I feel like you can separate an artist’s historical impact from whether the artist is good or not. Look at film: “Birth of the Nation” is regarded as an extremely influential film, but it’s also horrible. I don’t think the Beatles are bad (they have many good songs), but there is so much good music made in the last 50 years that they are definitely overrated (especially when I have to listen to them over and over again everyday at work). It’s also worth mentioning that a lot of the things the Beatles did that was so pioneering wasn’t because they were uniquely musical geniuses, but because they had access to technology that others wouldn’t till a decade later.

I honestly don’t think there’s that much more pioneering to do musically, so I’m interested in what music will rise to the top in the future. Will the truly amazing artists be remembered or will it just be a random mish mash of whatever was popular at the time?