Who is the Greatest Entertainer of all-time?
- Thread starter rwill25
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MJ, from his sales to concerts to fans around the world. he was a singing, writing, dancing and performing wizard !
110% agree sir! :hatsoff:
Jagger69
Three lullabies in an ancient tongue
I'm not discounting the contributions of those you mentioned. It's also questionable whether any of those artists or any subsequent artists (including The Beatles) would have been able to make the marks that they did without the development of the impressionistic music of the late part of the 19th and early part of the 20th century such as Ravel and DeBussey, the ragtime music of Scott Joplin, the delta jazz of Louis Armstrong, the musical compositions of George & Ira Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Hoagy Carmichael.....without the big band compositions of Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey or the country/western contributions of Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams or Roy Acuff or the bluegrass music of Bill Monroe. One could also include John Lee Hooker, John Coltrane, Carl Perkins, Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly as well as Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash or.....Bob Dylan (now one could argue that he might approximate the same level of influence that the Beatles did!)....and many others who are very deserving of mention.
My point is that the advent of the Beatles marked a distinct and very identifiable transition into a totally new genre of rock 'n' roll, generally called "rock", that is still in vogue today in an evolutionary form, nearly 50 years later. Their influence on music throughout the last 40 years of the 20th century is unsurpassed by any other artist so, yes, I stand by my statement that they are the most dynamic and important single influence on the evolution of music since Beethoven. That takes nothing away from the many other great artists that preceded them including the ones that you mentioned....or those that followed them (including the immortal Michael Jackson).
The argument ends with Tony Orlando w/or w/out Dawn…..period…..’nuff said.
I thought it was greatest "entertainer," not entertainer(s). If so, yes, the Beatles are the greatest of all time; as a group and as solo artists, they are the king(s).
Add carrot top to that list...hes right up there with mj too minus the pediphelia aspect
Michae Jackson
I don't argue with their effect or their contribution to the direction of music , it's just that I find their actual performance less gripping than some of their contemporaries.
Why do so many posters resrict their nominations to recent performers?Probably because so many great entertainers of the past were unrecorded.
Supafly
Retired Mod
Bad thing about things is: Memory starts to fade so soon and long, long-goners did not have the big plus of the communication networks that pushed the recent entertainers even further.
You might have been a big number in 1880, but your name would only spread by papers, which only quite a few woul or could read, and rather small concerts, compared to arenas today.
So, given these circumstances, I put my vote Elvis.
MJ might have sold more or done more of musical work himself, but to greatness there is the element of the life they lived, and wether both were a bit weird, Elvis didn't go over-the-top insane on crazy shopping sprees, bankrupted himself or got into very hot water with relations with children.
And his music is more significant to my taste
You might have been a big number in 1880, but your name would only spread by papers, which only quite a few woul or could read, and rather small concerts, compared to arenas today.
So, given these circumstances, I put my vote Elvis.
MJ might have sold more or done more of musical work himself, but to greatness there is the element of the life they lived, and wether both were a bit weird, Elvis didn't go over-the-top insane on crazy shopping sprees, bankrupted himself or got into very hot water with relations with children.
And his music is more significant to my taste
It's even worse because often after a certain event revisionist history, being fresh on somebody's mind, illogical emotion, and tunnel vision can make people in the media more recently look better than they really are. Some people get hurt both ways.
This thread is dumb:banger: SLAYER
Michael Jackson for sure
That hardly counts as the greatest entertainer FOR ALL TIME does it?
The majority of replies have been limited to entertainers posters have seen.That's not the same thing at all.
Scott Joplin. :dunno:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPmruHc4S9Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPmruHc4S9Q
Actually Elvis sold like 1 billion copies
What does that have to do with anything? It's not a question asking "who had the best character or financial situation?", but it's "entertainer". Then again, some people might find his personal life entertaining, but thats a whole nother story.
When we talk about greatest NFL running backs, I don't see people dismissing O.J. because he might have(or did) killed his wife. :dunno:
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