20. Kanye West
Aside from being a talented composer, music producer and Twitter troll, Kanye West is also the first successful hip hop artists who strayed away from gangster rap. His rise to fame led a swarm of glam-rappers to fill the void created at the start of the century. Whatever you think of him (in my case – not much), you know Kanye played a major role in shaping today’s music industry.
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19. Kode9
Electronic music was around well before 2001, but it wasn’t even close to mainstream until the emergence of dubstep. A combination of techno and dub, on top of the deep base sounds of hip hop was first defined by Kode9. After producing some of the genres greatest hits, he formed Hyperdub. The London-base label invested in dubstep when everyone else was still clueless about its potential.
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Props for including Danger Mouse, but Bjork? And how is Jay Z below her…
Remember, the ranking is based on influence in the 21st century.
The truth is – pop music is released constantly, yet the trends rarely change. Going from Britney to Gaga is a huge step and it wouldn’t be possible (or acceptable) if not for Bjork.
Sadly, Jay Z doesn’t have as many followers.
I’m Sorry But Coldplay Should’ve Been On This List
Kanye West should be far, far higher. His influence on hiphop (the most popular genre in the US) in indisputable. He’s also a massive pop culture icon and hugely influential in other industries (fashion.) Eminem really isn’t that influential at all when it comes to developing the genre of hiphop
Kanye West is an insane moron.
No he’s not, he’s a genius, but at the end of the day he’s human like everyone else and he has his bad moments, the difference is his bad moments are on the spotlight 24/7, i mean people are still talking about stuff he said years ago. Most people that call him crazy have barely heard his music which is obviously the reason why they don’t understand his genius.