Again I know Dylan knew Johnson and I know he was crazy about him. I’ve read Chronicles. My point is I’m not sure when Dylan learned of Johnson. My belief is Dylan was already fully formed by the time he did, but I might be totally wrong.
Anyway. Robert Johnson is an easy name-drop because everyone is arguably a Robert Johnson rip-off.
Not sure if Electronic Music needs that actually? I found that EM is so different from all the other genres…
JD/NO is such a stupidly underrated outfit. One of the best rhythm sections ever (however technically unskilled they were).
gtfo with your coolheaded, rational bs.
Possibly. I’m no expert.
How so? Check the timeline. License to Ill released in 86 and they’d already been around for a while. NWA didn’t get going til 87. I was actually quite surprised when I realised this.
Charley Patton taught Johnson to play the blues
Agreed, they might be the best band of the latter half of the 20th century. Both of them, same band really.
No I know and I know Chuck D admits they had the better beats. Beasties were incredible, no doubt. But in terms of influence on the zeitgeist, not the same as NWA.
Stockhausen said that rock degraded music that was building for the last 300 yrs to degenerated levels!
I love and respect all of those artists mentioned in the OP but only in this shitty world we can put them on the pedestal next to our greatest geniuses of the past.
What i wanted to say is that they were only the best at doing mediocre things! Same goes for electronic music… even the best em is not at the level of the majority of classical music compositions or the worst Beethoven’s or Mozart’s compositions.
They absolutely should be a part of the argument, no question.
Perhaps. But I didn’t say Beasties did it best - only that they did it earlier.
Where to start, I could probably recommend every one of their albums from Not For Threes onwards. I love Aphex for melody, but Plaid also have a way with melody that is unique to them (maybe even more so as I hear more similarity with Aphex, Vibert and uZiq than with Plaid and anyone else), and I would say they are my favourite electronic artists ever. Spokes was the first album that blew me away, maybe start with that and also check out their latest album Polymer…but if you like Aphex for melody you really should listen to Plaid’s entire back catalogue. Honestly I think they deserve way more credit. Sorry for the essay but I get excited every time I think about Plaid. I once posted on Twitter that I almost love them as much as my wife and was very happy that they responded by following me ha ha.
There couldn’t be a modern equivalent to the Beatles because no group of white guys would be allowed to steal that much from black and Indian culture and get away with it in this day and age.
A common definition of Bob Dylan needs to be agreed before there is any hope of this thread ending harmoniously.
And then a definition of the Electronic Music World.
Once we have those agreed … Beck should be obvious to everyone
Shrivelled harmonica grinch
But it’s not about doing it first and, anyway, Beasties didnt do it first. They did it fabulously well early on, though, and were stiff “competition”.
It’s also about what speaks to the people. And the Beasties were not speaking to as many people.
and that’s sad.
(on the other hand, i’m happy that i’m not western, and licensed to steal from my own and neighbor cultures 
)
Jean Michel Jarre has entered the chat(?)
I’m not sad, never really saw what all the fuss was about with the Beatles.
Everyone knows the Blues were stolen from Irish Settlers in the Deep South.
The Irish are fine about it and take it as a compliment.