Whose music has proven/will prove more influential?

[NightTrain]

Remember, the operative word is "influential."

[corporatewhore]

1. actually instead of elvis chuck berry or muddy waters if

society progresses a little

[unblock]

2. elvis's music wasn't "his", so cash wins by default

<duck!>

[Direckshun]

3. Cash more influential musically, Elvis more influential culturally. (n/t)

[OneBlueSky]

6. exactly the point I was going to make . . .

Cash wrote a lot of his own material, so his musical influence will certainly be greater, since Elvis generally did other people's stuff . . . he will go down as the better performer, but Cash is definitely more musically influential . . .

[starroute]

4. Elvis's period of influence ended when he left Sun

But during those couple of years, he was extraordinary. The entire later history of rock 'n' roll is implicit in the recordings Elvis made in 1954-55.

Johnny Cash remained creative much longer and went much deeper, but he doesn't have a lot of musical heirs, and he certainly never founded a genre.

NightTrain, as usual, is being tricky here. But when he says "influential," he's got something very specific in mind.

[corporatewhore]

7. chuck berry founded a genre not elvis

[Spider Jerusalem]

5. No contest there; got to go with the Man in Black.

Musicians influenced by Elvis: The Beatles, one or two others, no real major current artists.

Influenced by Cash, either musically, stylistically, or otherwise: Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Beck, pretty much the entire the subgenre of punk, later-day alt-country/folk, the list goes on and on...yes, the influence of Elvis, in less than ten years, was huge. But the influence Johnny had, and the influence those influenced by Johnny are having and will have, is going to put Mr. Presley in the shade, I should say.

[ForrestGump]

8. Not just because I'm a big Elvis dude --

'cos I've always been a big fan of the man in Black, apparently a trendy thing to be now -- but I'd say Elvis. Writing or not writing songs is irrelevant. Elvis broke the barriers in the '50s like nobody else did and his music (later music, too, thank you very much...he was more than just his stellar Sun work) influenced just about everybody whose made a mark on the musical landscape in the past 50 years. Cultural influence, for sure.

If you want to trace back Elvis' influences you'll find them way too diffuse, including everything from Caruso and Mario Lanza to Dean Martin, Billy Eckstine, Roy Hamilton, hundreds of blues and gospel performers we've never heard of (as well as more widely-known people), etc, etc, etc. He brought it asll together as nobody else did, not Chuck Berry or Bill Haley or anyone else.

I love Johnny Cash, but I don't see his influence as being anywhere near as pervasive as Elvis', speaking in terms of music alone. I severely doubt that Johnny Cash would argue with that.