Yes!!! Lani did sing. They did some old standards; I forget which. And Sergio Mendes was there too!
How about Carlos Santana? He is a classic who goes beyond one generation.
Others to offer up, in my apparently pathetic and shameful middle of the road mainstream tastes reflecting being a child of the 70s who had the nerve to listen to top 40 radio -
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Three Dog Night
If anyone has seen the Jimmy Fallon impressions of Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Jim Morrison, they are hysterically spot-on. Maybe that’s the definition of legend!
Re Jimmy Fallon’s Neil Young impression: this is one of my favorite things of all time.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9adAljIaKYc
P.S. I don’t think anyone was criticizing your taste in music!
IMO, I’m an agreement with @Hunt on an earlier post. With very few exceptions (the Beatles for one), I would not consider any group to be a legend. One could suggest that Coldplay and Maroon 5 will be legends, but really, without Chris Martin and Adam Levine, they are just another band.
Not even the Stones, the Who, the Grateful Dead? Interesting. Can you articulate why?
For those who want to delve into music, an interesting place to go to is the podcast Song Explorer (just google or search for the app). They take one song and break it down, which is the kind of thing I geek out over.
@Pizzagirl l said with very few exceptions. Those three one could make a case for.
The Rolling Stones and The Who are definitely legends and I’ll also throw in Led Zeppelin. For an interesting breakdown of a song, here’s Jimmy Page on how Stairway To Heaven was written: http://youtu.be/DDo4CA13LbY
I actually was pretty amused that my son discovered Johnny Cash from a Danish metal band that were fans.
I’ve made an effort to listen to Arcade Fire - I just don’t find them very compelling. Or memorable.
I was never a Deadhead and only heard them live once, but their greatest hits - they are really great.
I’m not exactly sure how I got myself into the position of spokesperson for Arcade Fire, whom I like but are nowhere near my favorite bands. But anyway, if others are interested in sampling their music, here are a couple of tracks I’d recommend:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CICIfCbw1nU
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GEZockGkEyY
Listen to second one first
@pizzagirl and @nottelling As a Neil Young fan, I like this “2 Neil Youngs” video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6otmy3DAK8
Not a singer… Any David Guetta fans?
Who else gets to record with a million fans?
Musica- love that 1966 Herb Alpert clip. I wouldn’t quite say no one was doing videos then, though - though certainly he was more leading edge than most.
A Hard Day’s Night was released in 1964 and Help! in 1965 - Help! is essentially something like 7 music videos tied together by a silly James Bond plot and the Beatles’ (unmemorable) acting, and by 1966 when they had stopped touring they sent out music videos to places like American Bandstand in lieu of touring. All You Need is Love was essentially a live commissioned music video.
(Hmmmmm. American Bandstand. My father danced on there as a teenager. The role of Dick Clark in shaping popular opinion on music is a whole dissertation in itself and we can debate who/what “owns” that role today - SNL? Festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza? IHeartRadio? The judges on American Idol? Awards shows? The SuperBowl?)
Here!! I’d also suggest that Armin van Buuren is very underrated for some reason. However, I’m not sure that I’d put any DJ/remixer into the legends category.
I am agnostic on the dj thing but I think there are certainly legendary producers who weren’t performers themselves (or for whom performing was secondary to producing). Phil Spector and George Martin are easy ones of old; a case could be made for Brian Wilson from a pure production / sound engineering standpoint; possibly, Jeff Lynne. As much as I am not a Kanye fan I can’t deny he’s an influential producer. I know there are others whose names I am simply blanking out on here.
Again, it comes down to how you define legendary, and that is in the eye of the beholder. For example, someone said that Arcade Fire (who I have seen on Palladia, and they are okay, but that is just my opinion), how they headlined Coachella, had a top selling album, critics loved the album…and the answer is, that doesn’t mean much in the end, it means they were/are popular, but the test of time? Legends come about a variety of ways, the Dead and Phish had their own culture, and lasted a long time, as travelling groups. Others had a couple of years of amazing music, then burned out, but still remain a legend (the Doors), so longevity doesn’t do it. The Ramones, at least in some quarters, are legendary, yet they had very few hits per se, and also in the end only were a big thing for a relatively short while (and that isn’t a knock on the Ramones, I saw them live in the late 70’s, kick a** group). Often critics favorites whither into obscurity, and are not popular. I think in the most broad aspect of it, legends are those who do have staying power, who pass down through the genderations, if not up. The Beatles were a rare one, they took a lot of the parents along when the kids were going crazy over them, and their kids and grandkids now know who they were.If Prince only touched people of the 80’s and 90’s, but kids now in their 20’s don’t know who he was, he won’t be a legend, and conversely, a band can be a legend if people in my category, old farts, don’t know about them, what matters might be if succeeding generations know them and listen to them. It all comes down to the music and artistry, there were plenty of groups since especially they started recording and then broadcasting music, who produced a ton of hit records, sold millions, and I wonder if anyone outside their generation knows of them? There is the phenomenon of ABBA, that benefitted from some incredible pop songwriting, some of the most hooky songs ever written, were popular as hell everywhere but the US, but I doubt very much anyone younger than maybe their 40’s cares about them now (and I like ABBA for what it is…and the two guys wrote one of the most incredible musical scores for a musical, Chess, that was ruined because they couldn’t make a good ending), so are they a legend?
Sinatra transcended generations, he was the original hearthtrob singer, with the bobby soxers and so forth, yet became a legend that I suspect even kids today know of him, even if they don’t listen to his music, so he can be considered a legend. Funny part is, there were a lot of musicians from that era who were better musicians and singers, who made some incredible music, sold a lot of records and so forth, who if you asked someone younger than their 60’s or 70’s, would likely say “who?”.
Arcade Fire is one of my favorite bands. They are one of the best live acts around. Hearing thousands of people sing along to Wake Up will always give me chills.
As to why people say they aren’t as well known, it’s radio. Radio these days plays what the corporation that owns the stations wants. The DJs pretty much have no input. It’s a shame as there are so many great bands out there that people who aren’t willing to scour the Internet don’t hear.
That’s why I love festivals. In my research I discover some fantastic acts. My current favorite discovery, Lord Huron. Indie, folk, but really they remind me of War on Drugs with a little Tom Petty.
The thing is Arcade Fire is great but compared to the exposure U2 had in the late 80s they aren’t even close. This is the result of the drastic changes in the music industry.
Hmm if it’s just who has withstood the test of time and still puts on a great show I would list: Charlie Wilson, Gladys Knight and Boys to Men.
Now if we are taking about someone I would shed tears over, it would be Doug E. Fresh. I know it sounds crazy, but I feel like we grew up hip hop together. I’ve seen him perform many times and he still brings it.
I share an Itunes account with my 17-year-old, so it’s interesting to see what he buys that I used to own (sometimes on vinyl). Definitely Prince, but also Nirvana (my son would say that both Cobain and Dave Grohl are legends, I’d probably agree), Green Day, the Stones, the Who.
From my generation (which would include Bowie and Prince) – I would add the Police (or at least Sting), the Talking Heads (or at least David Byrne) and the B-52s. Not my personal favorite, but Madonna is still out there.
Also, I think we’re neglecting old school hip-hop/rap, still popular more than 20 years later – Run D.M.C., L.L. Cool J., Dr. Dre, the legendary because of their influence NWA, Wu Tang Clan, and Tupac. I’m on board with Doug E. Fresh too.
The original question seems to ask us to speculate about more recent artists who might end up being legends. I think my son could identify some current hip-hop artists (including Kanye) who will end up being legendary, Maybe 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne. From the pop side, Beyonce probably, maybe Taylor Swift. John Legend is a possibility as well. I have a soft spot for MacLamore (probably misspelled, sorry) because of his willingness to address social issues in addition to his catchy novelty songs.
Most of the current artists won’t be remembered very much 20 or 30 years from now. Which artist will transcend the mediocrity and become the staple of the ‘classic’ genre for the next generation? I’m hard pressed for any examples right now, because I think most of the current pop music scene to be utter cookie cutter garbage. In my day, it was the Ramones who reached that status, and later with bands like U-2, and then there was Madonna. I don’t see any equivalent in today’s scene with the artistry and originality.