[vezzy-fnord]

I'd say Lou Reed is a hacker. A hacker of music. His Metal Machine Music was one of the first and perhaps most famous examples of noise music (after Merzbow) which completely challenged all conventions of what music truly is.

There were plenty of others before him, but he had his place, as well.

Even though his later years were not up to par.

[acjohnson55]

There was a long tradition of noise and electronic music before Metal Machine Music going back to the turn of the 20th century, with figures like Luigi Russolo, Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, Iannis Xenakis, Jean-Claude Risset, Max Matthews, Morton Subotnick, and many others. Not much of it was made by famous pop musicians (as opposed to people thought of more so as composers), so Reed definitely deserves credit for introducing a lot of people to sounds and styles they'd never heard before, and perhaps paving the way for groups like Sonic Youth.

[philwelch]

Come on, you have to admit Lulu was a brilliant practical joke.