Best/most important American rock band

The Pixies

Recorded three years before Smells Like Teen Spirit.

 

Beach Boys, Eagles and Steely Dan are the ‘Big 3’.
SDs catalogue is peerless. They aren’t the most important band but they are the best.

 

The Eagles are like the Flying Burrito Brothers if you stripped away everything that made the Flying Burrito Brothers great.

 

I'd take the Allman Brothers over the Eagles any day. The Eagles had skills, but they had no soul.

 

The death of Duane Allman derailed what could have been an all-time band. If he were alive, both of these questions could be answered.

 

Lyrics a little dark for commercial radio.

 

ABB musicianship is first rate, no question, and created Southern rock genre. Im unaware of anyone preceding them. “Fillmore” is, after “White Album”, my favourite album and I still play selected cuts once a week during workouts.
I was considering the Eagles mass appeal and their undeniable influence on folk rock especially during their best period which like most bands is about 4 years. IMO “On the Border” is their best album, not a bad track on it.
SD fused jazz and rock but didn’t really create anything new but JFC their good stuff is astonishing. Personally I like a little slop in my rock from time to time but Steely Dan is sublime.
I don’t believe anyone disputes the Beach Boys inclusion on this list.
I’ll stick with my 3 picks but Allmans are v special.

 

A shit ton. Too many to list.

 

Yeah, ABB would have been even better, but it's an all-time band anyway. Rhythm and blues at its best, and for decades.

 

Are there are no female bands in the best/most important discussion?

I think about the Supremes, but they are more a singing group than a band since they didn't play instruments.

The Runaways launched the careers of female rockers Lita Ford and Joan Jett, but the Go-Gos, Bangles, Banarama are more novelty groups.

 

I'd stop short of calling the Go-Gos a novelty act. They wrote all their own songs and played their own instruments, only girl band to ever do that and land a No. 1 album.

 

"We Got the Beat" has one of the best opening hooks anywhere. I've always thought that song kicks ass.