For those of you who don’t know, WXPN Philadelphia is the University of Pennsylvania’s radio station. It is also broadcast in several nearby areas:
Main station: WXPN 88.5 FM in the greater Philadelphia/South Jersey area
Affiliates:
104.9 FM in the Lehigh Valley
90.5 FM Worton/Baltimore
88.1 WXPH FM Harrisburg
XPN is also closely affiliated with NPR, and, in fact, produces the popular (well, among music nerds ) World Cafe.
You can also hear their broadcast streaming from their website at XPN.org. To be honest, even if I didn’t live in the area, (and I hadn’t for a long time) XPN would still be my favorite radio station of all time. The lack of commercials makes it even better!
Since October 9th, they’ve been broadcasting the top 885 bands of all time, as voted on by over 6,000 listeners. #1 (The Beatles) was rather predictable, but I wonder how the SDMB felt about the other choices. Here is the complete list.
Kate Bush is 149, a lesser artist than Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos and Ani freakin’ DiFranco? Right. And Happy Rhodes nowhere to be found, on the station that made her famous in Philly? Argh. I knew I shouldn’t have looked at the list.
I can’t believe Foreigner (882) was higher than the Wu-Tang Clan (884). Unforgivable.
Kid Rock (649), Panic At The Disco (678), Fall Out Boy (754) or Jet (766) don’t belong on any list even resembling the greatest artists of all time. I don’t care if they need to fill a list of 885.
I must say that is an extremely varied list - Mozart, ABBA, Frank Sinatra, Barry Manilow, Dave Brubeck, Pete Seeger, the Four Tops, Led Zeppelin, Renaissance, etc.
It seemed that list would be all inclusive. However, I’m surprised to see some names absent from that list: Paul Revere and the Raiders - THE ultimate garage band - although not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as yet), one of their songs, “Just Like Me”, is in the R&R Hall of Fame’s Top 500.
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - Joan had a lot of hits and was one of the earlier hard driving, hard rocking female preformers.
Any other nominees for folks that should have been on that list? (I’m sure most of us could list loads of performers that should not be on the list but this thread would probably go on for dozens pages if that were the case).
How the hell is Lauryn Hill worse than Imogen Heap? The Black Eyed Peas are better than Kiss? Coldplay better than Mozart and Beethoven?
If they were stretching for folks to fill out the lists, there are plenty of folks that most certainly deserve recognition. Among these are some essential classical composers. Handel, composer of “The Messiah,” quite possibly the greatest oratorio ever written, as well as containing the renowned “Hallelujah Chorus.” Wagner, who wrote “Siegfried” and “The Valkyries.” No **Verdi **or **Puccini **either.
And it’s not just classicals that were omitted. Certainly Boyz II Men, The Ink Spots, and White/Rob Zombie. There’s also no love for uber-popular pop music such as Britney Spears, N*Sync or The Backstreet Boys. (I don’t know if you like any of them, but one of them must be better than Nickelback, or be at least good enough to follow at most 400 spots behind **Guster **or Five For Fighting.)
Someone must inform me why Celine Dion is not on the list.
Also, some glaring country ommissions. Maybe they could get away with leaving Tim McGraw and Faith Hill off the list. Perhaps the ommission of Shania Twain was warranted somehow. But why (oh why) is there no** Reba McEntire**?
And my personal gripe. Nowhere on the list do I find Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Listen through their album “Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven” or “Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada” once or twice, and tell me they don’t deserve a spot.
Though, good to see some love for The White Stripes (114). I honestly think that this position is rightly deserved.
Because the list was, according to the OP, compiled from votes from 6000 listeners of this station. A ridiculously small sample, considering the 885 members of the list, and perhaps somewhat biased against Celine Dion and her insectoid offspring.
Wow, Talking Heads at #31? Woo Hoo!!! Certainly the highest I’ve ever seen them on this type of list. Can’t say anything about the subsequent 850 or so, but that made me happy…
Well, there was a stealth campaign to get their “Psycho Killer” ranked as WICB’s (in Ithaca) #1 modern rock song of all time in their poll, so maybe there was some ballot box stuffing…
) World Cafe.
Certainly the highest I’ve ever seen them on this type of list. Can’t say anything about the subsequent 850 or so, but that made me happy…