Geoff Hoon: It's not what McLaren did, but what he started

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Think Elvis Presley reinventing black music with hip-swaying tight-jeaned rock'n'roll; The Beatles rewriting rock'n'roll with long hair, boots and collarless suits; The Rolling Stones adding rhythm to the blues with even longer hair; the Sex Pistols annihilating prog rock with brash guitars, safety pins and an "I hate Pink Floyd" T-shirt. Colonel Parker, Brian Epstein, Andrew Loog Oldham and Malcolm McLaren were visionaries who could see the next wave and who stayed on it long enough to make musical history. As the reaction to Malcolm McLaren's death has showed, some still haven't forgiven him for the Sex Pistols. Their real impact was on a new generation of musicians who started out as punks, but who have become pillars of the musical establishment – Paul Weller, Elvis Costello and Joe Strummer.