Top 50 Best Musicians/Bands Since 2000
 

Greetings Music Banter!

Among the many things I do in music, I am a semi-professional music journalist who has started a music review site. Over the course of four months, I conducted a fun and rewarding research project to find who I thought were the best musicians of today's generation. This consisted of me listening to around 200 albums and reading many articles about the backgrounds and overall output of many musicians. I was surprised, to say the least, at the amount of incredible music I found.

I wrote an article called "Top 50 Best Musicians/Bands Since 2000" on my site as a way to share some of today's music that I felt needed to be heard. Based on my subjective discerning of the use of each musician's melody, harmony, and timbre (all essential musical elements), I loosely created a list. This list is not necessarily a hard and fast ranking of who is better than who, but instead a compilation of musicians that can be considered the best of their generation. The article is meant for those who have doubted the quality in this generation of musicians, and also for those who are stuck listening to the same few talent-less hacks over and over again. I have found these writers/readers at Music Banter to be more sophisticated and learned than the average music listener, and so I must say that this isn't really my target audience. I am sharing this here as a simple way of getting my voice out there, as well as a way to get feedback about my article from an intelligent music forum.

If you have time, please read my article, easily found at themusicobserver.com (sorry, I cannot post an actual url here). It explains exactly why I embarked on this project plus my reasoning behind each musician/band that I included.

For brevity's sake, here is my list:

1. Regina Spektor
2. Sufjan Stevens
3. The Decemberists
4. Mumford & Sons
5. Arcade Fire
6. Vampire Weekend
7. Animal Collective
8. Florence and the Machine
9. Alabama Shakes
10. The New Pornographers
11. The Killers
12. MGMT
13. Arctic Monkeys
14. Kendrick Lamar
15. Portugal. the Man
16. Avril Lavigne
17. Cage the Elephant
18. The Strokes
19. Adele
20. M.I.A.
21. LCD Soundsystem
22. Yeah Yeah Yeahs
23. Neon Trees
24. Tame Impala
25. Grouplove
26. Michelle Branch
27. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
28. Titus Andronicus
29. Foster the People
30. Ingrid Michaelson
31. Lady Gaga
32. Fitz and the Tantrums
33. St. Lucia
34. Los Campensinos!
35. Reverend and the Makers
36. J. Cole
37. St. Vincent
38. Of Monsters and Men
39. The Head and the Heart
40. The Naked and Famous
41. Kamasi Washington
42. Jukebox the Ghost
43. Two Door Cinema Club
44. Paramore
45. BADBADNOTGOOD
46. The Lumineers
47. Kelly Clarkson
48. Beirut
49. Young the Giant
50. Janelle Monáe

Once you get to a certain level of musicality, everything becomes very difficult to judge and compare. I am not, by any means, declaring that I am "right" about anything in my article, but I do believe that what I have done is important. Sharing good music among ourselves is the best way for music to survive.

Dude, this is so true.

Lady Gaga? No. Nonononononono.......

Oh, and where is Dolly Parton?

She was a really tough listen. Most everything she put out after 2010 was really low quality. But I had to concede to the fact that she single-handedly overturned the pop genre with fearlessness and, frankly, artistry. I'll admit she's quite a sore thumb sticking out amongst the rest, but some of her early melodies were just too damn catchy for me, and many musicians today can't write a lick to save their life.

Ok. So your list should contain only artists that are relatively unknown.

Some of the ones that I didn't include I think it's still unfair to say they are relatively unknown.

Pretty much none of what is on this list is considered unknown. This guy must work for Billboard.

<3

I guess I did contradict myself there a bit. "Deserve attention" may have not been the best choice of words. My goal was not to find musicians that were unknown are share them, but rather to show what I believe is the best this generation has had to offer so far. I originally thought those would mostly include unknowns. In fact, I'm rather shocked at the amount of high-profile musicians I featured. I think those inclusions also provide nice and easy comparison points to others that may not be more well known.

Haha I wish I worked for a larger music review site, but as of now I am independent. Again, my goal was not to share unknown musicians. To readers on Music Banter, of course most of these musicians are all known to you. This article's true audience is those that are either stuck in the past or stuck with the Justin Bieber's and Taylor Swift's of today because they don't know any better. That being said, I hope I have done some good by sharing my project of this generation's good music with others.

1. Kylesa
2. White Suns
3. Gridlink
4. Altar of Plagues
5. Oathbreaker
6. Abyssal
7. Ratking
8. Joan of Arc
9. Full of Hell
10. Flagitious Idiosyncracy in the Dilapidation
11. Cobalt
12. Dope Body
13. Survival Knife
14. Marching Church
15. Iceage
16. White Lung
17. Ulcerate
18. Guerilla Toss
19. The Octopus Project
20. Black Moth Super Rainbow
21. Dephosphorous
22. Teitanblood
23. Raspberry Bulbs
24. Ash Pool
25. Peste Noire
26. Akitsa
27. Cut Hands
28. Fake Drugs
29. Monkey Plot
30. High Wolf
31. Made out of Babies
32. Pocahaunted
33. Hop Along
34. Panopticon
35. Ash Borer
36. Fell Voices
37. Spectral Lore
38. Crows An Wra
39. Doomsday Student
40. F.E. Denning
41. Damien Dubrovnik
42. Redflesh
43. Indian
44. Krallice
45. Midnight Odyssey
46. Kowloon Walled City
47. Wreck and Reference
48. RVIVR
49. Young and in the Way
50. Giant Squid

Well I tried my best

Pretty ****ing solid list though.

If you think Lady Gaga falls under either, go to Bandcamp.com

If you would like some help making a new one full of artists that top the music buff's charts instead of the pop charts, why don't we help compile one? I'd hate to see TMO go down the same, horrid route as Rolling Stone, the worst of the worst.

Personally, you were more than correct to inclue Arcade Fire, but not under Mumford. Also, I agree with the inclusion of Sufjan.

This is cute and all, but what exactly gives us the right to assume the list is awful. And to that same point, why should we make a different list when the OP has a pretty solid list, although the point got across a bit differently than expected.

A: you should start using question marks. B: Can you really put Mumford, Gaga, and Avril on the same pedestal as LCD, Sufjan, Arcade Fire, and Tame Impala? C: shouldn't a music review website compile a list based more on the menber's opinion rather than the creator? I mean, that list would practically be official, meaning user opinions are unnecessary. D: If he's gonna post a list, he's opening himself up to criticism. E: I never used the word "awful." I just found a couple things that bug me.

I dunno. I don't really know why I replied tbh.

Since You insisted, no.

If the guy who made the list thinks so, yes.

We're not the members on his site. Make your own list if it bothers you that much.

Yes but yours sucked

Good for you.

Awful, awful, awful, awful, awful

This is my kinda thread. I only listen to records from the year 2000 to now, I'm prepping myself for old age when this music will matter most.

Arcade Fire
The xx
Arctic Monkeys
At The Drive-In (Relationship Of Command)
The National
Sufjan Stevens
Beach House
Cloud Nothings
The Avalanches
MF Doom
The Flaming Lips (Everything including and after The Soft Bulletin)
My Morning Jacket (Primarily Z & Live At Okonokos)
Kanye West
Camera Obscura
The Good Life
Royal Headache
Deafheaven
Amy Winehouse
Kings Of Leon
Immortal Technique
Spoon
Iceage
The Shins
Kendrick
Death Grips
Andrew Jackson Jihad
The White Stripes (White Blood Cells & Elephant)
Ted Leo
Jenny Lewis
St. Vincent
Ought
The Libertines
Bright Eyes
Green Day (American Idiot & 21st Century Breakdown)
Perfume Genius
The Mars Volta
The Growlers
Flying Lotus
Wilco (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot alone puts Wilco on this list)
Frank Ocean
Desaparecidos
The Gaslight Anthem
The Go! Team
J Dilla
The Streets
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (2000's introspective Nick Cave)
Sunset Rubdown
BadBadNotGood
LCD Soundsytem
TV On The Radio
Titus Andronicus
Radiohead
Modest Mouse
Neko Case
The Microphones
Fiona Apple
D'Angelo
Crystal Castles
Bloc Party
The Antlers

Just at a glance Modest Mouse, Radiohead and Fiona Apple were recording since the 90s. Nick Cave started out in the 70s. The OPs is talking about bands/artist since 2000.

So those bands don't release anything past 2000?

.

Also, just to elaborate Modest Mouse released their best album, The Moon & Antartica, in 2000. Fiona Apple released her best record in the 2000's. & also I put a parenthesis after Nick Cave that specifically said just his 2000's introspective records.

Oh yes and Radiohead released In Rainbows in 2007.

The title reads "Top 50 Best Musicians/Bands Since 2000" not "albums." So I took it as the bands that formed after 2000, or at least released a debut album in 2000 if their band formed earlier.

Debut is different than an album?

Man this makes me feel like a snob. I'd scoff and roll my eyes of most of that list. Mondo Bungle's list is more like it ;D
I mean, Paramore, Florence and the Machine, Adele...? Really? Agh... never mind! I'm gonna shut up and leave it alone.

No Robert Randolph and the Family Band?

Yes, the main criteria for my article was to feature musicians who have started their careers on or after the year 2000, as a way to display what today's true generation of music has brought. I'm certainly not opposed to this thread taking slightly different directions, though.

Thank you for your concerns. Yes, I would hate to go down the road that many large review sites had of becoming more about propaganda and less about the music. I would, however, like to question your seemingly lack of appreciation of certain genres to the point that you deem all of its artists less worthy than those of other genres. Trust me, I despise much of today's pop music just as much as the next guy, but it does have its merits and can be done right. Every genre of music can be said to have merit (although a strong case can be made against country). Of course, I'm not telling you to like anything that you simply can't get into. As a student of the academic music world for years, though, I will say that opening myself up and dropping pretenses about certain genres did a world of good for me as a listener and composer. Don't take my word as law, this is simply a discussion about what this generation of music has brought us.

I neverbsaid I hated modern pop. In fact, given her popularity, Carly Rae Jespen would be a great choice. Some total teen pop HATERS I know called Emotion the best album of the year, so that's damn impressive. Plus, I liked Kiss. I'm not saying leave out modern pop in general. I'm just saying not Lady Gaga, Beaver Boy (not on your list, but just saying), and others. As far as a combo of quality and popularity goes, Adele's another solid choice of yours. Same with Winehouse. Teen pop's getting a little better, and I honestly think Jespen's one of the best of her scene.

Gotcha. I agree that Jespen is definitely one of the better ones of her contemporaries. Her melodic intrigue is far greater than most. I'd like to see her take more musical risks in the future, but she is one to listen to for sure. I'm glad that you like my inclusion of Adele. Speaking of the combo of quality and popularity, I think the band that has the best ratio of that in this generation is Arcade Fire. Incredible music with an incredible following.

You kidding? They're at the top of my new millenium list no doubt. Funeral is the best album of the 2000's.

Is this artist that released music in 00-16 or artist that started in 00-16 I'm thinking the later right

Top 10 for sure, I'd go so far to say Neon Bible is top 3 of the 2000's.

Neon Bible over Funeral? I'm sorry, but I have yet to see a pig with wings.

Neon Bible > Funeral > Reflektor > The Suburbs

Funeral>The Suburbs>Reflektor>Neon Bible. No bad albums at all, but still.

I look at your website, and read some articles. I hope you don't mind if I ask a few questions:

Did you study music composition as a musician or as a music critic?

Did you listen to every album release by each musician/band in your top 50?

What genre would you say you tend to listen to more? (on your own, not something related to your blog, or what you had to listen to in college.)

What do you think is the best way to share one's taste in music, or write reviews: blog, YT vlog, music forum, facebook, or (other)?

I saw you use four categories to review music. Have you read "What to Listen for in Music, by Aaron Copland" what do you think of it?

The Suburbs is weak. Doesn't hold up to their first two and Reflektor. But then again nothing really holds up against Neon Bible and Funeral.