here is the top 10 artists of each of the last 5 decades and this one we are in at the moment from music critics from around the world...

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THE 50S
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1 Elvis Presley

2 Miles Davis

3 Chuck Berry

4 Buddy Holly & The Crickets

5 Frank Sinatra

6 Little Richard

7 Thelonious Monk

8 Ray Charles

9 Sonny Rollins

10 Ella Fitzgerald
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THE 60S
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1 The Beatles

2 The Rolling Stones

3 Bob Dylan

4 Jimi Hendrix

5 The Beach Boys

6 The Byrds

7 The Velvet Underground

8 Aretha Franklin

9 The Who

10 Otis Redding

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THE 70S
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1 David Bowie

2 The Rolling Stones

3 Stevie Wonder

4 Bob Marley and The Wailers

5 The Clash

6 Led Zeppelin

7 Neil Young

8 Marvin Gaye

9 Bruce Springsteen

10 Pink Floyd

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THE 80S
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1 Prince

2 The Smiths

3 U2

4 R.E.M.

5 Bruce Springsteen

6 Public Enemy

7 Pixies

8 New Order

9 Talking Heads

10 Michael Jackson

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THE 90S
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1 Nirvana

2 R.E.M.

3 Radiohead

4 Beck

5 Oasis

6 Blur

7 Massive Attack

8 P J Harvey

9 Pavement

10 Björk

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THE 00S (so far...)
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1 The White Stripes

2 OutKast

3 Franz Ferdinand

4 Eminem

5 The Strokes

6 Radiohead

7 Kanye West

8 Missy Misdemeanor Elliott

9 Coldplay

10 The Streets

www.acclaimedmusic.net

blackbob said:

-----eminem...."urghhhhh"

You forgot Queen for the 80s

Eminem absolutely sucks

You forgot the Jackson 5 for the 80s

And Michael Jacksons 10th.

James Brown is missing?

Elvis at #1 for the '50s? Yeah, he's the biggest ICON of the '50s, but the greatest ARTIST? The most innovative?

Same w/ Nirvana. Seems like they're only at the top of the '90s based on status rather than artistic greatness.

For the record, I think Eminem's first two LP's are classic. But considering the first of them was released in '99, I see no reason for him to be there.

I could punch other holes in the list but I'm too lazy.

Wow, Madonna, Whitney, and Mooriah are nowhere to be found on that list

blackbob said:

I thought we just did this.

Doesn't CHER get honorable mention for spanning the '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s and '00s...?

PurpleJedi said:

no

bboy87 said:

I'm just sayin'...if she puts out a hit in 4 years, she will officially have spanned SIX DECADES.

GangstaFam said:

Yeah, I started a thread a while back. This is a set of lists compiled from acclaimedmusic.

MJ suffers in the 80s for sheer lack of output.

2Jay said:

The Jackson 5's debut album came out in 1969. The last 'Jackson 5' album came out in the mid seventies.

The absence of JB, Curtis Mayfield on the lists is astonishing.

Moonbeam said:[quote]

GangstaFam said:

Not if you include the albums he did with his brothers as well. Triumph in my opinion is the forgotten Michael Jackson solo album... and is far better than Bad.

MattyJam said:[quote]

Moonbeam said:

The website would not count that as a Michael Jackson release. The artist rankings result from a formula based on rankings of albums and singles. Michael Jackson's 80s work is acclaimed, but there simply isn't enough of it to make him a contender for artist of the decade.

MsLegs said:

James Brown is ranked as number 13 for the 60s.

Moonbeam said:

number 13 is bullshit. His career spans over decades.

I'm listening to 'Get On The Good Foot' right now.

honestly i was born in the 80's and know a few things about it... but even i know micheal jackson was the biggest star of the 80's.... prince could not even touch micheal jackson status...

MICHAEL jackson was magic...

You can make a stake that James claimed both the '60s and '70s but Stevie Wonder was the man in the '70s followed closely by Marvin Gaye as far as solo R&B artists are concerned. Chuck and Elvis need to switch places, then Little Richard takes Elvis' spot then so should Buddy Holly and Ray Charles in the '50s category. Michael was the biggest seller of the '80s but he wasn't the most critically acclaimed one, this look like a critic's list.

blackbob said:

How stupid to have Michael Jackson at number 10, he was number 1 in the 80's
and the jackon 5 / the jacksons should have been in the top 10 in the 70's.

I HATE CRITICS because they are always wrong... its not about what they feel.. its about what the public thinks.. and how much an artist has influence...

I never take.. any kind of list serious.. becuase they always seem to be off..

how can anyone say james brown dances better then michael jackson...

I know he influenced michael... but michael took what little james brown did.. and made it his own

MsLegs said:

Here is how he ranks there:

50s: 47
60s: 13
70s: 58

Overall: 32

Again, these are based on formulas. The website's main focus is not artist rankings, but rather rankings of songs and albums. The owner clearly states in his FAQs that the lists are not an indication of what he thinks is the best- they are simply a composite ranking based on a statistical analysis of thousands of critics' lists. So, essentially, James Brown's positions are measured by the songs and albums most acclaimed by critics.

TotalAlisa said:

The aim of the website is not to measure stardom, but rather critical acclaim. The fact that MJ only released 2 albums in the 80s hurts his ranking because he simply doesn't have enough material to compete with those in the top 5, all of which released at least 5 highly acclaimed albums in the 80s.

Moonbeam said:

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mmmm ...i am not sure you are correct on this moonbeam...surely the formula used to calculate these rankings would take into account the fact that mj only released two albums in the 80s ??...and only ' thriller ' was really rated by the music critics...' bad ' was only ranked 301 in the 80s best albums list while prince had two in the top ten of the decade ...five in the top 70 ??....so i think that while mj had massive public acclaim....his recorded work is rated fairly i think...
[Edited 7/23/07 14:03pm]

TotalAlisa said:

you are talking about public aclaim then yes mj was the biggest star although for a period during 1984/1985...prince was the biggest selling artist on the planet so it wasnt all jackson...this list is the music critics list of the best artists of the decade and i think that gives it far more relevence than who is selling the most records ???...prince had the biggest impact on the 80s music...no doubt about that...

that list blows...
and i dunno something racist about it...
only one black top artist...
and its Prince?
c'mon now
somethin smells funny here

PurpleJedi said:

The Isley Brothers already have.

blackbob said:

A while back, Henrik mentioned how the artist lists were generated:

"I'm using a logarithmic function of the AM positions for the 6 most acclaimed albums and songs by each artist. Albums are weighted twice as much as songs (as there are roughly twice as many album critics lists)."

I'm assuming the same goes for the decade rankings.