50 Top Pop Brainiacs

Lennon, Marley, Berry rock on
By Dustin Lushing,  Newser Staff
Posted May 25, 2008 11:43 AM CDT
50 Top Pop Brainiacs
American guitarist and singer Chuck Berry is seen in this file photo April 4, 1980. One of the possible criminal charges scandalized New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer now faces is violating the Mann Act, which Berry was convicted under in 1959. It is an obscure nearly century-old federal law originally...   (AP Photo)

"Towering natural abilities" and "exceptional creative powers" infuse the most memorable music of generations, forged by Blender's top 50 pop-music geniuses. The top 10:

  1. Bob Dylan: Each of his brave self-reinventions is "an authentic American original."
  2. John Lennon: "His drive pushed the Beatles from a covers band to the world’s best-loved and most influential pop act."
  3. Chuck Berry: His guitar riffs are still the "bedrock" of rock and roll five decades on.
  4. Bob Marley: "No one did more to define and popularize a musical genre."
  5. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards: Duo created "decade of classics."

  1. Stevie Wonder: A "child genius" who continued to grow.
  2. Thom Yorke: The brain behind Radiohead "moving in his own dizzying orbit."
  3. Miles Davis: Jazz icon's trumpet "a hauntingly human voice in the hubbub of innovation."
  4. Kurt Cobain: "His all-too-brief body of work changed the course of popular music."
  5. Madonna: "Sheer ambition and bloody-mindedness remain her calling cards."
For the complete list, click the link below. (More Bob Dylan stories.)

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