We haven’t had a list thread for a while so I thought I would share this list from the latest issue of Classic Rock magazine.
50. Roxy Music
49. King Crimson
48. ZZ Top
47. The Ramones
46. Journey
45. Cream
44. Motley Crue
43. Rainbow
42. Pearl Jam
41.Marillion
40. Status Quo
39. Uriah Heep
38. Chicago
37. Creedance Clearwater Revival
36. The Doors
35. Lynyrd Skynyrd
34. Slade
33. Bruce Springsteen
32. Tool
31. Fleetwood Mac
30. Nirvana
29. Judas Priest
28. Genesis
27. Motorhead
26. Foo Fighters
25. U2
24. Bon Jovi
23. David Bowie
22. Thin Lizzy
21. Bob Dylan
20. Jimi Hendrix
19. Yes
18. The Eagles
17. Aerosmith
16. Kiss
15. Van Halen
14. Def Leppard
13. The Who
12. Guns ‘N; Roses
11.Deep Purple
10. Iron Maiden
9. Metallica
8. The Rolling Stones
7. Black Sabbath
6. The Beatles
5. AC/DC
4. Pink Floyd
3. Rush
2. Queen
1. Led Zeppelin
I have bought music by all of those artists so I guess the list is correct in content if not order.
David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen and Jimi Hendrix aren’t rock bands. How come they get a mention and Lena Zavaroni doesn’t?
Plus and also, no mention of The Clash? I’d have thought they, especially for London Calling, would be Classic Rock mag’s darlings.
The Beatles were never a Rock Band.
Strictly pop purveyors.
Agreed Bowie’s not really rock. Bob Dylan isn’t rock either. I can’t imagine what categories either could fit into.
Some of Bowie’s work is definitely rock.
“Some of” is just not enough for me.
Whatever.
Bowie isn’t a band. Neither is Dylan…
I’ve been pondering Bowie’s Rock. The Man Who Sold The World is quite definitely Rock. Ziggy? More Pop, surely? Diamond Dogs, first side probably. Then, we have to wait for Heathen, at a push, but The Next Day as a certainty. In between, there is the occasional Rock track, such as Stay or a few on side two of Scary Monsters.
I think The Beatles became rock on the white album, at least on some tracks. There’s definitely a shift in approach that continues on the next two albums. I am rather taken aback by the indignation expressed here that certain acts might be rock. I don’t think rock has to be heavy and hard necessarily. There’s a lot of softer variants, but it’s all pop really. I think that is the Hepworthian argument. Perhaps a thread about defining the two terms? What larks!
I have an Encyclopedia of Rock that includes Bowie and The Beatles. Proof if proof be need be.
The sole advantage of lumping most of these acts together as “rock” is to avoid even more redundant gentrification as punk or alternative. I am not sure I even like pop as a description, as there are poppy rock songs, poppy folk songs, poppy disco and soul etc etc.
…especially at this time of year…
Yes the tabloids get pretty cross if you forget the poppy.
The Beatles were one of the first rock bands. Everything from Revolver on pretty much is “rock”, I would call Bowie a rock artist. Some of Dylan’s stuff is rock, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde, Desire, Street Legal etc. Or are we talking about hard rock?
No
Like A Rolling Stone is rock music as an idea, a thing, coming into being on record in front of you. Something more grown up and album oriented as would take over from the late 60s onwards. If you don’t get that you’d better go back to school. Dylan isn’t a band, which is the original point, although he was more or less in The Band for a while.
What are you commentating on? Clearly not this thread.
I despair. A bit.
The Beatles are on this list for the same reason that Kind of Blue and King of the Delta Blues Singers make all those Mojo and Rolling Stone Greatest Albums lists. They’re meant to give the impression that the writers and readers of the publications have broader musical tastes than they actually have.
Shocking exclusion of REM.
Much better than Kiss, amongst many on the list.
Tool?
Better than Roxy Music or The Ramones. This is a silly list.
No mention of Foghat either.
On the plus side, Slade in the Top 40 … good work
Just listening to Lateralus from 1996.
A very good album I clearly missed at the time
Utter tosh.
Love that album.
“Legalise it
Don’t criticise it”
Sorry, Pete, Madness have already claimed that one. And I’m afraid we’ve had to nix your other suggestion “Carry On Up The Tosh” .
How about just “Greatest Hits”?
Beatles at 6, below Rush and Queen 🙂
A stupid and pointless list, but I suppose most of them are. I guess Classic Rock magazine is doing what it says on the tin
I am a big Rush fan but they were never better than The Beatles
It’s that time of year, isn’t it.
Music mags are always a month or two ahead of reality, so it’s December issue “let’s fill some pages with a list” time.
Always good for stirring up some reader response.
This list is as good an explanation as I can give of why I never read, let alone buy, a copy of Classic Rock.
I don’t buy it, just subscribe to the weekly emails that list the content – much cheaper!
The arbitrariness is astounding, well no I guess it isn’t really. How is Dylan in a best band list? I mean which iteration? How is Creedence and their run of albums mid 30s?
How are Cream and Roxy and ZZ Top ranked given their different styles?
Questions ,questions.
The elevation of Queen to the status of Greatest! Band! Evah! continues apace.
Any list which features Kiss (unless it belongs to Hall and Oates) is null and void..
It’s a funny old world. Like everyone else on this site I could give a top of my head potted history of every act on that list with the exception of Rush who I have never knowingly heard a single song by.
Allow me to let you in then.
4 minutes of your time well spent I believe.
Not only could I not give a potted history of Tool until I’d seen this list I’d never even heard of them.
Same here.
I saw the word and reflexively thought Robert Jenrick. A few years back it would have been Boris Johnson. I like to stay en courant.
Our new Prime Minister’s Father was a tool maker.
That explains everything then.
Was he? I don’t remember him mentioning it.
Where Feat? FFS this list is shite.
“British rock is better than non British rock” is a reasonable generalisation, is it not? There should be much more than 25 in the list.
Where is Krokus band?
Early 1980’s Norfolk sixth former views were clearly underrated or blocked.
This alone should get them a top 50 placing.
Blimey – this is a blast from the past. I’ve got a copy of this somewhere. It’s AWOL along with my 12 inch copy of Saxon’s “747” and a white vinyl “Hollywood Tease” by Girl.
Cracking records all!
Love is a game by Girl was my favourite. Think that was white vinyl too.
You don’t fool me
https://www.discogs.com/artist/354207-Freddy-Steady
That’s me!!
Tool have made some magnificent music. The Afterword likes to wear their ignorance with pride. I can’t though see the point of trying to rank them with the likes of The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac. Such exercises become increasingly absurd but they create interest and comment as here so they prove their worth to the magazine. No such thing as bad publicity I suppose.
I wasn’t trying to wear my ignorance with pride I had genuinely not heard of them either musically or written about. There are several bands on the list I have heard of and don’t think I have heard a single piece of music by them. There are some I’d wished I’d never heard any music by them ever.
Well it’s not aimed at a particular person, there’s just a tendency to be pleased with one’s self about not knowing new things especially. I mean that’s how it can come across.
Having checked that they came into being in 1990 I’m with @Gary I genuinely had not heard of them in the last 34 years. That was all I was saying.
I suppose if I’d read Classic Rock magazine then I would have heard of them at least but it has never been part of my reading material.
I’m genuinely extremely surprised that a band I, who have always been a music nerd, have never heard of, is considered one of the best of all time by Classic Rock mag. My computer’s internet shows they’re actually very successful and describes them as “influenced as much by Pink Floyd as by the Sex Pistols.”
I’m wondering if they’re good? (Am too deaf to investigate.)
Steely Dan, The Jam, The Band, CSNY, Jethro Tull, the Crickets, the Byrds..? The Beatles at 6 FFS.
The Beatles couldn’t rock for toffee.
They’d done a lifetime of rocking in Hamburg even before most of us knew anything about them. People always cite the Stones as the dangerous ones, but the Beatles were hardened and truly wild in Germany.
Agree with all of those. Someone else has mentioned REM too but Talking Heads is the glaringliest omission as far as I’m concerned, particularly as Stop Making Sense is a live rock band performance par excellence.
Lost me at 50. Roxy, a ‘rock band’? I think not.
Bor-ing. 26 feature chez moi, but few are more than historical curiosities. I guess the ones that still get played are defined by their distance from being considered either classic or rock.
No Tull, no Feat, no Steely Dan. It’s just a list, but it’s rubbish.
Yep my thoughts exactly (not quite so keen on ver Tull but the Dan and Little F yes)
How about “any of Frank Zappa’s bands from the 70s?”
…apart from the Flo & Eddie cabaret band?
“I’m coming over shortly, because I am a portly.
You promised you could fit me in a $50 suit…”
Could Bowie be considered a genre all by himself? Like others, I’m a bit surprised by seeing him on a rock list, but he wasn’t really a pop singer, was he? Nor blues, rock’n’roll, soul, R’n’B, goth (sadly), nor any other genre that springs to mind. His genre, if you have to put him in one (as these lists require), was … Bowie.
Yes, he did rock (e.g. 1 Outside), pop, blue-eyed/”plastic” soul, etc., but it would be hard to make a case for him being in one category more than any other.
So it must be hard for compilers of lists like this: leave him out and somebody will inevitably say, “Where’s Bowie?” Include him and the response is “Bowie? Really?”
Still, it gets people reading – or clicking, which I suppose is all-important these days.
I’d say art rock like Roxy Music. The influence of The Velvets among other things but there are acts that transcend genres. Like Pink Floyd who escape prog.
Art rock – that’ll do nicely.
10cc should be in there as well.
Soft art rock/prog pop. I think I nailed it there.
Sounds a bit smutty…
Actually Rock Music can only be played on a lithophone, just ask Neddy Dick.
?
Lithophone is music played on stones or in other words rocks as played by Neddy Dick.
Mentioned in this song by Mr Fox, Bob Pegg had just mentioned Neddy today which gave me a reminder.
Truly awful noise
Given they’ve got Dylan, Bowie and Springsteen, perhaps the most surprising omission is Neil Young, with or without Crazy Horse or Crosby Stills and Nash. Very little punk or post punk as well- Jam, Police, Dire Straits, Clash….
I have to say that I find Classic Rawkkkk a useful barometer to use. Essential even.
Absolutely anything they may like/recommend I want the complete polar opposite of.
Like this list, their Top 100 albums from the 1970s is indispensable (didn’t buy the issue, of course).
It’s deeply ironic that despite having Rawkkkk in their title, no one at the magazine would know Rock ‘n’ Roll if it crossed the road and shook hands with them.
I asked my phone “What is rock music”
“Rock music is a genre of popular music characterized by its use of driving rhythms, strong beats, and often, powerful vocals. It originated in the 1950s and has since branched out into various subgenres. Some key elements of rock music include:
1. Electric instruments: Guitars, bass, and drums are staples.
2. Strong beats: Rock music often features energetic drumming.
3. Simple harmonies: Catchy melodies and chord progressions.
4. Emphasis on vocals: Powerful, expressive singers.
Subgenres include:
1. Classic Rock (Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones)
2. Hard Rock (Guns N’ Roses, Van Halen)
3. Punk Rock (The Ramones, The Clash)
4. Alternative Rock (Radiohead, Foo Fighters)
5. Heavy Metal (Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden)
Rock music’s influence on popular music is immense!”
So there we have it, so I think we can include Bowie etc. (Although he’s not a band)
And 100% male according to Classic Rock magazine, Fleetwood Mac aside.
.. and somewhat pasty of face (Phil and Jimi aside)..
I have to leave. I didn’t realise it was possible to feel claustrophobic in an online blog thread.