Are they influential on alternative rock music? Absolutely. Their influence on that strain of rock music and its subgenres (indie rock, britpop, etc.) is undeniable, as is their influence on British rock music in general. In the United Kingdom, they are as influential to alternative/post-punk/indie/related genres as R.E.M. is in the United States. Many artists list that band as a primary influence, their guitarist Johnny Marr inspired countless British youths to pick up guitars (among them, the members of Radiohead and Oasis) and the band's performance on "Top of the Pops" in 1983 is a catalyst for the "Indie" movement. Even today you can hear The Smiths' influence in bands like Foster the People and The Killers. On my list of the 100 Greatest Alternative Artist, they're at #4.

On rock & roll music as a whole? Probably not. R.E.M.'s (who is already on this list) influence looms far larger and more internationally over alternative music than The Smiths did. The Smiths inspired Britian's alternative bands, sure, but R.E.M. inspired the world's alternative bands (along with some other post-punk bands with regional importance like Midnight Oil, 54-40, The Plastics and XTC)

NME is a hype machine of a magazine. A rather effective and influential hype machine, but they're still guilty of plenty hyperbole (they once named the Arctic Monkeys' debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not one of the greatest albums of all time mere months after it was released. Its a good album, but not "greatest ever" material). Also, since the rise of punk in the late 1970's, NME also focuses heavily on "indie music" (which isn't just indie and alternative rock, but artists in related genres like Adele and Lupe Fiasco) and not popular music as a whole. They have a bit of bias towards that kind of music, and while the music they cover are the genres I am personally the most interested and invested in, I do not take NME's lists (except for the end-of-the-year singles list) seriously anymore.

Maybe they were just making an ironic reference to the title?

question: why is Ray Charles under DMC and JHX?

Good question actually....

I agree, that is a good question. I'm not saying it's wrong to have them as they are, but I could imagine them the other way too. I can say that Charles isn't being given all of the credit for developing Soul, as he was prededed by the Dominoes and the 5 Royales, and I know Sampson considers the 5 Royales a Soul artist.

Sampson did talk some about Run-DMC earlier in the thread. The comparisons I remember were with Little Richard and with other hip hop artists.

This brings up something I've been curious about. Is there a distinction between soul and R&B?

What'd I Say is singularly one of the most influential songs in Rock&Roll history. That opening piano riff is one of the most recognizable intros in recorded music history. I have no idea why Ray Charles would be listed below those mentioned in the previous post.

As for Ray & "Soul" music...a tougher one in my opinion. If one draws a distinction between R&B and Soul music (I do)...I'd say that Ray was much more instrumental in the development of Rock & Roll than (classic) Soul. Just my opinion.

R&B is basically just a one size fits all label for various different kinds of black music in the last 60 or so years.

Not all R&B is soul, but I think it can be said that all soul is R&B. Soul can be defined more clearly than R&B. It is music whose sound is heavily influenced by southern black Baptist church music, but with secular lyrics. R&B originally evolved mostly out of swing, but since then it has come to refer to most predominently black styles of music.

Soul began in the '50s; R&B began in the 40s. Fats Domino, Little Richard, and the Drifters are examples of artists who are R&B but not soul.

R&B was esentially buttonholed by the White music establishment as a genre evolving from the Blues and what was known as Race Music. When more Black music executives,, producers, writers, etc became more influential, Soul music emerged...which took on a bit more sophistication in all of those disciplines and resulted in a fresher finished product.

I'd say The Drifters, like The Dells started during the R&B era, but transitioned to Soul. The Flamingo's on the other hand were Doo Wop oriented...but certainly contained elements of early Soul. True...Fats and Little Richard were R&B/Rock&Roll.

Stubass do you believe that R&B is rock? E.g. Marvin Gaye, Temptations, Aretha, Otis Redding, Parliament/Funkadelic, Sly & the Family Stone etc.

Ariel...the first four you mentioned I'd classify as Soul...the last two...Funk...BOTH offshoots and sub-genres of Rock IMO.

To me...the branches of Rock kept expanding and expanding...including the two sub-genres mentioned in my previous post. By the time it got to Rap...the fruit just hung way too low on the Rock music tree for my taste or endorsement.