The 25 Most Influential Bands Of All Time

1		The Beatles Elvis may be the King of Rock 'N Roll but he couldn't hold a candle to the Beatles and niether can anyone else. Even if you hate these guys (if you do you're going to hell) you have to admit they're are the greatest band ever.
2		The Rolling Stones The only reason they aren't #1 is because they are sloppier than the Beatles, but then again compared to the Beatles everyone sounds sloppy.
3		Led Zeppelin These guys are probably the 2nd most influential metal band of all time.
4		Elvis Presley I'll admit I'm not a fan of his music but no band on this list would be here if it weren't for Elvis.
5		Jimi Hendrix Yes Hendrix is a great guitarist but you can't forget about mitch Mitchell's drumming in the song "Fire."
6		The Who I honestly don't have much to say other than that they are the greats pop rock band of all time.
7		Black Sabbath Well it turns out my favorite band isn't #1 on the list but still  its in the top 10 and that's good enough for me. Oh yeah, and the next time some douche bag tells you Ozzy can't sing play the song War Pigs for them and if they don't like it they probably don't have much taste.
8		Van Halen These guys are the only hair metal band that was respected and liked by the denim and thrash metal metal bands, I think that says a lot.  Did I mention their guitar player kicks ass.
9		Metallica Though their last great album was released 15 years ago no  other band has released as many great albums in a row.  Oh, and I'd just like to add Dave Mustaine (original Metallica Guitarist[He was kicked out before they recorded their first album], Megadeth Founder) is a much better guitar player than Kirk Hamett (Mustaine can actually write a song), but James Hetfield kicks both of their asses.
10		Judas Priest They've changed their sound so many times.  Their first album  was blues rock, their second was Zeppelin style metal, their third had more of a Sabbath vibe, their 4th through 8th ablums defined the NWOBHM sound, they toyed with hair metal on their 9th album, and every album ever since then has been bassically a thrash album.  Plus they defined the twin lead guitar attack and their singer has probably converted homophobes in one day than GLAAD has been able to do since their excistence.
11		Iron Maiden Its bassically the same thing as Judas Priest, in other words if you like Priest you'll like Maiden.
12		Ozzy Osbourne His stuff with Zakk Wylde and Jake E. Lee are impressive and influential but the reason Ozzy is so high on the list is because of his work with Rand Rhoads.  Randy is probably the greatest shredder of all time and unlike most neo-classical  guitar players (Well pretty much just Yngwie Malmsteen) his playing had heart and soul.  Most people say Hendrix is the best but Hendrix released more albums than Randy and was around longer and Randy on the other hand released two albums both back-to-back his stuff influences just as many people as Hendrix.
13		Alice Cooper Buy the album Billion Dollar Babies it will definitley kick your ass.
14		Deep Purple
15		Pink Floyd
16		Rush If the guys from Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd had a baby it would be Rush.
17		KISS
18		Diamond Head Most of you are probably thinking who the fuck are these guys?  They're the band that influenced Metallica and Megadeth this is probably the only list you'll see them on only because they weren't popular.  To set the record straight they weren't unpopular because they weren't popular because they weren't talented (in fact these guys are probably the most talented among their peers with the exception of Priest and Maiden) it was because of bad buisness decisions.  But despite this they made one popular and groundbreaking album their 1979 debut Lightning to the Nations (also known as the White Album).  If you can find it buy it you won't be disappointed.
19		Def Leppard Their stuff from Hysteria upon until now are little too poppy for me.  But the albums Pyromania and High 'N Dry kick ass.
20		Elton John I rarely listen to him but he's still great.
21		Guns n' Roses They took the best of thrash, punk, and hair metal and put it in to their music, if Axl didn't have a huge ego they wouldn't have broken up and there success would be astronomical.
22		Megadeth I actually prefer these guys over Metallica (Megadeth didn't sell out).
23		Slayer They may be a bit extreme but they still make good music if you don't like you probably don't understand it and don't listen enough to see its beauty.
24		Pantera I like to call them the Lynrd Skynrd of thrash, the only difference is you might actually see democrats going to a Pantera concert.
25		Nirvana I hate grunge but I love Nirvana they're just a great punk band.  This isn't relevant but I live in Alexandria, VA (suburb of D.C.) and know where Dave Grohl used to live.