prince... no question. no explanation necessary. "when doves cry..." odb... ol' dirty b*stard, jesus, whatever. the dude was raw, without boundaries, and no one could contain him. "wu-tang is for the children". his solo album is one of the best ever. nine inch nails sort of randomness. still gza's solo album imho is the best rap/hiphop album EVER. new radicals. such a shame that this group broke up. "give what you give" (or whatever that song was called.) "i don't wanna die" certainly kicked major arse. great album altogether. i wonder what he has been up too lately? marylin manson crack still cracks me up.
Tariq Trotter aka Black Thought aka The Roots . http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=6614625
ahhhh... the roots. was listening to them in the early/mid 90's. "i shall... proceed" was the jam. it's funny how people think that kanye and lupe are originators. east coast rappers were so far ahead of their time that it's just phocking ridiculous. the roots, indeed, fall under the category of "ahead of their time". neo soul. the genre still hasn't gathered a commercial following, but that's good for us and bad for them.
Wire - go listen to their first three albums: Pink Flag, 154, Chairs Missing. You'll swear you've heard these songs before - and you haven't. You've just heard every band in the past 25 years that wished they were Wire, some of whom have directly ripped them off (lawsuit style). The Butthole Surfers - HA HA BUTTHOLE! That's generally how people respond to the name. But (ha ha) take a listen to the stuff they recorded in the 80s - and tell me they weren't onto something different. Sure, they had a hit once - but how many bands have you heard say, "we were influenced by the Butthole Surfers"? Not many I bet - and that's because most of them are either lying or they just don't know any better. Nick Drake - Sure you've heard his songs. Even if you don't know it, you have. The confessional/heartbroken singer-songwriter thing has been done a million times, but it's only been done well once. Ta-da.
the only artists listed that were truly "ahead of their time" listed so far are Wire and The Pixies. Even groups/people listed that I love, such as Nick Drake, Butthole Surfers, and 13th floor Elevatrors were rehashing "popular" sounds of the time. Nick Drake came along after the initial folk movement, The Butthole surfers were just doing the whole drugged out psych-punk sound every band in Austin was doing in the mid-80's, and the Elevators were no different than any other psych band at the time except for the fact they were fronted by a man that eventually went crazy.
Prince???? I guess it is that how MJordan is underrated type thing PM Dawn Seal Dionne Farris Des'ree Scarface [Ghetto Boys] Willie D [ Ghetto Boys - his solo album was actually pretty decent] Rocket RIver
Bad Brains. They took the Ramones and sped it up even faster. They would play so fast it became something else entirely, like jazz or something. And it was all done from the heart. Hardcore punk was what other people made out of it, but they were much more than that. And they were black guys doing it.
DEVO - the band started in 1973. they were playing "punk/new wave" on homemade synthesizers and releasing 7" singles by 1974. Kraftwerk - actually formed in 1970. all-syth experimental/pop music. Can - 1968 "krautrock" band using synths -- a precuser to all-things "electro." Buckminster Fuller - some may not consider him an "artist," but if one looks at the "inventions" this man created -- and his fusion between the organic and the technologically-advanced -- his vision is clearly an artistic (if synergistic) way of perceiving the livelyhood of our species. either way, this man was so far ahead of his time that most of his concepts from the 1940s have yet to be realized or even considered by modern man. there are many more...
this band (or that band) will always be ahead of the time until we start living like the jetsons. "experimental" is putting it lightly. "pocket calculator" still kicks arse.
im going to have to disagree with you on that one. no band sounded like the buttholes. did you ever see one of their shows? i never knew music could be so overthetop revolting and scary. there might have been other bands doing similar things, but nobody dared take it to the level of depravity they did. my pic would be sweedens own GUNTHER!!! <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DbYtqAWDF2U"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DbYtqAWDF2U" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
amen to that. loveless is over 15 years old and its still ahead of its time. i dont have a favorite book or movie, but that is my absolute favorite record - even today i can still hear new things going on in there. personally, i dont think anyone outside hendrix did more for pushing guitar sonics into new territories.
