Often, the most groundbreaking rock bands in history aren’t as commercially successful as the household names they influenced. Some groups create new genres by breaking from tradition, which, at the time, doesn’t appeal to a wide audience. The Ramones, for example, never topped the charts. But how differently would U2, Metallica, and The Clash sound without them?
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Let’s look at four groundbreaking bands that influenced your favorite band(s).
Dinosaur Jr.
When J Mascis and Lou Barlow graduated from high school, they listened to Black Sabbath and Neil Young. At the time, these weren’t two artists you’d imagine sharing fans. Though in time, the gloomy riffs of Tony Iommi and the proto-grunge of Crazy Horse would echo across MTV and radio with the rise of alternative rock in the early 90s.
Mascis, with Barlow on bass, and the drummer Murph formed Dinosaur Jr. and recorded “ear-bleeding country” songs that unwittingly shaped the future of indie rock. Dinosaur Jr. and Mascis’s distorted guitar style can be heard in Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Lemonheads, My Bloody Valentine, Kurt Vile, and many others. If you see someone with a Fender Jazzmaster and Big Muff, they likely got the idea from Mascis.
Pixies
The Big Muff distortion pedal helped define the sound of alternative rock and grunge. But the song format of a quiet verse followed by a (very) loud chorus was also crucial to the biggest alt-rock hits. Black Francis perfected this style in Pixies. Then everyone from Nirvana, Radiohead, and Weezer followed suit: “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, “Creep”, and “Say It Ain’t So”.
Pixies never achieved the commercial success of the bands they inspired. But without Come On Pilgrim, Surfer Rosa, and Doolittle, rock music would have sounded very different.
Magazine
Howard Devoto left Buzzcocks in 1977 and formed Magazine in Manchester, England, with guitarist John McGeoch. The band’s first two albums, Real Life and Secondhand Daylight, proved to be transformative post-punk releases.
McGeoch, in particular, spawned a new generation of guitar heroes who eschewed the blues rock tradition. His work with Magazine and Siouxsie and the Banshees gave the textural blueprint for The Smiths, Radiohead, and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ John Frusciante.
The Velvet Underground
It’s hard to imagine punk rock without The Velvet Underground. After John Cale left the band, he produced seminal albums by The Stooges, Patti Smith, and The Modern Lovers. Meanwhile, Lou Reed’s combination of talk-singing, seedy poetry, and avant-garde guitar playing helped define punk, glam, and art rock. It’s not out of line to say that The Velvet Underground were nearly as influential as The Beatles.
Pop culture in the 1960s wasn’t ready for the Velvets. However, Talking Heads, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, R.E.M., and The Strokes all share DNA with the world’s first alternative rock band.
Photo by Cara Totman / Courtesy of Pitch Perfect PR
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