>> To pick a random one: music, via The Velvet Underground.
>
> Warhol wasn't any Malcolm McLaren.
I think you're supporting my point :-)
> I'd argue the Velvets were the Velvets before they got very
> involved with Warhol ...
I'd argue the opposite: the Velvet Underground would never have been the Velvet Underground until they hooked up with Warhol; their first paying gig (at a NJ high school) was only a few months before Warhol became their manager. And they were lousy. But because of Warhol, they became a sensation. Truely: Lou Reed and John Cale were creative and talented, but they never would have gotten a listen by anyone. In fact, the early work wasn't a commercial success at all, but they -- like Andy, and because of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable -- *became* the art.
They could not have done this alone.
> and somebody like Tom Wilson probably had greater influence over
> their career than Warhol did, by getting their first LP out.
Warhol got them the recording contract; they would never have met Tom Wilson without him. He also forced Nico on them, forever changing their direction. By the time Wilson was involved heavily in their second album (White Light/White Heat), Warhol and Nico were already gone ...
/jordan