‘Most Influential’ Range From Rock Star To Vice President

Time magazine’s list of the 25 “most influential” people in the country includes Vice President Al Gore, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and rock star Courtney Love.

The magazine also listed the 10 “most powerful.”

The 25 most influential, profiled in the June 17 issue on sale Monday, range in age from 31 to 67. Some are millionaires, while others make do on a teacher’s salary. The magazine said its selections were based on the person’s ability “to educate and entertain, to change the ways we think about ourselves and others.”

“We try to identify the people who are truly influencing our culture and the way we live,” said Walter Isaacson, Time’s managing editor. “It’s not supposed to be a list of the trendiest people of the hour, nor is it a power list. It’s about energy, ideas and talent.”

Time magazine, which has chosen a man of the year since 1927, plans to make the influential list, which is not ranked, an annual event.

“Influence can take the form of mass impact,” Time reports. “Martha Stewart’s inexhaustible brand of domesticity claims a sizable audience. So does Jerry Seinfeld’s small-bore irony and Oprah Winfrey’s irresistible empathy. There is influence within a creative field; hence, the architect Frank Gehry and the female-rocker-as-open-wound Courtney Love.”

The 10 most powerful, ranked in order of importance, were President Clinton, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Disney’s Michael Eisner, General Electric chief executive Jack Welch, Intel chief Andrew Grove, General Motors’ Jack Smith, Fidelity chief Ned Johnson and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.

“Power may lack the majesty it once had, but it’s still something to cringe, not sneeze, at,” Time said.

Also on the list of most influential were conservative William Bennett, digital entrepreneur Jim Clark, human potential guru Stephen Covey, psychologist Carol Gilligan, management consultant Michael Hammer, fashion designer Calvin Klein, Nike head Phil Knight, television executive Geraldine Laybourne, jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, political consultant Dick Morris, novelist Toni Morrison, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, actor Robert Redford, hospital company executive Richard Scott, Microsoft’s head of new media Patty Stonesifer, biologist E.O. Wilson, sociologist William J. Wilson and physicist Ed Witten.