VH-1 just did an interesting program-- The top 100 rock acts of all time. It was entertaining, but way way wrong. Stevie Ray Vaughan in my opinion was rated way too low, at 60 something and Buddy Holly was rated at 35, and imnsho, should have been in the top 20. But what makes me p.o ed at the darn thing was the top 5. Bob Dylan Led Zeppelin Jimi Hendrix The Rolling Stones The Beatles. They put Dylan at 5, and the Beatles at 1, which is stupid, because I think the order should have been-- Led Zeppelin Jimi Hendrix The Beatles The Rolling Stones Bob Dylan. Why? I think Dylan is, was and will be rock and roll. He defined the music and the generation. Maybe I'm crazy, but that's how I feel. What do you think? How should the top 5 be ordered? Am I out of my mind?48 responses total.
Looks right to me. They're undervaluing recent and current bands, but that's okay. Beatles are, in my mind, unquestionably the greatest band in rock and roll history. Their popularity and endurance were and are unmatched. Bob Dylan is great, but he never owned rock and roll the way the Beatles did. I might flip him with Hendrix, but the others seem correct. Excluding current bands, of course.
Is there anywhere I can find the full list?
Ummm... Elvis? Why isn't Elvis on the list? He had over 100 top 40 hits and 18 number 1s. How can he not be in the top 5?
Elvis must be there. Led Zeppelin is hardly the best rock band ever. Great performances no doubt. The top does not look bad to me. Dylan should get repsect.
Elvis came in at #6. Personally, I don't think he was all that much of anything. What he was, was oversold. Tom Parker kept Elvis in the forefront even when his records weren't selling very well. I would think you could find the list on VH1's website. Dylan should have been at least #3. There is no way that Hendrix had a greater impact than Dylan. The list was flawed. I mean, they included T-Rex, and Kiss. What the hell was that about? I think also that The Who is a whole lot better that Led Zeppelin.
The Beatles owned the pop charts for so long. They took America
by storm at a time when it needed to be rescued from it's duldrums:
remember, with the death of JFK on Nov 22nd, 1963, America was in a
funk, with very low creativity. A look at what was happening in
Britian was very timly. As the Beatles continued <group>-mainia
was defined for that generation. From a band and other band that
put out an album with the big hit, the current hit, the next release
and 9 cover tunes to a band that had 12 original tunes on each
album changed music. The idea of a 'concept' album, made popular
by the Beatles changed the music. The idea that the main performance
was on the album, not the live performance, changed the music. To
still sound fresh 35 years after their inital popularity is greatness.
The Rolling Stones filtered many American Rhythm & Blues,
Blues, and Soul tunes/music into rock & roll and made it popular
in Britian, and resold it to America. Thier 'high production'
albums (Beggars Baquet, Satanic Majesties Request) are rock sympohonic
in my book. It helped changed what rock & roll can be. The Rolling
Stones have endured over 35 years, though I think they have gathered
some moss. Also could not be #1, because they did bow down to the
Disco gods to keep popular in the Disco Era.
Bob Dylan proved that the singer/songwritter can be popular
in America. Not only did others wish to sing his songs, putting their
own style on them, the Dylan versions are also revered. Dylan came
from the heritage of American folk music, and took that to a rock
audience, giving it a new sound. He helped make the 60s protest
songs popular hits.
Jimi Hendrix did not know their was boundries to rock & roll.
We seen him as pushing quite a few. An amazing new voice/sound at
his time. If Hendrix did not experiment with music/sound, then others
might not have either.
Led Zepplin took rock & roll back to the live performance,
Great records too.
Elvis changed music, helping to provide a niche for this
new American music, Rock & Roll. The -mania for the 50s. Though
he wrote very little of what he performed (or recorded), his visual
performance excited the fans. [There was a lot of tunes that Elvis
learned long enough to only record them for the current album, a
practice common in his day].
Thats my Top 6 from their top 6.
Hillary Booth did a good job of narrating it too.
I wonder where Pink Floyd rates in all of this. And, (returning to this one) modern bands. R.E.M. U2. Alternative groups.
R.E.M wasn't mentioned, but U2 was. So was Pink Floyd, I think they were something like 18 or something.
I'll be forgetting this item shortly since I tend to find things like "100 best ..." lists ridiculous, but one thing that should perhaps be mentioned is the method used to arrive at the list. If the deluge of articles in Usenet music groups is more or less correct the list was compiled from the votes of musical artists who have appeared on VH-1 in the fairly recent past -- one can easily see how that selection process would seriously skew the results.
Actually Mike, The intent of this item was to discuss the impacts of the top 5, rather than to have people list them as to thier opinion. I didn't intend for this item to become a list item. Please hang around and discuss.
((( spring '98 agora #46 <---> music #123 )))
Re Zep and Hendrix: Both can actually be traced to the Yardbirds, so they should be replacing the other two on the top 5. In fact, the Yardbirds launched the careers of Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. In addition, other British rockers also have indirect connections to the Yarbirds, such as Rod Stewart and the Who. So IMHO, the omission of the 'birds was a farce. FWIW, few people are aware how much Hendrix was influenced by Jeff Beck, who in my mind is the true father of the guitar style now attributed to Hendrix (who I still consider a genius in his own right). Also, someone said earlier that the Stones lost out due to their refusal to "bow down" to the Disco Gods. Not true; who can forget the awful "Some Girls" album. And "Miss You" (actually a pretty decent song for the style) has become a club classic and is periodically remade by other artists.
I said they did bow down to...
Oops, my bad . . .
re #10: I wasn't talking about the "list item vs. discussion item" thing when I said I felt "100 best X" lists were ridiculous, what I meant was that in my opinion the lists themselves reveal very little about the merit or influence of the things they're trying to rate and say a lot more about the popularity of the choices..
What about Woodie Guthrie and Pete Seeger?
In terms of influence on rock, I think Dylan has those two beat hands down. As far as any influence they may have had on Dylan himself, I can't say.
My understanding was that musicians themselves had voted..
Yep, gotta have The Who, Pink Floyd, and David Bowie in the top 20 at the very least. And Chuck Berry!
Is someone going to print the list? Maybe break it into quarters for ease of reading . . . . I'd be real interested to know if the following made it, and if so, their rank: Neil Young/Crazy Horse, Lou Reed/Velvet Underground, The Stooges, The MC-5, The Doors, The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, Jeff Beck/Yardbirds and Alex Chilton (I forget his bands).
. . . and Zappa!
RE #20 Alex Chilton was originally with the Box Tops. "The Letter" and "Cry Like A Baby" were their biggest hits.
I just went to VH1's web site and because it is so poorly designed, I was unable to find the list easily. I had sites that aren't easy to navigate. I wondered where Pink Floyd was myself.
Here is the complete and official list of the "100 Greatest Artists of Rock & Roll", "selected by a jury of their peers--over 600 artists were polled." (from the VH1 web site) I've been trying to post this for some days now, but I keep having problems with my connection or something... 1) Beatles 2) The Rolling Stones 3) Jimi Hendrix 4) Led Zeppelin 5) Bob Dylan 6) James Brown 7) David Bowie 8) Elvis Presley 9) The Who 10) The Police 11) Stevie Wonder 12) Ray Charles 13) The Beach Boys 14) Marvin Gaye 15) Eric Clapton 16) John Lennon 17) Elton John 18)Prince) 19) Pink Floyd 20) The Doors 21) Aretha Franklin 22) Fleetwood Mac 23) The Eagles 24) Bob Marley 25) Van Morrison 26) Chuck Berry 27) Bruce Springsteen 28) Sly & The Family Stone 29) U2 30) Neil Young 31) The Clash 32) Joni Mitchell 33) Queen 34) Buddy Holly 35) Otis Redding 36) Little Richard 37) Al Green 38) Elvis Costello 39) Miles Davis 40) Michael Jackson 41) Janis Joplin 42) Nirvana 43) Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers 44) The Jackson Five 45) Crosby, Stills & Nash 46) The Sex Pistols 47) Creedence Clearwater Revival 48) Van Halen 49) Roy Orbison 50) R.E.M. 51) B.B. King 52) Cream 53) Peter Gabriel 54) The Grateful Dead 55) The Byrds 56) The Kinks 57) Steely Dan 58) Sam Cooke 59) Bo Diddley 60) Earth, Wind & Fire 61) Smokey Robinson 62) Paul McCartney 63) Sting 64) Frank Zappa 65) James Taylor 66) Talking Heads 67) Kiss 68) The Allman Brothers 69) Pretenders 70) Stevie Ray Vaughan 71) Rod Stewart 72) Simon & Garfunkel 73) Muddy Waters 74) The Velvet Underground 75) Curtis Mayfield 76) The Bee Gees 77) John Coltrane 78) Billy Joel 79) Aerosmith 80) Tina Turner 81) The Band 82) Devo 83) Iggy Pop 84) T-Rex 85) Carole King 86) Madonna 87) Santana 88) Ramones 89) Johnny Cash 90) Tom Waits 91) Gladys Knight & the Pips 92) The Tempations 93) The Four Tops 94) Diana Ross & The Supremes 95) Robert Johnson 96) Lynyrd Skynyrd 97) Fats Domino 98) Traffic 99) Parliament-Funkadelic 100) Paul Simon ...And I should point out that Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Johnny Cash are by no stretch of the imagination "Rock&Roll". And somebody's smokin' something if Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly are down at 26 and 34. Many of these acts would not exist it were not for Berry and Holly, most particularly the Beatles, who even got their name from Holly.
Yes and it sadly neglects 80s act such as Camper Van Beethhoven, The Minutemen, The Red Hot Chili Pepepers, and I would put in Public Enemy as well if John Coltrane is a rock act. Then ofcourse one the bands that I think has been neglected for the talent of their music, The Throwing Muses.
Thanks for the list, I'll save my comments for later . . .
Interesting.... Of course, this is "greatest artists", *not* "most influential".
Hey-- I think y'all are forgetting this is just opinion-- and it cannot be more than that. Yours may differ.
U2 and Nirvana are way too low, particularly Nirvana which more or less redid rock and roll (along with other notably underrated bands such as Soundgarden and Pearl Jam). If this is greatest artists, then there are definitely problems lower down than the top 5 :)
I should point out that this list WAS the most Inflentual people of rock....so even if some of these people I don't like, at least I can understand why they are on here...A lot of them hondestly helped to change rock. No, Johnny Cash isn't rock....but a lot of people have his styling....
As I suspected. Jeff Beck is a huge omission. Of course it probably didn't help his popularity that he became known for cancelling out mid-tour. On the other hand, Sly Stone also had that reputation and he's up at 28. Nevertheless, this confirms my view that many musician's themselves lack taste and knowledge of their own musical roots . . .
Fine, most influential and not greatest....but even still - The Beach Boys?!
Agreed... I do not understand the Beach Boys and never will. Even the title Beach Boys sounds silly since they're all pushing 60 and look ten times older than that since they got out of rehab.
Er, Brian Wilson ranks up there with Phil Spector as a producer. Just didn't last that long.
Opinions, opinions, opinions! Guys, this is just opinions! *sheesh* We all know what we like. (But as an educator, I always hope folks will try something new or take a fresh look at something they'd passed over.)
I think Jeff Beck was covered as part of one of his groups.
Nope, unless you count Rod Stewart (who actually was Beck's singer in his first band after the Yardbirds). While I rechecked the list I also noticed that Paul McCarteny was mentioned separately. Hmmmmm.
Well, Paul McCartney continued to crank out hits long after the Beatles disbanded. "Flaming Pie" is a very noteworthy recent collection of his work.
John Lennon also came in as 16, Paul at 62, with The Beatles
at # 1.
Others individuals part of mentioned groups:
Michael Jackson (40) - Jackson 5 (44); Paul Simon (100) - Simon &
Garfunkel (72);Eric Clapton (15) - Cream (52); Sting (63) - The
Police (10).
I'm not sure why Lennon is so high, since his solo career wasn't all that distinguished compared with some of the groups he's ahead of.
They should have combined them into the Beatles/Lennon/McCartney. Or, Lennon/McCartney.
Well, he did have a solo career, just not much of one. Combining them would imply that they were somehow connected in their careers in that respect. Paul Simon and Radiohead also got short shrifts...
Well, their early solo careers seemed to involve a lot musical digs at each other. ;)
I can't *believe* The Flying Burrito Brothers weren't included in this list!
right. That's who I've always wanted to see too!
Or the Monkees.
I've always thought of the Monkees as being the precursors to MTV . . .
Well, yes-- I believe it was the first extension into television-- before that, 'music videos' were a part of films. Really, I would believe that tradition has continued. I've watched some video collections by Anton Corbijn for Depeche Mode-- although it is a far cry from Elvis and Beatles movies, the videos are connected together in some sort of art story format.
You have several choices: