'Pleasure Principle'

Stop and do this: Think about the top 20 most influential musical artists in history.

Write them down.

Disregard how good the artists were and consider only this question, "If this band/musician didn't exist, it would've set off an irretrievable set of events that would've changed pop culture forever." Meaning, without Band A a whole genre or Bands T, U, V, W, X, Y and Z don't exist.

Disregard, also, the first caveman to whistle or King David plucking his lyre. Also, try to disregard the influences of the influential. Do the Beatles exist without Carl Perkins, Little Richard, Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry? Probably not. But I don't think the Beatles' influence necessary should reflect on Little Richard, who was himself influenced by others.

Also, disregard most classical musicians. 

My list, in no order: The Beatles, The Ramones, Hank Williams Sr., The Clash, Metallica, The Rolling Stones, Beethoven, Run DMC, Tupac Shakur, Elvis Presley, James Brown, Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, Madonna, Bob Dylan, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson, Led Zeppelin and The Velvet Underground.

OK, expand your list to 25 and I dare you not to include Gary Numan. Before you laugh me off the Internet, consider that few were doing with synthesizers and electronic music in the 1970s quite like Numan. His influence would be notice immediately in the New Wave of the 1980s, but the influence I think reaches its apex among more edgey and artistic folks starting with Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails, DJs and dance and house music creators, hip-hop guys and even folks like Animal Collective and others that utilize almost exclusively electronic instruments.

Now, Numan wasn't alone. He was contemporaries of others like Kraftwerk, Can, Faust, the prog bands and Brian Eno. Numan didn't event anything nor what he probably the best, but he made it popular.

Again, Carl Perkins and Little Richard were never going to do what The Beatles were going to do.

Numan did make it popular with Pleasure Principle being his most popular album. Numan himself is not too different from his stage persona (if indeed you define it as a persona that is separate from his own personality). He's suspected of having some social disorder like Asperger's Syndrome. He's been medicated for depression before. His distant and stoic self that's on the stage is little different than that persona at home. He's a dude that doesn't like other people. A true artist.

By the way, listen to "Random" from this album and tell me it could be re-released next week.