At a dare from a thread in the pit where U2, Coldplay and Radiohead were abused. Ranking is from 1 to 100. Taking into account number of favourite songs, number of favourite albums and general appreciation. Ranking is solid in the top 10, pretty solid in top 30, and becomes more fuzzy further down. Only bands, no solo artists. Personal taste obviously.
Genesis
Porcupine Tree
Pink Floyd
Kayak
Simon and Garfunkel
Dire Straits
Roxy Music
Eagles
Queen
Beatles
Japan
10CC
Talk Talk
U2
Talking Heads
Cranberries
Marillion
Keane
Carpenters
Yes
Radiohead
ABBA
Renaissance
R.E.M.
Earth and Fire
Riverside
Camel
Alice Cooper
Uriah Heep
Focus
Alan Parsons Project
Fischer Z
Duran Duran
ELO
Martha and the Muffins
Fleetwood Mac
Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
China Crisis
Coldplay
Dream Theater
Die Toten Hosen
Golden Earring
Meat Loaf
Nightwish
Eurythmics
Supertramp
Bread
Nena
Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel
Moody Blues
Garbage
Godley and Creme
Oasis
Smiths
The The
Muse
Steely Dan
Santana
Doobie Brothers
Pain of Salvation
Simple Minds
Harmonium
Spandau Ballet
Bacamarte
Icehouse
Quidam
Rush
Sweet
Slade
Suede
Pulp
Evanescence
Doors
Green Day
Kraftwerk
IQ
Police
PFM
Rolling Stones
Los Jaivas
Icehouse
King Crimson
Shingetsu
Cats
Human League
SBB
Queensryche
Van der Graaf Generator
Arena
PFM
Neuschwanstein
Stranglers
Alquin
Quella Vecchia Locanda
10000 Maniacs
Banco (dms)
Pogues
Dead can dance
Gathering
Lacuna Coil
No Zeppelin? No Who? No Doors? No Donovan? No America? No Mamas and The Papas? No Springsteen? No The Byrds? No Cream? No Creedence? No Steppenwolf? Sheesh.
I dunno. I think early Genesis is definitely worthwhile (as much as I generally dislike the prog rock genre), Pink Floyd is understandable (although they do nothing for me), and ABBA wrote solid and memorably bubblegum pop (or whatever you want to call it).
I’ll do 100 (in alphabetical order, 'cause I’m going from my iTunes library - I assume this is groups/bands only, not solo artists):
Angry Samoans
Animal Collective
The B-52s
The Bats
The Beach Boys
Beastie Boys
The Beatles
The Beautiful South
Beck
Belle & Sebastian
Big Star
Blonde Redhead
Blondie
Buzzcocks
Can
The Church
Cinerama
The Clash
The Coup
The Creation
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Crowded House
The Cure
The dB’s
Devo
The Divine Comedy
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
The English Beat
The Fall
The Feelies
Fugazi
The Fugs
Funkadelic
Gang Of Four
The Go-Betweens
The Go-Go’s
Handsome Boy Modeling School
His Name Is Alive
Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians
Hoodoo Gurus
The Housemartins
Husker Du
The Jam
The Jesus & Mary Chain
Joy Division
The Kinks
Kraftwerk
Liliput/Kleenex
Love
Luna
Lush
The Magnetic Fields
Meat Puppets
Mekons
Midnight Oil
Minutemen
Mission Of Burma
The Modern Lovers
The Monkees
Motorhead
My Bloody Valentine
New Order
Parliament
Pere Ubu
Pet Shop Boys
Pixies
The Pogues
The Police
Portishead
Psychedelic Furs
Public Enemy
Pulp
Queen
R.E.M.
Ramones
The Replacements
Ride
The Rolling Stones
Roxy Music
Saint Etienne
Sigur Ros
Silver Apples
Sleater-Kinney
Sly & The Family Stone
The Smiths
The Soft Boys
Sonic Youth
The Specials
The Stooges
Sugar
Talking Heads
Television
U2
The Velvet Underground
Violent Femmes
The Who
Wire
X
XTC
Yo La Tengo
I got PFM twice? well, at 100 there’s bound to be one mistake. The first one should be substituted by Blackfield, which I overlooked. And I somehow forgot postrock, so Sigur Ros and GYBE should get inthere somhow. I told you the end was fuzzy.
I’m glad to say that I know at least 80% of the bands that are supposedly “missing” which is an odd word to use, as this is my personal taste. I do not pretend that these are the best period.
Transatlantic - does not ring a bell
Flower Kings - have 5 albums, not making the top 100
The Reasoning - does not ring a bell
Spock’s Beard - have 2 albums, not making the top 100
The Tangent - have 3 albums, the band is growing on me (fairly recent discovery)
Traffic (and/or recent Steve Winwood) - know a lot of songs, don’t particularly like them
Kansas (and/or Proto-Kaw) - six albums, not making the top 100
Return To Forever - does not ring a bell
Mahavishnu Orchestra - two albums, not making the top 100
Weather Report - name is familiar, can’t put music with it (no albums)
Just to elaborate (and cause I love talking about this stuff). Transatlantic was a project by Neal Morse (Spock’s Beard), Roine Stolt (Flower Kings (and the first two Tangent albums)), Pete Trewavas (Marillion) and Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater). They did two CDs, the first by sending music back and forth between California, Tennesee, England and Sweden. They toured after the first, made a DVD, recorded the second CD (together in Tennesee), and toured again making a second DVD. I like it all but think the last DVD, Live In Europe (which added Daniel Gildenlow from Pain of Salvation) is my favorite.
The Reasoning are a new (at least to me) band. Two albums that I know of, The Awakening and Dark Angel. You can find samples on YouTube that are pretty representative of what they sound like on disc. They (kinda) remind me of Porcupine Tree or Riverside. With some female vocals.
I won’t try to change your mind about Spock’s Beard (how would that work, anyway?) but do recomend listening to V, especially the song “The Great Nothing” before writing them off completely.
the music that died alone by The Tangent has been in my CD player more than any other CD for the last year (maybe two). They’ve only made four, and I like them all, but the first one is still the one I keep going back to.
woodstockybird - Damn, I knew there was some overlap in our musical tastes, but if I sat down and made a top 100, 85-90 of those bands would be on it. Which reminds me, I’d have to redact my Top 10 to bump off Sleater-Kinney to 11 and put XTC on there somewhere.
But I’ll have The Who. Okay, and the Mamas and The Papas, The Byrds and Steppenwolf too. .
?