Oh, and you have to take a few points away from Kiss, for setting an example that lead to bands like Twisted Sister. Any influence they had as a band was largely negative.
[quote[Boomer nostalgia has elevated them again somewhat, but they aren’t nearly as big as the Eagles are today. If the Eagles release a new album, it’s guaranteed to hit #1, just on the power of the band’s name recognition. If Kiss released a new album, it had better be able to stand up on its own as a great work, or it’ll be purchased by the few surviving members of the “Kiss Army” and a few other die-hard fans, and that’s it.
[/quote]
I see your point here… I should probably notch them down a bit. My point though was that you can’t take the idea that everybody likes them as the only consideration. That just makes them well-liked.
Think of the “most popular” guy/girl in school. Did everybody like them? No. But everybody knew who they were and thats what makes them popular. Hell, I was well liked, but half the school didn’t know me from Adam.
Thats the point I was trying to make with Kiss… they are immensely popular. Even before their latest retro-comeback. How many movies did the Eagles make? Comic-books (with ink containing their own blood 
)? How many Eagles dolls were ever sold? Sure, you might argue that these are all marketing ploys… but they wouldn’t even work as marketing ploys were they not insanely popular.
And again-- I prove myself to be a complete and utter tard when it comes to the coding. :smack:
Great posts Sam.
It’s worth noting, however, at last count, “Nevermind” by Nirvana has now sold well over 14 million copies. So in the context of “units shipped” it doesn’t compare to the 27 million shipped by The Eagles “Greatest Hits”, but it WAS, nonetheless, very impressive in the context of merely being ‘one’ album and not a consolidated ‘greatest hits’ package.
And my point is? Well, there is an entirely new generation of music lovers who would argue that the ‘grunge’ explosion of 1991 which signalled such bands as “Alice in Chains”, “Sound Garden”, “Pearl Jam”, and “Nirvana” was equally, if not more meritorious than say, the explosion of disco or “country rock” in the 70’s.
Of course, nobody is right or wrong on these matters due to the subjective nature of the OP, which is why I made a point of delineating the two seemingly exclusive parameters of musical worth - namely, popularity vs artistic worth - which is why, ultimately I gave the gong to who I gave it to - it’s a compromise gong after all.
The thing to note however, is that various generations will argue their case extremely vociferously based on what was important to THEM. Hence, the challenge for all of us it to be aware of this inherent failing within our judgement mechanisms and to be as open minded and respectufl to outside input as possible.
The Grateful Dead
Jeferson Airplane
Van Halen.
Since 1978 they sold 61.1 milllion albums in the US alone. These albums spent a combined 787 weeks on the Billboard charts.
The Ramones inspired the punk rock movement which is still with us nearly 30 years later. I wouldn’t put them number 1 on a list of most important American Bands, but they are certainly in the top ten. I would also include R.E.M. in a top ten list for their influence over college radio. Their leap to mainstream success paved the way for the grunge movement that followed.
The thing about The Doors is that people still listen to them. They still have an avid following. (Go check Jim Morrison’s tombstone if you need to confirm this.) Still, I’m not sure that I would count them among the top 10 for the reason already noted: they haven’t produced many imitators.
My top ten most important American bands might be (in no particular order:
[ul][li]The Eagles[/li][li]Aerosmith[/li][li]The Ramones[/li][li]Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band[/li][li]The Grateful Dead[/li][li]R.E.M.[/li][li]Nirvana[/li][li]The Beach Boys[/li][li]Lynyrd Skynyrd[/li][li]Guns n Roses (not my cup of tea, but tough to deny their influence)[/ul][/li]
Honorable mention to:
[ul][li]The Byrds[/li][li]The Doors[/li][li]Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers[/li][li]Pearl Jam[/li][li]Creedence Clearwater Revival[/ul][/li]
I agree with Sam Stone that Kiss was simply a marketing phenomenon.