Led Zeppelin - Legacy

Legacy

Led Zeppelin are widely considered to be one of the most successful, innovative and influential rock bands in the history of music. Rock critic Mikal Gilmore said, "Led Zeppelin—talented, complex, grasping, beautiful and dangerous—made one of the most enduring bodies of composition and performance in twentieth-century music, despite everything they had to overpower, including themselves".

Led Zeppelin have influenced hard rock and heavy metal bands such as Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Rush, Queen, and Megadeth as well as progressive metal bands like Tool and Dream Theater. They influenced some early punk and post-punk bands, among them the Ramones and The Cult. They were also an important influence on the development of alternative rock, as bands adapted elements from the "Zeppelin sound" of the mid-1970s, including The Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. Bands and artists from diverse genres have acknowledged the influence of Led Zeppelin, such as Madonna, Shakira, Lady Gaga, and Katie Melua.

Led Zeppelin have been credited with a major impact on the nature of the music business, particularly in the development of album-orientated rock (AOR) and stadium rock. In 1988 John Kalodner, then-A&R executive of Geffen Records, remarked that "In my opinion, next to the Beatles they're the most influential band in history. They influence the way music is on records, AOR radio, concerts. They set the standards for the AOR-radio format with 'Stairway to Heaven,' having AOR hits without necessarily having Top 40 hits. They're the ones who did the first real big arena concert shows, consistently selling out and playing stadiums without support. People can do as well as them, but nobody surpasses them". Andrew Loog Oldham, the former producer and manager of The Rolling Stones, commented on how Led Zeppelin had a major influence on the record business, and the way rock concerts were managed and presented to huge audiences. The band have sold over 200 million albums worldwide according to some sources, while other sources state that they have sold in excess of 300 million records, including 111.5 million certified units in the United States. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, Led Zeppelin are the fourth-highest-selling music act in the US and one of only three acts to earn four or more Diamond albums. Led Zeppelin remain one of the most bootlegged artists in the history of rock music.

Led Zeppelin also had a significant cultural impact. Jim Miller, editor of Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, argues that "On one level, Led Zeppelin represents the final flowering of the sixties' psychedelic ethic, which casts rock as passive sensory involvement". Led Zeppelin have also been described as "the quintessential purveyors" of masculine and aggressive "cock rock", although this assertion has been challenged. The band's fashion-sense has been seminal; Simeon Lipman, head of pop culture at Christie's auction house, has commented that "Led Zeppelin have had a big influence on fashion because the whole aura surrounding them is so cool, and people want a piece of that". Led Zeppelin laid the foundation for the big hair of 1980s glam metal bands such as Mötley Crüe and Skid Row. Other musicians have also adapted elements from Led Zeppelin's attitude to apparel, jewellery and hair, such as the hipster flares and tight band t-shirts of Kings of Leon, shaggy hair, clingy t-shirts and bluesman hair of Jack White of The White Stripes, and Kasabian guitarist Sergio Pizzorno's silk scarves, trilbies and side-laced tight jeans.