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long story short, im watching this show thats listing them. so just for giggles, rank your top 5 or so greatest artists (music) of all time.

nate

Rush

Voivod

Motorhead

Death

Venom

Honorable Mention: Fates Warning, Watchtower

the greatest artists of all time? seriously guys? definately getting giggles.

well, according to their list it was based on music of the past 100 years or so. going back to the old blues days. as for my definition, Mozart would possibly be on my list. RHCP, while good would definately make the greatest rock bands of all time on my list, but probably not artists of all time. as for those that affected me, there are many that dont deserve to be on the list of greatest of all time. sometimes i just simply like fun music that has no real complexity.

nate

your list includes music of the past 20 years. will those bands really influence generations and generations to come? RHCP/beatles/Bowie most likely will, but the others? probably not. Eminem maybe, though rap has been on a slow decline for some time now.

"my" definition would be defined as an artist that has his/her/their own legacy, someone that will not just be a footnote in 100 years. someone that influences billions, not just a select few bandwagoners. im sure its deeper than that, but thats my view on the matter.

what made me "giggle" was the minimal selection and the newness of the music. Metalhed didnt even mention the Beatles, and on your list they were but an honorable mention. i dont even like the beatles that much but know their influence/talents in music surpasses any band 10x fold.

nate

** i gave my definition, but obviously its up for interpretation. so what would be your definition of Greatest Artists of all Time?

Yeah, I don't know about greatest, but in my opinion:
 

Cradle of Filth (year 2000 and back)

Between the Buried and Me

Radiohead

Alice in Chains (back when Layne was alive)

And, of course, Thugnificent and The Lethal Interjection Crew. haha

Well, maybe not the last one, but I can listen to the first four for weeks on end and not get tired of 'em.  There are plenty others that I like, including Norah Jones, Rodrigo Y Gabriella, Funkadelic, Michael Buble, Paradelous, BB King, and more... I just can't choose one for the 5th spot.

Again, perhaps not the oldest, greatest, most influential, or whatever, but my personal favorites.

Depending on what is meant by "greatest." If it's greatest to me, that's one thing. If it's for a record mag, I can imagine people would start listing things like Led Zeppelin, Def Leppard, The Doors, the Beatles, etc.

Anyway, most meaningful and greatest for me: (some of these actually suck now or don't exist, so I refer mainly to their earlier work)

1) Nine Inch Nails - now a cliche and popular, back in 1992 they were unheard of and I listened to their songs many a night while I burned myself with cigarettes and smoked weed. Just kidding.

2) Depeche Mode - multiple good albums, some crap, most good. New album only one good song, Wrong, but still.

3) My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - spectacular mix of industrial, goth, sleaze-disco

4) The Orb - many college days spent listening to them while playing road rash on Sega Genesis and smoking weed. Kidding again, I never used illicit drugs that anyone can prove.

5) Old Gangster Rap - aka, NWA, Geto Boys, Ice Cube, Too Short, 2 Live Crew - I listen to that stuff now and for the most part it's terrible, but was definitely the "greatest" as far as my development was concerned.

Honorable mentions include Nirvana, which I hated in 1992 but now like, Ministry, old albums kick ass, Lords of Acid, KMFDM, Skinny Puppy, Pigface, Primus

Here's my list for overall for all eternity inspirational, creators of things leading to expanding the scene:

1) Mozart

2) The Beatles

3) Run DMC

4) James Brown

5) Johnny Cash

I can only give you my five greatest artists of all time. If like JJJ said you're talking about the most influential artists of all time that's kind of hard to pin point. Obviously The Beatles. Nirvana made grunge big which brought about a whole lot of bands, even though there were heaps of other grunge bands like Mudhoney and what not, so they'd be there. Blues developed over time so I couldn't just pick one and say Robert Johnson or Son House or something, there wouldn't be one particular artist. I can't put my finger on any more. There's too many artists to name, but you're mainly looking at the most popular artists of each genre (for example The Pixies influenced a heap of indie bands as did Sonic Youth, but a lot of people haven't heard of either of those bands).

As for my personal list, it's a tough choice but I'll narrow it down to:

Sonic Youth

Love of Diagrams

The Edmund Fitzgerald

Vivian Girls

Explosions In The Sky

Though these are current favourites. Should I be picking from a number of genres? Older Black Keys and La Dispute definitely deserve a mention, The Beatles were great but wrote many bad songs as well as good songs (eg. the White Album has some terrible songs on it), the list goes on. The question's too hard to answer (I don't mean that in a "oh I like music so much that I can't choose I just listen to THAT many bands" way, I mean it's hard to define the greatest bands of all time altogether. Like I can define my favourites but they change every once in a while).