Who Had The Best Overall Music Career?
 

Besides The Beatles of course..Who had the best career? as far as hits/selling albums/chart positions/making creative and innovating music/influencing many others/ had the most consistency & never stopped released great work..

There's a few in my head that had an perfect or almost perfect career :)
Who comes to mind when you think of a short lasting/long lasting career?(Great from Debut to Last Album)

The Ramones

though a lot of people may dispute that, seeing that they essentially put out the same album for 20 years, with different production values

If that's the criteria, can we just add a few years and count AC/DC?

For me, John Fahey had a pretty much perfect 'career'.

Buuuuut - not many number 1 hits :(

Yeah, John Fahey.

you're right to a certain extent but you forgot about "hits/selling albums/chart position?

i don't think they ever had any hits

nor did any of their albums chart particularly well

they were seminal in the pop-punk sub-genre though

i mean crossover artist :) they didn't get any recognition til 20/30 years after.

KORN.... 20 years and still going strong :thumb:

hmmm even they slipped up :/ but their last album was a fusion of metal and dubstep that's pretty innovative :)

what do u mean slipped up ???? like Drug use ?????

But yeah they have lost 2 orginal members but there are aloootttttt of bands that have lost orginal members

but i always find it special when a band can last for more then 15 years with all the orginal members

As you said they lost two major key factors of the band..
their sound changed and well it took some time to get used to it.
"untitled" album was horrible, wouldn't you agree?

no way Untitled i loved it it was like Artsy korn i got what they were doing they had finally established themselfs in the "Alt Rock world" and pretty much shed all the NU metal sound by that point But like KOrn is there ever changing ..i seriously think by the end of it they will pretty much cover every genre of music Lol

Radiohead of course. Not just because I'm a fanboy, but because they managed to become famous and more famous, after OKC they got sick of it, started making somethign completely different and more inaccessible and got even more famous somehow. Not to mention the In Rainbows pay-what-you-want-action that somehow made them more money then they would've had when they signed for a major label. Plus, each of their albums is unique in a sense so you can say that they didn't do it like some artists do. (Get famous, repeat your trick over and over again and see the wave of money coming at you.)

Paul McCartney?

more good than bad

In terms of longevity Hawkwind have been going for almost FIFTY YEARS now and though their lineup has changed, it's not relatively that much compared to other bands who have only lasted half that time, plus founder Dave Brock is STILL with them (someone PLEASE vote in my poll for their new album!) :)

But as far as overall effect on the music industry/generations go I think I'd have to vote for The Boss. Springsteen has made a huge impression over the years, not only on music but (somewhat peripherally I grant) on politics and even elections. His music speaks for the people, to the people, of the people, and as for hit singles, well...

I think Springsteen fulfils most of the criteria mentioned.

Neil Young is a strong contender for this type of thing.

R.E.M.!

All their albums are AWESOME! The only one that some could refute is Around the Sun.

Rush has been around for over 4 decades, sold over 40 million albums worldwide, and it's been the same 3 guys for the last 38 years. I also can't think of a single I-IV-V connect the dot rock single ever released from their camp either.

I have to agree with you in the words of dave mathews (regarding radiohead)
Every time I buy a Radiohead album, I have a moment where I say to myself, "Maybe this is the one that will suck." But it never does. I wonder if it's even possible for them to be bad on record.

Anyways it's like everything they do commerically,critically is perfect. :)
for some reason it took me forever to get into their music now i love it sooooo much!

i for one quite like "Around the Sun"

The Fall. End the thread.

Short Term Award:
Sex Pistols -

One great album with no Second Album aftertaste that's still noted as both a mark of it's time and something one has to hear.

FOUR singles that defined an era and made the Top 10 in The UK and one Debut single that peeped in The 40 that may not have made it but still is essential listening.

One year of greatness and controversy. Two years of WTF and "What Happened?" that's still talked about and wrote about.

John Lydon - One great solo career that's still has the wit and the temper (even if some of the music post-first three PiL albums is on and off the greatness scale). His Autobiography is pretty damn good, too.

A messed up tour of The US that showed through the DOA Documentary.

Other solo careers that can get the gig on that name value alone. Once again, one influential main gig with one great album.

Sid Vicious - One member who's passed away but still talked about and has a very influential look and hair style. Punk's James Dean?

One great soundtrack album which had the best of said passed away member's best performances all wrapped up in one classic four minute trashing of "My Way." (OK, his version of "C'mon Everybody" is class as well).

One film with a messed up Production history that had one of Exploitation's Kings a part of the story (Russ Meyer) and the real start of the career of the one who finally got to Direct it (Julian Temple). Throw in a just as messed up Soundtrack (which I still love to this day)

One manager who's filled with ideas, and I'm sure plus other things to some.

A lot of Swindles on the record industry.

A reunion that showed that many of the New Breed of Punks were lacking something (good tunes, sharp witty lyrics...)



And, once again, all with one studio album, one film, one classic Documentary that's still essential, a few compilations, an Exploitative release of interviews that through time has proven an interesting listen (Some Product), and some classic singles sides!


Although I'm one for longevity, I have to say that at least they knew when to stop as Sex Pistols when they already made a mark with music we still talk about.

True, some recent events sense The Late 90's Reunion (the Perfume, for example) have been dodgy, but then again most reunions are. They still have a great complete music and DVD collection, and we always go back to that.

Long Term Career Award:
The Rolling Stones

They still have The Human Riff. That (and a whole bunch of classic recordings from the 60's to about Tattoo You) plus winning when they had to come up with an album that proved that they can meet up with the Punk challenge (Some Girls) and even proving a good show as a Stadium act. Keith is still the soul of The Stones.

Plus, with Mick Jagger's performance in Performance, the legend that is Brian Jones, and some of the most influential songs of all time as well as a classic image, I'm sure to this day they are the band most want to be like.

They influenced every genre :) they perfected everything from blues to country and inspired so many other bands. so i agree with you..
let's just put it like this who's a bigger frontman than Mick Jagger? (freddie mercury?)

I think The Doors are one of the most consistant american rock bands. Yet, I fail to see one "bad" album in Radioheads discography.

With a Jagger influence, it's easy to get that attitude, especially when you have some musicians that get that basic killer instinct in the music. His 60's and 70's saw him with a classic frontman attitude that many singers were inspired by for a long time. I think the Performance/"Jumping Jack Flash" era is certainly the most influential, although the Early 70's/Exile Jagger is certainly another classic era.

they had four albums that were flops :/ ..(other voices,full circle,an american prayer) "waiting for the sun" was half great and half horrible..

My favorite era is between beggars banquet - stick fingers :)
it sucked for me that they stopped the psychedelic genre :/ i really think it wasn't as bad as people make it seem i mean "dandelion" is definitely one of the best psychedelic songs of all time.

None of you futher muckers have said David Bowie? Why?
No one artist has constantly adapted to change in the music scenes to remain relevant as much as Bowie, doing it all in his stride.

are you serious? idk where to start..we can speak on chart positions or how he fell off in the 80's/90's ..

Yup, chart positions are definitely a measure of how good a record is.

Bowie certainly ranks up there, and he is a legend, but I felt that when it came to The Mid-80's, Tin Machine, and a good amount of his 90's music, he slightly slipped. Still, when it comes to returning to form and still adapting to changes, as well as dealing with the business side of things (especially in his parting ways with MainMan) he's a clear winner in that. Also, in viewing his entire career, he had quite a slow start as the world rejected his Deram recordings until he became Ziggy and his Early 70's saw him trying out things that still did not seriously fit perfectly despite having some wonderful songs. It was finding the right image and taking it from there, especially with excellent musicians helping out.

To me most of his appeal is certainly that of an artist in a great world of his own, more Artistic than Street Level. He helped pioneer or popularize a lot - Music Promotion (Videos), Glam, Punk (Ziggy's comparatively short hair in the era of Boogie), androgynous images, the brief but still stylish New Romantics (The Thin White Duke era), Ambient (Low and 'Heroes'), Synths in music, Gothic (Ziggy's influence on the early days of that), and on and on.

Still, when it came to the final effect, it's more of a great actor who got caught up in music instead who knows how to whip up classic songs and concepts. He's a great singer and a brilliant showman who learned by trial and error while not worrying if he ever made another mistake.

Still, I believe that a some of Bowie's style was certainly sparked by observing a certain "Performance" by one Mick Jagger, and that's a serious compliment to both Jagger's only great film (any other film so far has been pretty weak...must be a Deal with the Devil in there, somewhere...ha ha) and Bowie's stage presence and music. Remember, "The only performance that makes it, that makes it all the way, is the one that achieves madness!" are the words to think about.

By throwing in a lot of artistic influences, he succeeded.

I'm convinced that those were words Bowie learned from as he was exiting his "laughing Gnome" stage.
Throw in some influence of The Velvet Underground and The Stooges, and one has a small part of what went into what made his style great.

Bingo.

there are great songs that were singles that didnt chart well but there are more great songs that are classics that charted well..unfortunately both doesnt go with bowie.

Bowie's Man of Words-Man of Music/Man Who Sold the World era was a time of fine songs that seriously missed the charts with only one big hit in there. In fact, I'm sure many have marked him as a one hit wonder with "Space Oddity" for a long time before Ziggy played guitar. "Starman" was the song that suggested that he was going to be around for a while, although Hunky Dory was a cult hit in it's original Pre-Ziggy run.

the first album i checked out by bowie was hunky dory and well i didn't see the big deal :/ it bugged me because everybody else did! :[

Some of the songs were not that great, but it was the one that had "Changes," "Queen Bitch," "Oh! You Pretty Things," and "Life On Mars." Leading up to what happened next. In a way, those four songs were the ones that set the scene.

That cover, though, was not one of the better ones.

i actually liked that cover :) lol..the only bowie album that i could actually listen through the whole way were young americans & station to station :D

I think Led Zeppelin had a pretty flawless career until Mr Bonham sadly passed. But hey there reunion was amazing and proved they still have it even if Plant can't quite hit the high notes anymore, but damn the guy can still out-sing most singers.

do you think Michael Jackson is on this list? it seems to me that when he was on top he was as equal as the Beatles, or maybe even surpassed them