Most Influential American Musician of All Time?

"Tvad, FWIW I think your definition of 'musician' might be a bit narrow, especially in view of how it's defined in my dictionary, i.e. a composer or performer of music and as an alternative a performer esp of instrumental music."

This goes back to my question Jeffery, how do we define musician for the benefit of this thread? Does it include composers and singers or is the intent instrumentalist? If so it is an impossible question to answer and would have to be divided into categories otherwise it is nothing more than a popularity contest with no objective basis for argument.

I've decided the most influential American musician is David Cassidy. He influenced an entire generation of males to buy hair dryers.

my original post contemplated both composers and performers in the definition of "musician." frankly, i am not sure how you could separately categorize the two since, as a practical matter, so many musicians wear both hats (britney spears being a notable exception, for example).

tvad: i believe your earlier posts nominated Robert Johnson and Bob Dylan for the honor of most influential. How would you propose to categorize either/both of these as between composer and performer? To attempt to do so would diminish both by suggesting that it is not the combination of their songwriting AND performing (singing and playing and instrument) that makes them worthy of that title.

I suggested Robert Johnson, but not Bob Dylan.

At this point, I've changed my mind, and I would not distinguish musicians between performers and composers.

Tvad, Yes David Cassidy is right up there with Bobby Sherman and Frankie Avalon.

All of which, I am sure, broke Annette's heart.....