FM Best Artists in the History of Rock and Roll (Nominations Page)

geezer9687 wrote:

For Example, The Silversun Pickups have released a mere one album and you have them listed here. How can you defend a small indie band who has released one album and has had only one song that 95% of the earth's population has ever heard (if they have even heard that), as being a contender for the Best Rock Band of all time?

Music is a very personal thing. It doesn't make sense to vote for a band you like and you think everyone else might like. Music doesn't work like that, it affects you and you alone. If you like a band only because others do, you're not being true to yourself, you're being a hipster. If an artist means something to you, then you're going to defend that artist, you're going to vote for them, because it doesn't matter what that artist means to the world, or how many records they sold. Interpol are pretty darn unoriginal, but I'd listen to their records before I'd listen to the Beatles, because they simply mean more to me. Sure, in the History of Rock, the Beatles are infinitely more important, but that's not really how music works.

MY Top Bands from 86-present

Nick Cave
PJ Harvey
Sonic Youth
Red House Painters (Mark Kozelek, Sun Kil Moon)
Sufjan Stevens
Fugazi
Aphex Twin
The Pixies
Godspeed You Black Emperor
A Silver Mount Zion
Bonnie Prince Billy (Will Oldham, Palace Music etc)
Jeff Buckley
Mogwai
Songs Ohia
Radiohead
Interpol
The Rapture
The Arcade Fire
Elliott Smith

That's all for the moment. I'll probably think of more and add to thi

NSpan wrote:
i'm torn by my hatred for Billy Corgan and my fondness for the pumpkins' music from the early 90s--though, to be honest, nostalgia plays a part in that.. i found Melon Collie & the Infinite Sadness slightly more profound as a 12-year-old than i do now..

I like to think of them in this way: they write good songs on occasion (they've never made a great album), but man I hate Corgan's voice.

I really tried to keep this short, but it didn't work. Bugger!

Spiderbait
Powderfinger
You Am I
Grinspoon
silverchair
Regurgitator
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
(all of the above are the best of the Aussie bands from this era, the rest are in no particular order)
Limp Bizkit (I like them and I am not afraid to admit it)
Green Day
Pearl Jam
The Beastie Boys
Nirvana (THE most important band ever IMHO, the only band that literally changed my life)
The White Stripes
Concrete Blonde (Tomorrow Wendy is my favourite song ever, except for maybe Dear God by XTC)
Dinosaur Jr
Big Black (Steve Albini's band and the holder of my fave album title "Songs About F***ing")
Beck
Blink 182
NOFX
The Cult
Faith No More
System Of A Down
Hole
Prodigy
Public Enemy (THE most important raprock band)
REM (I would like to see this contest come down to a battle between REM and Nirvana)
Sonic Youth
Fugazi (I am pleasantly surprised to see lots of you like this band; I thought everyone had forgotten about them)
Soundgarden
Tool
Korn
Nine Inch Nails
The Pixies
Radiohead
PJ Harvey
Primus
Janes Addiction
Queens Of The Stone Age
Mudhoney
Rage Against The Machine
The Offspring
Foo Fighters
The Jesus And Mary Chain
The Lemonheads
The Killers
My Bloody Valentine (although they performed the worst live performance I have ever seen; even they hated the GIG)
Pavement (possibly the reverse of the above)
Primal Scream

Includes bands left off of previous lists so I can sleep better at night

Psychadelic Furs
Echo and the Bunnymen
James
Pixies
Jesus and Mary Chain
Nirvana
Pearl Jam
Soundgarden
Stone Temple Pilots
Oasis
Offspring
The Replacements
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Jane's Addiction
Social Distortion
Sublime
The Killers
The Meat Puppets
The White Stripes
Gorillaz
Blur

And how did no one (Including myself) nominate Guns 'N Roses for 86 - 95?

Keyser Soze wrote:

And how did no one (Including myself) nominate Guns 'N Roses for 86 - 95?

because they're 'meh'

leestu wrote:

Keyser Soze wrote:

And how did no one (Including myself) nominate Guns 'N Roses for 86 - 95?

because they're 'meh'

Going to have to disagree with you here. I'm no fan of GNR, but for their era, they have to be one of the seminal bands. With songs like "Welcome to the Jungle", "Paradise City", "Sweet Child o' Mine", "Civl War", and their cover of "Live and Let Die", they would have to be in the upper echelon of bands of that time period probably more so than some of the ones I nominated that I like.

So sir, I'll have to say "Meh" to your "Meh"

Because they formed in 1985 and Appetite for Destruction, their first major album, didn't come out til 1987. Does that mean you are including them this time around Keyser?

Also, this is a lot of work. But it seems like a list of recurring characters is forming quite nicely at this point.

Leestu, only this era can come down to Nirvana vs. REM. That can not be the finals, as they are separated by era. Great list though.

geezer9687 wrote:Because they formed in 1985 and Appetite for Destruction, their first major album, didn't come out til 1987. Does that mean you are including them this time around Keyser?

Also, this is a lot of work. But it seems like a list of recurring characters is forming quite nicely at this point.

Leestu, only this era can come down to Nirvana vs. REM. That can not be the finals, as they are separated by era. Great list though.

Geezer,

I did ask why no one had yet nominated them for the 86 - 95 era, myself included.

Yeah, throw GnR and REM in for me this go around as well as well as Beastie Boys and Green Day

Oh well, I misread because actually 2 people had mentioned G N R before you posted that. Myself and mfrendo.

The 4 you have added have been counted.

Some Comments:

I am not surprised whatsoever to see the success of Radiohead and Sonic Youth on this poll, 2 bands that I consider the most "overrated bands that are only overrated by music aficionados."

Social Distortion needs more votes. This is just a personal thing, as they are easily in my top 10 favorite bands of all time.

I am surprised at the utter lack of mentions for Bad Religion. I figured I wouldn't be the only one.

The White Stripes are going to make this poll, and I think that is just sad. Their earlier stuff was good, but the newer stuff they have put out is damn near unlistenable.

The leading vote-getters at the moment are Jane's Addiction, The Pixies, Nirvana, REM and Soundgarden.

If the poll ended now, there would be 14 bands fighting for 3 spots.

170 bands have been nominated, and of those 170, 119 have been mentioned only 1 time. Leaving 51 bands that basically have any real shot of making this thing, and 13 already have spots all but locked up.

Geezer,

I think a lot of this can be explained by how much the music industry changed during this time period. Bands no longer need to make albums to be successful. In the initial part of this era, it was make a couple of good songs and fill the rest of the album with filler because as long as we can make videos for those two songs, we've got a hit record and then later in the era, you didn't even have to worry about the filler songs. All it took was one or two good songs, and let people buy them on line for .99 Now suddenly, you've got bands that are famous or considered a success yet they don't even have enough songs to fill one album. I think that's why we have 119 bands that have been mentioned 1 time. Each of those bands probably has one or two songs that the nominator absolutely loves but they have no real body of work.

Oh for the days when we actually knew release dates of upcoming albums and would be at the record store on that day because we had to be the first one to have our favorite band's new album.

I completely agree with you Keyser. Although quite a few of the bands that have 1 mention do have an impressive body of work. You do make a very good point. Which is why I was afraid to include anything after 1995, but I felt that people would get mad and want to include their modern bands, and so would I, so I made the period 1986-Present. And it leaves us with 170 nominations. But that doesn't really destroy the integrity of the poll for the era, especially when you need 4 mentions to lock yourself into the tournament.

Need some more nominations. Donte, you said you were ready, get to work!

Geez, I really think you set yourself up for a fall here. First of all you allowed a 'no limit' on nominations, which is fine, but also leaves you with a lot of work to do. The biggest mistake you made, however, was combining the 86-95 period with the 96-present period. That is 22 years of music here. A LOT can happen in those years. On top of this, I would say a good 90% of the people on here grew up during this era and hence love the music they grew up on either through nostalgia or a knowledge of more bands. This can be emphasised by the total lack of nominations from the 55-64 period, where very few bands were known in relation to now.Add this all together and you have 170 artists nominated.

Now onto my 'silly' nominations. I nominated in total I think about 100 bands. Now consider that I narrowed that list down from more than 500 bands in my collection from this period (I looked through more than 1100 cds...), which is more than half my record collection, and I believe I did well to narrow the list down. Furthermore, I believe that every single one of those artists were totally vital to what I believe is the best of the best, the cream of the crop in terms of music during that 22 year period of music. This was the music I grew up on, the music I fell in love with, the music I had every single living experience with. This music has followed me around on every second of my life. I have been collecting music for more than 20 years now (first record at the age of six - The Smiths' The Queen Is Dead [yes, I have parents with fantastic taste] ) and I believe that the music I have grown up with has been intrinsically important within my own life and millions more around the globe. Every single artist in my list holds equal importance. Yes, I may have my own personal favourites, but I love every one of those bands and each one of them deserved to be on that list. In fact, I would see it as a mark of disrespect in the bands I have loved all these years if I left them off of it.

Carrying on from this, bands who have released only one album, I believe, can most definitely sit alongside some of the more notable giants who mentioned earlier. As we discovered in the 'best tv show ever' poll, a body of work is not what an act can be merited on, it is more the quality of that work. That is why Arrested Development came close to winning that poll, and is the same reason why some of those smaller bands with less albums have just as much right to be on my list as some of the supposed giants of music. Hell, I adore Nirvana, I happen to believe that Pixies are the 3rd greatest band of all time, but in no way would I not include a band like Silversun Pickups or an artist with a voice as beautiful, brilliant and influential as Jeff Buckley on my list. These guys have just as much right to be there.

And if you think about it, some of these bands who have only released one album can be SO influential they deserve to be on here anyway. As previously mentioned, Jeff Buckley had more talent in his little finger than the majority of bands already listed here who have a catalogue the size of a beached whale, yet he only released one official studio album. Does that make him any less important. Hell, no. The Strokes, even, who although highly unoriginal, were highly influential in the direction music took during the early years of this decade. Without that first album, we may have not seen the likes of The Libertines form, and following that the music which followed them. The same can be said of Arcade Fire. They may have much smaller bodies of work, but that does not make them any less important.

I'm not just gonna include bands that will probably do well on this poll. Heck, I'm doing the opposite in fact. We have already seen the problem of forgetting artists from certain era's missing out on the poll entirely. And we have also seen bands like Blue Oyster Cult miss out because some of their fans on here just didn't bother to vote for them, probably thinking they would naturally make the cut without their votes. Well, I didn't wanna end up in that situation. I wanted every single act I thought of worth in this era on my list. If it was only to serve as a hint to other members of the community as to which bands they may have forgotten about, then I believe it was a good idea.

So I stick by my 'silly' decision to include so many bands, they are all highly important and deserve to be on the list. Now somebody please back me up on some of those bands as I don't wanna see them miss the cut.

Keyser Soze wrote:Geezer,

I think a lot of this can be explained by how much the music industry changed during this time period. Bands no longer need to make albums to be successful. In the initial part of this era, it was make a couple of good songs and fill the rest of the album with filler because as long as we can make videos for those two songs, we've got a hit record and then later in the era, you didn't even have to worry about the filler songs. All it took was one or two good songs, and let people buy them on line for .99 Now suddenly, you've got bands that are famous or considered a success yet they don't even have enough songs to fill one album. I think that's why we have 119 bands that have been mentioned 1 time. Each of those bands probably has one or two songs that the nominator absolutely loves but they have no real body of work.

Oh for the days when we actually knew release dates of upcoming albums and would be at the record store on that day because we had to be the first one to have our favorite band's new album.

Those darn kids!

By your logic, that would make the pre-digital era of music the best. But I don't particularly think so. Mostly because getting a record released was a decision made by execs, and what the hell did they know? Indeed, I often argue with my friends that the Beatles never made a truly great record- there's always been duds.
My favourite period of music if from 76-72, which kind of coincides with the punk ethic of DIY bands and record labels, bypassing the filter of major labels and execs, and making some fascinating music.

My turn. I had to cut a couple of bands because they were already in the 76-85. They were. INXS, Prince, Aerosmith, and Metallica. I actually think they did better work in this era but I understand why they made the early 80's. That is when their sound first hit the airwaves and began to influence the next generation.

On to my list. These bands are all fantastic and influenced the direction of their genre.

(in no particular order)
The Cure (there would be no emo or grunge without depressing 80's Cure songs)
U2
Nirvana (I am not a huge fan but they made grunge grunge)
Pearl Jam
Soundgarden (my personal favorite of the grunge era)
Mogwai (so so great, and influenced an entire generation of newer bands)
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Marilyn Manson
Tool (the best band in this era by leaps and bounds. Maynard is in my council of gods alongside Alan Moore, Stephen King, and Martin Scorsese)
NIN
Rage Against the Machine
Motley Crue (not my favorite 80's metal band but they were at the forefront of their genre [Twisted Sister rules!])
Radiohead
Pantera (Metal can be about drinking and fighting. The Cash/Jennings/Williams Jr of the metal world)
Guns-N-Roses
The Mars Volta (this is a hedge bet against the future. They will continue to be genre bending.)
Wilco
Slipknot (who needs 4 fucking guys when you can have 9?! Metal at its core.)
Fugazi (I don't particularly like their music but I love what they stand for, the middle finger to the industry)
The White Stripes (Jack White is our era's Bob Dylan. Don't doubt it.)

geezer9687 wrote:
I am not surprised whatsoever to see the success of Radiohead and Sonic Youth on this poll, 2 bands that I consider the most "overrated bands that are only overrated by music aficionados."

That would make sense but Radiohead still sell out stadiums (and I even think they've gone downhill these days)

geezer9687 wrote:
The White Stripes are going to make this poll, and I think that is just sad. Their earlier stuff was good, but the newer stuff they have put out is damn near unlistenable.

Finally, Geez, something musical we can AGREE on!!!

Donte77 wrote:
The White Stripes (Jack White is our era's Bob Dylan. Don't doubt it.)

Oh I doubt it. The Stripes have about 5 songs they recycle over and over again. They're incredibly limited, unlike Dylan, who attempted to reinvent himself a couple of times. Plus the Stripes lyrics are often crap. I'd say Sufjan Stevens could become the new Dylan. He's a troubadour with a passion for the literary who likes writing songs about people around him, and stories he cull from newspapers. He just needs to rock a bit more.

geezer9687 wrote:I am not surprised whatsoever to see the success of Radiohead and Sonic Youth on this poll, 2 bands that I consider the most "overrated bands that are only overrated by music aficionados."

These two make up 2/3 of the "Bands I just don't get" list. The other is Wilco. Oh, I've tried, I really have. Every year when the end of year "Best of" lists come out, and these guys are on it, I give them another shot, and I still just don't get what I'm missing. I've seen Sonic Youth live, I saw the Wilco movie and have listened to Radiohead over and over, and still none of them do anything for me. I guess I'm just not as hip as I'd like to be.

Is this the part where I'm supposed to say,(In best old guy voice) "And I would have gotten away with too, if it wasn't for you meddling kids"?

I think SS was a bit excessive in his noms but I understand. I know that he is a huge musicophile (??) and knows a lot of music that most people have never heard of. It doesn't hurt that he is from the UK and living in NZ. That also expands his music horizons. I think he and NSpan have a better grasp of music than most people I have ever met. When you are this passionate about something it is hard to narrow down your choices because you are always thinking "But that one was great too" and constantly second guessing yourself.

For me it is books. I can never say this one book is my favorite. I say these 10-20 are my favorite. If I made a list of books by era (or my age) it would be gigantic. I loved Catcher in the Rye when I was a teenager. Now it is good but doesn't resonate in me anymore. BUT when that book was published it was groundbreaking. It was one of the most important books of the decade. The Godfather was a good book but once that book hit the bestseller lists and stayed there for about 20 years (ok 67 weeks but still) it changed publishing. Hundreds of authors flooded the market with mafia novels until the market collapsed under the weight of crap. The market died for that genre for years. I wouldn't say the Godfather is my favorite book but I know that it is one of the seminole novels of this century in terms of impact.

back to music*

Some of these bands are great bands but I don't think that they made any impact. That really depends on what each of our individual criteria for "Greatest Band" is. For me it is bands that were good, could make money, AND either perfected or created a type of music. Johnny Cash sang country. I hate country. I love Johnny Cash. Hence his music is special because he made me like his country music. Nirvana became popular even though they played about 3 cords and their singer was not very proficient at "singing" because they meant something. They made us feel something instead of nothing. I didn't get them at the time as I hated things/people and would rather kill others than myself (listened to Morbid Angel, Slayer, Deicide) but they embodied an entire generation of kids that were tired of the status quo. They took this tiny genre of northwest grunge and made it nationwide.

So in choosing some of these bands I had to leave my own favorites out for various reasons. Mudvayne, The Black Keys, Twisted Sister, Funkadelic, White Zombie, CSNY, Chevelle, Bon Jovi, Disturbed, etc were left out because although I love them I don't think they made any difference in the world of music. They are doing their music and I love it but it isn't what I consider "Great" music in a historical sense.

I will agree that the last two White Stripes albums haven't held up to much other than a couple of decent songs. However, the four albums which preceded them were absolutely fantastic. If a band can create four albums to that standard during their career they most certainly deserve a place on this poll. And while I don't see White as a Dylan of our generation (we have far too many already - Bright Eyes is another), I definitely believe he is one of the better guitar players out there. His live sets are always a delight to watch.

numbersix_99 wrote:

Donte77 wrote:
The White Stripes (Jack White is our era's Bob Dylan. Don't doubt it.)

Oh I doubt it. The Stripes have about 5 songs they recycle over and over again. They're incredibly limited, unlike Dylan, who attempted to reinvent himself a couple of times. Plus the Stripes lyrics are often crap. I'd say Sufjan Stevens could become the new Dylan. He's a troubadour with a passion for the literary who likes writing songs about people around him, and stories he cull from newspapers. He just needs to rock a bit more.

Let's come back in 20 years and compare these posts. Let's see who made an impact; White or Stevens.

Plus Dylan has also hade 40 years to reinvent himself. Jack White has only been around in the music world for 10 ish years. In that time he has started 2 separate bands and both of them have multiple best selling albums.

Donte77 wrote:I think SS was a bit excessive in his noms but I understand. I know that he is a huge musicophile (??) and knows a lot of music that most people have never heard of. It doesn't hurt that he is from the UK and living in NZ. That also expands his music horizons. I think he and NSpan have a better grasp of music than most people I have ever met. When you are this passionate about something it is hard to narrow down your choices because you are always thinking "But that one was great too" and constantly second guessing yourself.

Thanks, Donte. I don't know if I am THAT big of a music fan, I mean my 1500+ records are nothing when I heard about John Peel's collection of 25000. Imagine the annual re-organising of that.... Howver, I guess you can understand now what I had to go through to assemble my playlist for the wedding. 110 songs from a collection of more than 15,000. I have spent months and months analysing and categorising. Rob Fordon would have had a field day. Music is very important to me, I grew up with it. It was the one think I absolutely adored and the only thing I had to keep me sane during my teenage years when I spent most of my time sitting in my bedroom with my headphones on. In fact, it probably prevented me from having a life. But who wants one of those..... But anyway, I digress. Because music means so much to me, it was indeed very difficult to narrow down a list of bands I find highly important. And I'm afraid I can't go your way of only picking artists who have had a profound effect on the genre, as I think too many bands just haven't had the opportunity to affect the course of musical history due to a lack of publicity. Therefore I could not narrow down my list any further. I could have just picked my absolute favourites (which would have taken another week) but in the end I thought I wouldn't be doing myself or the band's justice in doing so.

You should totally consider this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g6wJOu19hQ&NR=1

It did indeed make my playlist Boussh, along with MJ's Thriller.

Donte77 wrote:

Let's come back in 20 years and compare these posts. Let's see who made an impact; White or Stevens.

I'm gonna hold you to that. See you here, 2028!

Donte77 wrote: Plus Dylan has also hade 40 years to reinvent himself. Jack White has only been around in the music world for 10 ish years. In that time he has started 2 separate bands and both of them have multiple best selling albums.

Selling albums doesn't mean much these days. Look at the best selling records and you're going to find plenty of artists you loathe. What's important is inspiration. And besides a lot of sub-par woman-man rock duos, I can't say Jack White has been THAT inspirational. But time will tell.

December, 2028.

The Contest: Bob Dylan Jr.

The candidates; Jack White, Sufjan Stevens, and Jack Black

Who will be the next Bob Dylan, the troubador of the ages, the songwriter to end all songwriting, the chameleon of rock? Come back in two decades for the winner.



I think White is good because Meg White is a passable drummer and he makes her sound good. Empty but good. I like the Raconteurs but I don't love them. The first 2 White Stripes albums are on my top 100 of all time and Icky Thump is one of the best rock songs this decade.


SS:

1500 albums?!?!?!? Fuck. No wonder you are so skinny. You spent all your food money on comic books and cd growing up.