Who do you think is the greatest music artist of the 20th Century? + band

A preposterous question but we are fortunate to live in the time we do for music!!

I would be interested to see people's reasons for their choices?

I'd also be interested in if anyone thinks we have passed the peak of musical greatness? Or does the future behold further greatness?

Unknown said:

I'd also be interested in if anyone thinks we have passed the peak of musical greatness? Or does the future behold further greatness?

I found that question interesting in the context of the history of pop music.

If we bear in mind that popular music as we now know it started in the 50s, we are less than a century into it.

It's possible it will be subsumed into another type of music...

Where 'musical greatnes' is concerned, I'd actually bring classical music in and then that might push all the modern stuff out the door!

Unknown said:

It's possible it will be subsumed into another type of music...

Where 'musical greatnes' is concerned, I'd actually bring classical music in and then that might push all the modern stuff out the door!

You might be right there Debbie. We might need much longer than 70 years to determine true greatness. Another question which I have considered over the weekend is timelessness. There are certain pieces of music or artists who are not only still relevant after 50+ years but also their lyrics and SOUND combined, could have been written just yesterday. 

Unknown said:

It's possible it will be subsumed into another type of music...

Where 'musical greatnes' is concerned, I'd actually bring classical music in and then that might push all the modern stuff out the door!

You might be right there Debbie. We might need much longer than 70 years to determine true greatness. Another question which I have considered over the weekend is timelessness. There are certain pieces of music or artists who are not only still relevant after 50+ years but also their lyrics and SOUND combined, could have been written just yesterday.