Names to Know in Music

'NOTE: THIS PAGE IS EXTREMELY INCOMPLETE AND PROTECTED FOR ONE WEEK SO THAT ONLY ADMINS CAN EDIT IT. ADMINS ARE WELCOME TO ADD EXPLANATIONS WHY THESE PEOPLE ARE ON THE LIST, NEW ENTRIES, AND NEW SECTIONS. THE TALK PAGE SHOULD BE EDITABLE BY EVERYONE.'

This page is part of the "Names to Know" project.

The groundbreaking, the influential, the seminal... but not necessarily the most famous people in the music industry, in any and all styles and genres of music.

These people are the genre definers, the Trope Makers, the people that other musicians and people in the music industry look to for inspiration.

An extremely incomplete list. Feel free to add more.

Groups

 * The Beatles - The most popular group of the British Invasion, the "Fab Four" still get airplay a half-century after they broke up.
 * Bill Haley & His Comets - The first Rock and Roll group to chart a hit, legitimizing the entire Rock genre.
 * The Grateful Dead - They were spending their lives on tour before it was cool.
 * Joy Division - Pioneers of the Post-punk movement.
 * King Crimson - Their debut album In the Court of the Crimson King had a major influence on Progressive Rock.
 * Led Zeppelin - Three Words: "Stairway to Heaven"
 * My Bloody Valentine - the first big "shoegazing" group
 * Nirvana - The "grunge" group.
 * Pink Floyd - The Psychedelic Rock group.
 * The Ramones - The first Punk Rock group.
 * Red Hot Chilli Pipers - Popularizers of rock music on the bagpipes.
 * The Rolling Stones - The "bad boys" of the British Invasion.
 * Rush - Canada's greatest rock group (unless you think The Tragically Hip is). The literate great Canadian band.
 * Sex Pistols - Had a huge influence on punk and popular music as a whole.
 * The Three Tenors - Turned high culture into pop culture.
 * The Tragically Hip - Canada's greatest rock group (unless you think Rush is). The socially-aware great Canadian band.
 * The Who - The third of the big three British Invasion groups, and the one that inspired (but didn't play) Punk Rock.
 * The Yardbirds - Another British Invasion group, best-known nowadays for some of their members: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and Keith Moon.

Electronic groups

 * The Chemical Brothers - Helped popularize the big beat genre.
 * Daft Punk - They put French House into the mainstream.
 * Depeche Mode
 * Kraftwerk - They pioneered and popularized Electronic Music.
 * The Prodigy
 * Tangerine Dream - Also pioneers of electronic music.

Guitarists

 * Bo Diddley
 * Bob Dylan
 * Bruce Springsteen
 * Buddy Holly
 * Chuck Berry
 * Django Reinhardt - The seminal jazz guitarist.
 * Eric Clapton
 * Jeff Beck - It's said there are two groups of guitarists in the world: Jeff Beck and people who want to be Jeff Beck. This is not an exaggeration; the man plays in every style imaginable and keeps winning awards for his work.
 * Jimi Hendrix
 * Jimmy Page
 * John Lennon
 * Johnny Cash
 * Les Paul

Bassists

 * Geddy Lee

Drummers

 * Keith Moon

Pianists and Keyboardists

 * Glenn Gould
 * Liberace - "Mr. Showmanship" proved you could make a fortune playing the piano
 * Oscar Peterson
 * Stevie Wonder
 * Victor Borge

Harpists

 * Loreena McKennitt

Clarinetists

 * Benny Goodman - The "King of Swing" made jazz respectable.

Singers

 * Björk
 * Bob Marley
 * Cab Calloway
 * David Bowie
 * Elvis Costello
 * Elvis Presley
 * Freddie Mercury
 * Frank Sinatra
 * Gene Autry
 * Gord Downie
 * James Brown
 * Janis Joplin
 * Joan Baez - The female protest singer
 * Joni Mitchell
 * Kate Bush
 * Leonard Cohen
 * Luciano Pavarotti
 * Madonna
 * Michael Jackson
 * Neil Young
 * Phil Ochs
 * Prince - who really should also be listed in half of the other sections in this list
 * Whitney Houston

Rappers

 * 50 Cent
 * A Tribe Called Quest
 * Beastie Boys
 * Cypress Hill
 * De La Soul
 * Dr. Dre - Worked with many influential rappers, including 2Pac, Snoop Dogg and Eminem.
 * Eminem - The most important rapper around.
 * Ice Cube
 * Ice-T - Pioneer of Gangsta Rap
 * Jay-Z
 * Kanye West
 * Kendrick Lamar
 * Lil Wayne
 * N.W.A.
 * Nas
 * The Notorious B.I.G.
 * OutKast
 * Public Enemy
 * Queen Latifah
 * Run DMC
 * Slick Rick
 * Snoop Dogg
 * Tupac Shakur
 * Wu-Tang Clan

Composers

 * Aaron Copland
 * Andrew Lloyd Webber
 * Antonio Vivaldi
 * Claude Debussy
 * Dmitri Shostakovich
 * Elmer Bernstein
 * Felix Mendelssohn
 * Franz Liszt
 * Franz Schubert
 * Fryderyk Chopin
 * George Gershwin
 * Gilbert and Sullivan
 * Giuseppe Verdi
 * Gustav Holst
 * Henry Mancini
 * Irving Berlin
 * Joe Hisaishi
 * Johann Sebastian Bach
 * Johannes Brahms
 * John Barry
 * John Williams
 * Joseph Haydn
 * Leonard Bernstein
 * Lerner and Loewe
 * Ludwig van Beethoven
 * Philip Glass
 * Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
 * Richard Wagner
 * Rodgers and Hammerstein
 * Stephen Schwartz
 * Stephen Sondheim
 * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
 * Yoko Kanno

Producers

 * King Tubby - Influenced the development of Dub music in the 1960s and 1970s
 * Phil Spector
 * Sam Phillips

Electronic music producers

 * Aphex Twin
 * Brian Eno - The Ambient artist.
 * Fatboy Slim - Helped popularize the Big Beat genre in the 1990s.
 * Frankie Knuckles - A pioneer of House Music during the 1980s.

DJs

 * Afrika Bambaataa - Influenced the development of Hip Hop in the 1980s.
 * DJ Kool Herc - Helped originate Hip Hop in the 1970s