ITT: people who have severely underestimated Mozart's musical capacities and contributions.

Mozart is a musician that is studied by nearly any professional musician. There are historians, musical scholars, and museums dedicated to him. He's a household name across the world. He established a period of music. As a teenager, he deciphered a 12 min choral piece with multiple groups and solos after hearing it once and by memory wrote it down later that night (he heard it a 2nd time a few days later for minor corrections). When he presented the score to the clergy, they said he got one note wrong. After investigation, Mozart heard it right. The musician's score was off by a note. Could any popular musician mentioned here decipher just a 6 min song of 4 instrument band after hearing it once with pen and paper ready? Imagine telling any music legend now, "Hey, you're off by a half a step on the 3rd note of bar 28 of your own song."

Comparing an awesome popular singer, guitarist, or band to him is like comparing your friend that got a job at NASA to Einstein. There is no modern Mozart. There have been greats since Mozart, but there haven't been any Mozarts since Mozart. I say this as a Beethoven fan. Mozart was the only Mozart. He was so good, that his name became a title for great musician: Mozart. No one listed in this thread is anywhere near being a Mozart.

Ummm

Prince.

Music fell out of him. He accidentally walked by a bass and it exploded from the funk.

Talent for days. (See also RRHoF playing “while my guitar gently weeps”)

Second vote would be Trent Reznor or Danny Elfman

Hans Zimmer? If not in pure skill then in name recognition.

King Gizzard. They love weird-ass time signatures (look up the ridiculousness that is Crumbling Castle for an example), polyrhythms, unconventional tuning, and such. They hop from one genre to another, they probably have one of the highest album-to-year ratios in music (not including live and demo albums), sometimes they're serious, sometimes they're silly, sometimes they're silly-serious. The biggest blow to them however, is that nothing they make is truly a "masterpiece". It all ranges from "good" to "great" but nothing they've made is really a "masterpiece". Maybe in time they'll make a true masterpiece, but nothing yet quite qualifies imo.

The other nomination I'd make is Devin Townsend. Where King Gizzard is extremely prolific but doesn't make masterpieces, Devin Townsend takes his time and makes masterpieces. Despite its silliness, Ziltoid the Omniscient is one of the best, if not the best, metal albums, period. It's an album so good that even my parents, who don't like metal, have songs they enjoy from the album. Empath is a stunning blend of metal, electronic, prog, praise & worship/gospel,^1 and god knows what else. The man just does things and they come out amazing.

^1 Afaik Devin Townsend's not a Christian, sorry to any Christian peeps hoping for good Christian music. He just incorporated that sound into the album.

I love Sufjan Stevens, but I don't see the comparison. While I really love his lyrics (one of the few I actually like them, I usually find most artist lyrics to be plain and way too cheesy), his music is very simple compared to a behemoth like Mozart.

Mozart was able to write highly complex music very fast, that went from deep themes to silly ones, and enjoyed popularity from both critics and public, which is something quite rare.

I don't which one would be the closest today. Maybe something like Williams or Ennio Morricone.

Jacob Collier

You ever seen that post about how classical music is closest to metal? Well Kerry King is our modern day Mozart.

This is the kind of question that makes me hate my mortality, because culture is so scattered and vast and changing so rapidly these days that it seems difficult to imagine anything "modern" lasting for hundreds more years, and we'll never actually be able to know the answer.

David Bowie, few have his range and talent.

John Williams.

I don't know anything about surfan Stevens, why him?

Quincy Jones

Prince

David Bowie

Danny Elfman

Stevens is more like Bach than like Mozart. Lots of repetition in his themes but layered and created in counterpoint like no other contemporary artist. Love that guy.

Probably Radiohead

Or Trent Reznor

Kevin MacLeod.

If you are going to compare you should add the context of each, and by adding the context Mozart was a genius and cannot be compared.

I'm learning lots of good music here, but I was really hoping Surfan Stevens was a surf-rock cover artist of Sufjan Stevens and Cat Stevens.

I'm going to go with Steven Wilson for this. Mostly because he and Mozart have an undeniable talent, many of their fans consider them to be some type of visionary savant, and despite the broad agreement toward that perspective I still find both of their outputs to be broadly incredibly dull.

I would say David Gilmour. Pink Floyd music comes to mind for having some pretty symphonic sounds.

Squarepusher cones to mind

Ben Folds. He's got classical, jazz and rock chops, with a full helping of the wit and mischief in his lyrics.

Controversial, but Muse is up there in the great composers list.

Also Shaka Ponk, whole other story

Love Sufjan. He has a Mozart mind in his own right.

If Mozart was raised with an accordion and looney tunes he might Weird Mo, if he had parents like Carrie and Lowell he might be giving LGBTQ+ and Christian Conservatives a Christmas album to agree on.

Trying to compare a Mozart of our times to the original is like comparing an apple to the tree it grew from. There are obvious similarities but fundamentally are just different things of different times.

Ramin Djawadi no contest.

Dwayne Rudolph Goettel (Skinny Puppy) Peter Christopherson (Psychic TV, Coil, Throbbing Gristle)

If we change this question to generational, instead of "modern times", those two would fit into Gen X.

Richard Wright (Pink Floyd) Ray Manzarek (Doors) Elton John

For the "Boomers".

Tori Amos Trent Reznor Atticus Ross

For the Millenials.

I'm sure there's many more from those 3 generations. But they have my vote.