Jazz musicians such as Miles Davis (Bergstein 1992), Cecil Taylor, Charles Mingus, Herbie Hancock, Yusef Lateef (Feather 1964; Tsahar 2006), and Anthony Braxton (Radano 1993, 110) cite Stockhausen as an influence, as do pop and rock artists such as Frank Zappa, who acknowledges Stockhausen in the liner notes of his 1966 debut with the Mothers of Invention, Freak Out!. The Beatles included an image of Stockhausen on the cover of their 1967 Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Rick Wright and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd also acknowledge Stockhausen as an influence (Macon 1997, 141; Bayles 1996, 222). San Francisco psychedelic groups Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead are vaguely said to have done the same (Prendergast 2000, 54), though Stockhausen himself merely says the former band included students of Luciano Berio and both were "well orientated toward new music" (Texte 4, 505). Founding members of Cologne-based experimental band Can, Irmin Schmidt and Holger Czukay, actually studied with Stockhausen[citation needed], as did German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk (Flur 2003, 228). New York guitar experimentalists Sonic Youth also acknowledge Stockhausen's influence[citation needed], as do Icelandic vocalist Björk (Guðmundsdóttir 1996; Ross 2004, 53 & 55), British industrial group Coil[citation needed], and British techno artist Aphex Twin[citation needed]. Pianist Glenn Gould occasionally played a humorous character whom he based on Stockhausen, and who can be seen in the Glenn Gould Collection videos.

Stockhausen had dreams of flying throughout his life, and these dreams are reflected in the Helikopter-Streichquartett (the third scene of Mittwoch aus Licht), completed in 1993. In it, the four members of a string quartet perform in four helicopters flying independent flight-paths over the countryside near the concert hall. The sounds they play are mixed together with the sounds of the helicopters and played through speakers to the audience in the hall. Videos of the performers are also transmitted back to the concert hall. The performers are synchronized with the aid of a click-track. Despite its extremely unusual nature, the piece has been given several performances, including one on 22 August 2003 as part of the Salzburg Festival to open the Hangar-7 venue, and the German première on 17 June 2007 in Braunschweig as part of the Stadt der Wissenschaft 2007 Festival. The work has also been recorded by the Arditti Quartet.