Rank Prince Against The Immortals

Me and a few friends were having a knockdown, drag out fight about who were the 5 greatest artists of the past 35 years...I basically placed the same list on the Michael Jackson website MJboard.com...So, I thought it would cool to flip it for Prince...Basically each artist is judged on a scale from 1 to 5 on: 1. Musical prowess (i.e. songwriting, instrumental prowess); 2. Performance abilities; 3. Iconic impact; 4. Groundbreaking Influence (Did you change the sound and artistic scope of music?); 5. Longevity (staying power)...Now folks like the Beatles, Bob Dylan, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis didn't make the list because their peak years came before 1971...Also artists like Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen and Led Zepplin just missed the cut off point of my list…Remember, each artist should be judged at their peak…

And remember guys, a list is truely subjective..As I said before, you don't have to use my long and complicated system...but it keeps the emotions out of choosing your favorites...So here's my little 'ol list

5. David Bowie
Musical Prowess—4; Performance—3; Iconic Impact—2; Groundbreaking Impact—5 (The most groundbreaking artist of his era); Longevity—4; Score= 18

4. Bob Marley
Musical Prowess—4 (Just for the lyrics alone); Performance—4; Iconic Impact—5; Groundbreaking Impact—3; Longevity—4 (Bob's sudden and tragic death only added to his legend) ; Score=19

3. Michael Jackson
Musical Prowess—2; Performance—5 (In his prime, he was arguably the greatest); Iconic Impact—5; Groundbreaking Influence—3 (Just the music, not the videos); Longevity—5; Score=20

2. Prince
Musical Prowess—5; Performance—5; Iconic Impact—3 (he couldn't even see Mike in this category); Longevity—4; Groundbreaking Influence—5; Score=22

1. Stevie Wonder
Musical Prowess—5 (for Christ sakes...the dude was blind!); Performance—4; Iconic Impact—4; Longevity—5; Groundbreaking Influence—5; Score=23

Now, I went with Stevie as no. 1 because he paved the way for other singer-songwriters to have creative control over their own art and had a string of great, groundbreaking albums that rank among the best streaks of releases ever...
[Edited 8/19/05 0:36am]
[Edited 8/19/05 1:06am]

what about freddie mercury and john lennon???

Coolaid said:

I love Queen; Freddie was the shit and is truely one of the great rock voices...but they didn't make my top 5...And as far as John, I think it would be cheating by placing him on the list as a solo artist...To me, his peak period (And I like his solo output very much, especially Double Fantasy) as an artist was with the Beatles, who missed the cut off time line for the list...Who would be in your top 5?
[Edited 8/19/05 1:21am]