Silly List Slogs: My 100 Favorite Musical Acts Of The Pop-Rock Era (In Terms Of Quantity)

Anthony Cougar Miccio -

Hey, you! You look like you haven't seen a list in a while! Would you like to see a list of my 100 favorite musical acts of the pop-rock era (y'know, 1960-ish to now), based on how many tracks by the act I find worth keeping around on playlists and physical media? Of course you would!

Here's some caveats from when I published the list last year: Predictably, this metric benefits prolific white male guitar rockers I've been paying attention to since my adolescence. So it's worth reaffirming I'm not saying Mark E. Smith is better than Aretha Franklin, or more worth your time. I'm just saying that, as we reach the end of 2022, I've kept around more Mark E. Smith songs than Aretha Franklin songs. This isn't surprising, considering I owned every Fall album through The Unutterable in college, and I haven't really checked out Franklin's last forty years of work. Also this: I'm saying tracks instead of songs, because I didn't exclude multiple versions kept of a real humdinger. I think this mostly boosted the Velvet Underground.

It's 2023, and there's been a bit of fluctuation, from the Top 5 to the bottom 10. There will be even more fluctuation if I bother/live to retabulate in November 2024, just based on the three mid-career Loudon Wainwright III albums I've purchased but yet to suss. Plus an Al Green rarities comp and a gospel album I got for five bucks where he sings "The Battle Hymn of The Republic" (Christgau gave it an A!). Can you imagine anything more exciting or worthwhile to think about a year from now? Try not to, you'll need your strength.

Bob Dylan, proud to move up to the runner-up spot (don't tell him it's cuz I got into Street-Legal and that I still need to soak in the new Mountain Goats and Electric Six albums).
  1. Neil Young
  2. Bob Dylan
  3. Electric Six
  4. The Mountain Goats
  5. Yo La Tengo
  6. The Beatles
  7. Guided By Voices
  8. The Kinks
  9. The Fall
  10. Low
  11. The Rolling Stones
  12. R.E.M.
  13. John Prine
  14. Superchunk
  15. Rocket From The Crypt
  16. Loudon Wainwright III
  17. Ramones
  18. Sonic Youth
  19. Sloan
  20. Randy Newman
  21. Spoon
  22. Drive-By Truckers
  23. The Cure
  24. Husker Du
  25. Luna
  26. The Flaming Lips
  27. Pavement
  28. AC/DC
  29. Al Green
  30. Harry Nilsson
If angels shade, Prince would shade me for making this and you for reading it. No question.

31. Prince 32. Stevie Wonder 33. Half Japanese 34. Beck 35. Magnetic Fields 36. Mekons 37. Amy Rigby 38. !!! 39. Killing Joke 40. The Velvet Underground 41. Wire 42. Beastie Boys 43. Fugazi 44. Minutemen 45. A Tribe Called Quest 46. David Bowie 47. Devin The Dude 48. East River Pipe 49. Fleetwood Mac 50. Lou Reed 51. The White Stripes 52. The Replacements 53. Ghostface Killah 54. Joni Mitchell 55. Mudhoney 56. Bonnie Raitt 57. Wilco 58. Clem Snide 59. Missy Elliott 60. Aretha Franklin 61. Hot Chip 62. Los Lobos 63. Van Morrison 64. Pixies 65. Sleater-Kinney 66. Teenage Fanclub 67. Les Savy Fav 68. Radiohead 69. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion 70. Rufus Wainwright

I wrote a discography overview about the Afghan Whigs this year, which may have something to do with them bumping up a couple notches on this thing.

71. Bill Withers 72. The Afghan Whigs 73. The Bats 74. Death Cab For Cutie 75. The Go-Betweens 76. Motorhead 77. New Order 78. Scrawl 79. Screaming Trees 80. Rod Stewart 81. Talking Heads 82. Tegan & Sara 83. Aerosmith 84. The Beach Boys 85. John Cale 86. Camper Van Beethoven 87. Alex Chilton 88. Elvis Costello 89. The Flatlanders 90. Tom T. Hall 91. Nine Inch Nails 92. Outkast 93. Public Enemy 94. Queen 95. Queens Of The Stone Age 96. Sly & The Family Stone 97. Steely Dan 98. Tom Waits 99. Weezer 100. The Feelies

A final note from last year: If there's someone you think is criminally absent (and not in a "every band to release an album on Capricorn in the '70s is worth your time more than frikkin' Eagles Of Death Metal by default" way), please let me know, either through your social media outlet of choice or with a line to anthonyisright at gmail.com. At worst, I'll tell you they're at 132. I've bolded the artists that moved up 5 or more spots, or didn't appear in last year's list, cuz why not. (And Eagles Of Death Metal is at 105 this year.)

Thank you for scrolling! I'm truly honored.