No solo artists.

Radiohead
The Velvet Underground
The Doors
Led Zeppelin
The Smiths
Iggy Pop and The Stooges
Sonic Youth
Pink Floyd
Cream
Pixies

That is in vague order.

Any thread about Top 10 Bands without bitching is doomed....no wait, let's rewrite that:

Any thread about Top 10 Bands without bitching is a good day for everyone.

DVC, damn good list and a nice topic. I'll post my list later today.

1.) Beatles
2.) Led Zeppelin
3.) Rolling Stones
4.) The Temptations
5.) AC/DC
6.) Queen
7.) Lynyrd Skynyrd
8.) Black Sabbath
9.) The Grateful Dead
10.) Metallica

Honorable mention to The Who, the Eagles, Cream, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Steppenwolf, Wings, YES, Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, U2 and Bob Marley & the Wailers.

Pink Floyd
The Beatles
Led Zeppelin
The Velvet Underground
Black Sabbath
The Doors

Off the top of my head. A more solidified list will come later when I think about it more.

Speaking of which, didn't we do a 100 best list fairly recently? I can't seem to find it.

Black Sabbath
Pink Floyd
Led Zeppelin
Lynyrd Skynyrd
The Eagles
The Doors
The Temptations
Scorpions
Nirvana
Pearl Jam

The Beatles
Nirvana
The Rolling Stones
U2
Pearl Jam
Foo Fighters
Led Zeppelin
Green Day
AC/DC
Guns 'N Roses

PINK FLOYD - Arguably one of the pivotal influential rock bands of the 1970s, they had an incredible streak of albums that was massively popular with the public from DARK SIDE OF THE MOON to THE WALL. Personal Favorite: "Hey You"

QUEEN - Yes, incredibly over the top, silly, and proud of it. At their best, they are the face definition what many would call "Arena Rock" now, with songs created to involve the zombie crowds into the show. Quite arguably one of the best, if not the, live concert shows of all time. Personal Favorite: "Killer Queen" or "Radio GaGa" (Tie)

NIRVANA - Its quite sad how Kurt Cobain's legacy is either that he blew his brains out(or was murdered, whatever you believe), that his wife was a joke, or that his group was the face of "grunge rock" of the early 1990s. Personal Favorite: "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

ROLLING STONES - We laugh at their elderly stages of life, but truely one of the greatest, or at least most important, acts in rock history. Immensely bitter rivals with the Beatles in the 60s, until the meltdown of the Fab Four allowed for Jagger, Richards and gang to self-tour as "Greatest Rock Band of All Time". Personal Favorite: "Paint it Black"

THE BEATLES - Their popularity in the 1960s is one that for those that didn't exist at the time, we fail to comprehend their success (Hell, their singles held the Top 5 spots on the Billboard charts at one point). Revolutionary innovations brought by the Fab Four are still felt in Rock today. Lennon and McCarthy are probably the best tag team of creative forces on tracks we know of. Though to exclude Harrison is a crime itself. Personal Favorite: "All You Need is Love"

The rest for later.

The Beatles-Many reasons
Led Zeppelin-Owned the Seventies, Timeless
The Who-Legend of Rock, Should have retired and stayed
The Clash- the Only Band that Mattered
Bruce Springteen and the E Street Band- The Greatest Show on Earth
The Rolling Stones- The Gods of Rock, Almost as old as God
The Replacements-The Greatest Band you never heard of.
The Talking Heads-Intelectual beats and attitude
REM-Tried to Keep the 80's cool almost did
U2- Not a fan, but great staying power

A very opinionated list

The Beatles
Led Zeppelin
The Rat Pack
Depeche Mode
Radiohead
Garbage
The Rolling Stones
Smashing Pumpkins
Outkast
Sublime

What else would it be?

Well, like I said in the Solo Artists thread, there's no way I could even defend my list as being a list of the best, they're just my favorites. Like I obviously know Garbage is not one of the top 10 bands of all time, I've just heard much more of their music than many many other groups, and so I consider them better, in my mind at least.

Why not?

I don't know. Ask mostly anybody on this board, and I'll bet they either don't know who they are or they're not a fan. I consider that a testament to why I feel the way I do.

Why do you care what other people think about YOUR taste?

Hagen, be a man. Don't fucking worry if people hate your opinions or not. Trust me, my trained-arrogance was well-made from disregarding people attacking my viewpoints.

"I don't know. Ask mostly anybody on this board, and I'll bet they either don't know who they are or they're not a fan. I consider that a testament to why I feel the way I do."

With such a hollow pretense of an argument, say that to Daigo about THE REPLACEMENTS(not a fan of them myself, but I do understand why many would put them on their lists)? C'mon, lets see ya do it champ.

I just feel like widespread popularity and standing the test of time are two factors that should be considered when making a list such as this, at least to SOME extent.

Also, I could never really be comfortable in having supreme confidence in my choices unless I had already fully experimented with all of your choices. You don't pick an apple from the tree until you've looked at all the others first.

what "your choices"? Me or yours?

Besides, with your "apple" argument, why didn't you wait to be a film critic until you've seen at least the "essentials"? from America, France, Italy, Britain, Japan, etc.?

Being a critic is one that is about evolution. Hell, I remember reading a great essay where Ebert admitted giving only *** stars out of 4 for THE GOOD, THE BAD, & THE UGLY, which decades later he realized in hindsight that its a masterpiece.

I mean, I absolutely disagreed with your mere dismissal of Gilliam's TWELVE MONKEYS, when in fact its probably one of the few stylish and successfully executed "pure" science fiction pictures from Hollywood in the last few years. I mean "pure" when sci-fi isn't used simply for some fucking action movie or whatever. However, I respected your opinion. Maybe someday when you've seen truely the best of science fiction cinema, especially from the commercial zone of Hollywood, maybe you'll realize it, but I won't force you, for it violates free will, an essential core value of individualism.

You seriously think I have QUEEN as one of the ten best bands I've ever heard? Of course not. Please! However, they are among my personal top ten favorite. Big difference.

As for your anger at those that pick Tupac or whatever choices that obviously piss you off, well let those people who make such "shallow" choices flame themselves. Trust me, the idiots who champion Michael Bay do enough disrespect on their own in defending that hack.

glad to see the Pixies in the first post. I don't know about the other 9, but the Pixies have GOT to to be there!

I dunno about MUST, but ya Pixies are cool.

Hey DJ, are Beatles still essential?

Not in order by any means.

Metal Church
Overkill
Nightwish
Judas Priest
Iron Maiden
Iced Earth
Megadeth
Metallica(early Metallica, late Metallica sucks especially St. Anger version)
Sonata Arctica
Helloween


Just missed top 10, Kiss, Motley Crue, AC/DC

U2
Rolling Stones
Beatles
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
CCR
Aerosmith
Led Zepplin
Beach Boys
Guns-N-Roses
Dire Straits

BUMPER

Beatles
Oasis
Rolling Stones
Kinks
Beach Boys
Eagles
The Who
Queen
Coldplay
The Clash

In no order:

-The Beatles
-Queen
-Aerosmith
-Guns N Roses
-Dave Matthews Band
-Weezer
-Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
-Beastie Boys
-Foo Fighters
-Green Day

u2
bruce springsteen and the e street band
matchbox twenty
bon jovi
goo goo dolls
the wallflowers
rem
dave matthews band
the rolling stones
pearl jam

Nirvana
Alice in Chains
Pink Floyd
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Led Zeppelin
Metallica
Radiohead
The Cure
Black Sabbath
Modest Mouse

Rage Against the Machine
Unearth
The Toasters
Muse
Led Zeppelin
Rancid
Common Rider
Converge
Rolling Stones
The Doors

1. Sonic Youth
2. The Doors
3. The Velvet Underground
4. Minutemen
5. Talking Heads
6. Iggy Pop and The Stooges
7. Radiohead
8. Funkadelic
9. Bad Brains
10. The Jimi Hendrix Experience

I can't say I listen to many bands. That's not a conscious decision or anything, though perhaps the likelihood that many bands form what sounds like the same kind of ordinary music has something to do with it, it's just I've never really listened to any extensively.

Besides Sigur Rós. They're probably the only band I've actively given time to, across four albums.

I still haven't heard The Bends and Pablo Honey, so I'd feel a fraud calling myself a Radiohead fan, even though I love their music.

Others which I like but never bring myself to deeper, more definitive exploration are Neutral Milk Hotel, Múm, Mogwai, Popol Vuh, and St. Germain.