As much as I'm not looking forward to more pages of Clash's quote file, I do think he's right. When you look at the the early singles, Tommy, Who's Next, Live At Leeds, and so on, that's a whole lot of musical impact. I think they clearly beat Zep in that category.

Well, if so ... Zep has Led Zeppelin II, Led Zeppelin IV, Led Zeppelin I and Physical Graffiti.

I think only IV is really in the same league. The others are close, but not quite on the same level.

In the current list of site they are close:

Prince, Public Enemy, Eminem and Jay-Z are four names that immediately come to mind as more deserving for top 20 considerations in the musical impact category.

Furthermore, all of that hate for Zeppelin should count in their favor. That stuff doesn't read like vocal indifference to me; it sounds like Zeppelin were a burr in the saddle of other musicians, and I don't know how that could possibly be interpreted as a negative. Their music had an impact on other musicians. They received recognition from their peers. That's what the category is for. This is Rock'n'Roll; new music is SUPPOSED to rub the establishment the wrong way.

Since musical impact is the one criterion which ought to be most balanced across eras, I think it's doubtful either the Who or Led Zeppelin rank in the top 20 in musical impact. Even if you parse things to their advantage, like counting just musical impact from 1965-1973 for the Who, or 69-75 for Zeppelin, they still don't rank #1 among all artists over those periods. When you then account for 65 years of Rock, how can we presume either are in the top 20?

I know that over the 1955-67 period rock artists were more unified in a single community, so artists from that period might seem to get more than their fair share of spots, but I think these lists being posted go too far in that regard. There are plenty of artists with large crossover recognition since the early 70s. It's Baby Boomer Bias.

Prince, Public Enemy, Eminem and Jay-Z are four names that immediately come to mind as more deserving for top 20 considerations in the musical impact category.

Furthermore, all of that hate for Zeppelin should count in their favor.

I agree. Negative criticisim is still impact. For example, Punk music and the Sex Pistols were hated when they showed up (and still are hated by many). But you can't say they don't have impact or something. Everyone hated Elvis when he became famous, Ray charles got a lot of criticism for using "using religious music to worship satan" or something, Elvis hated the Beatles when they came, people hated grunge, etc,etc,etc. That's probably the biggest kind of impact and it's almost the definition of Rock&Roll

Somebody besides me, thinks that Radiohead could be higher in a possible next update?

Actually Brian I agree with that.
The only thing I disagree with is James Brown being 3rd tier. He's 2nd tier at the very least. Come on. This is the Godfather we're talking about! Enormous praise throught hip hop, r&b, and most of 'classic rock' in general.
And even blues artists like B.B. himself have sang the praises of Brown.

I'm Generation X. Most on this website are Generation X and Generation Y.

Sixteen to go. But I will note that all of those artists' achievements are far more recent than either The Who's or Led Zeppelin's, so they are fresher in your mind. And I'll also say that thinking Public Enemy in particular has more musical impact than either The Who or Led Zeppelin is ridiculous. Have you forgotten what those two bands achieved in their day? The musical impact of Keith Moon and John Bonham alone is gigantic, and those are just the drummers!

Now I've heard everything. Musical Impact is about PRAISE, RESPECT, REVERENCE. It is not about thinking an artist is crap.

Musical Impact: The reaction within the music industry as a whole to an artist's work. This differs from influence because not all artists are even able to be influenced by things they admire. Different styles, different abilities, different audiences and different musical goals and a sense of creative independence means that artists many times would prefer to follow their own path, but their appreciation for another artist's achievements elevates the stature of that artist in the industry. This attempts to accurately determine what music was turning the most heads within their own community at the time, what was seen as raising the creative bar and set new benchmarks to strive to surpass. It is the peer recognition factor of the criteria.