Hi all,

I was making a Spotify playlist full of people I would consider to be musical geniuses ( I know its an arbitrary way of grouping artists but I was bored haha), and it got me wondering are there more of them I should know about? At the moment it includes Prince (obviously), Frank Zappa, Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Donald Fagen/Steely Dan, Miles Davis and some ohter Jazz Artists (Coltrane etc.).
Just thought it could be an interesting to see who are considered geniuses by other people and I might discover some new music in the process

EmmaMcG said:

MotownSubdivision said:

Donald Byrd, Grover Washington Jr., Maurice White

Co-sign

Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys, Thom Yorke & Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead: They're genius in the way they managed to write songs in unconventional styles & manners, and how many followed their songwriting fashion.

MotownSubdivision said:

Shawy89 said:

Kate Bush

Bob Dylan

Alicia Keys

McCartney

Stevie Wonder

Todd Rundgren

Sananda Francesco Maitreya

Herbie Hancock

[Edited 5/31/17 11:50am]

...

Neither of these next two have made any kind of lasting cultural impression, they're not popular enough...but to fellow musicians, they've set the bar even higher...

Jacob Collier (still young, but this wiz already has Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones singing his praises...)

Lewis Taylor ( Not in the Biz anymore, but still...everyone from Elton John, Daryl Hall, Chaka Khan, Leon Ware to D'angelo and Aaliyah was checking him out...Todd Rundgren actually cited him as one of his influences on his last album, even though it's really Todd who made a lasting impression on Lewis...)

...

Latoya Jackson.

Out of all the music I listen to, classical music is my favorite. Out of all the classical music I listen to,
Mozart is my favorite composer. Eminent theologian Karl Barth considered Mozart's music as definite
proof of the existence of a Creator. We often think of Mozart as this scintillating genius of a talent who
was endowed with otherworldly musical abilities who composed brilliantly without much effort on his
part. But is this really the case? There are some who are now suggesting that Mozart wasn't a genius,
but just a really talented guy who outworked his contemporaries and was constantly writing and re-
writing and attending concerts and pouring over scores from other composers. We only think of him as
a composer because he was romanticized upon his death, as we often do to talented musicians when
they die. This speaks to how ridiculous humans are with our idol-worshipping, but I digress . . .

So, if Mozart wasn't a genius, all of the doofuses mentioned in this thread probably ain't one either;
the exception being LaToya Jackson, of course.

James Brown

Paul Desmond

Charlie Parker

Chic

Joao Gilberto

Léo Ferré

Ahmad Jamal

Ben Webster

Charlie Christian

Freddie Green

etc...

Dasein said:

Out of all the music I listen to, classical music is my favorite. Out of all the classical music I listen to,
Mozart is my favorite composer. Eminent theologian Karl Barth considered Mozart's music as definite
proof of the existence of a Creator. We often think of Mozart as this scintillating genius of a talent who
was endowed with otherworldly musical abilities who composed brilliantly without much effort on his
part. But is this really the case? There are some who are now suggesting that Mozart wasn't a genius,
but just a really talented guy who outworked his contemporaries and was constantly writing and re-
writing and attending concerts and pouring over scores from other composers. We only think of him as
a composer because he was romanticized upon his death, as we often do to talented musicians when
they die. This speaks to how ridiculous humans are with our idol-worshipping, but I digress . . .

So, if Mozart wasn't a genius, all of the doofuses mentioned in this thread probably ain't one either;
the exception being LaToya Jackson, of course.

Mozart is not a gernius? sure Bieber really is.

Michael Jackson, Prince, Stevie Wonder

paligap said:

...

Neither of these next two have made any kind of lasting cultural impression, they're not popular enough...but to fellow musicians, they've set the bar even higher...

Jacob Collier (still young, but this wiz already has Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones singing his praises...)

Lewis Taylor ( Not in the Biz anymore, but still...everyone from Elton John, Daryl Hall, Chaka Khan, Leon Ware to D'angelo and Aaliyah was checking him out...Todd Rundgren actually cited him as one of his influences on his last album, even though it's really Todd who made a lasting impression on Lewis...)

...

yeah jacob collier is absolutely. I havent heard of lewis taylor ill check him out, thanks!

kanamit said:

James Brown

Paul Desmond

Charlie Parker

Chic

Joao Gilberto

Léo Ferré

Ahmad Jamal

Ben Webster

Charlie Christian

Freddie Green

etc...

Yeah good list I love Ahmad Jamal, ill check them out thanks

Dasein said:

Out of all the music I listen to, classical music is my favorite. Out of all the classical music I listen to,
Mozart is my favorite composer. Eminent theologian Karl Barth considered Mozart's music as definite
proof of the existence of a Creator. We often think of Mozart as this scintillating genius of a talent who
was endowed with otherworldly musical abilities who composed brilliantly without much effort on his
part. But is this really the case? There are some who are now suggesting that Mozart wasn't a genius,
but just a really talented guy who outworked his contemporaries and was constantly writing and re-
writing and attending concerts and pouring over scores from other composers. We only think of him as
a composer because he was romanticized upon his death, as we often do to talented musicians when
they die. This speaks to how ridiculous humans are with our idol-worshipping, but I digress . . .

So, if Mozart wasn't a genius, all of the doofuses mentioned in this thread probably ain't one either;
the exception being LaToya Jackson, of course.

idk for me watching amedeus cemented the whole Mozart is a genius thing for me haha granting its all true

Do you gran the idea that musical geniuses exist? For me someone like Zappa is unquestionably a genius (see something like St Alfonzos Pancake Breakfast) but id be interested to see if you agree

By modern Im guessing thats from the 2000s to 2017.

Im defining music genius as an artist who just makes good music I like whether there famous or not or play instruments or not.

Also I believe true genius is fleeting and not something that stays with an artist.

Ok the big names

Kanye West

Jay Z

Kendrick Lamar

Thundercat

The smaller name

Josh Turner- Kingdom Jasmine

and some of thee other indie artist lost in obscurity to the public

heathilly said:

dacca said:

heathilly said:

By modern Im guessing thats from the 2000s to 2017.

Im defining music genius as an artist who just makes good music I like whether there famous or not or play instruments or not.

Also I believe true genius is fleeting and not something that stays with an artist.

Ok the big names

Kanye West

Jay Z

Kendrick Lamar

Thundercat

The smaller name

Josh Turner- Kingdom Jasmine

and some of thee other indie artist lost in obscurity to the public

Yeah fair enough, I see genius as defined as being part of of a very small group of people in a given field that are truly exceptional in ability and talent in their field. In music it's kinda harder to agree on genius because by nature music is subjective, but yeah I just kinda mean truly exceptional people. I definitely would put Thundercat in that list haha I'll check out the bottom ones too [Edited 6/13/17 6:26am]

If you like folk and musicianship search armed and dangerous josh turner

Mononeon

thats about it..

Not in popular music but the compositions of

nobuo uematsu ( This Man is Godly)

koji kondo

yoko shimomura

in the gaming world is legendary I think most people overlook this music and games as art in general theres alot of great music there too along with movie scores. Of course people know the genius of john williams.

RJOrion said:

heathilly said:

dacca said:

Of course Mozart was genius.

Modern times: Prince,Brian Wilson, Mc Cartney, Wonder, Dylan, F Mercury

Not imo: MJ (not enough own work), Lennon (i prefer him over Mc but dont think him as genius, just very very good in what he did, while i think to Mc it came more naturally. You can't have 2 geniuses in 1 band), JB (too one-dimensional)

Very on the edge: Bowie, GM , T Yorke, Billy Corgan, Gainsbourg, P Simon

All man :p

[Edited 6/14/17 12:10pm]

[Edited 6/14/17 12:23pm]

ML2016 said:

RJOrion said:

dacca said:

He's insane, I love his video and mr talkbox doing vulfpeck's back pocket, so funky. Maybe the best bass player I've seen

yep...have you seen the video of him playing rhythm guitar over the slum village - "conant gardens" instrumental?...wow...

nah i haven't! I gotta check that out