Top 5 Great Bands: then and now

[sdevino]

I am going to start this thread in effort to prove to people that whats wrong with music today, is our tastes change and us old farts just aren't plugged in enough too keep up with whats good.

So Please list your personal top 5 bands of the, 70's, 80's and 90's. That would be 15 total.

these are opinions and therefor NOT OPEN to CHALLENGE. There will be NO FLAMING other people's opinions on this thread or I will pull your post. (especially if you challenge mine.


So I will start:
70's:
- Allman Brothers with Duane and Butch
- Focus
- Bowie
- James Gang
- Weather Report

80's:
- Elvis Costello
- U2
- Clash
- Eric Clapton (mainly for Journyman)
- Michael Jackson (thriller)

90's:
- Nirvana
- Counting Crows
- Weezer
- Janes Addiction
- U2 again

these are not in order or necessarily my top 5 for each but rather just a list of great bands from each era.

 

[Alécio Costa - Brazil]

hey Steve, Thriller is a single album, right? LOl
It is hard to answer because some of my choices started at an age and peaked at another.

70´s:
Sweet,Yes,Rick wakeman,Doobie Brothers, Nazareth
80´s:
Michael jackson, Toto, Tears for Fears, U2, Rush
90´s:
Extreme, Satriani, Lisa Stansfield, Soundgarden, Bon Jovi

2000´s:
I have just listen to $*^t up to now...
maybe Silverchair, audioslave....

 

[Alécio Costa - Brazil]

There are singers and groups that were very important to help build POP/Rock industry. It is difficult to select just a few.
I would also include some brazilian artists like Djavan, Ivan Lins, Lulu Santos, Milton Nascimento, Tom Jobim.

70´s DIsco ( Donna Summer, etc), Kraftwerk ( for the electronic Music), Pop/Rock ( Simple Minds, Hall & Oates, Wax), some soundtracks that sold millions (Flahdance, Top Gun, Titanic), etc.

Hey, I am out of the original topic!
Sorry

 

[JeffreyMajeau]

Why's everyone got such a hard-on for U2? They're so self-important and SO overplayed. They're definitely not the pre-eminent rock band, IMHO. Radio programming directors seem to differ with my opinion on that.

Let's see -

60's-70's

Beatles
Hendrix
Zep
Stones (their later stuff is lame, though)
Uhh..can't nail it down to any more, got all sorts of tunes running through my head and I like all of them....

80's
The 80's just sucked.
I grew up in the '80s, so I'm jaded.
Stevie Ray
Elvis Costello
Tom Petty (boy does that hurt..overplayed - but there's not a whole lot of bright spots in the synth pop/Duran Duran era...)

I need to move on now, before i get angry about the '80s.

90s-today

Norah Jones is very fresh
Audioslave - sorta - Chris Cornell is a little overreaching, and their GTR riffs are a little stale, but damn if it doesn't hold together

Puddle of Mud
Nirvana (PJ are kinda poseurs)


Dan Roth
Otitis Media

 

[Doc@BeefyTreats.com]

Straight outta my head, no long thinking about it-

70s

Clash (70s or 80s)
Paul Simon (60s, 70s, or 80s)
David Bowie (60s or 70s)
Led Zeppelin (not listening too much these days, but you gotta respect)
The Meters (60s or 70s)

80s

The Police (70s or 80s)
Squeeze(70s or 80s)
Talking Heads (70s or 80s)
U2 (up to and including "Joshua Tree", then bad)
Peter Gabriel (prefer his 80s stuff to all else)

90s

PJ Harvey (1st two albums)
Beastie Boys (80s or 90s)
Pavement
Jane's Addiction (80s or 90s)
Beck

I find it hard to organize by decades because many of these bands could fit in two. Tom Waits gets special mention for doing solid work for three decades. So what's the point of this, Steve? I don't feel like an oldster.
Frankly, the reason people stop liking new music is because they stop listening to new music. i agree that commercial outlets suck, but they always have. FM is now crappy AM. The internet is probably the new FM (hee hee, I would love to see someone start a wild-ass, eclectic AM station!).
KEXP out of Seattle plays interesting stuff, so does NPR.
We can't say all music sucks these days, because we are the ones making some of it! Doc

 

[Pez]

I'm not going to list by era because I don't feel like thinking that hard. Instead I'm going to write in order (going way back) the bands and individuals that I thought were the best. I'm going to leave out the obvious choices because... well I don't know why... cause they're boring I guess.

Doc Boggs
Louis Armstrong (ok, I lied obvious)
Charlie Christian
Django
Joe Venuti
Broozy
Miles Davis
Link Wray
The Shadows
Byrds
Kinks(British Invasion bands in general)
Yardbirds
almost everything Atlantic/Stax
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Electric Flag
The Original Quicksilver (with Cippolina)
The Band
Flying Burrito Brothers
The Pixies
The Pogues
BR549
Sonic Youth
Diggable Planets
Wilco
Radio Head
Beck
Nickle Creek
Sea and Cake
Stereolab
Lightening Bolt

Why do I feel guilty admitting I like some of Coldplay's music?

 

[Doc@BeefyTreats.com]

John,
I felt the same guilt about liking Coldplay until I bought the Coldplay album last week. Now I feel stupid because it is not a very good album. I count only two decent tracks on the album, one of which is the song I heard on the radio. The album lacks emotion and complexity. It all sounds the same. Almost bought Queens of the Stone Age and now I think I went wrong. Coldplay = unimaginative knock-off of Radiohead. Doc

 

[Alécio Costa - Brazil]

Man, how could i have forgotten Duran Duran, The Police?

 

[twiddler]

Can't resist this topic, even at the same time that i can't for the life of me figure out why any opinions vented here could possibly matter...

70's "The Golden Age of Everything Goes"

Zappa
Joni Mitchell
Genesis
Sly and the Family Stone
Queen

(and too many others, to name. Oh alright: War, Zeppelin, Bowie, Tom Waits, 10CC and Bob Marley)

80's "It's All About the Attitude, and the Cash"

Elvis Costello
Police
Clash
U2
Gabriel

90's "It's Just About the Cash"

Beck
Bjork
Prince
Nirvana
Beastie Boys

00's "It's All About the Teenage Girls"

Super Furry Animals
Radiohead
Daft Punk
U2

Can't think of any more... I don't think the number of great bands around ever really changes. Just whether or not the record companies are signing and promoting them anymore. Most of the great music of the last ten years is actually kind of hard to find. And it almost certainly in the Top 40 -- contrast that with the 60's, 70's, and 80's...

 

[Norman Harris]

I'm new here but couldn't resist this:

'70's:
Focus
Gentle Giant
The Strawbs
Caravan
Cat Stevens
Jethro Tull

80's:
Dire Straits (from '79)
?

90's:

???

 

[GentleG]

70
Pink Floyd
King Crimson
80
Talk Talk
Police
90
Orbital
Massive Attack
00
Boards of Canada

:c:

 

[sdevino]

Originally posted by Doc@BeefyTreats.com:
So what's the point of this, Steve? I don't feel like an oldster.
Frankly, the reason people stop liking new music is because they stop listening to new music.
We can't say all music sucks these days, because we are the ones making some of it! Doc

Thats the point exactly! I wanted to give people a chance to remind each other that music does not suck anymore than it ever did.

Should I start a 5 worst bands thread? I was afraid it would upset too many people (because deep down inside we all seem to like pop).

 

[JeffreyMajeau]

Oh yeah! The Meters! GREAT stuff. See, I've got all this stuff lying around, but I never know what the hell to pick! Heh.

There's a pop tune from the late '60's early 70's called Spooky that has a Meters riff in it.
I was shocked when I heard it (the Meters tune) and realized that same riff was lifted wholesale from them. Of course, Jimmy Page did the same thing.

It's really hard to pin things down to "best bands of any era" There are so many good songs, even if the band wasn't good, yaknow?

It's interesting to see that we all say "pop these days is crap" and then go on to name pop bands of the past as our "holy grail". I'm guilty of it too, but there's just SO much good stuff out there old and new.

Anyone heard OK Go? I bought the album because it has a picture of a Volvo 244 on the cover (car nut in my off time ) But it's actually a really good album. Mixed by one of the Lord-Alge's so it's got that "sound". I actually like the sound, I think it's got some excitement to it, no matter how compressed to hell it is.

And it'd be even harder to name bands that I think are the worst. There's lots of bad stuff out there too!

Dan Roth
Otitis Media

 

[Doc@BeefyTreats.com]

Otitis Media! What a great name! Doc

 

[JeffreyMajeau]

Not everyone "gets it". It's routinely called "Otis Media" which makes me bristle. After the Toad show on Saturday, I should rename it Tinnitus media...Oi. Matchless Lightning 15 pointing RIGHT AT MY EAR...

Getting a referral to an audiologist anyway - the ringing has subsided a bit, but now I'm gun shy. Same thing happened when I saw BB King and stood next to the PA array, but that was the other ear...

 

[sdevino]

Hey Dan,
Check your phone messages!!!


Steve

 

[cjenrick]

60's
Beatles
Stones
Hendrix
Zeplin
Cream

70's
Allman Bros
ZZ Top
Jethro Tull
Deep Purple
Jeff Beck

80's
Fabulous Thunderbirds
Motorhead
Van Halen
AC/DC
Ozzy Osbourne

90's
Green Day
Blink 182
311
Counting Crows
Jimmy Buffett

2000's

Stones
Black Sabbath
Paul McCartney
Ringo Starr's All Star Band
Steve Vai

 

[bitdump]

70's,
Led Zepplin
Paul Simon
Joni Mitchell
Supertramp
Fleetwood Mac

80's
Dead Can Dance
Public Enemy
Clash
The Blue Nile
Prince

90's
Radiohead
Massive Attack
Stereo Lab
Wu Tang/Company Flo (dead tie)
Bjork/Sugarcubes

2000's
Soundtrack to Lagaan rocks, well in that Bollywood way.
Celia Cruz release a mighty fine record in 2000 as well, but you could put her in all these catagories and she would still kick some serious ass. I omitted her and Tito as I was a rebelious little latino growing up, can't listen to the parents old music, which was a mix of that and Mannalow, Humperdink, and the captain and toni peppered with the right amount of BJ Thomas.

By the way this got harder as in the 90's and dam right brutal in 2000, just one new artist and that is a film soundtrack. As much as I get a kick out of Avril and all.... oh snap! Sanremo is on, sorry Italian pop at it's finest!

 

[Kurt Foster]

I'm 50 and I still listen to new music, new stuff I like? Dixie Chicks. (newest is a bit too geocentric), No Doubt. I love Gwen Steffani. Great content over compressed too loud, sorta ruins it for me. Some of the best new stuff I have heard is from AKUS. (Alison Krauss & Union Station) "Lucky One" is such a cool song!

"Give you a song and a one night stand,
You'll be lookin' at a happy man,
Cause you're the Lucky One."

No gimmicks, no studio magic, just great singing and virtuoso playing.

It's not that we're out of touch Steve, it's that we have a memory when music was of a higher caliber. Fats

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[sdevino]

Originally posted by Cedar Flat Fats:
It's not that we're out of touch Steve, it's that we have a memory when music was of a higher caliber.

I know I am only 45, but I don't remember it that way!

My point in generating this list was to try to highlight that when we look back over time we still don't count all that many great groups. IF you consider there were probably over 100,000 new groups on the radio in the past 30 years, this group of people tends to zero in on the same couple of dozen over with most of the variation being based on genre (i/e pop vs rock vs hair vs glit) etc.

Our memories tend to filter out the bad. At least that is my opinion.

Steve