Top 5 musical geniuses of late 20th century.

My list in some random order:

Prince: Can play 27 instruments; has written hundreds of songs for himself and other singers, sings and dances.

I'm going with individual people: 

Ehhh. 

He's really good, and the level of anger he brought to rap was a healthy boost to the genre, but is he better as a whole, both through rapping and producing, than Jay Z? 

Not sure I'd go that far. 

In their day, they set the bar with social angst in their lyrics. 

But, the level of just raw seething anger that you get from The Slim Shady LP has yet to be touched by any other rap artist: Not even Eminem himself. 

It's hard to listen to that album the whole way through in one sitting. That's the sign of a really angry album.

Dre made Eminem. 

 

50's-Carl Perkins. Perkins was doing rockabilly long before Elvis was, and was very well known as being one of the fathers of modern rock and roll.

 

60's-I'm giving this one a toss up between Bob Dylan (reinventing songwriting) and Jimi Hendrix (reinventing guitar). Really it should just be Dylan, because Hendrix followed a lot more of a set pattern that people realized. He was a genius, but nothing like Dylan.

 

80's-Michael Jackson. I hate to say it, but he changed alot in the pop music scebe.

 

Modern-Jack White.  I think my fanboyism of Jack White is getting to creepy levels, but after watching "It Might Get Loud" last night, I've reaffirmed my belief that Jack White is the second coming of rock and roll.

 

That saId, here's another top 5 for guitarists

 

1. Jimi Hendrix

2. Chuck Berry

3. Stevie Ray Vaughan

4. Randy Rhoads

5. Jack White

 

Those are the guitar game changers for me. People who did something that's never been heard before, and things would never be the same afterward. You can think SRV for all the Texas blues stylings you hear on the radio, and anyone who's ever picked up the guitar has played at least some Chuck Berry.

 

On Cobain, I think FE was spot on. Had he lived long enough, and been allowed to grow musically, I think he would have been on my list. If you listen to "Unplugged", you hear the makings of someone who is an incredibly talented musician / guitarist in general. But the drugs and his glaring mental issues clouded everything, and I honestly don't consider grunge to be much more than the stepping stone between punk and modern alternative. I love Nirvana, but I think listening to songs like "Lake of Fire" and "The Man Who Sold the World" from Unplugged is far more enlightening than anything else they did.