Throughout the past few years, my brother and I embarked on a musical and lyrical journey like no other. We boldly, fearlessly, and maybe naively, decided to write about 100 artists (and a further 50) whom we deemed to be the most ‘influential’ of all time, and also who we believed to be burgeoning and up-and-coming artists who would be influential within 5-10 years. These artists can be viewed here, and you can read them all to your heart’s content, and at your own pace. These artists can be conversation starters at the dinner table, they all can be hotly debated, agreed upon and disagreed upon. We wrote about artists who probably would have been on anyone and everyone’s list (Avril Lavigne, U2, Phil Collins, John Mayer, Michael Bublé, OneRepublic, Ed Sheeran, Christina Aguilera, Taylor Swift, Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams, Alicia Keys, Sheryl Crow, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Tina Arena, Backstreet Boys, One Direction, Coldplay, Jennifer Lopez, John Legend, Tim McGraw, Justin Bieber, Beyonce and Mariah Carey to name a few), while we wrote about 20 or so Christian/worship artists, who probably would not have been present on any other list- sad to say. Some artists were influential within their genres and could have been argued either way (Jason Mraz, Seal, Jackie Evancho, Alanis Morrisette, Gwen Stefani, Hoobastank, Natalie Imbruglia, Hanson, Colbie Caillat, Goo Goo Dolls, Pentatonix, Train, Mandy Moore, Owl City, The McClymonts); while we did not include many rap or gospel artists, nor pop artists of today. Some artists we claimed to be up-and-coming, but they weren’t (Matthew West, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Little Mix), while others like The New Respects, Jess Glynne, and Conrad Sewell… well frankly they kind of faded, and are they really up and coming when they may not be popular or influential? Others like Maddie & Tae, Thomas Rhett, NF, Dua Lipa, Sabrina Carpenter, Sofia Carson, Mickey Guyton, Zach Williams, Tori Kelly, Lauren Daigle, Maren Morris, Kelsea Ballerini, Chris Stapleton and Ava Max (to name a few) are indeed ‘up-and-coming’ and actually fit the scope of the 50 artists; while Cory Asbury is indeed certain to be influential… but we just spoke about the controversy of “Reckless Love” the song for virtually the whole blog. There were pluses and minuses of both lists. And quite frankly, if any of you have a different 100 or a different 50- I would not blame you at all. After all, that’s what the honourable mentions are for- you can read them here, here, and here.
