the TrueFans AMP— Issue 121

“A band is a living thing. It breathes, it fights, it grows, it argues, it dreams. That’s  where the magic comes from.” 
— Dave Grohl

In This Issue... about 22 pages (about 33ish minutes to read) You'll Get... 

Welcome to the Band Amp (another looonnnggg issue) 

• RECOMMENDS— The 10 Things Every Music Artist Should Learn from Great  Bands 

• Feature Article— the 10 Most Influential Bands in Modern Music and How They  Changed Everything by John Milton Fogg 

• the Greatest Music Artists of All Time— Pink Floyd: Architects of Sound,  Emotion and the Human Condition 

in partnership with the Eleven Music Career Center and Matt Jacoby 

• Feature Article— The Story Behind Their Music from Old Photo Club's post on  Facebook 

• PS from PS— Quotes About the Band

Here’s the playlist

• RECOMMENDS— The 10 Things Every Music Artist Should Learn from Great  Bands 

Normally in this space, we recommend a person, place, or thing— a book, a tool, a  platform, or someone doing great work in the Artist-First world. 

But this issue, we’re doing something different. 

Because what better “thing” to recommend than the powerful How-Tos, Why-Tos, and Who-Tos we can learn from the greatest bands of all time? Bands have been the engines of innovation in the music biz for more than 60 years— creative laboratories where ideas collide, evolve, explode, and become the soundtrack of entire generations. 

So this week, we’re recommending the principles— the DNA— behind the bands who  changed everything. 

Here are 10 lessons every Music Artist today can use, whether you're solo, in a duo,  part of a band, collaborating online, or building your sound track by track. 

1. Chemistry Creates Magic 
Great bands aren’t just aligned— they ignite. 
Creative chemistry is still one of the most powerful forces in music. 

2. Identity Beats Imitation 
The Beatles, Floyd, Nirvana, Zeppelin— none of them chased trends. They made the trends chase them. 

3. Take Risks Before Anyone Approves 
Innovation happens ahead of applause. 
The bold move is often the breakthrough. 

4. Build a World, Not Just Tracks 
Concepts, visuals, stories, themes— the great bands didn’t release music… They released universes. 

5. Your Live Show Is Your Truth 
Onstage is where fans feel your real identity. 
Craft it. Shape it. Make it matter. 

6. Imperfection Wins When It’s True 
Raw, messy, honest— that’s how the Ramones, Nirvana, and VU changed the world. Authenticity > polish. 

7. Think Like an Album Maker 
Even if you drop singles, think in arcs, in stories, in bodies of work. Artists with a vision win. 

8. Use Technology as a Paintbrush 
From Pink Floyd’s tape loops to Radiohead’s glitch artistry— tech is there to expand you, not replace you. 

9. Build Community, Not Just an Audience 
Bands create tribes. Tribes create longevity. 
Your TrueFans want belonging more than content. 

10. Let Conflict Fuel Greatness 
Every great band fought. Some nearly broke. 
But that friction turned into fire. 

Everything great bands mastered, today’s artists can use— solo or not.

Chemistry. Identity. Risk. World-building. Vision. Truth. Community.

These are the tools of lasting careers. 

And in the TrueFans world, where we champion Fans Forever and Right Now Money, these band-born lessons are pure gold. And the value is ever-appreciating. 

• Feature Article— the 10 Most Influential Bands in Modern Music and How They  Changed Everything by John Milton Fogg 

Some artists change music.
Some artists change culture. 

But when a band hits that rare alchemy of chemistry, conflict, vision, and sound… they change everything. 

Bands have always been the laboratories of modern music— the places where ideas collide, where friction turns into fire, where four (or five or...) people create something no single human could invent alone. The history of popular music is, in many ways, the history of the bands who bent the arc of what music could be. 

Here are the 10 most influential bands in modern music— and the specific innovations they unleashed into the world. 

The Beatles— The Blueprint 
There is music before the Beatles… and everything after. 

They reinvented: 

• Songwriting (internal rhyme, surprising chord changes, melodic invention)
• Recording (tape loops, reverse guitars, multi-track experimentation)
• The album as art 
• Global youth culture 

Every band on this list lives in the house the Beatles built. They changed what was  possible. 

The Rolling Stones— The Attitude 
If the Beatles taught the world melody, the Stones taught the world swagger. They defined: 

• The rock & roll frontman 
• The dangerous band identity 
• Rhythm-driven songwriting 
• The blueprint for touring as spectacle 

They didn’t invent rock attitude— they perfected it. 

Led Zeppelin— The Power & the Myth 
The band that elevated hard rock into mythology. 

Their innovations: 

• New sonic heaviness 
• Blues reimagined as epic 
• Open tunings 
• Studio-as-instrument production 
• The birth of what became heavy metal 

Zep proved that musical scale can be massive without losing soul. 

Pink Floyd— The Immersion 
Pink Floyd didn’t just make records— they built worlds. 

Their influence: 

• Concept albums 
• Long-form composition 
• Sonic storytelling 
• The blend of philosophy, emotion, and technology 
• Live shows as immersion, not performance 

Modern cinematic pop, ambient, electronic, and even film scoring all trace lines back to  Floyd. 

The Who— The Explosive Stage 
No band taught the world intensity like The Who. 

They gave us: 

• Amplified live performance 
• The “rock opera” 
• The smashing down of all musical restraint 
• Drums as a lead instrument 
• Bass as melodic voice 

Their energy became the DNA of punk, post-punk, grunge, indie, and everything noisy  in between. 

Queen— The Spectacle and the Voice |Queen changed the idea of what a band could be. 

Their influence: 

• Stacked vocal harmonies 
• The theatrical rock opera 
• Genre-blending as identity 
• Arena-rock blueprint 
• One of the greatest frontmen of all time 

You can hear Queen in pop, K-pop, metal, musical theater, EDM, and advertising syncs  every day. 

The Velvet Underground— The Alternative 
The band that sold almost no records but influenced everyone who ever made one. They introduced: 

• Noise as aesthetic 
• Minimalism 
• Lyrical honesty about taboo subjects 
• The entire alternative/indie ethos 

Brian Eno said it best: “Everyone who bought one of those records started a band.” 

Ramones— The Big Bang of Punk 
Short songs. 
Fast tempos. 
Zero pretension. 
The Ramones cracked open a new universe. 

Their influence: 

• Punk rock 
• DIY culture 
• Garage revival 
• The independent music revolution 

They made the world believe: You don’t need permission to start. 

U2— The Ethos and the Echo 
U2 reshaped the emotional vocabulary of rock. 

Their contributions: 

• Atmospheric, echo-driven guitar 
• Band-as-brotherhood identity 
• Social activism as brand 
• Stadium-scale emotional connection 

Modern atmospheric rock and inspirational pop stand on their shoulders. 

Nirvana— the Shockwave 
One band. Three albums. Permanent change. 

Their influence: 

• The end of hair metal 
• The rise of authenticity 
• The explosion of grunge 
• Melodic songwriting dressed in distortion 
• The importance of truth over perfection 

Nirvana restored the raw nerve of rock for a new generation. 

So… What Do These 10 Bands Actually Teach Us? 
For Music Artists today— especially Singer Songwriters— these bands reveal one core  truth: 

Innovation begins where identity, risk, and collaboration intersect. 

They didn’t follow trends. 
They created new ones. 
They didn’t ask audiences what they wanted. 
They showed audiences what was possible. 
They remind every Music Artist reading the AMP today: 

The future belongs to the creators, not the imitators. 

__________  

About John Fogg 
John Fogg is the founding editor of the TrueFans AMP™, co-creator of New Music Lives™, and a lifelong writer, listener, and fan of great songs and the people who make them. A million-selling author (The Greatest Networker in the World), Fogg has written and coached artists, entrepreneurs, and visionaries for more than four decades. Through the TrueFans AMP™, he champions a new generation of Music Artists building sustainable careers— Making Right Now Money and having Fans Forever.

• the Greatest Music Artists of All Time— Pink Floyd: Architects of Sound,  Emotion and the Human Condition 

“Pink Floyd didn’t just change music— they changed the way we hear ourselves.” 

There are bands that write great songs. 
There are bands that make great albums. 
And then there is Pink Floyd... 

... a once-in-history convergence of vision, sound, atmosphere, conflict, genius, and  sheer emotional truth that redefined what music is allowed to be. 

Their work didn’t follow the map of rock and roll. 
It became the map that countless artists still use today. 

“They were visionaries. Pure and simple.” 
— Peter Gabriel 

Pink Floyd’s Story Begins  
London in the mid-1960s, with a group of Cambridge friends— Syd Barrett, Roger  Waters, Richard Wright, and Nick Mason— who came together at a moment when  everything in music seemed to be breaking open. Barrett, the mercurial, poetic center of  early Floyd, was the one who gave the band its name, fusing the first names of two  American bluesmen— Pink Anderson and Floyd Council— into something that  sounded like a doorway. And, in a sense, it was. 

From the beginning, Pink Floyd leaned toward the non-obvious. Barrett’s mind was  wired for imagination, whimsy, psychedelia, and emotional depth. Early Floyd had no  intention of being a pop act. They were explorers— improvisational, atmospheric,  unsettling, strange, beautiful. London had never seen anything quite like them, and when their debut The Piper at the Gates of Dawn appeared in 1967, it was clear that this was a band not following the times but bending them. 

“Pink Floyd taught the world that rock music could be infinite.” 
— Thom Yorke 

Then Came the Fracture.  
Barrett’s escalating mental health struggles— worsened by stress, pressure, and heavy  LSD use— made it impossible for him to remain in the band he founded. It is one of the  great heartbreaks of rock history. And it set the stage for the second birth of Pink Floyd. 

“Everything I know about emotion in guitar playing, I learned from  Gilmour.” 
— The Edge 

Enter David Gilmour, a longtime friend whose guitar tone, melodic sensitivity, and  emotional intelligence would become the sound millions of people now instantly  recognize. With Gilmour in and Barrett out, the Floyd that changed the world began to  take shape. Waters’ conceptual vision and philosophical weight grew. Wright’s  harmonic richness and atmospheric textures expanded. Mason’s rhythmic narration  grounded the band’s most expansive ideas. 

Pink Floyd didn’t pivot toward simpler songwriting— they doubled down on  complexity. 

Longer forms. 
Deeper ideas. 
Bigger questions. 
More humanity. 

They were no longer four young men playing psychedelic clubs. 
They were becoming musical architects. 

“Dark Side of the Moon is the Mount Everest of production.” 
— Hans Zimmer 

The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)  
It was the moment the world recognized it. A meditation on mortality, madness, time,  greed, fear, and the human condition, it became one of the most successful and enduring albums ever made. For more than a thousand weeks, it lived on the Billboard charts.  Engineers still study it. Artists still emulate it.  

Fans still treat it as a rite of passage. 

Gilmour later reflected on what made the band’s writing different: 

“Our music was never about showing off. It was about creating a feeling—  a space where people could recognize themselves.” 

Wish You Were Here followed, a tender and devastating tribute to Barrett— the missing  friend whose absence defined the band as much as his presence once had. Shine On You  Crazy Diamond remains one of the most emotional long-form pieces in rock, a  mournful, loving, painful acknowledgment of Syd’s brilliance and decline. Wish You  Were Here became a universal song of loss, connection, and longing. 

Then Came Animals 
A sharp and prophetic critique of human systems and social cruelty— Waters at his  most incisive, the band at its most musically muscular. 

“Pink Floyd made music an experience, not just a sound.” 
— Bono 

Then The Wall 
Floyd’s epic theatrical masterpiece, a psychological portrait of isolation and fame that  became a global hit, a film, and one of the most ambitious tours ever staged. Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)— with its children’s chorus and anti-authoritarian bite—  became a worldwide anthem. 

If you listen closely, you can feel the internal strain beginning to show. Waters was  becoming the dominant force. Wright felt marginalized and eventually left. Mason and  Gilmour navigated the friction as best they could. The very dynamics that fueled their  greatness were also tearing the band apart. 

Waters once described Pink Floyd’s songwriting as: 

“Taking the hardest questions we carry inside ourselves… and daring to say them out loud.” 

That creative audacity came at a cost, but it also gave the world some of the most daring  records ever made. 

Another Departure 
Following Waters’ leaving in the 1980s, Gilmour, Mason, and eventually Wright carried on. A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell brought the band into a new  era, with High Hopes emerging as one of Floyd’s late-career masterworks— a  meditation on time, memory, and the ache of what might have been. 

“No band created atmosphere better. They were painters in sound.”
— Brian Eno 

Pink Floyd’s Live Shows Became Legend.  
They pioneered immersive concert production— quadraphonic sound, elaborate  projection, lasers, staging, and grand visual storytelling decades before these became  industry norms. Touring became not just performance but immersion, a full sensory  environment that reshaped what fans expect from a live show. 

“They changed the way albums were made— for everyone.” 
— Trent Reznor 

For generations of Singer Songwriters and Music Artists, Pink Floyd became a template  of what happens when you honor imagination, emotional depth, production innovation,  and thematic ambition. Their influence runs through Radiohead, U2, Coldplay, Muse,  Nine Inch Nails, Hans Zimmer, Porcupine Tree, Tame Impala, Daft Punk, and thousands of indie and electronic artists who learned from Floyd that music could be an  atmosphere, a feeling, a world. 

Longevity is the ultimate test of artistry. Pink Floyd passed it decades ago. 

Their music still sells. 
Their songs still gain new listeners every day. 
Their albums still anchor “greatest ever” lists. 
Their style still shapes genres. 
Their themes— madness, hope, fear, time, isolation, longing— remain timeless.

But perhaps their greatest contribution is this:  

They expanded the emotional vocabulary of music. They made introspection  cinematic. They made vulnerability vast. They made human struggle sound like the cosmos calling back. 

Pink Floyd didn’t just write songs. 

They wrote the soundtrack to what it feels like to be alive.

in partnership with the Eleven Music Career Center and Matt Jacoby Turn Up Your Music Career

• Feature Article— The Story Behind the Music from Old Photo Club's post on  Facebook 

The rise, the heartbreak, the genius— how David Gilmour’s heart, tone, and  impossible choices transformed Pink Floyd forever. 

The greatest guitar solo ever recorded wasn't about speed or skill— it was about  making four minutes feel like flying and falling at the same time. 

Cambridge, England, 1960s. A teenager named David Gilmour sat in his bedroom, guitar across his lap, listening to the same blues records over and over until he'd absorbed not just the notes, but the spaces between them. 

His parents— his father a zoology lecturer, his mother a film teacher— couldn't give him wealth, but they gave him something better: permission to care about beauty. 

They bought him his first guitar. They let him chase something that couldn't be  measured in exam scores or career prospects. 

David learned to play by asking a different question than most guitarists: Not "how fast can I play?" but "how much can I make you feel?" 

The Phone Call that Changed Everything 
By 1967, David was playing in small bands around London— talented but struggling, like thousands of other musicians trying to break through. 

Then his childhood friend's band called with an impossible request. 

Syd Barrett had been David's friend since they were teenagers in Cambridge. Syd was brilliant— wildly creative, charismatic, the kind of talent that seemed touched by  something otherworldly. 

In 1965, Syd co-founded Pink Floyd. By 1967, they were one of Britain's most  exciting psychedelic bands, with Syd as the creative visionary. 

Then Syd started disappearing. 

Not physically— though sometimes he'd stand on stage and simply not play, staring  into nothing. But mentally, emotionally, the Syd his bandmates knew was slipping away — lost to LSD, mental illness, or some combination that no one fully understood. 

Pink Floyd had concerts booked. Contracts signed. A future that required a functioning guitarist. 

They called David in December 1967: "Can you help us? Just temporarily. Just until Syd gets better." 

David said yes— to help his friend, to keep the band alive, to do what friends do in  crisis. 

He didn't know he was saying goodbye. 

For a few painful months, Pink Floyd toured as a five-piece— David covering more  and more as Syd faded further. 

Then came April 1968. On the way to a show, someone asked: "Shall we pick up Syd?" Someone else answered: "Let's not bother." 

They drove past Syd's apartment. The decision was made. 

David had joined to save his friend. Instead, he'd replaced him. 

Rebuilding From the Ashes 

Losing Syd should have killed Pink Floyd. He'd been the Songwriter, the vision,  the creative engine. 

But what remained— Roger Waters (bass), Richard Wright (keyboards), Nick Mason (drums), and now David— decided to find out if they could build something new from  the wreckage. 

Roger began writing darker, more conceptual material. Richard's keyboards  created atmospheric soundscapes. Nick's drumming provided precise foundation. 

And David became the band's emotional soul. 

His guitar didn't scream for attention. It whispered truths you didn't know you needed to  hear. 

His voice— clear, warm, capable of conveying both tenderness and ache— gave Pink  Floyd a completely new identity. 

Through early 1970s albums, they found their sound. Then in 1973, they created  something that transcended music. 

The Dark Side of the Moon  

The Dark Side of the Moon wasn't just an album— it was a complete artistic  statement about existence itself: time, death, madness, money, the crushing weight of  being human. 

David's contributions defined its sound: 

• The guitar on Time that captured the terror of wasted years 
•The vocals on Breathe that made melancholy feel like meditation 
•The solo on Money that turned greed into groove 
• Every note mattered. Every phrase meant something. 

The album stayed on the Billboard charts for over 900 consecutive weeks— more than  17 years. It sold 45+ million copies. It became the soundtrack to a generation's  introspection. 

Pink Floyd wasn't just a band anymore. They were a cultural phenomenon. 

The Tribute that Broke Hearts 
In 1975, Pink Floyd released Wish You Were Here— an album about absence, about  loss, about what the music industry does to people. 

The centerpiece: Shine On You Crazy Diamond— a nine-part suite explicitly about Syd  Barrett. 

David's opening guitar notes— slow, deliberate, dripping with grief— set the tone for 26 minutes of musical farewell to the friend they'd lost. 

Then, during recording, something haunting happened. 
Syd showed up at the studio. 

He was barely recognizable— overweight, head and eyebrows shaved, disconnected  from reality. He'd heard they were making music and wanted to help. 

The band was shattered. This man who'd once been their brilliant leader was now  a ghost wearing Syd's face. 

He stayed briefly. Then left. It was the last time most of them saw him. 

David finished Shine On You Crazy Diamond carrying that image— his childhood friend, forever gone. 

The War That Nearly Destroyed Them 
Through the late 1970s, Pink Floyd reached impossible heights: Animals (1977), The  Wall (1979)— albums that sold millions and defined an era. 

But behind the music, the band was tearing itself apart. 

Roger Waters was increasingly dominating— controlling concepts, lyrics, direction. He  saw himself as Pink Floyd's true genius, with others merely executing his vision. 

David believed something fundamentally different: that Pink Floyd was a  collaboration, that melody mattered as much as concepts, that emotion was as important  as intellect. 

The arguments became vicious. Recording The Wall nearly destroyed them.  Richard Wright was effectively fired during sessions. 

After The Final Cut (1983)— essentially a Roger Waters solo album with Pink  Floyd's name— Waters quit. 

In 1985, he announced publicly: Pink Floyd is over. It cannot exist without me.

David disagreed. 

Proving Him Wrong 
David believed Pink Floyd was bigger than any one member— even Waters. The  music, the fans, the legacy deserved to continue. 

Waters sued to prevent them from using the Pink Floyd name. 

He lost. 

In 1987, David released A Momentary Lapse of Reason as Pink Floyd. 

Critics doubted. Fans worried. Could Pink Floyd exist without Waters' conceptual genius? 

The album went to #3 in the US and UK. Sold over 4 million copies. The tour became  one of the decade's highest-grossing. 

The message was clear: Pink Floyd's soul wasn't in the concepts. It was in the music itself. 

One Impossible Night 
July 2, 2005. London's Hyde Park. Live 8 benefit concert. Something impossible  happened: Pink Floyd reunited— all four original members, including Waters, together  for the first time in over 20 years. 

They played Breathe, Money, Wish You Were Here, and Comfortably Numb. 

When David played the Comfortably Numb solo— that soaring, aching expression  of everything words can't capture— 200,000 people went silent. 

When it ended, the roar was deafening. 

For one night, Pink Floyd was whole again. 

It would be the last time. Richard Wright died in 2008. The magic couldn't be repeated. But for that moment, David proved what he'd always believed: the music was what mattered most. 

The Solo that Defines a Generation 
If you mention David Gilmour to music fans, they'll say one thing: Comfortably Numb.

The final guitar solo from The Wall— four minutes that have made millions cry. 

It's not the fastest solo ever played. Not the most technically complex. But it might be  the most emotionally perfect. 

Four minutes of pure feeling— melody that builds, soars, aches, and transcends, capturing everything about pain, numbness, yearning, and hope that language fails  to express. 

David recorded it in a small room with a practice amp. Largely improvised.  Pure emotion translated directly through his fingertips. 

That solo has been voted the greatest guitar solo of all time in countless polls. 

Because David Gilmour never tried to impress you with technique. He tried to make you feel. 

The Lesson 
David Gilmour is now in his late seventies. He's essentially retired Pink Floyd after 2014's The Endless River— a final tribute to Richard Wright. 

Syd Barrett died in 2006, having lived quietly in Cambridge for decades, away from  music entirely. 

Roger Waters continues touring to massive audiences worldwide. 

But when people think of Pink Floyd's sound— the soaring guitars, the emotional  depth, the sonic landscapes that made you feel weightless— they're thinking of David  Gilmour. 

He never sought the spotlight. He stepped into it reluctantly, trying to save his  friend's band. 

And he ended up defining what it means to make a guitar sing. 

His legacy isn't about speed or flash or technical superiority. 

It's about this: every note can mean something if you care enough. 

Melody matters. Tone matters. Emotion matters. 

You don't need a thousand notes to say everything. Sometimes one perfectly chosen note — held just the right amount of time, bent just the right way, played with  complete conviction— says more than any virtuosic display. 

David Gilmour made millions cry. Not by showing off. 

But by making his guitar sing exactly what we felt but couldn't say. 

The melodic soul of Pink Floyd. The guitarist who proved that less really is more— as  long as every note comes from the heart. 

>> Tap the link to listen to a celebrated version of Comfortably Numb live at Pompeii  (And please, forgive the lights if you're not a PF TrueFan, probably best just to listen.)

• PS from PS— Quotes About the Band 
We British have always loved a well-turned phrase; our literature is a centuries-long  conversation carried on in quotations. From Johnson to Churchill to Wilde, the British  treat quotability as a national sport. For we who were taught the Queen's and King's  English, a good quote isn’t decoration— it’s currency.” 

So... when the theme of this issue of the TrueFans AMP™ emerged, I searched for  some great quotes about “Bands” to include in this PS. What I found was such a great  collection of insight, wisdom and truth, I want to share them. Here: 

“When four people lock in together, that’s bigger than any one of them.  That’s the power of a band.” 
— Bono 

“Being in a band is special because you’re part of something you couldn’t  create yourself.” 
— Pete Townshend 

“The chemistry in a great band is like lightning. You can’t plan it. You can  only feel it.” 
— Jimmy Page 

“Bands are messy. That’s why they’re brilliant.” 
— Rick Rubin 

“Great bands don’t follow trends. They create them.” 
— Mick Jagger 

“The Beatles were always more than the sum of their parts. That’s what a  band is— four minds making one thing.” 
— Paul McCartney 

“A band is a family you choose. And sometimes it’s crazy, but that madness  is the spark.” 
— Steven Tyler 

“There’s nothing like the energy of a band onstage. It’s dangerous,  unpredictable, alive.” 
— Bruce Springsteen 

“A great band is four people hearing one thing.” 
— Brian Eno 

“A band is a sacred thing. You hold each other up, you piss each other off,  you make each other better.” 
— Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers) 

“Every band is a little universe. When it works, the whole thing glows.”
— Neil Young 

“Being in a band is like being married to three people you didn’t choose.”
— Alex Lifeson (Rush) 

“A band is the only job where arguing for eight hours might make the song  better.” 
— Dave Grohl 

“In a band, if someone’s not driving you crazy… they’re not trying hard  enough.” 
— Keith Richards 

“There’s a spiritual thing that happens when a band locks in. You don’t  control it. It moves through you.” 
— Carlos Santana 

“A band becomes a family when the music starts listening back.”
— Bono 

Until we speak again...  

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And PLEASE, if you've got any Singer Songwriter friends, pass the AMP on, because... It’s Time... for a Change. Big Time. Past Time...