Jmunney's Blog

Now that I have stated my word on the greatest classic rock singers (https://jmunney.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/the-greatest-classic-rock-singers-of-all-time/, https://jmunney.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/the-20-greatest-classic-rock-singers-according-to-jmunney/), I now turn my attention to the 20 greatest modern rock singers.

Here are my criteria for eligibility:
1. The singer must be primarily a rock artist. Some R&B and pop singers incorporate rock elements into their music or collaborate with rock artists, but that does not make them rock artists themselves.
2. The singer must have started his or her career no earlier than 1990 (or thereabouts).
3. The singer must be working on new material or have released new material within the last five years.

If warranted, exceptions may have been made to the last two criteria.

1. Matthew Bellamy
With a voice that loops wondrously through the clouds, Bellamy is the modern rock analogue to Freddie Mercury – the type of rock singer who could have succeeded in just about any musical field.
Song That Really Shows Off His Chops: All of Them (but “Knights of Cydonia” especially)

2. Hayley Williams
Maybe the fact that such a tiny girl can have such a powerful voice makes her seem better than she is, except that that does not really make any sense.
Song That Really Shows Off Her Chops: “The Only Exception”

3. Florence Welch
I have only ever heard two songs by Florence + the Machine, but two is enough to know that Florence Welch has not had to do much to become a vocal force to be reckoned with. Her VMA performance proved that she is one of those rare commodities who sound just as good, if not better, live.
Song That Really Shows Off Her Chops: “Heavy in Your Arms”

4. Brian Aubert
The Silversun Pickups frontman sounds like a woman, except that no woman I know sounds like that. He has a raspy quality, except that it is actually a slightly different vocal quality that is much more difficult to pull off. The most mysterious voice in modern rock.
Song That Really Shows Off His Chops: “Lazy Eye”

5. Andrew Stockdale
There is a rich clearness to this Wolfmother’s voice that he somehow manages to maintain over the course of an entire album. He belts out every note, even those that aren’t particularly loud.
Song That Really Shows Off His Chops: “Woman”

6. Chris Cornell
The Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman has screamed incessantly over a 20-plus year career, but his voice does not show any signs of wear and tear. He generally sounds like he is in pain, a pain befitting rock music.
Song That Really Shows Off His Chops: “Bring Em Back Alive”

7. Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder does not sound anything like the traditional idea of a great singer, but there should be no doubt about his greatness. That deep, gravelly tone is by no means easy to pull off (as well as he pulls it off).
Song That Really Shows Off His Chops: “Even Flow”

8. Jack White
I can’t tell if Jack White gets a lot out of a voice that is not that technically great or if he does in fact have a naturally good singing voice. This is typified by the all over the place “Icky Thump,” and, in contrast, the pretty and earnest “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground.”
Song That Really Shows Off His Chops: “Icky Thump”

9. Andrew VanWyngarden
You can generally only go so far with a falsetto (unless you’re Frankie Valli), and for MGMT’s VanWyngarden, it is only a secret weapon, used to powerful effect on “Electric Feel.” Usually, he goes for a quality fueled by a desperation to express his feelings just right.
Song That Really Shows Off His Chops: “Electric Feel”

10. Claudio Sanchez
Claudio is the modern analogue to Geddy Lee in that his voice is patently idiosyncratic – impossible to be pulled off by anyone else. Geddy is Canadian. Maybe Claudio’s deal has something to do with his Spanish background.
Song That Really Shows Off His Chops: “A Favor House Atlantic”

11. Pelle Almqvist
The Hives’ singer has apparently taken on the task of seeing how many times he can sing, “Yeah!” in his career. He is the appropriate candidate for such a job, as he sure knows how to belt them.
Song That Really Shows Off His Chops: “Tick Tick Boom”

12. Dave Grohl
The nineties rock music scene was filled with a bunch of throwaway, cookie-cutter singers. With Dave Grohl and his powerful and controlled emoting, the Foo Fighters stood out for a reason.
Song That Really Shows Off His Chops: “Best of You”

13. Corey Glover
Living Colour’s signature song, “Cult of Personality,” was released in 1988, but there is no way that I would classify it as any part of the eighties. LC’s release of their debut, Vivid, was a preview of modern rock, and with a voice that recalled great public orators, Corey Glover made sure everyone heard about that preview.
Song That Really Shows Off His Chops: “Cult of Personality”

14. Caleb Followill
The essences of masculinity and weariness are combined beautifully in the voice of the lead King of Leon. He out-Segers Seger.
Song That Really Shows Off His Chops: “Closer”

15. Bono
In fairness to everyone else, I only considered Bono’s oeuvre from 1990 onward. So, plenty of classics were still included in the consideration, such as the steady “One,” the majestic “Beautiful Day,” and the cheeky “Vertigo.”
Song That Really Shows Off His Chops: “Beautiful Day”

16. Emily Haines
Breaking the mold of rock singers who establish their rock bona fides by belting out a few notes every song, Metric’s Haines instead employs intricate rhythms and soft (but strong) lilting to pull off the sense of a girl at (interesting) odds with the harder edge of her group’s instrumentation.
Song That Really Shows Off Her Chops: “Gold Guns Girls”

17. Chester Bennington
Linkin Park are generally ridiculous with their over the top numbers. But you do need a talented singer if you are going to pull that ridiculousness off again and again, and Chester Bennington has answered that over the top call time and again.
Song That Really Shows Off His Chops: “New Divide”

18. Dan Auerbach
Keeping rock close to its blues roots, the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach’s voice is the full emotional spectrum in audio form. He has a way with turning a phrase or two towards an unexpected melody, and vice versa.
Song That Really Shows Off His Chops: “Tighten Up”

19. Cee-Lo Green
Remember what I said about only being able to go so far with falsettos? Well, you can go far with one if you sound as natural with it as Cee-Lo does.
Song That Really Shows Off His Chops: “Crazy”

20. Karen O
Armed with a screech that should be annoying, Karen O somehow manages to make it cute. Overall, there’s a lot of personality to her voice, something rock singers often neglect.
Song That Really Shows Off Her Chops: “Zero”

Honorable Mentions:

Rob Thomas
One of his biggest hits was titled “Smooth.” How appropriate.
What Kept Him Off: The competition. He was 21st (maybe).

Björk
Björk’s music is alternative, and alternative is generally alternative to rock, so why not consider her rock? (The voice is undoubtedly a dandy.)
What Kept Her Off: It isn’t quite rock and actually may be closer to electro.

Kate Nash
She has a delightfully silly edge and is refreshingly odd and may have actually been the best (though least regarded) of the recent influx of British chanteuses (Amy Winehouse, Duffy, Adelle, Natasha Bedingfield).
What Kept Her Off: Not quite hard, not quite rockin’, she is too much just a singer instead of the singer in a rock ‘n’ roll band.

Tom Chaplin
“Somewhere Only We Know” and “Is It Any Wonder?” are uplifting things of beauty.
What Kept Him Off: Lack of any more notable songs.

Brandon Flowers
He has an endearingly quirky earnestness – something every rock era needs.
What Kept Him Off: He does not make his songs distinguishable from each other or himself distinguishable from the rest of rock.

I watched VH1’s countdown of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time last week, and of course I have some things to say about it.  First off, here’s the list:

1. The Beatles 2. Michael Jackson 3. Led Zeppelin 4. Rolling Stones 5. Bob Dylan 6. Jimi Hendrix 7. Prince 8. Elvis Presley 9. James Brown 10. Stevie Wonder 11. Bob Marley 12. David Bowie 13. The Who 14. Nirvana 15. The Beach Boys 16. Madonna 17. Queen 18. Pink Floyd 19. U2 20. Marvin Gaye 21. Bruce Springsteen 22. The Clash 23. AC/DC 24. The Velvet Underground 25. Chuck Berry 26. Neil Young 27. Aretha Franklin 28. Elton John 29. Radiohead 30. Aerosmith 31. John Lennon 32. Black Sabbath 33. Guns N’ Roses 34. Tina Turner 35. Johnny Cash 36. Paul McCartney 37. Fleetwood Mac 38. Sly & The Family Stone 39. The Kinks 40. The Police 41. Van Halen 42. Metallica 43. Ray Charles 44. Joni Mitchell 45. Al Green 46. Ramones 47. Jay-Z 48. Rage Against the Machine 49. Parliament-Funkadelic 50. Sade 51. Billy Joel 52. Beyoncé 53. Little Richard 54. Public Enemy 55. Peter Gabriel 56. KISS 57. Iggy & the Stooges 58. Cheap Trick 59. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers 60. Whitney Houston 61. Cream 62. Genesis 63. Notorious B.I.G. 64. Talking Heads 65. The Doors 66. Justin Timberlake 67. Coldplay 68. Otis Redding 69. Tupac Shakur 70. Def Leppard 71. R.E.M. 72. Janis Joplin 73. Van Morrison 74. The Cure 75. Rush 76. Run-DMC 77. Lynyrd Skynyrd 78. Judas Priest 79. Eminem 80. Mary J. Blige 81. ABBA 82. Steely Dan 83. Earth Wind and Fire 84. Curtis Mayfield 85. The Band 86. N.W.A. 87. George Michael 88. Bee Gees 89. Beastie Boys 90. Elvis Costello 91. Green Day 92. LL Cool J 93. Pearl Jam 94. Mariah Carey 95. OutKast 96. Journey 97. Pretenders 98. Depeche Mode 99. Hall & Oates 100. Alicia Keys

Here are the straight dope details from VH1: “The list was determined by a poll of musicians and music experts. Over 200 artists voted including Alicia Keys, Diddy, Ozzy Osbourne and Carrie Underwood, as well as members of U2, the Police, Metallica and Aerosmith.”  Here is the first problem I have with the countdown: the voting was done primarily by artists.  I am generally in favor of lists like this one being determined by critics rather than artists.  I think that critics are more likely to determine the full range of the musical spectrum, whereas artists may (possibly without even realizing it) focus on the artists most similar to them, particularly the ones they have been influenced by.  Critics, unless they are critics of only one genre, are exposed to so many different artists that they simply have more experience in determining how influential artists have been in all of music.  Certain artists are rather eclectic and would thus be more likely to recognize a wider range of influences; I do not have a problem with these sorts of artists as voters.  They are the artists who think like critics.  I worry that artists do not as often as critics understand the difference between “the greatest of all time” and “my favorite of all time.”  When artists vote, you end up with oddities such as Billy Idol ranking seventies proto-punk duo Suicide at number 1.

The 10 Most Egregious Exclusions:
1. Eric Clapton
At least Cream was on the list, but that only represents two years of Slow Hand’s 40-plus year career.  True, some of his best efforts came while with Cream, but he gave us enough classics since then (“Cocaine,” “Layla,” “Tears in Heaven”) that his absence just boggles the mind.
2. Yes
With Rush, Genesis, Pink Floyd, and Steely Dan making the list, voters were clearly not afraid to include progressive and/or complicated bands, so why not Yes?  With hits like “I’ve Seen All Good People” and “Owner of a Lonely Heart,” don’t tell me it was because they were too inaccessible.
3. Buddy Holly
The progenitors of rock ‘n’ roll have got to be on this list, and several of them are.  Elvis made it.  Chuck Berry made it.  Little Richard made it.  But no Buddy Holly?  You’d think that dying in a plane crash and having that moment immortalized as “the day the music died” would have been enough.
4. Creedence Clearwater Revival
The best Southern rock band of all time, except that they didn’t come from the South.  It is hard to place CCR in the pantheon of music, since their brand of “swamp rock” was so unusual, but it was undeniably unusually awesome.
5. Santana
Greatest Latin-American rock band of all time.  One of the greatest guitarists of all time.  One of the longest and most durable careers of a classic rock artist.  Big hits in both classic rock and modern rock eras.  What else do you need?
6. Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was the most iconic band of the psychedelic era.  Plenty of bands were taking drugs, but they were the only one who could make music that was both fueled by drugs and about drugs and that was both brilliant and coherent.
7. Red Hot Chili Peppers
I would argue that the modern rock era began about 1990.  Not too many bands that emerged around that time remain important to this day.  Green Day fit the bill.  So do Pearl Jam.  And so do Red Hot Chili Peppers.  The first two made the list.  Why not RHCP?
8. Daft Punk
When VH1 unveiled their first 100 Greatest Artists list back in 1998, not a single hip-hop artist made the cut.  That may seem hard to believe, but hip-hop was then only starting to become the dominant force in pop music that it is today.  Electronic music has recently been influential on pop music the way that hip-hop started to be about ten years ago, so I guess that voters could not yet fully appreciate how important an artist such as house duo Daft Punk has been.  Maybe next time.
9. “Weird Al” Yankovic
There are other comedy musical artists out there, but Weird Al is the gold standard, and he is miles ahead of anyone else.  It has gotten to the point where his parodies are sometimes bigger than the songs he is parodying (White & Nerdy vs. Ridin Dirty anyone?).
10. Jethro Tull
This is a band whose major accomplishments are either a remnant of the musical past (concept albums) or were never much a part of the music landscape anyway (flute solos).  Their influence might not have been great, but at least there was one Jethro Tull.

If there were at least ten artists who ought to have made the list but did not, then there must have been at least ten who should not have made it but did.  So of those who made the list, here are The 10 Least Deserving:
ABBA
Sure, they are fun and cheesy, but that has nothing to do with being one of the greatest artists of all time.
Hall & Oates
See ABBA.
LL Cool J
I don’t dispute LL Cool J’s rapping ability, but I do dispute the importance of such hits as “Mama Said Knock You Out” and “Goin’ Back to Cali” in the great scheme of music.
George Michael
George Michael’s popularity in his heyday far outweighs his legacy, and there is a reason for that.
Cheap Trick
See ABBA and Hall & Oates, except not really cheesy, and slightly more impressive.
Bee Gees
The Bee Gees were one of the few legitimately great disco artists, but there is a reason most of us have moved on from disco.
Journey
Everybody loves “Don’t Stop Believin’” and the rest of Journey’s over the top hits, but they are just too fundementally over the top.
Def Leppard
See Cheap Trick.
Alicia Keys
Maybe in another ten years Alicia Keys can be discussed among the greatest artists of all time.
N.W.A.
N.W.A. may have changed the rap game and gotten right in the face of the music scene, but did they have any other big hits besides “Fuck tha Police”?  I admit I am not appreciably familiar with rap history, but I feel that Ice Cube and Dr. Dre especially had more significant solo careers.

Other Notable Exclusions:
The Allman Brothers Band, Alice Cooper, Miles Davis (and Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane, and all of jazz), Foo Fighters, Heart, Iron Maiden, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Moody Blues, Smokey Robinson, Paul Simon, The Supremes, The Temptations, Stevie Ray Vaughan

Now for those artists who made the list but were ranked too high or too low.  These types of lists are patently difficult when dealing with artists of different genres, as you get into an apples and oranges situation.  So when crying foul over placements too high or too low, it works best to compare artists of a similar vein.

Too Low:
91. Green Day
Finding a political message, extending into Broadway – who knew that this was where the progenitors of pop-punk would end up?  Green Day has remained just as important as a Radiohead, so if modern rock acts such as Radiohead and Nirvana can make it 29 and 14, respectively, then there must be a spot in the top half for Green Day.
82. Steely Dan
Apparently Steely Dan is too complicated for some ears to comprehend.  But that is no excuse for placing more easily understandable bands like Cheap Trick, Fleetwood Mac, and Aerosmith 14, 45, and 52 spots ahead of them.  And ABBA one spot ahead?  Excuse me?
75. Rush
Maybe they are just too weird.  Maybe girls, for the most part, do not get them.  But with hits like “Tom Sawyer” and “Limelight” and gargantuan efforts like 2112, Rush have certainly had a bigger influence than Def Leppard or even the Police.

Too High:
23. AC/DC
I love AC/DC as much as the next person, but the 23^rd greatest artist of all time?  Not when they are 18 spots ahead of van Halen and two ahead of Chuck Berry.
33. Guns N’ Roses
For a guitarist as good as Slash and a singer with as great a voice as Axl Rose’s, GN’R should deserve to be this high.  But most of their songs are so poorly arranged.  With the exception of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and maybe “Paradise City,” Axl sounds so messy, almost as if on purpose.  They get away with the messiness on “Welcome to the Jungle,” and I have lightened up to the over the top balladry of “November Rain,” but the rest represents the worst of 80s hair metal excess.
52. Beyoncé
See Alicia Keys.  I think that Beyoncé has done enough to merit a spot on this list, but I would wait at least a few more years before I would place her as high as 52^nd.