NEW YORK, Jan. 9, 2002./PRNewswire/ -- They sold their soul and trashed their
dressing rooms for rock 'n' roll. From the Beatles to the Beasties, these are
the people who taught everyone else how it's done. The band is back. During
the past year or so, the pop world has completed a cycle that began in the mid
1990s. Back then, with grunge flannel on Macy's mannequins, the band model
seemed a bit tired. Rappers, dancing teens, and DJs took over the dance
charts, MTV, and magazines. Then, gradually, bands crept back. Groups like
Creed, Incubus, System of a Down, and, most notably, Staind and Linkin Park
have spent serious time in the Top 10. Once again, the band dynamic -- people
interacting as musicians, friends, enemies, or fellow drug-addled lunatics --
is capturing our imagination.
This is "Spin's" definitive look at 50 great bands from the 1960s forward.
To qualify the editors at "Spin" set out clear criteria, these groups had to
have a roof-raising, history-changing sound, presence, or hairstyle. They
also had to clearly influence today's music in undeniable ways. Finally, they
had to be bands that spawned a special emotional attachment to their fans. No
other band epitomizes these criteria better than "Spin's" No. 1 band, the
Beatles. More than 30 years after their last proper album, the Beatles remain
the band that revolutionized the world of pop culture and basically created
the rock-band statutes that all musical youth end up following, sooner or
later. Other bands that made "Spin's" list include: Led Zeppelin (No. 3),
Nirvana (No. 5) Public Enemy (No. 8), U2 (No. 13), and Spin's February cover
band Kiss (No. 32)! For a full ranking of The 50 Greatest Bands, as chosen by
the editors at Spin magazine, see the full ranking below.
Also, Spin editors are available for interviews to discuss their criteria
for choosing the bands as well as the acts that made it on to the list and the
ones that didn't.
THE 50 GREATEST BANDS OF ALL TIME
1. THE BEATLES
2. RAMONES
3. LED ZEPPELIN
4. BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS
5. NIRVANA
6. PARLIAMENT/FUNKADELIC
7. THE CLASH
8. PUBLIC ENEMY
9. THE ROLLING STONES
10. BEASTIE BOYS
11. THE VELVET UNDERGROUND
12. SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE
13. U2
14. RUN-D.M.C.
15. RADIOHEAD
16. THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE
17. SONIC YOUTH
18. AC/DC
19. THE STOOGES
20. METALLICA
21. THE SMITHS
22. PATTI SMITH GROUP
23. N.W.A.
24. KRAFTWERK
25. THE SEX PISTOLS
26. PEARL JAM
27. GRATEFUL DEAD
28. R.E.M.
29. BLACK SABBATH
30. PAVEMENT
31. FUGAZI
32. KISS
33. PRETENDERS
34. RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
35. FELA KUTI & AFRIKA 70/EGYPT 80
36. DAVID BOWIE AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS
37. BLONDIE
38. BAD BRAINS
39. THE WHO
40. GRANDMASTER FLASH & THE FURIOUS FIVE
41. NEW ORDER
42. HUSKER DU
43. GUNS N' ROSES
44. OUTKAST
45. THE BEACH BOYS
46. MASSIVE ATTACK
47. LYNYRD SKYNYRD
48. KORN
49. PINK FLOYD
50. RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS
25 comments:
I love lists like this one. As with any list, there is no way to get a clear consensus on who belongs on the list and who doesn't. Four other bands worthy of consideration are The Rascals, Earth, Wind and Fire, and Living Colour, and the B-52s.
What no Adam & the Ants? Harumph!
Strange list. As much as I liked "The Message" and "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)", I can't for the life of me see why Grandmaster Flash is in there!
What!!!??? You missed The Doors!!! I'm scandalised now! ;)
Heh heh...I knew posting this list would bring out the noise.
Malcolm, I love lists like this too...because they help us think about what we believe is important. I have heard others say that Earth Wind and Fire should be on this too oddly enough...you're not alone. I believe it is more interesting that Funkadelic was on this list and very high up...I think they fit the requirements that the editors at SPIN set out to find...they the bands had to have a loyal emotional following...to have affected hair and fashion to some degree, and a history changing sound. I am not sure if Earth Wind and Fire fit that idea...or maybe if they aren't in our fantasy list at # 51? Um, I don't think the B52's could make it especally since they came out of Velvet Underground, Iggy and Stooges and David Bowie...but without huge innovations...still I love them think they are great...but only room for 50!
*, I actually agree with you about Adam and the Ants...I might have put them on list at # 48 and removed Korn...not that I don't think Korn deserves some props...they came before the newer bands like System of a Down(I think is one of the est bands to surface in last ten years) I happen to really like a few Korn songs and albums. I just think Adam and the Ants have had the kind of emotional fans and criteria set out by SPIN...and then some. As for why Grandmaster Flash...I think they deserve to be on the list...and in the position they hold on the list...below Beasties and Public Enemy...even though they were there making rap first. They did change music and they did pioneer hitting rap into mainstream...I believe they are seminal...and therefore should be in top 50...but they didn'thave the prolific and enduring recording career that would have put them higher or knocked off another band near the top. he Beastie Boys and Public Enemy took the sound and took it way way further and prolifically now over decades.
Sue, interesting...yes The Doors. It is telling they aren't on there...and a beloved band too. But maybe this is related to the endurance and prolific again...over a span of at least a decade. The Doors were part of a scene perhaps rather than a vanguard? I don't know but it bears consideration, thanks!
The omission of The Doors is truly flagrant.
And I must say that in my opinion there are six bands here that might have been omitted to make room for my iPod/treadmill favorite, Queen. Go ahead. Laugh. Laugh if you must. But Queen fits the criteria listed in spades.
i agree that Queen should totally be on the list. i LOVE that radiohead is pretty far up on the list. i think it's a shame that Korn (who i like, don't get me wrong) is above red hot chili peppers... i just think rhcp is better and has definitely made a bigger impact. also love that they included outkast... and i'm also going to have to say the doors were a pretty sad exclusion. they shoudl have been not only IN the list... but near the top.
Uncle Steve, I actually totally agree that Queen should be on this list. Hm...let's get rid of Korn (and I like Korn) I am not sure that The Doors not being with longevity...would make this list. Hey, Queen are awsome for working out and walking...although I usually have REd Hot Chili Peppers on my iPod for exercise...
Martha, I think you are absolutely right that RHCP should have been above Korn. It's very tricky...but the criteria used by SPIN helps to explain the list and who made it...I can live without the Doors, but not Queen.
um, but they're almost all rock bands... aren't other kinds of bands great too?...what about The Sun Ra Arkestra? What about the Count Basie Band? Surely The Basie Band should have edged out Korn????? What about Polka bands? I want to see Scrubby and the Dynatones on that list, damn it all!!! What about Clifton freakin Chenier and his Red Hot Louisiana Band? What about for instance Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass boys? But then again, we don't want to miss important musicians like Massive Attack and Bad Brains. What about big bad Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm? What about the Muddy freakin Waters blues band, or since we're talkin about the Blues, what about The James Cotton Band? I'd take them over Kraftwerk in a Texas Cage Match any day of the week. I'm just sayin.....
Mister Anchovy, You gots to read the criteria...the criteria was bands since the 1960's formed since, that had huge fan base with emotional investment (and influenced hair styles) and influenced music. The bands that did this sisince the 60's and innovating havebeen in rock style...even though rock and pop are all part of the blues...
Polka music hasn't innovated or inspired people for a long long time heh heh...
If the criteria had been for early last century I am sure Clifton Chenier or his mentors would make a list. Some people might consider Clifton Chenier a "revisionist cajun band" (hee hee) ...but I don't believe in this strange notion of "revisionist" anything.
As for the James Cotton Band, I've seen them a number of times and although they are a fun house band...they never made the genre or music their own or innovated and extendedor pushed boundaries. But...Sonny Boy Williamson...who TJCB took and played homage too...would be of course a musician of inspiration and radical paradgm shifts in music history. James Cotton were fin, but not a paradigm shift kind of band.
Talk such about "revisionism" and dividing music as such is the job of record executives...not artists and musicians...you see...all these so-called divisions of music, the actual musicians don't see...the idea of dismissing new artists as "revisionist" is very depressing to me...
An actual musician isn't a hater...they love all music. Most musicians that you might perceive as at odds with each other...are probably all hanging out and playing each others music.
(Aside from Kanye West most musicians aren't haters on other styles of music... it would be like a painter having favourite colours. WRONG! I am disgusted with Kayne West's hater attitide!!!)
(And...unfortunately some female artists have lowered themselves to catfighting...and its disgusting to me I am ashamed of them...I hope they get over themselves and remember that music is all one heart and love)
A lot of people claim to be interested in music and love music...but really when we use music to divide...or to enhance our own sense of taste, ego and culture we are actually in the process of hating on music. Meanwhile all genres of musicians and talent are actually out there buying each others records!
I hate The Doors. And Led Zeppelin. And Pink Floyd.
Just wanted to say...
Pistols, Bowie, Clash...least there's a few worthwhile bands on it.
Do people really get paid for coming up with these lists????
Heh heh...*, yeah...like I said to Mister anchovy...I just don't get hating music. I love music...so I don't understand how people segregate themselves into "I only listen to this or that". But...basically there is no law saying we all have to love music I guess.
4Dins, yep...people do get paid for making lists like these...it's all a kind of entertainment and definately gets a conversation going.
I just can't listen to some bands. Those I mentioned are just three that I abhor and see nothing interesting in. Morrison a poet? That makes me laugh so much whenever I hear it.
"Into this world were thrown
Like a dog without a bone
An actor out on loan
Riders on the storm
There's a killer on the road
His brain is squirmin' like a toad"
Oh puh-leeze, Jim, go and overdose already!
I guess it's like your loathing of Penelope Cruz!
*, oh I don't think everyone has to love every music ever made and listen to it all the time. But the bands on this list all make sense and deserve the acknowledgment that they fit the criteria of bands with a huge emotionally loyal fan base. I don't think The Doors should make this top 50...and I agreed that forget Korn (although they were the "return of the rock band") and replace with Adam and the Ants...
Many people use art and music as a tool. The tool exists to promote their own personality and "good taste"...what I find disturbing about the folks who do this...besides like high schol cliches is that all of the music of the last 130 years is actually the same genre and all related to each other.
It is an agenda of personal politics when someone is like "OhI listen to folk music and hate haevy metal"...there is no morality or proof of culture they are the same music but with different approaches. People are always hating on super popular bands like a trend for the last twenty years like it's grade seven or something.
As a painter it would be retarded for me to have a favourite colour. Why restrict my tools...and since I love music I tend to listen to all kinds of music.
No I don't listent o Kenny G, he's not that iemotional for me...but I can understand why he is for his fans.
I love movies and acting...it's not that I have a personal loathing of Penelope Cruz...I said she was a very poor actor. I am disappointed when she is cast in a movie I am interested in seeing because she is unable to act.
I happen to love abut 47 of the bands on this particular list...own their cds, have seen them live...and have not only enjoyed music but have spent much of my life studying music and music history...so I dig this list...
I may not listen to a lot of Kenny G or Kraftwerk or Britney Spears or The Doors...but I see where they sit and how their sound, appeal and looks can charm mainstream audiences. I think they are all vastly talented musicians and performers.
When people are using art and music as a format for judgemental attiudes and segregation...they are acting liek corporate whores and record executives. When people are using statusand stature as self promotion it's usually about their ego or their paycheck. I may write something more aboutthis regarding the fall from grace of Aretha Franklin and Natalie Cole a few days ago...they started acting out like Kanye West...
And p.s. as you may know...I rarely feel that there are many poor actors out there... I find it upsetting when people trash actors noteven recognizing how skilled they actually are...nost actors who make it to tv and film have gone through a competitive screening torture...and are all good. It is very rare for a bad actor to get famous.
It is fine that Penelope Cruz is gorgeous...I get that is her appeal...and I understand why people work with her and cast her. I actually feel a little sorry for her because of her lack of acting talent. When she took a bite of food in the movie "Sahara" I ground my teeth...I just didn't think it was possible for a major movie star to be such a poor actor and still get jobs. It's very rare...
I think you're absolutely right about the high-school mentality of liking some bands/genres/actors as a cool-o-meter. But I think one can have an opinion that bucks the widely accepted "truth".
For me, The Doors (way more so that Zep or Floyd) are hugely overrated. Perhaps the time has come that the world agrees with me: they didn't make this list, for example.
I think you might change your mind on Cruz if you watched Volver. She was very good in it. And I think it's wholly possible that she is better acting in Spanish than in English. (Ditto Chow Yun-fat and many other actors who have much language transitions.)
But I do think there are hundreds of poor actors out there! One that springs to mind right now is Dougray Scott. I don't think I have ever seen such a terrible actor on film/TV as he is.
That's not to say he doesn't have some skill, even if that skill is only to memorize lines in order to get through a 3-hr stage play. Maybe he does (I don't know). But on screen he is as wooden as Pinocchio's cock.
"much language transitions" should have read "made such language transitions". I missed out my "ade s", didn't I?
Um, she was a little bit better in Volver and hey...I don't believe anyone is written in stone...I believe actors can improve and she may need more time than others.
Well, The Doors I dunno...my dad loved them so I see them in that context...I don't lose any sleep over whether he is a poet or not heh heh...like many songwriters...there is almost a different kind fo listening entailed between reading lyrics and hearing them incantatorily. The Doors really seem to be a band beloved by a generation...actually I absolutely loved the Oliver Stone moie...I still think it is beautiful to look at. I think like Penelope Cruz their is a mystical metaphysical relationship between fans and performers...Cruz touches something for many auiences her earthy beauty and engaging accent and voice. She is like looking at Bambi goddess. I totally succumb to that...I get it...And Jim Morrison had an appeal of a performer too...which carried the music and lyrics he was a sex god to both male and female fans.
This kind of star energy and appeal goes beyond the logic or reason our egos demand.
It isn't "intellectual" it's a primal thing...and ultimately when we dismiss such phenomenons as megabands. pop stars, starlets we are only making fools of ourselves by denying our link with primal and underworld powers...
Now see what would have happened to Cary Grant if fans were out there rationalizing "wooden" acting? For me when I hear that an actor is wooden I think...their appeal is to female audiences as mysterious and non-threatening. Keanu Reeves famous for being trashed as wooden probably owes his sucess and sex appeal to the fact that his Buddha "stillness" is read sexually by women as passive and sensual and non-threatening.
Dougray Scott has a similar appeal onscreen. No he's not animated like Brad Pitt or Jim Carrey or Leonardo DeCaprio...but he has a kind of reserve that is appealing...for one person it may be "wooden" fo another it is seen as "still waters run deep" or "stoic and reserved"...but you killed me with Pinoccios cock ha ha ha!!!
I disagree about the James Cotton Band. I think they were the real deal, and through the mid-70s, one of my favourite bands. James Cotton was Sonny Boy Williamson's student. He lived with Sonny Boy as a child and learned his chops from the master. More than one master, in fact, as he played with Wolf as a young man, and for a dozen years played with Muddy himself. I consider Cotton to be very much an underrated bluesman. If you really think they were just a fun house band, go back and give 100% Cotton a listen.
I know you're just funnin with me Candy, but I don't think many people would think of Clifton Chenier's Red Hot Louisiana Band as a revisionist Cajun band really at all. The core of Clifton Chenier's music was blues and boogie, infused with Creole tradition. His instrumentation wasn't Cajun. He used big piano accordions for his whole run, and he had saxophones and organs and electric guitars in his band. Cajun and Zydeco players lived in the same backyard, and both traditions played two-steps and waltzes, but Chenier wanted to play blues and rhythm and blues and rock and roll. His two-steps became raucous boogies. You won't here much Cajun in Shake it Don't Break it or Boogaloosa Boogie. Listen to his incredible version of In the Mood on his landmard I'm Here album. Wow. Chenier was a phenomenon, at once a traditionalist and an innovator - not unlike Bill Monroe in that respect.
I would agree that right now, polka doesn't have a great deal of popular appeal, but during the 80s, there were a number of amazing innovative bands tearing up the borscht belt. My personal favourite was Scrubby and the Dynatones, out of Buffalo NY. Their album, Vintage Dynatones, still sounds fresh and inventive and has a lot of swing too. The live version of Zosia on Vintage Dynatones, with the crowd singing along - in Polish, no less - is an amazing piece.
from Ms. Minx
Polka music hasn't innovated or inspired people for a long long time heh heh...
You & Stagg might wanna polka on up to The Redline Tap tommorow (02-23) for the Polkaholics.
toooooo much fun! Among many great tunes like The Paul Konrad Polka, The Soundgarden Polka & 10 Drinks to the Floor - they've switched around the lyrics on "She's too fat for me" to "She's too smart for me" and it's a riot!
Redline is around the corner from The Heartland Cafe (just off the red line) in Rogers Park.
Other than that ... Hey! What's goin' on!?!
Mister Anchovy, I think where you and I differ is I see music all ALL THE REAL DEAL...and you are segregating it and dismissing all kinds of music because you don't "like it".
It's not about whether I think TJCB is the real deal, a fun house band...which they were, or a great band. It's not about what I think of bands or music at all...
It's a list that was attempting to (for fun...for discussion...for thinking) to set about to observe what top 50 bands have touched human consciousness in a huge manner.
This seems to be a subjecyt that as artists we shouldn't even have a problem with Mister Anchovy...it's about EMOTIONAL MAINSTREAM BANDS...music that beyond intellectualizing have touched a nerve with many many people.
It's got nothing to do with whether I have seen TJCB or Clifton Chenier many times...which I have...whether I buy their records or like them or not...and it has nothing to do with you either.
It's an interesting observation of the top 50 bands that have massively touched human imagination and hearts...on a global primal level.
It comes down to a difference that I listen and purchase and see live...all kinds of bands all kinds of music across the board.
What you and * have been saying is that neither of you do that...it's not a big deal...we are all free to have "taste" and segregate music...but I'm saying...you're segregating music and I can't understand why anyone would do such...why use music as an personal political agenda?
And the hilarious part is likely TJCB, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Clifton Chenier, Bill Monroe, Korn, David Bowie etc etc wouldn't be caught dead segregating each others music...they love music so they would likely listen to each other...
I really should do a post about this...coming up!
Big D, hi...I am actually very similarto you and Stagg about listening to music...I listen to polka...although I was being funny...I was trying to focus the discussion and remind Mister Anchovy and Asterisk that the SPIN list wasn't about bands we all like etc...it was about global emotionallly popular bands...nothing personal about other bands who may not have reached as many audiences etc...ironically...it is the "distictive society" and "preservation" attitude of stature, and taste that keeps bands like Clifton Chenier from making crossovers...staunch political agenda fans along with record companies are the kiss of death for music...
I type toooo damn slow. And I seem to have diahrea of the mouth (or fingers I guess it would be) ... but anyhow!
Underground artists need support and when they aren't as big as other similar bands people(fans) get pissy. I did it with Busker Soundcheck & The Smashing Pumpkins.
Two local bands, they even rehearsed in the same warehouse for a while. Billy may have swiped a riff from Busker too, but it's hard to prove when the two bands were next door to eachother writing new material.
Busker was the superior band - no question. But, Billy was a shmoozer and made the connections. Busker broke up & Billy is worldwide.
No ... I'm not bitter anymore ... not at all ;)
But for a while I was very vocal about how crappy the pumpkins were and how Busker should be the band people were listening to. I was trying to champion Busker Soundcheck, so I was tearing down Smashing Pumpkins.
And then there was he whole skins vs. punks (or actually vs. Everyone) era in Chicago and I learned an instant hate towards skin bands. They wouldn't even have to play a note & I'd be somewhere else. This one I've outgrown because after listening to Sham 69, Cocksparer, and the first Skrewdriver record I was amazed at what good songs there are.
See - I told ya - diahrea of the fingers.
What's my point? I dunno. It's harder to impress someone who listens to underground music with glossy mainstream music than it is to do the reverse. Because the former thinks they know better & the latter knows nothing at all.
I really should hit delete now ... but I'm bored at work & caffinated beyond any level of sensibility at the moment.
On to your regularly scheduled blogging.
Wow Big D...I think you really nailed it down...about the root of the competition and dismissals of genres and music. Not bullshit at all! People who love smaller regional bands really do get pissy and I understand...it seems to become personal. In your case you really were involved and could see the politics and it felt personal.
In my own way...I used to feel sad that Bare Naked Ladies had made the crossover to U.S. market and fans...whereas a band like The Tragically Hip did not...I didn't hate BNLs or anything...just thought it was unjust...it seemed to me later...much later that The Tragically Hip would have had a similar audience as REM and maybe there wasn't enough of a fan base for two such bands from the same fan base appeal and support?
Sounds like a similar thing with Busker Soundcheck.
And you've made a great point that it is harder to impress someone who listens to underground music...and it's true.
Although I have always been a hardcore underground music fan...at some point I wa sable to embrace love for all kinds of music regardless of a bands sucess. I have a lot of friends who still say they love U2...first album...but the band sold out so now they hate them...I just never understood that...
The point was to not compromise one's vision REGARDLESS of lack of popularity...so why not also popularity?
Thanks Big D!!!
I hate U2, too, you'll be pleased to hear!
bob dylan... not always a band, but was HUGE. the eagles? i think the doors should undoubtedly be on the list.
no to... U2, Korn, Guns and roses. outkast.
Pink Floyd should be much higher. top 5.
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