N&G Greatest Music Artists of All Time

Ericj32 said:
I appreciate this discussion and I think it’s helpful as far as setting aside our preconceived notions of who the “best” or “most important” artists are…to the extent that those notions might come from cultural sources outside ourselves and we might feel pressure to disregard our actual favorites in favor of other artists who we perceive to be cultural consensus picks. But I equally wouldn’t want people to feel pressure to put choices on their list to achieve some kind of demographic parity that doesn’t actually represent what they personally enjoy. It can go both ways. We all have blind spots, but we all also have our own areas of focus and I’m more interested in seeing what music actually means the most to people than ending up with a list that’s less personal and more performative or aspirational. I feel like we have enough different kinds of people around here to come up with a lot of interesting artists with a wide variety of identities represented and covering the bases of who all should be in the conversation. We might not ALL have Aretha Franklin on our lists, and we’re not all going to have Radiohead on our lists, but I’m sure both of them will show up, for good reason, more than once in this conversation.
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I feel safe saying that the collective that decided Radiohead made three albums better than any woman not named Joni Mitchell (two of those outranked Blue) ever will make sure Radiohead is represented on this list too.

It can certainly go both ways but I’d argue favorite and greatest are two distinct things, if we are going greatest I think it’s fair to point this kinda thing out. Aside from that I agree. My main point with all of this isn’t to shame people into including Aretha Franklin or Joni Mitchell if they honestly think like, Tom Waits is greater (Waits is great). It’s more in the idea of thinking about populations who often end up being under represented on these kind of efforts and that maybe that it’s worth reflecting a bit on what might be missed if 90% of the output is men.

My list will absolutely have notable blind spots and favoritism picks, so I’m not immune to any of this stuff
 
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Lee Newman said:
Radiohead has not made an album better than Blue.
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I get why Blue is important and how it changed the face of music. It’s an astounding piece of music unlike anything before it. That being said, it’s not MY favorite Joni album….I prefer Hissing of Summer Lawns and Hejira, and I prefer OK Computer to all three of those. Here’s where I would decide how I would rank my list….and would probably choose “importance” since it’s artist-based rather than album-based….and would definitely rank Joni higher than Radiohead.
 
Sonicpharmacist said:
I get why Blue is important and how it changed the face of music. It’s an astounding piece of music unlike anything before it. That being said, it’s not MY favorite Joni album….I prefer Hissing of Summer Lawns and Hejira, and I prefer OK Computer to all three of those. Here’s where I would decide how I would rank my list….and would probably choose “importance” since it’s artist-based rather than album-based….and would definitely rank Joni higher than Radiohead.
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Yeah, Joni doesn’t do much for me at all. I respect her and appreciate that she exists but it’s never clicked for me personally.
 
Lee Newman said:
I agree whole heartedly, it was just said with a certain amount of authority that made me bristle at the statement.
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I was referencing the last poll of this we did where OK Computer and In Rainbows both placed higher than any album by a female artist to reply to the Radiohead point (and the Top 30 having four Radiohead albums and women having two). It was a statement on that which is, well, true as opposed to quality of said albums which is a more subjective affair.

Personally, I don't particularly like Radiohead outside of The Bends so that's not my stance. And if someone thinks OKC is better than Blue that's fine with me even if I disagree. I just found it kind of funny that the comparison used was that some people will list Aretha and some won't and some will list Radiohead and some won't but both will be fine given the history of the forum here. (Aretha will be fine too - she's pretty much universally respected and appreciated)
 
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waruv said:
I was referencing the last poll of this we did where OK Computer and In Rainbows both placed higher than any album by a female artist to reply to the Radiohead point (and the Top 30 having four Radiohead albums and women having two). It was a statement on that which is, well, true as opposed to quality of said albums which is a more subjective affair.

Personally, I don't particularly like Radiohead outside of The Bends so that's not my stance. And if someone thinks OKC is better than Blue that's fine with me even if I disagree. I just found it kind of funny that the comparison used was that some people will list Aretha and some won't and some will list Radiohead and some won't but both will be fine given the history of the forum here. (Aretha will be fine too - she's pretty much universally respected and appreciated)
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Yes, I agree. Everyone will be fine. Aretha will be fine. Radiohead will be fine. That’s why we don’t need to worry about ranking one artist lower than another artist or leaving someone off our list. I feel like that’s what I was trying to say, but I apologize if I was unclear about that. I wasn’t trying to imply that everyone on here would be happy with the overall combined ranking - it’s sounds like you’re already expecting to be disappointed. I hope you decide to influence the rankings by posting a list of your own.
 
Ginormousthumbs said:
Does anyone have a metal band on their list that’s not Sabbath?
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I enjoy metal but I don’t know if iany artist/band makes my top 50. I think like half my list is gonna be Rock of the Indie/Alt/Classic varieties and probably like 25% Hip-Hop then the rest will be Jazz/R&B/Punk/Country and at that point I may stick a Metal Band in there my favorite Metal is Thrash and Doom and I could definitely choose albums from those styles in a list of my top 50 albums but artists makes it a lot tougher .some of my favorite Metal groups have some pretty awful albums and does their great albums counter there shitty ones? Lots to consider here.
 
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