In a move that should surprise no one working in music journalism, college radio, or record retail, or who has ever seen a bad local band, Radiohead has been named the most influential act in music today. The obvious decision came via an NME reader poll, after the magazine narrowed the field to a list of 100 musicians that included Prince, Nirvana, and Neutral Milk Hotel. Possibly because they have long since transcended being “influences”—or just to guarantee attention-getting controversy—neither The Beatles nor The Rolling Stones were on that list.
NME’s Mark Beaumont, who apparently doesn’t listen to the demos that get sent to his office, notes that “these are acts whose influence is written in stone, the very bedrock of the form, but who aren’t necessarily directly informing the music being made today any more than Chaucer is influencing Buzzfeed.” Meanwhile, Yahoo Answers users continue to insist that acts like Incubus, Muse, and Tool are all very similar to Radiohead.