If you had to choose, what would be your Top 5 bands and the reasons why?

In no order.

Beatles
What should i say ? They redefined popular music.

Eels
The strongest and most heart-touching music i have heard so far. Eels re-invent themselves every year. Never boring. E is a genius.

R.E.M
Very solid band with a plentiful of great albums. Always good to listen to.

Depeche Mode
Building on Kraftwerk in the early 80s this is the best "synth" music for me. They have a history of more than 30 years now. Changed from pop to much heavier and darker music. I still listen to "Speak and Spell" ...

The Smiths/Morrissey
Better than brit-pop - they have an impressive sound. And Morrissey - despite the other weak album - still rocks

 

Rolling Stones
The first album introduced me to the world of Muddy Waters, Slim Harpo, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Marvin Gaye, Solomon Burke and many more when I was but a slip of a lad. They moved from blues to soul to folk and then to psychedelia before returning with great style to their own form of bluesy rock that still sounds pretty good.

Little Feat
I had vaguely liked the rhythmic feel, the soaring slide and the clever songs, but when I heard Long Distance Love my mind was blown and I really started to listen. The mix of percussion with keyboards is the best in rock and it is all just so groovy.

Los Lobos
A lovely blend of Mexican with LA. Rhythm, guitars, good singing, great songs and fat saxes pulling it all together.

El Rayo X
I can't choose Ry Cooder here, as he's not a band, but the next best thing is David Lindley's group brilliant at giving some classic songs a special treatment with a touch of reggae here, a little zydeco there, some blues, some boogie, always groovy. Fantastic drumming and look out for Ras Baboo on the first album!

Pretenders
All the line-ups have great guitar and a classy rhythm section supporting Chrissie's excellent individually-crafted songs.

 

My Five are:

Bob Dylan
Neil Young
Pearl Jam
Black Crowes
Sam Cooke

I'm sure the list will change tomorrow....

 

The Shadows (with and without Cliff Richard)
I have more 45s by them than any other act. Probably very British.

The Beatles
I prefer their earlier years. Love their first 4 LPs and their 1963 45s most.

The Beach Boys
Favourite LP is All Summer Long and favourite 45 is Fun, Fun, Fun.

The Rolling Stones
Up to the end of 1964 they were brilliant.

The Stranglers
A friend brought round Rattus Norvegicus LP. I bought my own the following day. Have seen them live in Leeds.

 

Lots of bands that I like slightly less these days, maybe because I'm a bit TOO familiar with their music. So it took some thought to compile an honest list.

It looks odd that there are no US acts in this list here - but I love The Band, The Byrds, The Doors, Love, The Stooges, Band Of Gypsys (well, I couldn't put the Jimi Hendrix Experience in I suppose! ) and countless others. Not to mention people like Dylan, Elvis and Prince! Just that they don't quite make the list..


The Beatles- An obvious one for most people that know me. A Christmas rarely passed without me getting a book or DVD or box set of the group or solo works. The only other artist that was on a par with that level of music-related gifts was Hendrix! I don't listen to them all the time and have always had breaks from their music, but whenever I return I get fully immersed in it. So inspirational- and engrossing to listen to. They just had some sort of magic and their achievements just seem to become more apparent as time progresses.

Genesis- Like the Fabs above, the difference between their early recordings (even leaving FGTR out of it - which I think is a wonderful album, if far from perfect..) and all the changes they went through means there's always enough there to hold my interest and the music takes me to places that most bands can't. Fabulous musicians and I pretty much like all their music equally at least up to the album Abacab. I like the next ones an awful lot but they have the occasional track that misses, I feel. CAS isn't a favourite, but I'm not alone on this.

Madness- I always clung to their first 4 albums and didn't venture further. The amount I've played those four though, I wouldn't like to even guess. I just lost interest in hearing anything later by them, but today I can't understand why. Could it be that I just didn't know anyone else who listened to them and only heard the chart hits on the radio? I couldn't afford to buy my own LPs- they were always gifts as I was still in school. Whatever it was, I've had the delight recently of finding out how fantastic their later albums are and want them all. Just constantly brilliant. The last two I got (Wonderful and The Liberty Of Norton Folgate) just took me totally by surprise- they seem to write better songs the older they get! Out of all the bands on my list of 5 here, I've listened to these the longest. Since I was 9 years old in fact.

Deep Purple- From Shades Of Deep Purple to Come Taste The Band (apart from Fireball and Stormbringer, which are still good- but a bit 'lacking' IMO) they released an incredible string of albums and out of all the rock music I've liked over the years, these always were at the top since I got a copy of Deepest Purple to 'test the waters' having only heard Black Night. I became almost obsessive with collecting anything I saw of theirs for a few years. But the thing is, I listened to it all as well! Apart from the overall sound they got as a unit, in whatever form they were in- the drumming of Ian Paice is something that I always marvel at.

The Who- Even if they 'just recorded Tommy, I'd still have picked them. But they were surely one of the greatest live rock bands and looking at the competition they had in the late 60s and early 70s, they certainly worked for their status and for the admiration they still have. So, that's another reason. But all the great singles they had out in the 60s and 70s (I had most of them) and even if their first couple of albums are not considered to be classics, I still think they are a fantastic listen. And Who Sell Out is incredible. There is one album I really DID get addicted to. Add to this, Townshend's witty, thoughtful and sometimes quirky songs. Probably my favourite drummer in Keith Moon and one of the best bassists ever in John Entwistle. Daltrey completes the picture and even brings a little sanity in at times. One of THE voices of 70s rock- to me.


Honorable mentions to The Small Faces/The Rolling Stones/The Jam/Roxy Music and the US bands mentioned above too.

 

The Cars - I discovered them myself on ABC Fridays at an impressionable age. The Beatles because they are the Beatles. The Monkees - the anti band that pulled it off. Steely Dan- slick music and great lyrics. Jethro Tull - as prog as I will go because they're also funny and folksy and stuff like that

 

The constant "3":
Beatles, Who, Pink Floyd.

Today's next two:
Moody Blues, REM

The "hoverers": Squeeze, Eagles, Stones, Kinks

I border between being a 1st and 2nd generation Beatle fan.

The Who I really started getting into after Moon died, but my two favorite LPs are Sell out and Who Are You, with Quadrophinia a close third. Seen them more than any other band, including mcCartney solo.

Pink Floyd in the mid 70s after thinking Dark Side of the Moon picked up where Abbey Road left off. I like all line-ups but never saw Waters live solo or with band.

Moody Blues and REM, I realize I own a large body (most) of their mainstream releases and revisit often. Never saw REM live, but have seen Squeeze, Eagles and Stones live.

I tend to gravitate towards bands with at least three lead singers.

 

1. The Beatles
2. The Monkees
3. The Beach Boys
4. Fleetwood Mac
5. Simon and Garfunkel

If just Top 5 artists (group or solo) it would be:
The Beatles
The Monkees
The Beach Boys
Elton John
Barbra Streisand

 

The Beatles: no explanation needed?
Neil Young and the Stray Gators: although I like Crazy Horse, Ben Keith's dripping pedal steel and the locked-in, dry rhythm section of Tim Drummond/Kenny Buttrey is my favorite accompaniment to Shakey's vulnerable voice and jarring guitar.
Bob Dylan & The Band: This is kind of a twofer. Dylan's probably my favorite solo artist, and The Band is definitely a top 5 band. Levon Helm's swinging beats and southern drawl, Rick Danko's earnest voice and bouncing bass, Garth Hudson's wizardry.
Radiohead: IMO, the best band of the 90's/2000's so far. They have an element of chaos and dissonance layered into really beautiful melodies. They build grooves with deep pockets. Even the RH albums that aren't immediately captivating eventually grow to become my favorites.
Wilco: Took awhile for Wilco to become this high on my list, but I love the fragile nature of Jeff Tweedy's voice and songwriting. Nels Cline's guitar work. I feel like Wilco carries in the Americana spirit of Dylan, Young, The Band, etc. But they also have an experimental element of chaos and dissonance that puts them in the same class as Radiohead. Both Radiohead and Wilco are 100% satisfying to see live - that's where their songs really come alive. I wasn't wild about their 2009 s/t album, but The Whole Love is one of my favorite Wilco albums. Seeing them tour that material, Art of Almost kicked so much ass. "Capitol City" reminded me of something off Sgt. Peppers.

 

a-ha
Dismissed by uneducated cynics as disposable pop, or - worse - "one hit wonders", their particular brand of epic Scandinavian melancholy is, in turn, evocative and joyful. While they were embraced by the eighties teenybop brigade, they also (as Q magazine once remarked) "brought misery to the top ten in a manner Scott Walker would be proud of". So true.

The Beatles
This really needs no explanation, but here's how I'd try to make people understand: When I was about twelve years old, I knew about Stuart Sutcliffe, Pete Best, Mal Evans, Brian Epstein, George Martin. No other band has such an aura that a kid reads everything and anything they can find about them, to the extent that they know the supporting characters in their story. And then there's the actual music.

Belle and Sebastian
I didn't discover them immediately, but thankfully still early enough to get excited about new EPs and singles as they came out. I was gutted when Isobel left, but at least two of their most recent albums are among their best. Hell, the last one may even be their very best. I have a badge that says "Stuart Murdoch is God". He'd probably disapprove. Yet sometimes when I listen to them, I think the badge might be right.

Pink Floyd
I think I was about thirteen or fourteen when I got into Pink Floyd, and - weirdly - Dark Side of the Moon was one of the last albums I got. I remember having Animals and The Final Cut on two sides of a C90 tape and even though they're very different albums, I'd just play it over and over. I f***ing hate when people say they're a "stoner's band". I don't even drink.

Queen
I obviously knew the hits and saw them destroy Live Aid, but Queen are probably the band whose back catalogue I acquired the quickest, once I got properly into them. I got a whole load of albums on cassette and bought up more on CD. I met Brian and Roger a few years ago. I just could not believe it. So much had I invested in this music and here are two of them, standing in front of me. Unreal.

Bubbling under:

Depeche Mode
Teenage Fanclub

 

1. Pavement
2. Velvet Underground
3. Bob Marley & The Wailers
4. Pixies
5. Thievery Corporation

Honourable mention to:

Spacemen 3, Beastie Boys, Guided By Voices, Led Zeppelin, Joy Division, Rolling Stones, Ween, Stone Roses.

 

Except for the Stranglers, I could adopt your list completely, then spend a lot of time musing over who would be # 5.

I lived in Paris in the late Fifties as a teenager; my father worked in the Embassy, and I was always very excited to hear Cliff Richard & The Shadows on a British radio station that came in clear as a bell after dark in France. I haven't heard "Please Don't Tease" since the summer of 1960.

I like all of the Beatles except Let It Be; I like all of the early Beach Boys albums too.

"Paint It Black" is from 1966, so I would extend the Stones at least two years, maybe three.

Perhaps the Dave Clark Five could make it into the top 5 spot for a musical "band."

 

1. The Beatles, for the sheer evolutionary leaps they made in the blink of an eye. Most established bands can't put out an album in less than five years now. The Beatles went from performing on the Ed Sullivan Show to recording "Tomorrow Never Knows" in about 25 months.
2. Pink Floyd, for overcoming hardships that would have destroyed any other band (losing their singer/songwriter/guitarist), and for the experimentalism that kept them interesting.
3. Radiohead, for consistently pushing themselves with each new release, and not allowing the typical band tensions to drive them down a predictable path.
4. Steely Dan, for bringing a wit and sophistication to rock that would have been unimaginable just a few years earlier. They also helped introduce a lot of us to jazz.
5. Too many others to choose from, from the Velvets to King Crimson to the many lives of Neil Young.

 

The Beatles - The songs
The Velvet Undergound - The songs
King Crimson - The songs
Black Sabbath - The songs
Led Zeppelin - The songs

 

I think I'll just choose my favorite from each of the last 5 decades. Why? They each made great music:

The Beatles
Joy Division
Duran Duran
Blur
Franz Ferdinand

 

Roxy Music
Talk Talk
Kate Bush
Lou Reed
Simon & Garfunkel

 

The Who - my all time favourite band. There was something very appealing to me in my mid teens about them, particularly Townshend's writing, that has stuck with me over the past thirty years. A fantastic rhythm section, brilliant frontman who helped define the archetypal rock singer look and a great guitarist / writer that was always looking to push the envelope. The fact that The Who didn't always succeed in attaining the heights they aimed for makes them all the more endearing to me and if the result of a 'failure' is Who's Next then I'd take that any day of the week.

Pink Floyd - great musicians, great albums and brilliant live act. For me Wish You Were Here is their finest moment and it was this album which really opened my eyes, or ears, to a mellower rock sound in my late teens. I saw them live, without Waters, and they sounded awesome. The light show was fantastic but it is the quality of sound that I always remember, Gilmour's guitar particularly. Sounded just like off the record, only better!!

Led Zeppelin - I went through a long period of not really listening to Zep and then got back into them a bit around the time of the O2 concert but getting the MFiT complete recordings has meant I've rediscovered my passion for them. I forgot how musically diverse and gifted they were, especially John Paul Jones - in fact it's probably only now I'm really appreciating how much a part he had to play in their sound. Of course that takes nothing away from the rest of the band who were all very much in the top echelon of musicians in their respective fields.

The Beatles - there has been so much said and written about these guys that there isn't much I can add. I rather perversely refused to like them when I was growing up, not really sure why other other than they were just so famous and popular perhaps and it was a bit of teenage rebellion. Once I did open up to them though there was no going back and I then began to appreciate how much this band really did change the game.

Queen - I know this band can divide opinion but they were the first act I really got into. First single and first album and the first I completed the album back catalogue on. In my opinion in Freddie the greatest rock vocalist and frontman of them all, an incredible showman and I was lucky enough to see them live on the Magic tour. I was absurdly proud of their performance at live aid, they blew everyone away that day and I remember going into work the following Monday basking in their reflected glory A bit like The Beatles I don't listen to them very often now and whilst Brian and Roger are free to do what they want to me Queen died along with Freddie.

Looking back thru this I realise these are all pretty obvious 'big bands' and all of a certain era. Would love to have something quirky and or modern in here but sadly not much appeals to me from recent times (recent being last 20 years or so )

I took the OP literally and went for bands only, otherwise Bob Dylan and The Boss would be in here somewhere.

 

This is tough...but here goes.

1) Beatles - their music has brought me so much happiness over my lifetime.
2) Pink Floyd - ALL eras.
3) Led Zeppelin - the band that made me want to join a band when I was in jr. high. Their music still resonates with me---30 years later
4) Yes - Magical, mystical, great songs, great musicianship. Although I don't care for anything after Big Generator, their music from 1969-1987 is nearly untouchable. And that includes Tales, Tormato & Drama!
5) Rush - my very first concert (GUP tour) and like Floyd I love all eras.

just missed the cut:
Grateful Dead
Steely Dan
all Beatles solo works (yes, even Ringo!)
Miles Davis
Genesis
Black Sabbath
U2
radiohead
Queen
The Doors

 

great list! and you echoed my sentiments for each artist!

 

(1) The Who (the overall greatest rock band of all time).

(2) Van Halen (Roth era)

(3) Led Zeppelin

(4) The Clash

(5) The Rolling Stones

 

Miles Davis
What can I add to the shelves of commentary that have been published about this mercurial, modernist figure? He did everything -- bebop, third stream, hard bop, post-bop, jazz-rock -- and usually did it before most anyone else and did it better. It's either humbling or inspiring to realize the same man who accompanied Charlie Parker on 52nd Street also recorded the apocalyptic, primordial music released as AGHARTA and PANGAEA in a single afternoon in Tokyo, 1975. How does someone do all that?

Elvis Presley
The rock and roll original and still the best white singer ever to make his mark with largely African-American genres. As a young man, I found his post-breakout/comeback stuff to be bloated, retrogressive and cornball. Now that I have some life experience, I can grasp the real-life pathos of stuff like "Long Black Limousine" or even "You Gave Me A Mountain" as well as the liberating intoxication of the original hits. And now I can appreciate that he appreciated it all, from rock and roll to straight gospel to Italian-American crooning. I'll still pass on most of the soundtracks, though.

James Brown
As I get older, it becomes clear that JB -- not the Beatles, not Dylan, not the Stones -- produced the most original, influential music of his era. Our current pop landscape seems largely his creation, and it's worldwide.

Rolling Stones
My gateway to good music, courtesy their deep immersion in blues, rock and roll and other American forms, best expressed on the junkie autopilot EXILE ON MAIN STREET.

Richard Thompson
This would include his work with Fairport Convention, his once-upon-a-time wife and singing partner Linda Thompson, as well as his solo catalog. I don't think there's a singer-songwriter who can match him for sheer songwriting craft and musicianship. The highest compliment I can relay is a college girlfriend who promptly returned my loaned copy of SHOOT OUT THE LIGHTS, explaining, "This record would make me suicidal."

Ugh, to think I left off the Beatles, Bob Dylan, John Coltrane, R.E.M. . . .

 

Grateful Dead
King Crimson
Talking Heads

For sure. Then I dunno. Maybe REM, maybe the Velvets, maybe the Stones , maybe Wilco....something like that.

 

Leaving aside most jazz since the idea of a 'band' is difficult with personnel changes etc I came up with these in the order that they came into my listening life.

Steely Dan
The first band that made me think beyond the charts and still my favourite band some 40 years on.

Wire
Went to see The Tubes in Nov 1977 and the support blew me away and I came out a fan. Pink Flag was mine within a month. Still making great music.

Magazine
A mate of my brother's lent me Real Life after I'd picked up "Shot By Both Sides". Evidence that some of the original punks moved on very quickly. Finally got to see them on their return a couple of years back.

Art Ensemble of Chicago
One of the only jazz bands that qualifies since after adding Famoudou Don Moye in 1969 they stayed together pretty much until Lester Bowie died in 1999. Seen 6 times over the years and never less than an exhilarating experience.

King Crimson
I knew ITCOTCK as my brother had it and I knew I'd heard Starless before when I finally picked up Red in the early 80s but it took me another decade before I started to collect the rest. It was the Great Deceiver box of live 73-74 gigs that was the eye-opener and made me a real fan.

 

Not the Beatles.

 

Over the years I've really connected with these (rock) masters of their craft: Buddy Holly/Crickets, Beatles, Deep Purple, Moody Blues and Doors. Plenty more bubbling underneath.