In the early '70s, well before the Sex Pistols and Buzzcocks began banging out their youthful angst to the sound of ear-piercing distortion, the Ramones were knocking out two-minute thrashers on CBGB’s beer-soaked stage. I challenge any self-respecting rocker to track down more legitimate punk than three-chord masterpieces, “Blitzkrieg Bop,” “Beat on the Brat” and “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue.”

[Brian Damage]

Sunny Day Real Estate/Emo
You may not know 'em, but chances are, through the emotive, spine-tingling vocals of today’s biggest alternative bands, you’ve heard bits and pieces of their musical legacy. Spawned on the streets of Seattle in the early '90s, Sunny Day Real Estate ventured into the scene during the heyday of the city’s grunge explosion — Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains racked up heavy radio rotation — to become a counter-culture voice for the groups of soul-searching hipsters who shunned the top 40 stylings of the period. Employing Jeremy Enigk’s high-pitched squeal, the group cast itself as the original emo band (emo, for emotional), before members of similarly (albeit contentiously) branded contemporary artists (Fall Out Boy, Panic! At the Disco, My Chemical Romance) were old enough to drive.

[Brian Damage]

Sugarhill Gang/Rap
“Rapper’s Delight” may not have been the genre’s proudest moment (the Sugarhill Gang postdated a slew of other pioneering rappers and was assembled by an enterprising record label looking to capitalize on the fad), but it’s certainly one of the most enduring. The track, which led to the brand’s commonly referenced name, rap, garnered the crew more than 8 million record sales, and top 40 status on the charts — a notable first for the budding music style. Now, nearly three decades later, even though most people can’t name even one of the band’s fast-talking mcs (Wonder Mike, Big Bank Hank and Master Gee if you’re wondering) or rap more than a quick, “hip, hop, the hippie the hippie to the hip, hip, hop,” the crew’s beats live on. Literally.

[Brian Damage]

Donna Summer/Disco
You don’t pick up a name like the “Queen of Disco” for nothing. During the 1970s, Summer employed her reign as the first identifiable voice of the genre, with a string of hits (“Love to Love You Baby,” “Spring Affair” and “Try Me”) that drew hordes of platform-shoe-wearing clubbers onto the dance floor to shimmy-shake beneath the glow of the disco ball. Even after three consecutive gold albums, when a swarm of carpet-bagging musicians, hoping to exploit Summer’s unique sound, began sprouting up around the globe (yeah, you can thank the disco songstress for the Village People and ABBA), her influence remained intact. Long live the queen.

[MarKus]

Originally Posted by Brian Damage

The Beatles/Rock
1964: It’s often recalled as a defining moment in rock 'n’ roll history; general enthusiasts, on the other hand, are more apt to remember it as a decisive year in the advancement of modern music itself. It the year John, Paul, Ringo and George traversed the Atlantic, and invaded the United States. Sporting moptops, black suits and their unique brand of dance-yer-socks-off rock, the British hipsters spawned dozens of chart-toppers, ruling American airwaves for more than a decade with a spate of No. 1 hits, before calling it quits in 1970. Numbers don’t lie: With more than 100 million albums sold — “Revolver” (1966), “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (1967) and “Abbey Road” (1969) among the group’s heavy hitters — the Beatles boys are widely considered to be among the most influential musicians of the century.

yeah they're one of the greatest band of all time.....

[Nighthawk76]

I totally agree with The Beatles. However, I am surprised that MSNBC picked Donna Summer over the Bee Gees. Donna did have many great songs, but she didn't have as much influnence as the Brothers Gibb. And where is Led Zeppelin?

[TJL]

What about Polka?

[Mikado]

Originally Posted by TJL

What about Polka?

WALTER OSTANEK, THE KING!!!!

[ABlairican Pie]

Black Sabbath/heavy metal

As the naive hippie idealism of Woodstock crashed with the horrifying violence and bloodshed at Altamont in 1969, as well as the pending breakup of The Beatles and various drug-related deaths of some of rock's biggest names, one band from England sprang up from the tail end of the 60's to release a pivotal debut album on Valentine's Day of 1970. The band was Black Sabbath, from the industrial city of Birmingham whose loud, dark and droning sound heralded the end of the Flower Power pipe dream. Disgusted with the peaceful love anthems praising the San Francisco scene, Black Sabbath played music whose apocalyptic themes reflected their harsh upbringing with the promise of only drudgery in a world filled with war and poverty. They took the sound of the declining British blues scene and turned up their amps to eleven, while guitarist Tony Iommi, whose fingertips were severed in a workplace accident tuned his guitar strings down to a low C#, out of necessity to relieve pressure on his plastic coated fingers, for a murky, doomy sound. Add to the mix the vocal talents of John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne, whose throaty wail would become familiar for the next four decades and establish him later as a bona fide solo star with a reputation of rock's biggest wild man. In the fall of that year, the first album to fully define metal, 'Paranoid', would feature classics such as "War Pigs", "Iron Man", "Electric Funeral", whose massive power chords would pulsate with electric energy with lyrics of doom, fear, and insanity. Other albums would follow, inspiring future generations of disenfranchised youngsters who would pick up a guitar and create their own impenetrable wall of volume on mountains of amplifiers.