Discussion of best artist poll predictions and prior poll results

Henry
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Re: Discussion of best artist poll predictions and prior poll results

Post by Henry »

Now that Simon and Garfunkel have been revealed in the poll roll-out here are some of my S&G favorites that do not appear to be widely appreciated among forum members or critics include:

Anji (my 942nd favorite of all time)
Save the Life of My Child (980)
Bleeker Street (1058)
Sparrow (1111)
The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine (1161)
Cloudy (1163)
Patterns (1168)
Somewhere They Can’t Find Me (1170)
Bye Bye Love (1185)
Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream (1207)
We’ve Got A Groovey Think Goin’ Baby (1214)
Old Friends (1221)
A Most Peculiar Man (1224)
April She Will Come (1248)
Kathy’s Song (1926)
Henry
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Re: Discussion of best artist poll predictions and prior poll results

Post by Henry »

Here's an admittedly derivative write-up for The Who:

Peter Townshend and John Entwistle first got together in 1959 in the band The Confederates while at Acton County School. Pete played the banjo and John the French horn. Roger Daltrey attended the same school, a year ahead of them. In 1961, Roger’s group (The Detours) recruited John to play bass. Townshend joined the band in 1962. Lead vocals for The Detours were performed by Colin Dawson. In 1963, Dawson was kicked out of the band and Roger became the lead singer. The band was performing on the west London circuit of pubs, clubs and ballrooms. In February of 1964, the band changed their name to The Who at the suggestion of Townshend’s art school friend Richard Barnes. In April, Keith Moon joined the band. In November of 1964, The Who started a 16-week residency at London’s Marquee Club. These shows became sell-outs, but the equipment smashing was a challenge to the group’s finances.

Kit Lambert was both the manager and producer of The Who. Lambert became an assistant director (AD) on the films The Guns of Navarone, From Russia with Love, and The L-Shaped Room, which is when he met fellow AD Chris Stamp, brother of actor Terence Stamp.
Soon after, he and Stamp decided to make a documentary that would show the behind-the-scenes life of a pop group. The band they chose was The High Numbers (known previously, and again afterwards, as The Who). Lambert and Stamp began filming concerts of the group, but eventually abandoned the idea of the documentary, deciding instead to become The Who's managers, even though they had no experience managing a group.

Ever since the beginning of their working relationship Lambert had been trying to convince Pete Townshend to move away from simple songwriting and compose more mature fare using his troubled childhood as a starting point. Townshend has acknowledged that it was Lambert who influenced him to combine rock music and opera, which led to the creation of the rock opera Tommy. Although The Who were international hitmakers by the late '60s, it was not until the release of Tommy in 1969 that the band became firmly established both creatively and commercially.

While The Who was struggling to articulate Townshend's next concept, Lifehouse (which would eventually be abandoned, and turned into the popular rock album Who's Next), Lambert began shopping a film version of Tommy without the band's authorization. This led to significant differences between Lambert and the group.

Tommy was based in part on the teachings of Meher Baba. Some songs, such as "Welcome" and "Amazing Journey", were inspired by Baba's teaching, and others came from observations within the band. "Sally Simpson" is about a fan who tried to climb on stage at a gig by the Doors that they attende and "Pinball Wizard" was written so that New York Times journalist Nik Cohn, a pinball enthusiast, would give the album a good review. Despite this, in 1973, Townshend contacted Lambert, asking him to help with the recording of Quadrophenia, but Lambert's drug abuse and the allegations of missing funds stalled efforts at a reconciliation. After litigation was initiated for unpaid royalties, both Lambert and Stamp were sacked in 1974 and replaced by Bill Curbishley, who still manages the band.

The group's contributions to rock include the power chord, windmill strum and the use of non-musical instrument noise such as feedback. Pink Floyd began to use feedback from their early shows in 1966, inspired by the Who, whom they considered a formative influence. Shortly after arriving in London in 1966, Jimi Hendrix visited Marshall's music shop demanding an amp setup like Townshend's and manipulated electronic noises in ways that Townshend had pioneered.

Here are some of my Who favorites that do not appear to be widely appreciated among forum members or critics:

Sensation (508th all time favorite)
The Punk and The Godfather (534)
How Many Friends (573)
Getting In Tune (744)
I’ve Had Enough (848)
Dreaming From the Waist (1167)
Underture (1233)
They’re All In Love (1364)
Sea and Sand (1366)
The Rock (1386)
Is It In My Head (1397)
The Dirty Jobs (1407)
Slip Kid (1424)
Drowned (1466)
However Much I Booze (1487)
Red Blue and Grey (1575)
Eyesight to the Blind (1588)
Love Ain’t For Keeping (1600)
Amazing Journey / Sparks (1745)
Bell Boy (1751)
Pure and Easy (1838)
I’m One (1977)
Tommy Can You Hear Me (2033)
Imagine a Man (2065)
Dr. Jimmy (2075)
Cut My Hair (2090)
My Wife (2124)
Do You Think It’s Alright (2160)
Go to the Mirror Boy (2219)
Helpless Dancer (2229)
Welcome (2239)
Too Much of Anything (2247)
Sally Simpson (2249)
Long Live Rock (2251)
Miracle Cure (2258)
There’s a Doctor I’ve Found (2267)
Baby Don’t You Do It (2286)
Guitar and Pen (2297)
Odorno (2309)
Smash the Mirror (2319)
You Didn’t Hear It (2328)
Road Runner (2338)
Water (2347)
I Don’t Even Know Myself (2356)
Quadrophenia (2367)
Tatoo (2389)
Time Is Passing (2399)
Love Is Coming Down (2410)
Christmas (2468)
Little Billy (2544)
Glow Girl (2566)
Squeeze Box (2574)
Naked Eye (2583)
1921 (3009)
See Me, Feel Me (4405)
La La Lies (4645)
Had Enough (4846)
Our Love Was (5606)
I Can’t reach You (5615)
Success Story (5619)
Sunrise (5622)
Mary Anne With the Shaky Hand (5630)
Relax (5640)
Young Man (Blues) (5740)
Music Must Change (6168)
Trick of the Light (6203)
Early Morning Cold Taxi (6207)
Shakin’ All Over (6209)
New Song (6731)
The Acid Queen (7192)
A Man Is a Man (7190)
Sister Disco (7366)
Relay (7787)
Henry
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Re: Discussion of best artist poll predictions and prior poll results

Post by Henry »

Solid uptick for the Talking Heads is now anticipated.

1. The Beatles / 1. 1.
2. David Bowie / 2. 2.
3. Radiohead / 3. 4.
4. Bob Dylan / 4. 3.
5. The Rolling Stones / 5. 5.
6. R.E.M. / 7. 7.
7. Stevie Wonder / 6. 8.
8. Led Zeppelin / 9. 10.
9. Bruce Springsteen / 11. 6.
10. Nirvana / 15. 23.
11. Prince / 10. 9.
12. Pink Floyd / 8. 14.
13. The Velvet Underground / 22. 11.
14. The Smiths / 14. 15.
15. U2 / 16. 17.
16. The Beach Boys / 13. 12.
17. Neil Young / 19. 27.
18. The Cure / 24. 19.
19. The Clash / 28. 28.
20. Talking Heads / 32. 29.
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prosecutorgodot
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Re: Discussion of best artist poll predictions and prior poll results

Post by prosecutorgodot »

goth-boys The Cure make it into the top 20, but I just realized I don't know any band members besides Robert Smith.

whereas the rest of the top 20 bands I think I could name all their members (don't put me on the spot tho lol)
Henry
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Re: Discussion of best artist poll predictions and prior poll results

Post by Henry »

Big drops for Springsteen and Led Zeppelin. Neil Young continues his momentum upwards and bounce back for Velvet Underground.

It would be interesting to see how many folks that are older than 55 rate VU over LZ.

Potential move up for Nirvana will be clearer with the next reveal.

1. The Beatles / 1. 1.
2. David Bowie / 2. 2.
3. Radiohead / 3. 4.
4. Bob Dylan / 4. 3.
5. The Rolling Stones / 5. 5.
6. R.E.M. / 7. 7.
7. Stevie Wonder / 6. 8.
8. Nirvana / 15. 23.
9. Prince / 10. 9.
10. Pink Floyd / 8. 14.
11. The Velvet Underground / 22. 11.
12. The Smiths / 14. 15.
13. U2 / 16. 17.
14. The Beach Boys / 13. 12.
15. Neil Young / 19. 27.

My son-in-law's favorite performer is The Cure. I am a fan (The Cure ranks at 158 among my all-time favorites), but I'm not familiar with many of their deep tracks.
slick
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Re: Discussion of best artist poll predictions and prior poll results

Post by slick »

Better late than never, not sure how this would have affected the overall totals but I finally had time to finish up my top artist list.

1 / Nine Inch Nails
2 / Prince
3 / The Cure
4 / Depeche Mode
5 / Jimi Hendrix
6 / Led Zeppelin
7 / CHVRCHES
8 / Bob Marley
9 / The Clash
10 / The Rolling Stones

11 / A Tribe Called Quest
12 / Pearl Jam
13 / Stevie Wonder
14 / Radiohead
15 / Beastie Boys
16 / David Bowie
17 / The Killers
18 / Stone Temple Pilots
19 / Arcade Fire
20 / The Stone Roses
21 / Alice In Chains
22 / Vampire Weekend
23 / The Temptations
24 / Metallica
25 / The Strokes
26 / Catherine Wheel
27 / Blur
28 / Black Sabbath
29 / Fleetwood Mac
30 / Johnny Cash
31 / The Weeknd
32 / Duran Duran
33 / Nirvana
34 / Van Halen
35 / The White Stripes
36 / Bruce Springsteen
37 / The Psychedelic Furs
38 / Placebo
39 / Gorillaz
40 / The Smiths
41 / Otis Redding
42 / Smashing Pumpkins
43 / Ned's Atomic Dustbin
44 / Ray Charles
45 / The National
46 / Lenny Kravitz
47 / Toad the Wet Sprocket
48 / Foo Fighters
49 / Public Enemy

50 / Janelle Monae
51 / The Church
52 / Crowded House
53 / Sam Cooke
54 / Billie Eilish
55 / Red Hot Chili Peppers
56 / Arrested Development
57 / OutKast
58 / Ride
59 / Helmet
60 / Marvin Gaye
61 / Rage Against the Machine
62 / Yeah Yeah Yeahs
63 / Brand New
64 / Leon Bridges
65 / Slipknot
66 / Breaking Benjamin
67 / The Cult
68 / The Replacements
69 / M83
70 / Portishead
71 / My Chemical Romance
72 / Sly & The Family Stone
73 / Aretha Franklin
74 / Suede
75 / New Order
76 / Cage the Elephant
77 / Anderson.Paak
78 / Tears for Fears
79 / Editors
80 / Parliament/Funkadelic
81 / Stabbing Westward
82 / Thrice
83 / Kanye West
84 / Queen
85 / Journey
86 / Raphael Saadiq
87 / Curtis Mayfield
88 / Kitchens of Distinction
89 / Guns 'N Roses
90 / Rise Against
91 / Kendrick Lamar
92 / Oasis
93 / Echo & The Bunnymen
94 / Chris Stapleton
95 / Deftones
96 / Run DMC
97 / Jane's Addiction
98 / The Doors
99 / Band of Horses
100 / Four Tops

101 / Rush
102 / Arctic Monkeys
103 / Def Leppard
104 / Ghost
105 / Janet Jackson
106 / Gin Blossoms
107 / Big Star
108 / Pixies
109 / De La Soul
110 / Rammstein
111 / James Brown
112 / Soundgarden
113 / The Roots
114 / Peter Gabriel
115 / U2
116 / M.I.A.
117 / Volbeat
118 / Spoon
119 / Elvis Costello
120 / Audioslave
121 / Weezer
122 / Beach House
123 / D'Angelo
124 / TV on the Radio
125 / Simple Minds
126 / Blink 182
127 / Jimmy Eat World
128 / Sex Pistols
129 / Death Cab for Cutie
130 / Living Colour
131 / Nina Simone
132 / Sade
133 / The Prodigy
134 / Garbage
135 / Sturgill Simpson
136 / Pink Floyd
137 / Post Malone
138 / The Go-Go's
139 / The Black Crowes
140 / The Shins
141 / Cheap Trick
142 / Midnight Oil
143 / Dinosaur Jr.
144 / Muse
145 / The Spinners
146 / The Cars
147 / White Lies
148 / Sublime
149 / Black Pumas
150 / Robert Plant
151 / Live
152 / MGMT
153 / Mighty Mighty Bosstones
154 / The 1975
155 / Elton John
156 / INXS
157 / Blondie
158 / Kacey Musgraves
159 / The Zombies
160 / Dr. Dre
161 / Stereophonics
162 / Mazzy Star
163 / The Decemberists
164 / Ramones
165 / Robyn
166 / Manic Street Preachers
167 / Tom Petty
168 / Travis Scott
169 / Shinedown
170 / Aerosmith
171 / Pet Shop Boys
172 / Genesis
173 / Keane
174 / Ben Harper
175 / Taylor Swift
176 / Frank Ocean
177 / R.E.M.
178 / T.Rex
179 / St. Vincent
180 / The Police
181 / Talking Heads
182 / The Who
183 / Incubus
184 / Boston
185 / Childish Gambino
186 / The Supremes
187 / N.W.A
188 / Biffy Clyro
189 / Lana Del Rey
190 / Madonna
191 / Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
192 / Grimes
193 / Deep Purple
194 / Green Day
195 / Bob Dylan
196 / Coldplay
197 / Erasure
198 / Ratt
199 / AC/DC
200 / The Beatles
Nick
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Re: Discussion of best artist poll predictions and prior poll results

Post by Nick »

???

1. The Beatles
2. David Bowie
3. Radiohead
4. Bob Dylan
5. The Rolling Stones
6. R.E.M.
7. Prince
8. Pink Floyd
9. The Velvet Underground
10. The Smiths
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prosecutorgodot
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Re: Discussion of best artist poll predictions and prior poll results

Post by prosecutorgodot »

prosecutorgodot wrote: Mon Sep 12, 2022 1:00 am Beatles in 2013: 137.4% pts of 2nd
Beatles in 2016: 142.8% pts of 2nd
Beatles in 2019: 122.5% pts of 2nd

Over/under this time? I'm going to say 117%.
Well it was 108.5%. That's no bigger than any other leap, which would seem to indicate that they're not an immortal #1, which is really awesome to see. My guess is that it will increase back next time though.
Henry
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Re: Discussion of best artist poll predictions and prior poll results

Post by Henry »

Here's my write-up for Stevie Wonder that did not pass BleuPanda's test.

The arc of Stevie Wonder’s career is a marvel. While Wonder does seem like a stage name, I didn’t realize until recently that Wonder’s given name is Stevland Hardaway Judkins / Morris. Wonder was born six weeks premature which, along with the oxygen-rich atmosphere in the hospital incubator, resulted in retinopathy of prematurity, a condition in which the growth of the eyes is aborted and causes the retinas to detach, so he became blind.

In 1961, when aged 11, Wonder sang his own composition, "Lonely Boy", to Ronnie White of the Miracles; White then took Wonder and his mother to an audition at Motown, where CEO Berry Gordy signed Wonder to Motown's Tamla label.

Stevie wrote the music to Smokey Robinson’s hit “The Tears of a Clown.” He also co-wrote and played several instruments on The Spinners’ hit “It’s a Shame.”

Wonder is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with sales of over 100 million records worldwide. He has won 25 Grammy Awards (the most by a solo artist) and one Academy Award (Best Original Song, for the 1984 film The Woman in Red).

Wonder hit his peak starting in 1972 and ran off a string of fabulous albums, including: Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness’ First Finale, and Songs in the Key of Life.

The 1972 song “Superwoman” (from Music of My Mind) featured Wonder’s talents as a composer, vocalist, and playing of keyboards, drums and synthesizer. The song, both in its sound and length, was a change of pace for Wonder, who was trying to establish his own identity outside of the Motown sound. "Superwoman" chronicles the relationship Stevie had with his first wife, Syreeta Wright, a Motown secretary turned singer. The lyric "trying to boss the bull around" references the woman trying to control Stevie who is a Taurus. The song ranks as my 92nd favorite of all time.

Superwoman is combined with the song “Where Were You When I Needed You” which is a reworking of Wonder’s “Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer” from his 1971 album “Where I’m Coming From.”

While Wonder’s collaborations with Paul McCartney (Ebony and Ivory) is quite good, I also enjoy Stevie’s collaboration with Dave Mason on the 1973 song “The Lonely One.”

In 1979, Wonder wrote and co-produced the dance hit "Let's Get Serious", performed by Jermaine Jackson.

Among my favorite songs from the Talking Book album, the following do not appear to be widely appreciated:

You’ve Got It Bad Girl (my 99th favorite of all time),
Blame It On the Sun (395)
I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever) (452)
You and I (510)
Tuesday Heartbreak (541)
Looking For Another Pure Love (785)

Among my favorite songs from the Innervisions album, the following do not appear to be widely appreciated:

Golden Lady (74)
Too High (387)
He’s Misstra Know It All (474)
Visions (578)
All In Love Is Fair (1004)

Among my favorite songs from the Fulfullingness’ First Finale album, the following do not appear to be widely appreciated:

Creepin’ (208)
Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away (750)
Too Shy To Say (939)
Please Don’t Go (941)
Smile Please (977)

Among my favorite songs from the Songs In the Key of Life album, the following do not appear to be widely appreciated:

Another Star (62)
Ngiculela - Es Una Historia - I Am Singing (807)
Ordinary Pain (944)
Henry
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Re: Discussion of best artist poll predictions and prior poll results

Post by Henry »

Not sure what happened to my earlier comment about the poll results that I placed in the poll results thread, so I'll start leaving them here:

1) Great job by BleuPanda with the presentation of the poll. The write-ups were a great idea and very well executed.

2) There seem to be a few lower rated artists who are listed separately, but could be considered the same performer:
a) The Manhattans (833) / Manhattans (2624), and
b) Nina Hagen Band (814) / Nina Hagen (716).
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BleuPanda
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Re: Discussion of best artist poll predictions and prior poll results

Post by BleuPanda »

Henry wrote: Thu Sep 22, 2022 11:30 pm Not sure what happened to my earlier comment about the poll results that I placed in the poll results thread, so I'll start leaving them here:

1) Great job by BleuPanda with the presentation of the poll. The write-ups were a great idea and very well executed.

2) There seem to be a few lower rated artists who are listed separately, but could be considered the same performer:
a) The Manhattans (833) / Manhattans (2624), and
b) Nina Hagen Band (814) / Nina Hagen (716).
One of The Manhattans is a carryover from the previous excel sheet that I simply didn't notice when adding the single vote they received. It looks like 168 artists who previously placed in our top 500 received 0 votes this time, which is itself an interesting statistic (though I may have missed others like The Manhattans - the previous excel file left off 'The' from all the bands...)

There is only a separate listing for Nina Hagen because Schuttelbirne listed a bunch of artists separately.
Gillingham
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Re: Discussion of best artist poll predictions and prior poll results

Post by Gillingham »

prosecutorgodot wrote: Sat Sep 17, 2022 4:26 pm
prosecutorgodot wrote: Mon Sep 12, 2022 1:00 am Beatles in 2013: 137.4% pts of 2nd
Beatles in 2016: 142.8% pts of 2nd
Beatles in 2019: 122.5% pts of 2nd

Over/under this time? I'm going to say 117%.
Well it was 108.5%. That's no bigger than any other leap, which would seem to indicate that they're not an immortal #1, which is really awesome to see. My guess is that it will increase back next time though.
A bit late to notice this, but that's great news!
Definitely looking forward to the day when The Beatles aren't the default number one on this forum (or anywhere else).
Jackson
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Re: Discussion of best artist poll predictions and prior poll results

Post by Jackson »

It's hard for me to see the Beatles ever losing an AMF artist poll! I feel like I'm one of the least Beatlesy fans on here and I still had them in my top 15.
Henry
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Re: Discussion of best artist poll predictions and prior poll results

Post by Henry »

Two caveats:

1) I haven't completed updating my spreadsheets, and
2) I typically have many errors in my data entry.

So if any of the data below is incorrect, please let me know.

Looking at the top 600 in the 2016 poll versus our current poll, I found the following performers have dropped substantially.

Bruce Springsteen: from 6 to 17
Michael Jackson: from 13 to 27
Bee Gees: 57 to 125
Billie Holiday: 90 to 181
Serge Gainsbourg: 98 to 229
Eagles: 110 to 221
Frank Zappa: 112 to 204
Scott Walker: 116 to 234
Whitney Houston: 122 to 237
Jeff Buckley: 140 to 243
Bon Jovi: 143 to 273
Built to Spill: 150 to 312
Mercury Rev: 158 to 333
Tim Buckley: 167 to 1071 (one of the largest drops)
Carole King: 186 to 400
Todd Rundgren: 198 to 479 (this drop is likely to continue as long as Honorio and I appear to be the only ones who vote for Todd)
Moody Blues: 205 to 464
Monkees: 206 to 448
Prefab Sprout: 219 to 559
Eels: 225 to 495
Drake: 227 to 455
Alain Bashung: 229 to 705
Bryan Adams: 254 to 809
Gillian Welch: 256 to 1853
Madlib: 268 to 2477
Steve Reich: 290 to 669
John Cage: 291 to 2643
Mizell Brothers: 292 to 2613
Trashcan Sinatras: 419 to Not Listed (NL)
Juliana Barrwick: 495 to NL
Vanica Doble: 501 to NL
Mary Chapin Carpenter: 535 to NL
Kaki King: 553 to NL
Orbital: 555 to NL
Miguel: 581 to NL
Hanson: 590 to NL

My surmise is that either:
1) key voters from 2016 did not participate in this year's poll, or
2) individual voter ranks for many of these performers dropped dramatically.
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