SPIN magazine has released their 50 best bands of all time. While this is somewhat of a foolish exercise, I thought we could have a short and fruitless debate about it.
I’m not sure what Rage Against the Machine, Outkast, and Korn are doing in there. Other than that, I think they did as good a job as is possible. I would like to see the Smashing Pumpkins in there.
Here’s their list:
- The Beatles
- Ramones
- Led Zeppelin
- Bob Marley & The Wailers
- Nirvana
- Parliament/Funkadelic
- The Clash
- Public Enemy
- The Rolling Stones
- Beastie Boys
- The Velvet Underground
- Sly and The Family Stone
- U2
- Run-D.M.C.
- Radiohead
- The Jimi Hendrix Experience
- Sonic Youth
- Ac/Dc
- The Stooges
- Metallica
- The Smiths
- Patti Smith Group
- N.W.A.
- Kraftwerk
- The Sex Pistols
- Pearl Jam
- Grateful Dead
- R.E.M.
- Black Sabbath
- Pavement
- Fugazi
- Kiss
- Pretenders
- Rage Against The Machine
- Fela Kuti & Afrika 70/Egypt 80
- David Bowie And The Spiders From Mars
- Blondie
- Bad Brains
- The Who
- Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
- New Order
- Husker Du
- Guns N’ Roses
- Outkast
- The Beach Boys
- Massive Attack
- Lynyrd Skynyrd
- Korn
- Pink Floyd
- Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Who are way too low. No ska? Kraftwek is a one song band though it is an important one but they are really taking from Fripp and Eno – I would include Fripp/Eno/King Crimson as a unity. No Art Rock and only Bowie for Glitter. Where is T-Rex? Good to see New Order and the Pretenders although after “Learning to Crawl” Chrissie Hinds found love and lost her musical edge. No Talking Heads is a joke. Nothing early – Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran surely must be there. [If you don’t know who all these bands are you record collection is no better than that of a Columbia House “send me a rock album a month” selector.]
Pretty dubious, even by crapulent Spin’s standards. I mean, “best band of ALL time”? Where’s Elvis Presley and his band? Or even Elvis Costello? Heck, even The Glenn Miller orchestra? I know, they’re technically singer / songwriters or band leaders, but we’re splitting semantic hairs here. What makes “Iggy Pop and The Stooges” a band, and not “Elvis Costello and the Attractions”?
That is, unless Spin redefined what a band is in the article – I can’t find it on their site as they’re “doing some housecleaning”. Still, list exercises that attempt to cover “all time” are completely futile. They might as well have called it “the best 50 bands of all time as far as the narrow minded, young writers of Spin magazine are concerned, all of whom were all born after 1960.”
Or maybe I’m just a Mr. Crankypants. Still, the above (and the omission of a seminal, great band like Big Star) kind of annoys me.
notably absent bands include: the replacements, air, ultramagnetic mcs, iron maiden, jon spencer blues explosion, the cure, wilco, magnetic fields, the band, hefner, neil young and crazy horse, beastie boys, primal scream, belle and sebastian, dandy warhols, the orb, flaming lips, xtc, the zombies, big star, and i could probalby think of 50 others.
i would not include many bands spin chose because to me a good band consistantly makes good music. korn, metallica, grateful dead, and red hot chilli peppers have arguably never made any good music. there are a ton of bands on their list that just completely fell off. but i guess the initial or overal impact a band has had on music would be a consideration.
…but only because I was listening to #46 when I read this.
I am special.
windom, while I’m generally with you here, you missed the Beastie Boys, they are #10 on the list and incidentally, January’s slice of the month.
Replace the word ‘best’ with ‘influential’ and you’ll probably agree with almost all of the list. I don’t like Radiohead, The Smiths or Pearl Jam, but I have to agree that they started most of music I listen today.
While Windom’s suggestions are excellent bands that were huge influences on modren music, they didn’t change what the radio stations were playing while they were around, which is what I assume the spin list is going for.
It’s pretty safe to assume that Korn sucks, but it did start the whole shit-hop movement that 12-year-old white kids are listening to everywhere. I guess that counts for something.
Read over everyname in the list, and ask yourself:
– Did they make their style of music popular?
They did screw up a few of em, but for the most part the answer is ‘yes’.
The Beach Boys and Pink Floyd barely made the cut… Guns and Roses beat them both… Wow…
Korn… KoRn?? KORN made a list of the top 50 bands of all time?? That has to be a sign of the apocalypse…
Weird to see some bands that rank higher than other bands that are obvious influences.. Like Pearl Jam ranking higher than The Who and Sabbath…
Was it Spin that recently released a list of the “Top 100 Albums of All Time”? It would be interesting to compare the lists…
Genesis was influential. If you believe “behind the music”. They Might Be Giants would also have been nice to see on there. Then again, I like the Shuffle Demons (you might remember them from such films as “Grade 10 chemistry – We Need Oxygen”).
This list goes on my list of the worst lists of all time.
Spin has always been a shit rock mag, eh? I’m not gonna get into my gripes cuz it’s just to tiresome, but first and foremost, it lacks R&B: Aretha, Otis, Marvin, Stevie… James fuckin’ Brown!
Anyway, let’s start a new list ‘cept shorter and not artists — top 10 albums. Anyone?
Where’s Johnny Rotten & the Sex Pistols? ‘Spin’ is fucked.
Number 25, Sandy.
That’s funny… I like that.
i’d be afraid to post my top 10 fav albums with this crew ready to pounce… 😉
i’m fucked!
Here’s my stab. Tough to choose, being as my tastes change all the time. Pounce away…
Astral Weeks, Van Morrison
The Band, The Band
Exile on Main St., The Rolling Stones
Third/Sister Lovers, Big Star
Abbey Road, The Beatles
West of Rome, Vic Chesnutt
Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, Lucinda Williams
My Aim is True, Elvis Costello
Rain Dogs, Tom Waits
My Aretha Franklin Box Set
I like how they included Fela Kuti, as if to say, “See! We know about World music!”
All good choices, Kirby. I personally wouldn’t jump on anyone’s personal “best of” list – I just get very annoyed when really bad music magazines make such broad pronoucements. Especially Spin, which has sucked for years, long before Guiccione Jr. left…
FWIW, my personal top ten at this moment in no particular order:
In the wee small hours of the morning, Frank Sinatra
Rain Dogs, Tom Waits
Zen Arcade, Hüsker Dü
Astral Weeks, Van Morrison
The White Album, The Beatles
Live at Newport, Duke Ellington
Third / Sister Lovers, Big Star
Double Nickels on the Dime, The Minutemen
Mustt Mustt, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Innervisions, Stevie Wonder
Prone to change often, and change radically.
Nirvana, Nevermind
Sloan, Twice Removed
Bob Dylan, (tie) John Wesley Harding, Live 1966, Blood on the Tracks, The Basment Tapes
Tom Waits, Bone Machine
Paul Simon, Graceland
The Rolling Stones, Let It Bleed
Bruce Springsteen, Nebraska
The Beastie Boys, Paul’s Boutique
Eric’s Trip, Love Tara
Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation
and
Public Enemy, It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold us Back
It angers me that this list doesn’t include the true innvovators… Whitesnake, where be ye? Dream Academy? Dexy’s Midnight Runners? The Bruce Willis band?
Personal top 11 favorite albums that have shaped my musical tastes over the past 29 years.. These are the albums that keep making there way back into my steree-eree-o .. [this list will most likely change by the end of the day].. in no particular order:
Bob Dylan – The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
The Beatles – Sgt Pepper or Revolver
Wilco – Being There
Jeff Buckley – Grace
Sixpence None the Richer – This Beautiful Mess
Johnny Cash/Willie Nelson – Storytellers
Weezer – Pinkerton
LSU – Graceshaker
Radiohead – The Bends
U2 – Achtung Baby or The Joshua Tree
Kiss – Alive
Honorable mentions:
Def Leppard – Pyromania [First tape i ever owned]
Hortons Choice – Spacepop [For obvious reasons]
Horton’s Choice had a better second album – The Borden Carelton Sessions.
I disagree Dan… I prefer the “gritty-indy” qualities of Spacepop to the “slick production” of The Borden Carelton Sessions anyday…. Plus they play the A&W song on Spacepop..
Dennis, good calls. I’m surprised to see Pinkerton in there – great disc, but I’m still surprised.
Sixpence None the Richer This Beautiful Mess is a great disc (see this post for a good introduction if you’ve never heard of them).
Some of my favourites (not necessarily a top 10 or anything):
Honestly one of the best songs of all time: Adam Again – Worldwide
IÂ’m sure IÂ’m missing some of my favourites, but that is a good start.
I’d have to agree with Dan and Dennis about Horton’s Choice. I can’t be sure if they were ever really any good, since I played the guitar for them and wrote many of their songs but I would have to honestly put Spacepop and The Borden Carleton Sessions on my list. Of course it’s only important to me because it was me, and I don’t expect it had much impact beyond that. However, writing, playing, and recording with my good friends Dan and Julie are some of the best memories I have. I’ll never forget the week we spent in the Borden Carleton Studio. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life even though less than 10 copies of the disc were ever made, it will always be the most important CD I’ll ever own (as a bonus for being in the band, I also have the DAT tapes of the raw tracks – that’ll turn into pure gold someday!).
You could do a remix. They could dance to it at Myron’s.
Led Zeppelin is number three? What?
I might disagree with The Sex Pistols, Korn, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Guns and Roses, but not a bad list really, if the point is to please and appease as many people as possible.
The Sex Pistols are the most important band on the list in a number of ways. The popularization of the reaction against Barry Manelow and disco as well as the reassertion of the validity of garage band rock in the face of ELO, ELP, Genesis and other Art Rock and Glitter Rock bands made acceptance of all that followed possible. They were in no way the best at it but through the contrivances of Macolm Maclaren, their manager, they opened doors of radio for the Clash, the Jam, Talking Heads, REM, U2, the ska revivial of the 1980 and the diversificaiton of accepted radio music through the 1980’s which has become normal now. Now it is sustained due to the diversification of media. Then – 25 years ago since I bought their albums and those of the Stranglers, the Jam and the Clash in high school – it was someone spitting and swearing on stage.
Oh, man. I forgot Skynyrd. Gone. No. Thank you, but no.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience and David Bowie and The Spiders from Mars seem fishy. Like they’d go better in the solo category where Spin must be hiding Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, etc.
I’ll get pissed on for this, but I don’t see how they can include some trash (ie Korn), and not include a hugely successful band like DMB, that consistently puts out good albums. Also, I assume that SPIN is American, thus eliminating the Hip, one of the most popular bands in Canada for a long time (thought maybe not among this crowd), since they only play small shows in the states…
Of course, a top 50 list really means nothing when you include trash like Korn…but to each his own I guess, which is why any sort of top X list will meet with mixed reviews…
The Beach Boys are number 45!? For God’s sake, Metallica probably can’t even read, much less produce any music of merit, and they’re a better band than the Beach Boys by far!? And I love Radiohead, but Radiohead is better than R.E.M., the former band’s biggest influence? And the Velvet Underground, while one of my favorite bands ever, were probably just put on the list to make SPIN look hip. There’s no perspective whatsoever to this list, which wouldn’t bother me if people like SPIN and VH1 didn’t profess their lists like this to be “definitive.” As for the omissions, my jaw drops at the lack of Talking Heads, easily the best and most commited alternative band. And if you’re going to have Pavement, why not Yo La Tengo?
But the Beach Boys thing just tops it all for me. The Ramones are the second-greatest band ever. The Beach Boys are #45. (By the way, Nirvana is fast becoming one of the most overrated bands ever. Yeah, they were good, but my God! Why is so much being made of so little?)
I think all of these bands were actually “bands”, several people making something whole out of parts. The Smashing Pumpkins, though I liked them in the old days, really always just seemed like one guy and his really really good drummer. Not really a “band” like, say, Sonic Youth.
Queensryche,Iron Maiden,Black Sabbath,Iced Earth.
this is just stupid…it’s actually quite ridiculous to debate about this, not even for fun, I am actually getting frustrated by looking at this top 50, my mind says NO FUCKING WAY WOULD THIS BE MY TOP 50..
I mean..I can list at least 20 other bands that should be there based on what I like..I mean…common..passing judgement based on how much records someone sold..or how long the HYPE around it lasted..ridiculous..
u all r stupid..fuck you all..and I hope you all burn in hell
and..uhm.. Patti Smith Group?
WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!????
COME
OOON!
bye now
Is this a pussy music lovers group? Metallica is probably the greatest rock band to ever play. What’s this dissing of Korn for? They were the top rock group of the 90s. They rank up there with DMB as one the best live shows. You can go dis on anything that isn’t your precious pop music all you want, but pop music is garbage. Disposable crap that doesn’t mean anything. The worst on the list has to be Radiohead. The never had a hit song. Their live performances are hilarious though with the lead singer pretending to have a seizure when he sings.
i believe korn are one of the most talented bands out there! theyre old stuff from the mid 90’s is some of the most raw emotional music out there! okay they might hav gone all commercial now! but theyre live shows rule! neway why are Nirvana so high?? They are a good band but my god if Kurt wasnt dead they wouldnt be even on the list!! and thats the truth!
Hello, pretend you have heard these bands:
The Police
Dave Matthews Band
Why didn’t they make the list?
Korn and GNR need to be higher on the list than fricken’ “Blondie” too!
i almost fainted when i saw that OASIS did not make the cut… let alone they should be in the top 5. Oasis has been praised by George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Robbie Williams, and even inspired thousands of young people to pick up guitars and create music. Big mistake in letting them slip off the list.
also nirvana is way to high… give oasis their spot