Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler What are your top ten acts of all time?

Amazing band. Which makes me think of...

Brian Eno. A genre unto himself.

Mark, do you still have your Grumpy old Man hat handy to lend to Savant? I lost mine throwing it at kids on my lawn.

While I agree with you in some ways, (mediocre is mediocre no matter how you dress it up(and Medic8r is Medic8r, except when he is BigWyRes.)) I generally applaud when new generations take music, change and turn it into their own, even if I don't care for it much. Reminds me of when my parent's couldn't understand my music.

For me, Grunge was a refreshing change from the mediocrity of radio pop that never seems to evolve much. Now, I'm even into "some" of the more innovative Nu Metal groups now at age 40. Although the rampant copy cat stuff falls into your mediocre category.

Can't say I'm a big emo fan but it certainly sparked it's own culture proving that it has mass appeal to that group of people. I try to be open minded to their opinions verses mine and remember that I used to like some pretty questionable music in my youth as well. Some of it stood the test of time. Others.... faltered into oblivion where it belonged.

Love your list though, you certainly can't go wrong there. Not familiar with Television though. All the rest are great!

Hi all,

This will date me, but I don't care. I've lived through some wonderful decades and eras of music.

In no particular order and mixing genres:

1. Chuck Berry

2. Little Richard, the Dell Vikings

3. Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis

4. Janis Joplin and Joe Cocker (together in concert!)

5. Lambert, Hendricks and Ross (great jazz vocal trio)

6. Ray Charles

7. Gospel at Colonus (black gospel musical version of Sophocles' tragedy with Clarence Fountain and the Blind Boys of Alabama)

8. Oscar Peterson

9. Pete Seeger and The Weavers

10. Il Trittico and Tales of Hoffman at the New York Metropolitan Opera

Runners up: Joni Mitchell at a small club in Toronto (The Riverboat) before she became famous in the US.
John Rutter Requiem at Carnegie Hall. Several great folk acts, Ian and Sylvia, The Tarriers, Jim Kweskin Jug Band; Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks (before they became The Band, backing up Dylan); Levon Helm (Midnight Ramble at his Woodstock studio).

Lots of other great ones.

Alan

That would have been something to see Joni when she was playing small clubs and coffee shops down in Yorkville, Alan.

In no particular order (other than Pearl Jam number 1), my favorite ten are:

Pearl Jam
Foo Fighters
Guns N Roses
Rage Against the Machine
The Doors
U2
Gogol Bordello
Muse
The Beatles
Stone Temple Pilots

Honorable mention for me is Pink Floyd and Counting Crows.

Lol! Yeah, I'm ready for that hat, yo.

Believe me, I want to see the glass as half full, but I work in the music industry, and to say that it is in a decline would be an understatement. Will it recover? I'd like to think so, but...

It seems, for now, that popular culture may have peaked somewhere around the late 60's/early 70's (music, film, art, cars, fashion etc.) and since then, despite all of the wonderful technological advances we have made, things (the arts specifically) have gotten worse, not better.

Craft is not as important as instant, shallow and fleeting fame. It's not this generations fault as much as it is the media and the culture of celebrity that dominates it.

I work with a lot of young musicians, and they are generally very frustrated with the music scene right now. It's like they came to the party too late and the avenues and resources that were once available to foster creative music and fund ambitious projects are just no longer there.

What's funny is, most young people I know that care about music, have their iPods filled with stuff like the Who, Beatles, Hendrix, Zeppelin etc. The music (for shame) of their parents!!!

My girlfriend, who just turned the ripe old age of 22, can talk for hours about obscure Italian prog rock from the 70's or say, Patsy Cline, but has absolutely no interest at all in whatever the latest drivel that is spewed forth by My Chemical Romance or Lady Goo Goo or (insert "popular" band/artist name here). To her and her oh-so-hip friends, that crap is: "Uninspired commercial cheese foisted upon an unsuspecting brainwashed youth..." (actual quote btw. I guess that's why I loves the gal)

So, old IS the new "new"!

Now get off my lawn dammit!

They stopped making real music in the early '70s

Bah!! Kids today... GET OFF MY, um, SNOW...

1. Fleetwood Mac. Rumours is the perfect album and should be studied in music class by every child.

2 Aerosmith. Most punks today have no Idea this band used to be good.

3. REO Speedwagon

4. Karen Carpenter. The finest female voice,ever. The bastard who called her fat in a review should be charged in her death.

5. Kathy Troccoli. A christian singer in the same league as Karen. Reunion records was founded because none of the stuck up ccm labels of the time would touch a voice deemed "sexy".

6. Molly Hatchet

7. Olivia Newton-John

8. The Sundays. Why the hell was I not told of this group before?

9. ABBA. People today like to make fun of 70's icons like ABBA, they're sadly mistaken.

10. I continue to be surprised by some of the talent of today, cake,Philosopher Kings,IVY,The Donnas,Ronnie Jordan,Paul Taylor... Found thanks to Pandora or the occasional tv show.

Now get off my lawn

I agree with you here. I try to follow the local music industry here both because there is some great talent brewing and because it is as you say. They have returned to being artists instead of striving to be celebrities. Unfortunately, the ones that are getting the big breaks are the ones who are conforming to popular, radio play, type music. The way to get a big break here now is to sell your songs to big network TV shows like Grey's Anatomy, One Tree Hill and others.

Fortunately, even more are concentrating on making music in their own fashion, making for a very robust and diversified young music scene here and you are right, they are quoting influences from the 70's way more than current.

It's still a big population split even in the youth. While the phrase is somewhat 'grumpy old man hat' deserving in it's own right, I sum it up like this. "The McDonald's kids are still listening to the 'Industry led,dollar driven' music but there is an ever growing army of coffee shop kids who are actually passionate about music".

There may be hope for it all yet.

Best of all, you can go to small 'coffee shop kid' bars at my age, have a beer and enjoy these great new bands and these kids don't even blink an eye at you, despite your age. As long as you are there for the music, they accept you as one of their own. Not so much at shows for the more "popular" big bands. Then all you get is a lot of stares and eye rolls like you belong in a nursing home. This says a lot for the two cultures. Like you, I don't blame those kids either. They are simply mirroring the industry that they are following.

Now excuse me while I put aside my wisdom and listen to some Nickelback. I agree about Chad's voice but despite all the above, I'll also admit I'm a sucker for high energy music with a strong metal guitar style.

Aww, man, I just remembered Sugar/Bob Mould/Husker Du. I would have him/them in the top fifteen.