◇ image via WikipediaBen Folds
Ben Folds is an act on the Starverb influence map. Their sound grew out of Regina Spektor, Daryl Hall, Brittany Howard, Joe Jackson and The Postal Service. Those roots explain a lot about how Ben Folds arrange songs and choose their tones. They run in the same orbit as Ben Folds Five, Jukebox the Ghost, OK Go, Jack's Mannequin and The Format, sharing audiences, venues and reference points rather than a straight line of influence. Their influence carried into Regina Spektor, Nicole Scherzinger, Sam Tsui, Jacob Collier and Family of the Year, where the same ideas turn up rearranged for a later generation. Altogether the chart holds 42 connections around Ben Folds, reaching back through Regina Spektor and forward to Regina Spektor. Follow any of those threads to keep travelling the influence between bands and genres on Starverb.
Background
Benjamin Scott Folds is an American singer-songwriter. After playing in several small independent bands from the late 1980s through the early '90s, Folds came to prominence as the frontman and pianist of the alternative rock trio Ben Folds Five from 1993 to 2000, and again during their reunion from 2011 to 2013. Folds has recorded a number of solo albums, most recently Sleigher (2024). He has also collaborated with musicians such as Regina Spektor, "Weird Al" Yankovic and yMusic, and undertaken experimental songwriting projects with actor William Shatner and authors such as Nick Hornby and Neil Gaiman. Folds was the artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. from 2017 until 2025.
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Ben Folds connections
Ben Folds grew out of Regina Spektor, Daryl Hall, Brittany Howard and Joe Jackson, shares an orbit with Ben Folds Five, Jukebox the Ghost, OK Go and Jack's Mannequin, went on to shape Regina Spektor, Nicole Scherzinger, Sam Tsui and Jacob Collier. 42 connections mapped across roots, kindred and legacy.
Who influenced Ben Folds
Sounds and acts that shaped Ben Folds.
Artists similar to Ben Folds
Artists and scenes sharing an orbit with Ben Folds.
Bands Ben Folds shaped
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