Greatest single musician in history?

[Dark Castle]

Jack Conte makes music that really just blows my mind, and he's such a radular bastard.

[Gadough]

Fred Durst.

For anyone who disagrees, watch this video and I'm sure you'll change your mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MI-_jWAmlE

[zxlkho]

Fred Durst.

For anyone who disagrees, watch this video and I'm sure you'll change your mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MI-_jWAmlE

[black_biff_stadler]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say Chuck Schuldiner.

Obligatory Chuck fanboy bromance solidarity quote with equally obligatory emotes:

 

[skydivingninja]

I change my answer.

Derek Sherinian is the greatest single musician ever.

Emphasis on "single."

My favorites are Kerry Livgren and Neal Morse, but I can't really call them the greatest. I think some people UNDERRATE classical composers. Steven Wilson is greater than Beethoven? You also have to look at a musician's influence and how long their music will endure.

Well the whole question is basically a "pick your favorite" anyways.  We're all just using different criteria to come to the answer, I guess.  I think SW's body of work qualifies for him to be the greatest musician in my mind, regardless of whether anybody remembers Porcupine Tree 100 years after he dies.  If we cared about influence I think everybody's only option would be to pick The Beatles

[Zook]

David Hasselhoff

[bout to crash]

I change my answer.

Derek Sherinian is the greatest single musician ever.

Emphasis on "single."

 

[Fluffy Lothario]

Probably some classical music dude.

[3xodus]

Clearly this is going to be highly subjective.. But I didn't really ask who society feels is the best musician in history. It's really just a personal thing. Some people think influance + songwriting = best (McCartney).. Some people, like me, think that innovation and production are more important. It's also based on knowledge of musicians, most of the world has never heard of Steven Wilson or Devin Townsend. It's not like there is a right answer to this.

I can't say that Devin's music is something that I would consider my favorite to listen to. But I have never seen someone change styles so flawlessly ever. He has such a huge, and varied, volume of music. That's a reason that I think saying Mozart or Beethoven are the best is completely silly. Yes, they were influancial as hell and very well trained. But were they really that innovative? To me, they never broke out of the classical structure (although I'm not familiar will ALL of their work) long enough to even attempt writing innovative music. They followed the status quo of what was basically the equivilant of pop music at the time. But it's all based on perception and what factors you feel are the most important I guess.

[nightmare_cinema]

Steven Wilson. A question like that can really only be answered subjectively, unless you want to create a grid and place every well known (even that is hard to define) musician in and assess them by technical skill, records sold, career length, productivity rates, influence on others etc. Personally it's Steven Wilson. Out of my entire music catalogue he has by far written the most number of tracks that I love, I reach for Porcupine Tree, Blackfield, or his solo work on a daily basis and haven't grown tired of PT in the 7 years I've been listening to them. His music touches a place in my heart that not many other people's does. He is also a very good guitarist, a fact usually lost amongst fans of people like Petrucci and Romeo... he may not be a virtuoso but he has a solid enough command to have written songs in a massively wide variety of styles. Not to mention his voice, his piano skills etc. Just an all round master of music imo.

[Zantera]

I agree that Mr.Wilson is a great guitarist, but in debates about being a good musician, I think that playing fast or being technical very often comes before playing with feel and passion.
Steven Wilson does not play insanely fast or technical, but he plays with such passion, such emotion, and I think that within that certain 'field' of guitar-playing, SW is one of the best. IMO of course. 

[njdtfan]

Rebecca Black

[nightmare_cinema]

I agree that Mr.Wilson is a great guitarist, but in debates about being a good musician, I think that playing fast or being technical very often comes before playing with feel and passion.
Steven Wilson does not play insanely fast or technical, but he plays with such passion, such emotion, and I think that within that certain 'field' of guitar-playing, SW is one of the best. IMO of course. 

Exactly. Mad skillz mean nothing if you're not touching someone with them. Which isn't to say I don't think Petrucci or Romeo can touch my soul, they can and do. But Mr Wilson does so just as much. And the quality of his songwriting is stellar.

[Fluffy Lothario]

I can't say that Devin's music is something that I would consider my favorite to listen to. But I have never seen someone change styles so flawlessly ever. He has such a huge, and varied, volume of music. That's a reason that I think saying Mozart or Beethoven are the best is completely silly. Yes, they were influancial as hell and very well trained. But were they really that innovative? To me, they never broke out of the classical structure (although I'm not familiar will ALL of their work) long enough to even attempt writing innovative music. They followed the status quo of what was basically the equivilant of pop music at the time. But it's all based on perception and what factors you feel are the most important I guess.

Although people lump it all in as one type of music, classical isn't really one thing. Symphonies, sonatas, string quartets, chamber trios, concerti (piano, cello, violin, etc), nocturnes, operas, tone poems, ballets, etc, etc -  they're all quite separate and distinct forms. There are a number of composers who could write really well in one or two or three of those forms, but fell flat in others, or never even attempted others (Mahler with symphonies, Wagner with operas, Rachmaninoff with piano concerti, etc). When you get right down to it, there's probably just as much, if not more difference between a nocturne and an opera than there is between, for example, a progressive metal song and a drum and bass piece, or an acoustic folk song. So to praise Devin Townsend for being varied, and then saying Mozart and Beethoven only wrote within a narrow framework... well, I couldn't agree at all. Yes, everything they wrote was "classical", but look at the number of different types of composition they mastered and their scope was just enormous.

Not to mention that both men were hugely innovative within classical music itself, and did anything but follow the status quo. That'd be like saying McCarteney and Lennon followed the status quo because they played guitars.

[3xodus]

You're right, I probably shouldn't have generalized a style of music I know far less about than is required to have an intelligent discussion on the subject. Frankly, I have heard very little classical music that hasn't bored me to tears. It's strange, I enjoy the classical style music that I hear through some of my favorite artists, yet I dislike about 90% of the traditional classical music I have heard. The style just lacks a certain intensity that I crave out of music and goes for a much more subtle intensity that I find less gratifying I suppose. But yes, you are right, and I'm sorry for pretending to know anything about the classical music genre.

[black_biff_stadler]

The internet would be a much happier and better place if everyone had your tact and level of honesty 3xodus. Also, your username's spelling makes me wanna come up with kooky alternate pronuciations like THREEK-suh-dis and THREE-zoh-dis.

[3xodus]

The internet would be a much happier and better place if everyone had your tact and level of honesty 3xodus. Also, your username's spelling makes me wanna come up with kooky alternate pronuciations like THREEK-suh-dis and THREE-zoh-dis.

  thanks floyd.. I kind of like thr zoh-duhs-myself. It was going to be exodus way back in the days of my online gaming on mplayer and heat.net, but it was taken on mplayer .. So I've used the 3 ever since.

It's not too hard to be honest about being wrong when your argument is so totally blown out of the water. I think it's easy to admit when you're wrong, the hard part is changing the way you think. I hate judgements and preconcieved ideas, but sometimes I surprise myself with how many of those I still hold. I'm weeding them out all the time, though. The basic function of forums in my life is to get other peoples input that will change my mind and make me more knowledgable about something I'm interested in.

[darkshade]

I can't say that Devin's music is something that I would consider my favorite to listen to. But I have never seen someone change styles so flawlessly ever. He has such a huge, and varied, volume of music. That's a reason that I think saying Mozart or Beethoven are the best is completely silly. Yes, they were influancial as hell and very well trained. But were they really that innovative? To me, they never broke out of the classical structure (although I'm not familiar will ALL of their work) long enough to even attempt writing innovative music. They followed the status quo of what was basically the equivilant of pop music at the time. But it's all based on perception and what factors you feel are the most important I guess.

Although people lump it all in as one type of music, classical isn't really one thing. Symphonies, sonatas, string quartets, chamber trios, concerti (piano, cello, violin, etc), nocturnes, operas, tone poems, ballets, etc, etc -  they're all quite separate and distinct forms. There are a number of composers who could write really well in one or two or three of those forms, but fell flat in others, or never even attempted others (Mahler with symphonies, Wagner with operas, Rachmaninoff with piano concerti, etc). When you get right down to it, there's probably just as much, if not more difference between a nocturne and an opera than there is between, for example, a progressive metal song and a drum and bass piece, or an acoustic folk song. So to praise Devin Townsend for being varied, and then saying Mozart and Beethoven only wrote within a narrow framework... well, I couldn't agree at all. Yes, everything they wrote was "classical", but look at the number of different types of composition they mastered and their scope was just enormous.

Not to mention that both men were hugely innovative within classical music itself, and did anything but follow the status quo. That'd be like saying McCarteney and Lennon followed the status quo because they played guitars.

it's not different than jazz, rock, metal or hip-hop getting lumped into one "thing"

[LudwigVan]

I only really listen to classical and rock, so the 2 names that pop into my head are:

Beethoven

Jimmy Page

[Gorille85]

I can't say that Devin's music is something that I would consider my favorite to listen to. But I have never seen someone change styles so flawlessly ever. He has such a huge, and varied, volume of music. That's a reason that I think saying Mozart or Beethoven are the best is completely silly. Yes, they were influancial as hell and very well trained. But were they really that innovative? To me, they never broke out of the classical structure (although I'm not familiar will ALL of their work) long enough to even attempt writing innovative music. They followed the status quo of what was basically the equivilant of pop music at the time. But it's all based on perception and what factors you feel are the most important I guess.

Although people lump it all in as one type of music, classical isn't really one thing. Symphonies, sonatas, string quartets, chamber trios, concerti (piano, cello, violin, etc), nocturnes, operas, tone poems, ballets, etc, etc -  they're all quite separate and distinct forms. There are a number of composers who could write really well in one or two or three of those forms, but fell flat in others, or never even attempted others (Mahler with symphonies, Wagner with operas, Rachmaninoff with piano concerti, etc). When you get right down to it, there's probably just as much, if not more difference between a nocturne and an opera than there is between, for example, a progressive metal song and a drum and bass piece, or an acoustic folk song. So to praise Devin Townsend for being varied, and then saying Mozart and Beethoven only wrote within a narrow framework... well, I couldn't agree at all. Yes, everything they wrote was "classical", but look at the number of different types of composition they mastered and their scope was just enormous.

Not to mention that both men were hugely innovative within classical music itself, and did anything but follow the status quo. That'd be like saying McCarteney and Lennon followed the status quo because they played guitars.

This!!

[dbrooks22]

[Mozart] composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music.

He was playing multiple instruments and composing at the age of 5.

[black_biff_stadler]

^Plus he could bench 240, his dick was 9 inches, and he made the best chicken a l'orange in town.

[mizzl]

^Plus he could bench 240, his dick was 9 inches, and he made the best chicken a l'orange in town.

[pogoowner]

For some reason Zappa and Chopin were the first two to come to mind.

I support these two nominations.

[a51502112]

The guy in my avatar.

[Dark Castle]

The guy in my avatar.

I hope to god you don't mean Yngwie.

[Kosmo]

What I want to say: Freddie Mercury
What I think: Mozart

[a51502112]

The guy in my avatar.

I hope to god you don't mean Yngwie.

Now that's funny.

It's EVH.

[Dark Castle]

Oh thank god, I couldn't quite tell.  I'm okay with EVH though 

[jsem]

lolEVH

He's way overrated imo

[zxlkho]

lolEVH

He's way overrated imo

Correct.

[Dark Castle]

Disagree.   
EDIT: But Chuck Schuldiner is always the answer.

[mizzl]

The only correct answer is Steven Wilson

[Nihil-Morari]

This thread makes my avatar a happy dead man.

But seriously, I couldn't say. As much of a Zappa fanatic I am, and as much as I want to support my vision of him being one of the greatest "artists" of all time (or dare I say, some sort of modern Uomo Universalis?), I don't know what the 'Greatest Musician" means.

The best at his instrument ever? Then you've gotta compare guys like Mike Mangini, Virgil Donati and Marco Minnemann, with guys like Steve Vai, Guthrie Govan and Allan Holdsworth. Leaving out everybody that's operating in different genres (I've seen a lot of people make notice of classical composers, some of which were even just mainly composers, not that great in their instrument)

Is it composing? Then next to personal taste, I disgust Mozart and Bach for instance, but I love Steve Reich or Arvo Part, or even Johannes Ockeghem on occasion, it's indeed a matter of 'who do we know, and why is that guy the best known for his day and age? Most of it has to do with the 'divine support' he got. Apart from that, songwriters, or composers in this modern day (Neal Morse, Roger Waters, and yes there he is: Frank Zappa, Mickael Akerfeldt, Steven Wilson etc.) are mostly assisted by a producer, or a band at least to make what they made.

Productivity is mentioned (Merzbow, Zappa again, may I mention Klaus Schulze?) or progressiveness (Brian Eno, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, but also the guys from Sunn O))), maybe Mike Patton even) or 'feel and passion' (David Gilmour, Jonsi, Daniel Gildenlow perhaps, Damien Rice), but all of those in itself are not enough to make a complete musician.

So:

in the tl;dr section:

Zappa.


Playing good: Inca Roads
Composing good: Echidna's Arf (Of You)
Producing/bandleading good: Billy The Mountain
Producutivity good: well, it's a wide range of styles, check out: The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny
Progressiveness: Bebop Tango
Feel and passion: Black Napkins, or: Jesus Thinks You're a Jerk (the second half)

[KevShmev]

lolEVH

He's way overrated imo

He's really not.  I wouldn't call him the single greatest musician in history, but his greatness and influence as a guitar player, the instrument that defines rock music like no other, cannot be denied.  Sure, the guy has turned out to be a major douchenozzle, but his legacy is pretty much set in stone.