N&G Greatest Music Artists of All Time

Nee Lewman

Nee Lewman

बैस्टर्ड
I feel like making a list!

Will keep voting open until 2400 EDT August 31.

I want a mega list. So name your top fifty. Your #1 gets 50 points. Points decrease until your #50 gets 1 point. Only want to name ten, who cares? 23 your lucky number? Stop there.

I’ll tally and report as soon as possible after the close of the poll.

Feel free to write up why, etc.

Have fun! And Let’s GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
 
Im a reveal mine ten at a time every Friday, but starting now:

50. Lake Street Dive
49. John Prine
48. Fugazi
47. Thundercat
46. Tyler Childers
45. Kamasi Washington
44. Bon Iver
43. Madison Cunningham
42. Mavis Staples
41. Hiss Golden Messenger
40. Brandi Carlile
39. Peter Gabriel
38. Al Green
37. Beyonce
36. Chatham County Line
35. The War on Drugs
34. Andrew Bird
33. Mandolin Orange
32. Joni MItchell
31. Wilco
 
Last edited:
Lee Newman said:
I feel like making a list!

Will keep voting open until 2400 EDT August 31.

I want a mega list. So name your top fifty. Your #1 gets 50 points. Points decrease until your #50 gets 1 point. Only want to name ten, who cares? 23 your lucky number? Stop there.

I’ll tally and report as soon as possible after the close of the poll.

Feel free to write up why, etc.

Have fun! And Let’s GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Click to expand...
FIIIIIIIIIIIINALLY!

I love making lists and ranking things. Let’s go!
 
This one will be fascinating. Trying to set my own parameters on the initial list to pare down and I think it's for me personally

100+ Last.Fm artist plays / At least one album owned in a physical format
Passing the smell test of being on this kind of list
Some number of studio releases - probably 4+ albums for modern artists or a noted single history somewhere, this is a bit loose but it's really hard to put even my favorite artist on a limited greatest list for like...2 albums.
For artists who are part of musical projects, unless each project is distinct enough to be on the list separately, the artist gets credit for side projects, features, etc. under their own primary moniker.

On the surface this feels harder than best album.

I'm also interested to see if this differs in terms of the gaps of the collective in previous and mass produced lists. I know for me it's exposing gaping holes in my musical knowledge bases even just getting a preliminary list to pare down.

After my provisional Top 50, I think it's reasonably diverse in some ways but deficient in others, and I had to exclude a lot of my personal favorites.
 
Last edited:
50. U2
49. U2
48. U2
47. U2
46. U2
45. U2
44. U2
43. U2
42. Kacey Musgraves
41. U2
40. U2
39. U2
38. U2
37. U2
36. U2
35. U2
34. U2
33. John Prine
32. U2
31. U2
30. U2
29. U2
28. U2
27. U2
26. U2
25. U2
24. U2
23. U2
22. U2
21. U2
20. U2
19. JAY Z
18. U2
17. U2
16. U2
15. U2
14. U2
13. U2
12. U2
11. U2
10. U2
09. U2
08. U2
07. U2
06. U2
05. U2
04. U2
03. U2
02. U2
01. U2
 
Fun! Thanks Lee!

This is a work in progress. I just wanted to name the first 100 artiest that came to my mind in no particular order. I am gonna futz around with this a bit over the next few days before finalizing my top 50.


01. The Beach Boys
02. Pavement
03. The Beastie Boys
04. The Rolling Stones
05. Guided By Voices
06. A Tribe Called Quest
07. The Beatles
08. Radiohead
09. Wu Tang Clan
10. Neil Young
11. Nirvana
12. Kanye West
13. The Grateful Dead
14. Pixies
15. Jay-Z
16. Willie Nelson
17. Wilco
18. MF Doom
19. Sonic Youth
20. Tom Petty
21. Outkast
22. Songs: Ohia/Magnolia Electric Co.
23. Velvet Underground
24. Madlib/Quasimoto
25. R.E.M.
26. Prince
27. David Bowie
28. Bonnie “Prince” Billy
29. Dinosaur Jr.
30. Run The Jewels
31. Pantera
32. My Morning Jacket
33. The Roots
34. Yo La Tengo
35. The Pixies
36. Fele Kuti
37. John Coltrane
38. Art Blakey
39. Donald Byrd
40. Daft Punk
41. John Prine
42. Kurt Vile
43. Built To Spill
44. Father John Misty
45. The National
46. DJ Shadow
47. J Dilla
48. The Hold Steady
49. Pixies
50. Waxahatchee
51. Cat Power
52. Bruce Springsteen
53. The Replacements
54. The Misfits
55. Ghostface Killah
56. Notorious BIG
57. AIR
58. Aesop Rock
59. Animal Collective
60. The Band
61. The Kinks
62. Belle & Sebastian
63. Bob Dylan
64. Blur
65. Bonnie Raitt
66. Flaming Lips
67. Fleetwood Mac
68. The Kinks
69. The Strokes
70. Rilo Kiley
71. Jim O’Rourke
72. Spoon
73. LCD Soundsystem
74. Lou Reed
75. Low
76. The Men
77. Otis Redding
78. Parliament/Funkadelic
79. Phish
80. Paul McCartney/Wings
81. Smashing Pumpkins
82. Spiritualized
83. Stevie Wonder
84. The Wrens
85. The Cars
86. Dolly Parton
87. The Allman Bros Band
88. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
89. Stereolab
90. Beck
91. Bob Marley
92. Steely Dan
93. The New Pornographers
94. Black Sabbath
95. Mastodon
96. John Lee Hooker
97. R.L. Burnside
98. Madonna
99. Lorde
100. Elton John
101. Fiona Apple
 
Last edited:
I love lists.

This is very much a "how I feel this week" list, and in reality it's more like a Top 30 with an interchangeable and ever shifting lists of acts who swap in and out sporadically as I rediscover or get tired of someone.

1AC/DC
2LCD Soundsystem
3Rolling Stones
4Wilco
5Bob Marley
6Bruce Springsteen
7David Bowie
8Spoon
9Led Zeppelin
10Beatles
11Bob Dylan
12Soul Coughing
13Grateful Dead
14Aretha Franklin
15ELO
16Prince
17Stevie Wonder
18Pink Floyd
19The Cure
20Van Halen
22Tom Petty
23REM
24Willie Nelson
25Talking Heads
26Vampire Weekend
27Rod Stewart/Faces
28Paul Simon
29Radiohead
30Daft Punk
31The Police
32!!!
33Hall & Oates
34Tom Waits
35Def Leppard
36Black Keys
37Neil Young
38Beach Boys
39Beck
40The Clash
41Beastie Boys
42Flaming Lips
43Dire Straits
44Madness
45Replacements
46Cheap Trick
47Rodrigo y Gabriela
48Fleetwood Mac
49The Jayhawks
50Hold Steady

(EDIT: I did not include any jazz artists on this list, even though I love the genre and there are at least half a dozen worthy of my list, simply because I just don't know how to rank jazz artists against anything in the rock era. Feels like apples and oranges to me somehow.)
 
Last edited:
I'm glad we have a whole month because I'm having trouble figuring out where to start with this - there are so many factors: the songs, the performances, the cultural legacy, etc. I'm interested to see how different this will be from my favorite albums list - like I don't think Damien Rice or the Dandy Warhols will be on this list for me, but now I can include Creedence Clearwater Revival and Dinah Washington.
 
I am considering just doing a list of 50 women and calling it. My current provisional list is split roughly 2:1 (male to female) gender line wise and the handful of genres I need to really dive into more are, well, very male dominated in terms of profile, so that ratio is likely to get worse. And I made it a point to consider this. It's kind of stark how gender biased musical history (and history) has been on this front.

One thing I've noticed is that I (and I think in general) have a weird tendency of loving a release by a female artist, but then if an album comes out that isn't really matching up, the consideration goes away whereas male artists get a lot more slack for a miss or two in the discography.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top