Best/most important American rock band

Jesus, guys. The Beach Boys literally created a sound. A style of music. The Beatles have said they were an inspiration for Sgt. Peppers. Roger Daltry said that Keith Moon would have left the Who to be the drummer for the Beach Boys.

I am willing to listen to another argument but I haven't seen one yet.

 

once in a while, maga is right.

This thread is insane.

Bob Seger? Night moves and Main Street?

 

I believe the OP says "best" as well as "important."

Calling Bob Seger and the SBB a "nice little group" is akin to calling 1980s-era Bo Derek a 6.

 

this thread

 

Pet Sounds will be around as long as cockroaches.

And it wasn't even an album with the type of music that made the Beach Boys famous. The music that was imitated.

There *should* be an American band on par with the Beatles, Stones and Who. There isn't.

There is the Beach Boys.

 

If we throw up Bob Seger and the SBB as an example of this country's 'best' and most 'important', that's like us being Angola going up against the Dream Team in the 1992 Olympics.

 

Sly and the Family Stone > BS and the SBB

 

Even as someone who grew up in the Seger Belt, him being included on this thread is pretty astounding.

 

THE MICHAEL STANLEY BAND CHANGED MUSIC, DAMMIT.

 

I'd argue GNR was on that track. Maybe even Aerosmith. But they both came up short.

 

As infuriating as Chuck Klosterman can be, his discussion of who will be the most-remembered artist in 100 to 500 years did a good job of parsing a lot of these issues. I think he settled on Chuck Berry.

I'm not sure he's wrong.

 

10,000 Maniacs and REM would be high on the list.
If Michael Stipe wasn't so weird, and made an intelligible lyric; and if Natalie Merchant wasn't so serious, they could have made some more inroads.