Is it luck?
I think Les Claypool is one of the most inventive musicians in the last twenty years. Which maybe doesn't say much. Most of what he does is taken from what is known as the whole tone scale. Yet he makes the melody of that tone seem normal. Not many people aside from jazz artists have achieved such a thing. But I may be in resentment of saying this if anyone can give me an example of others that have been within the popular culture spectrum.