I'm not sure if there is a thread similar to this one. But I haven't seen one. Maybe I'm blind:smoke:. So what are your 5 favorite music artists? Mine would be:

-Def leppard
-AC/DC
-Motley Crue
-Quiet riot
-Twisted sister


What are yours?

huh.. tough choice.. but. maybe, but not in any order..

Love and Rockets
Rage Against the Machine
The WHo
Led Zepplin
AC/DC (old stuff)

But then I could give you another list...

Alice Cooper
Beatles
Prince
Korn
Stevie Ray

And then one more list....

I think you get the point.. Too many out there..

The Who
King Crimson
Blue Oyster Cult
Nektar
Iron Maiden
:thmbsp:...:thmbsp:...:thmbsp:

Dream Theater
Joe Satriani
John Mayer
Rush
Red Hot Chili Peppers

Pink Floyd
Tori Amos
Steely Dan
Santana
Dire Straits

Many honorable mention though....

Frank Sinatra

Jimi Hendrix

Miles Davis

Chicago Symphony

The Byrds

Miles Davis
John Coltrane
Bill Evans
Keith Jarrett
Chick Corea

Pink Floyd
Black Sabbath
Blue Oyster Cult
Genesis
Rolling Stones

The Beatles
The Cure
XTC
Michael Franti
Jethro Tull

Only 5 is tough, but I'll go with the following in no particular order:

Judas Priest
Iron Maiden
Rush
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Fleetwood Mac

bob dylan
neil young
g'n'r
pearl jam
nirvana

ELP
and then, in no particular order:
Rush (anything up to and including Permanent Waves)
Deep Purple
Yes
anything which involves Buddy Rich

And that's for today. Tomorrow might be completely different (except for displacing ELP from 1st place)

I've narrowed down my favorites over the years instead of expanding.....go figure.

Frank Zappa
Joe Zawinul (Weather Report/Zawinul Syndicate)
Steely Dan/Donald Fagen
Santana
Andy Narell (Anybody else familiar with his work?)

There are others but.....you know

Okay, had to add the Allman Bros. Live at the Fillmore. If you guys can do it so can I......(Jan 6) And Stevie Ray kind of fits in there somewhere.

Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page)
Pink Floyd (and the solo albums)
ELP ELP ELP!!!
Steely Dan
Dire Straits (especially the first album)
John Coltrane and Miles Davis and all those cats!
John Lee Hooker (da man!)
and the Rolling Stones (Exile, B&B, Sticky Fingers) (Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood solo albums - all of em)
and Jimi Hendrix (of course, it goes without saying....god on earth)
and David Crosby
and ...Jobim and both Gilbertos (Brazilian)
ok, and Bob Dylan! (of 'super' course!)
and for sure Black Sabbath (Ozzy rules!!)

Those are my favorite 6!

Couldn't live without em!!

Oh yeah...almost forgot:
King Crimson
and Sid Vicious's solo album (man, what an 'kick azz' album that is. I listen to it 'all the time'. Goes great with beer in the garage! It's just tooooo tough hard!!)

Elvis Costello
The Beatles
The Who
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Miles Davis

Top five, so much music for so few entries but I'll try.

Jethro Tull
ELP
Yes
Duran Duran
Miles Davis

Ask me again tomorrow and the list will probably come out different.

Jimi Hendrix
George Jones
Thomas Newman
Sinatra
Edgar Winter

In no particular order:
Marvin Gaye
Sly & The Family Stone
Curtis Mayfield
Parliament
The Pharcyde

Sviatoslav Richter
Mstislav Rostropovich
Wilhelm Kempff
Arthur Grumiaux
Wilhelm Furtwangler

I´m a classical music guy:

This is my short list:

Arturo Toscanini
Jascha Heifetz
Vladimir Horowitz
Sviatoslav Richter
Pau Casals
Enrico Caruso
Hans Hotter

But I´d love to include these names as well:

Leonard Bernstein
Wilhelm Backhaus
Walter Gieseking
Yehudi Menuhin
Birgitt Nilsson
Charles Munch
Pierre Monteux
Wilhelm Furtwangler
Lisa Della Casa
Fritz Reiner
Karl Bohm
Mistislav Rostropovich
Otto Klemperer
Erich Kleiber
Carlos Kleiber
Jascha Horenstein
Maria Callas
Renata Tebaldi
Evgeny Mravinsky
Jussi Bjoerling
Boris Christoff
Kirsten Flagstad

But the list could go on and on...we have been blessed by a great number of wonderful musicians along the history of recorded music.

All the best

Jimi Hendrix
Rush
Frank Zappa
Pink Floyd
Led Zeppelin

Limited to my top 5

Rush (all 35 years of it) (Snakes and Arrows is excellent) :thmbsp:

Pink Floyd prefer with Waters but still good w/o him

Alice in Chains

Stone Temple Pilots

Queen With Mercury, not a replacement.

And like most of you, I could put up lots of near contenders. :smoke:

1. Dire Straits and all Mark knopfler stuff.

2. Bachman-Turner overdrive

3. The Guess Who

4. Quarterflash

5. Steely Dan

Beatles
Elvis Costello
Bonnie Raitt
Sam Phillips
Marti Jones


Steve

YES
Mike Oldfield
Allan Holdsworth
Bill Bruford (Earthworks) or whatever he does really
Steve Howe

Tom Petty
Allman Brothers
AC/DC
ZZ Top
Aerosmith

Return To Forever - Corea, Clarke, DiMeola & White
The Mahavishnu Orchestra - McLaughlin, Hammer, Cobham & Laird
King Crimson - Fripp - Bruford - Cross - Wetton
Frank Zappa - Duke - Ponty - Beefheart
Emerson, Lake & Palmer - 1st Album - Tarkus - Brain Salad - Trilogy

I cheated that makes 23 if you count them individually :thmbsp:

Frank Sinatra
Richard Thompson
Ornette Coleman
Steely Dan
Warren Zevon

No particular order:

Zoot Sims
Richard Thompson
Otis Redding
Sandy Denny
John Coltrane

Oh wait, Johnny Adams, no.. Van Morrison, er Jimmy Buffett, The Kinks, the Beatles...Can I get a do-over?

Rock:

Roy Orbison (as per my avatar and sig.)
Del Shannon
Dylan
Clapton (esp. Derek and the Dominoes)
Springsteen

Other:

B.B. King
Eva Cassidy
Michael Rabin
Anna Moffo
Giuseppe DiStefano

Nice picks guys. I havto add pink floyd to my list!

Marvin Gaye
CSNY/Buffalo Sringfield
Rolling Stones
Santana
Cream

I thought this was about visual artists until I actually read the post. Sounded interesting, so here's that list:
Chagall
Hopper
Man Ray
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
Matisse

For music I'll go with:
Miles
The Stones
Willie DeVille
The Clash
Howlin' Wolf

Ask again in a week or two and expect changes!

Could change on any given day, but.....

Paul McCartney
Eric Clapton
James Taylor
Marvin Gaye
Stevie Nicks

To hell with 5, here's ten...these will be a little different. In no particular order:

Sonic Youth
Boards of Canada
Depeche Mode
Joy Division
Willie Nelson
Radiohead
Johnny Cash
Aphex Twin
Pink Floyd
Kraftwerk

All time faves, not just cureent high rotation, bu the stuff I always go back to

Sunnyboys

Nomeansno

Rolling Stones

Angry Samoans

David Bowie

Beatles
Led Zeppelin
Yes
Styx
Steve Miller Band
and of course any associated solo efforts. I could have done better with ten.

Tough one but for now it would be....

Husker du (or anything by Bob Mould)
Hot Tuna (or anything by Jorma)
Echo and the Bunnymen
Roy Buchanan
The Chameleons

Sinatra

Sarah

Ella

Basie

Ellington

Bob Dylan
The Beatles
Fleetwood Mac
Kate Bush
Pink Floyd

stones
albert collins
dianna krall
ry cooder
bill kirchen

Neil young, The Outlaws, ZZ top, Blue Oyster Cult, Lynyrd Skynyrd.

stones
albert collins
dianna krall
ry cooder
bill kirchen

I betcha Bill would appreciate the company you have him with.
Big Kirchen fan here, he played my brothers wedding, seen him at least 50 times. Best version of Highway 61 on the planet.

Jethro Tull
Led Zepplin
The Beatles
Uriah Heep
Alice in chains

Oh I can't help it.....

Pink Floyd
Black Sabbath
Metallica
Deep Purple
Patti Smith

Subject to change at any moment
1 Oasis
2 Tom Petty
3 Gene Clark
4 Buzzcocks
5 The Replacements

consistently throughout the years of listenign to music, i always go back to these artists.

1. Led Zeppelin
2. Black Sabbath
3. Pantera
4. Deftones
5. Alice in Chains
-------------------
6. Cypress Hill
7. Cannibal Corpse

Luther Vandross

Prince

Frankie Bevery & Maze

Parliament/Funkadelic

Pink Floyd



Honorable mentions to
James Brown
Earth Wind & Fire
Rick James
Cameo
Hall & Oats
MICHEAL JACKSON
Tribe Called Quest

For TODAY and for TODAY only...... (may be different tomorrow or the next day)

The Beatles
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/16/Revolver.jpg


Styx
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5a/Styx_-_The_Grand_Illusion.jpg


Neil Diamond
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6e/Hot_august_night.jpg

Stan Getz
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/96/Getz-gilberto.jpg

Grant Green
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/41/His_Majesty_King_Funk.jpg

Current Rotation in no particular order

Urge Overkill
Yes
Electric Light Orchestra
Black Sabbath
James Gang

All Time Faves (but not necessarily played currently) in no particular order

Yes
Beatles
Led Zeppelin
Cardigans
Clash

Current Rotation in no particular order

Urge Overkill
Yes
Electric Light Orchestra
Black Sabbath
James Gang

All Time Faves (but not necessarily played currently) in no particular order

Yes
Beatles
Led Zeppelin
Cardigans
Clash

Crap, forgot one all time AND current fave...Roxy Music :thmbsp:

Rush has been my absolute favorite band for over 17 years (damn I'm getting old!), never replaced and never will be. :thmbsp:

Other than Rush I like a lot of different stuff, from classical to jazz to blues to folk to pop...etc., but mainstream rock is my favorite genre. And sometimes I like a great album by a band so much that it's a favorite album of mine without actually liking the band/artist all that much (like Depeche Mode's Violator or Prince's Purple Rain), but my top five bands have been fairly consistent for 15+ years:

1. Rush
2. Queen
3. Led Zep
4. The Beatles
5. Black Sabbath

Others that are in the top 10 or 20 depending on the day:

Pink Floyd
Jethro Tull
Iron Maiden
Metallica
Tool
Billy Joel
Styx
The Police
The Doors
Fleetwood Mac

One odd thing I'll mention is that, going to high school from '91 to '95, I grew up with grunge/alternative and liked many of the bands in that genre so much that back then they would have made my top 10 or 20 (but my top 5, as I've said, have remained pretty consistent all these years consisting of classic rock and that has always been my favorite genre), but now I hardly listen to them. What a sea change! These include: Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Atlantis Morissette, The Cranberries, and Smashing Pumpkins. Some I haven't listened to in years.

I betcha Bill would appreciate the company you have him with.
Big Kirchen fan here, he played my brothers wedding, seen him at least 50 times. Best version of Highway 61 on the planet.

Yes, I've seen Bill Kirchen a number of times too, over the years. With Commander Cody, in the old days, and as a solo act. He gets better and better. He really puts on a good show.

I'd really like to catagorize into 3 or 4 genres: 1) Jazz 2) Rock 3) Blues 4) another genre, whatever you like.

But that would negate the original idea of the OP, I think. I find it interesting to see how eclectic AKers tastes are! I think the OP is trying to make us focus on ONLY our favorite bands, regardless. Not an easy task for, obviously from the reply posts, us to do. Look at it as a real challenge and eliminate every band that is not in your 'Top 5'. Could any AK member include Metallica and Frank Sinatra in their list? Probably.

Look at the posts of grillebilly, saratoga, tubetater, and snade, for example. Very diverse. It seems as if some of us need our itches scratched in numerous ways.

I would find it totally coma-inducing to listen only to metal bands (as an example). Maybe I'm saying 'everything in moderation'......? Nah. That's not what I'm trying to say.....How about 'everything to the max and then switch'!!

3 days of Zappa until I OD. Then it's Blues week, then 2 days of Zawinul and after that.....

Rick

Rush
SRV
Pink Floyd
Porcupine Tree
Buddy Guy

I most everyone says it and it's true, hard to narrow it down to five, and if I did it could change in a moment. But some of the favorites that I have not grown tired of yet:
Patty Griffin(She has amazing talent IMO.)
Lucinda Williams
Gillian Welch
Led Zepplin(Jimmy Page)
Allman Brothers

OK, I got throw in some others that on any given day could move up

Tony Furtado
Suni McGrath
Mike Dowling
Lightning Hopkins
Gary Davis
Tom Waits
Paul Rodgers
Lynyrd Skynyrd(Ronnie version)
Tori Amos
Muddy Waters
Etc., Etc., Etc...

OK, how about 5 favorite Zappa-related artists?
Alice Cooper
Capt. Beefheart
Wildman Fisher
Kim Fowley
Little Feat

1. Rush
2. Black Sabbath
3. Uriah Heep
4. Pink Floyd
5. UFO
__________________________________________________ _____________

Sansui
Six B-2101s, C-2101, 9090, SE-99, SE-88, AX-7
RS
12. Mach Ones & 2. T200s
2620 watts Total for the wall of sound

If its too loud, you must be getting to old to Rock & Roll.:guitar:

Man very hard but heres the ones I always go back to......

1. Robin Trower (like his stuff with Dewar the best though all of it is good)

the rest in no order

The Pink Floyd
Duke Ellington
Frank (when he was heading Dorseys Band)
Alexisonfire

Lets see.. As of today...
Joe Jackson
Clannod
Renaissance
Yes
Pink Floyd



Honorable Mentions:
Dean Martin
Van Morrison
Tom Waits
Eric Clapton
Fleetwood Mac (anything where the idiot isn't singing)
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Uriah Heep
Allman Brothers


Oh yes, And I take no shame in declaring that Neil Diamond's 'Hot August Night' is the best live album ever recorded.

The Walkabouts
Songs: Ohia/Magnolia Electric Company
Steve Wynn/The Dream Syndicate
Swervedriver/Adam Franklin/Magnetic Morning
The Ramones (I only have one album by them and really don't like to listen to them on the stereo but they are without a doubt the best live act I've seen)

1. Rush. Insane talent from all three musicians. They have great diversity in their music, and they have matured in their sound over the years, but still have the "Rush" sound. If you know what I mean... And they make some big sound for three men on stage. :music:

2. Led Zeppelin. What else can I say?

3. Stevie Ray Vaughan. Only had 6 albums, wish he had 60.

4. Jimi Hendrix. Another one that had too few albums...:tears:

5. The Who.

And any other mix of 60's and 70's bands you want to name, Pink Floyd, Mountain, Buffalo Springfield, etc. Great selections by all the AKers here, by the way. :thmbsp:

1. Rush. Insane talent from all three musicians. They have great diversity in their music, and they have matured in their sound over the years, but still have the "Rush" sound. If you know what I mean... And they make some big sound for three men on stage. :music:

2. Led Zeppelin. What else can I say?

3. Stevie Ray Vaughan. Only had 6 albums, wish he had 60.

4. Jimi Hendrix. Another one that had too few albums...:tears:

5. The Who.

And any other mix of 60's and 70's bands you want to name, Pink Floyd, Mountain, Buffalo Springfield, etc. Great selections by all the AKers here, by the way. :thmbsp:

+1 on all that, minus the rush, although i know they're great.

Here I go, into the abyss...

1) The Carpenters
2) Abba
3) Heart
4) Ludwig von Beethoven
5) Contemporary movie soundtracks

Neil Diamond
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6e/Hot_august_night.jpg



The greatest live album in history, if I may be so bold.

Counting down:

5. The Door
4. The Beatles
3. Billy Joel
2. Elton John

and finally

1..............

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo48/jgmacv/levisdeer079.jpg

Neil Diamond

Wassily Kandinsky
Vincent Van Gogh
Paul Klee
Rembrandt
Cezanne

:D

Franz Kafka
Jack Kerouac
Emily Dickinson
Anton Chekov
Kurt Vonnegut

:beatnik:

WA Mozart
L. von Beethoven
Claude Debussy
Maurice Ravel
JS Bach

:nerd:

Jimi Hendrix
Pete Townshend/The Who
Joe & Mick/The Clash
Keith Richards
Jerry Garcia

:smoke:

John Coltrane
Miles Davis
Wes Montgomery
Charlie Parker
Charlie Christian

:yes:

Wassily Kandinsky
Vincent Van Gogh
Paul Klee
Rembrandt
Cezanne

:D

Franz Kafka
Jack Kerouac
Emily Dickinson
Anton Chekov
Kurt Vonnegut

:beatnik:

WA Mozart
L. von Beethoven
Claude Debussy
Maurice Ravel
JS Bach

:nerd:

Jimi Hendrix
Pete Townshend/The Who
Joe & Mick/The Clash
Keith Richards
Jerry Garcia

:smoke:

John Coltrane
Miles Davis
Wes Montgomery
Charlie Parker
Charlie Christian

:yes:

Great choices, well done!

Can't pick five... Here are the ones that have been pretty constant for me over the years (no particular order):
Grateful Dead
Buddy Guy
Robert Cray
Bob Dylan
Emmylou Harris
Howlin' Wolf / Hubert Sumlin
Hot Tuna
Chrissy Hynde
Beatles
Stones
Todd Rundgren
Bonnie Raitt (esp. early stuff)

Lately I've been on a Subdude's kick.

Other passing fancies lately:
Stephen Stills (Treetop Flyer, anyone??)
Nellie McKay
Miles Davis
Bettye LaVette
Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings
Amy Winehouse
Buddha Bar

And of course ANY rootsy, heartfelt live music by unknown struggling artists!

Disclaimer: This list subject to change without prior notice.

Man very hard but heres the ones I always go back to......

1. Robin Trower (like his stuff with Dewar the best though all of it is good)

He is one of the many I probably forgot, but could easily move up to the number one spot on my list on any given day. Saw him last year and he's still amazing!:yes:

He is one of the many I probably forgot, but could easily move up to the number one spot on my list on any given day. Saw him last year and he's still amazing!:yes:

I know Robin really has been overlooked since he started, but I really love his stuff. I really need to see a show of his before he is unable or unwilling to tour, I have seen tons of recent videos and he most definatly still has it:yes:

I must admend my list again. I somehow forgot Neil Young. If only allowed five artist he has to make that list.:yes: