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Originally Posted by Fox River
I thought that Black Sabbath was considered to be the band that started Heavy Metal.
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I've always given the credit to some of the later-era Beatles material for actually starting heavy metal. Stuff like "Revolution," "Get Back," and so on. I think that distorted guitar and heavy riffing style that typifies heavy metal started there. I'm not sure what years those came out, though, so I don't know if Sabbath's heavy metal phase (they started as accoustic folk, didn't they?) or Zeppelin came first or not.
As to the original question, it's impossible to answer. First, it depends on what dimensions you consider when deciding what is "better" than another thing. There has to be a common dimension that can be more narrowly defined than simply that they're both "rock and roll" bands. As others have noted, they're both rock, but they are very dissimilar in the kind of rock they play. It would be equally hard to answer which was more influential. Influential on what subgenre? The only answer I can give is that both of them were great bands, both were very influential in their own ways, both were talented and innovative in their own ways, and if I had to choose one that I liked more than the other, I would probably have to lean slightly to Pink Floyd, probably for no better reason than that Zeppelin (as someone noted) is very blues-based, and I don't like blues all that much.