blackbob said:

Gunsnhalen said:

Ow and someone that always seem's to be forgotten Frank Zappa, The man was a musical genius and his band could outplay just about anybody. but get's no respect on these list's at least rolling Stones list had him on there...

i agree zappa was a great musician but he didnt have a big impact on popular music did he?....a lot of people dont even know who he is....you need a degree of success i believe....lists will never be perfect but this one is voted by people in the music industry so its better than most you see...

[Edited 8/26/10 2:14am]

You say that Bob but he's influenced loads. There's Steve Vai, there's, umm, Steve Vai again and, err, well I'm sure there must be others that we perhaps haven't heard of. Oh yeah, Dweezil Zappa. And... no you're right.

Judas Priest, Green Day, Rage Against The Machine, Ramones, Sade....hahaha

Coldplay above Otis Redding and R.E.M

Queen in the top 20:lol:

Led Zep and Dylan are hardly top 5 certs for me. Pretty generic list overall.

iloveannie said:

blackbob said:

i agree zappa was a great musician but he didnt have a big impact on popular music did he?....a lot of people dont even know who he is....you need a degree of success i believe....lists will never be perfect but this one is voted by people in the music industry so its better than most you see...

[Edited 8/26/10 2:14am]

You say that Bob but he's influenced loads. There's Steve Vai, there's, umm, Steve Vai again and, err, well I'm sure there must be others that we perhaps haven't heard of. Oh yeah, Dweezil Zappa. And... no you're right.

i agree that zappa SHOULD be on the list...he would be on mine...just saying i can see why he isnt on it...

Wowugotit said:

Janet Jackson is not an all time great artist. Neither is Justin Timberlake or several others on the list.

It's obviously a matter of opinion.

But if they put Beyonce, Sade, Madonna, Whitney and Mariah Carey - surely Janet deserves to be there too.

mancabdriver said:

Wowugotit said:

Janet Jackson is not an all time great artist. Neither is Justin Timberlake or several others on the list.

It's obviously a matter of opinion.

But if they put Beyonce, Sade, Madonna, Whitney and Mariah Carey - surely Janet deserves to be there too.

Not in my world mancab, not in mine...

Well guess what, ORG:

It's a...

[img:$uid]http://www.tvshowsondvd.net/graphics/news3/Different_World_Season_1.jpg[/img:$uid]

So no one's gonna agree with anything.

I swear, agree to disagree should be the new motto here.

Congrats to everyone on the list. Of course, there is some that I disagree with and especially on this board any contemporary artist that gets props is going to be dissed so I expect the comments against Bey and JT(don't agree with him being on this list, Usher should be on it before him).

I think the worse part of the list is that there aren't a lot of female artists on the list. Only 11 to be exact. That's the criminal part of this list but again, it's not going to turn the world upside down. And as for the debate of artistic merit, here is a nice definition just for the board: Artist - An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art.

Now whether you, personally, don't like an artist to their fans, they are true artists and feel that they deserve the recognition for their work and if you're a true Prince fan, you should be happy that he is getting that recognition for it because not everyone like his work and some might even disagree with him being on the list. Like it or not.

mancabdriver said:

Wowugotit said:

Janet Jackson is not an all time great artist. Neither is Justin Timberlake or several others on the list.

It's obviously a matter of opinion.

But if they put Beyonce, Sade, Madonna, Whitney and Mariah Carey - surely Janet deserves to be there too.

I agree and I also feel that Babs should be on the list too. She influenced Bey, Mariah and Whitney. Without her, there are not "power pop ballads" that is prevalent in music right now. But as I said before, I am more upset that women artists don't get the cred that they deserve on the whole in the industry. Only 11 women on it? That's ridiculous. That should be the beef. Not arguing over certain women artists' merit on the list.

Janet should have been in there instead of Beyonce in my opinion.

blackbob said:

if the list was a public vote....believe me prince, dylan, bowie, hendrix , and many others would be nowhere near the top of this list....madonna , backstreet boys, milli vanilli , mariah cannie and lots of other shit would be deemed the greatest music artists so its not a bad list....there will always be some who are overlooked...

I agree. It has a pretty decent foundation and it's a much better list than if it had been held up to a popular vote. And, if you remove some of the obvious bias, perhaps something even better would result.

Magic Bias Removal Dust:

• Too much “white” dominates in an era that, I believe, first and foremost, is defined by black musicians. This is the problem with most lists. To me it's one of the more astonishing artistic feats in human history that 10% contributed perhaps a slight majority of the musical greatness in the western, English-speaking world.

• Not enough of the more serious, less popular choices, most prominently, Frank Zappa.

• Great singers often don't get treated as a great instrumentalist would, outside of those that are most popular/recent.

• People always get death twisted up with respect. To me Michael Jackson's music was/is incredible, but it's not quite that formidable when considering more than popularity, even with the Jackson 5 catalog. It would be nice if we all treated each other as well in our trip to the funeral parlor as we do in our walk through life. But we often go to the other extreme in death and over inflate someone's importance, just because it's now easier to be fair with what has always been. The truth is somewhere in the middle.

• Too much of today's popularity gets mixed into this Top 100 to help secure the all-important viewing demographic and to convince that this musical landscape continues per normal.

• There has just been so much more musical greatness than can even come close to fitting on a TV show for a channel that delves into little more than the superficiality of loathsome dating contests . A top 1000, or even 5000, would be more accurate. But then we would no doubt complain that a favorite is pegged at 267, when such and such is at 115. In a world that has seen billions of people, there's really not that much difference.

mimi07 said:

"VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time" List:
TOP 5, IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
1. The Beatles
2. Bob Dylan
3. Michael Jackson
4. Led Zeppelin
5. Rolling Stones

NUMBER 6 – 11, RANKED
6. Jimi Hendrix
7. Prince (At least they got this right)
8. Elvis Presley ( Oh God.)
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 (SHould be ranked higher)
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. Beyonce
53. Little Richard
54. Public Enemy
55. Peter Gabriel
56. KISS
57. Iggy & The Stooges
58. Cheap Trick
59. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
60. Whitney Houston
61. Cream
62. Genesis
63. Notorious B.I.G.
64. Talking Heads
65. The Doors
66. Justin Timberlake (This ex-boy band puppet... really?)
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-D.M.C.
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 ( he should have a higher ranking than this)
85. The Band
86. N.W.A. (what fuck??!!!! )
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 (I like Outkast, before they went mainstream, but they really shouldn't be on here)
96. Journey
97. Pretenders
98. Depeche Mode
99. Hall & Oates
100. Alicia Keys

This list is so idiotic, it's making me laugh. Whoever came up with this list is either retarded or high. This list is so pathetic.

I've never considered Whitney and Mariah artists with critical acclaim. They're moreso singers

with critical acclaim. There's a difference.

trueiopian said:

I've never considered Whitney and Mariah artists with critical acclaim. They're moreso singers

with critical acclaim. There's a difference.

Earth, Wind, and Fire is on this list, but not the Temptations. Hilarious.

blackbob said:

Gunsnhalen said:

Ow and someone that always seem's to be forgotten Frank Zappa, The man was a musical genius and his band could outplay just about anybody. but get's no respect on these list's at least rolling Stones list had him on there...

i agree zappa was a great musician but he didnt have a big impact on popular music did he?....a lot of people dont even know who he is....you need a degree of success i believe....lists will never be perfect but this one is voted by people in the music industry so its better than most you see...

[Edited 8/26/10 2:14am]

Well, i can also agree with that a bit sadly=[ Zappa never was in the commercial markets at all nor did he want to be=[, But as far as musicianship he's just second to none, My ex boyfriend his dad played Keyboards for Frank Zappa in the 80's Bobby Martin. And he told us Zappa's crazy techniques and practice schedules he was the real deal, not to mention anytime he need's a gig as a musician ANYWHERE he just has to say i played with Frank Zappa

But i can still find no excuse why Clapton, B.B King or Same Cooke are not on here

Timmy84 said:

Well guess what, ORG:

It's a...

[img:$uid]http://www.tvshowsondvd.net/graphics/news3/Different_World_Season_1.jpg[/img:$uid]

So no one's gonna agree with anything.

I swear, agree to disagree should be the new motto here.

Good statement

Brendan said:

blackbob said:

if the list was a public vote....believe me prince, dylan, bowie, hendrix , and many others would be nowhere near the top of this list....madonna , backstreet boys, milli vanilli , mariah cannie and lots of other shit would be deemed the greatest music artists so its not a bad list....there will always be some who are overlooked...

I agree. It has a pretty decent foundation and it's a much better list than if it had been held up to a popular vote. And, if you remove some of the obvious bias, perhaps something even better would result.

Magic Bias Removal Dust:

• Too much “white” dominates in an era that, I believe, first and foremost, is defined by black musicians. This is the problem with most lists. To me it's one of the more astonishing artistic feats in human history that 10% contributed perhaps a slight majority of the musical greatness in the western, English-speaking world.

• Not enough of the more serious, less popular choices, most prominently, Frank Zappa.

• Great singers often don't get treated as a great instrumentalist would, outside of those that are most popular/recent.

• People always get death twisted up with respect. To me Michael Jackson's music was/is incredible, but it's not quite that formidable when considering more than popularity, even with the Jackson 5 catalog. It would be nice if we all treated each other as well in our trip to the funeral parlor as we do in our walk through life. But we often go to the other extreme in death and over inflate someone's importance, just because it's now easier to be fair with what has always been. The truth is somewhere in the middle.

• Too much of today's popularity gets mixed into this Top 100 to help secure the all-important viewing demographic and to convince that this musical landscape continues per normal.

• There has just been so much more musical greatness than can even come close to fitting on a TV show for a channel that delves into little more than the superficiality of loathsome dating contests . A top 1000, or even 5000, would be more accurate. But then we would no doubt complain that a favorite is pegged at 267, when such and such is at 115. In a world that has seen billions of people, there's really not that much difference.

I agree with just about all of this. Especially the last point. I wish they would have separated this into genders because it seems that female artists don't get the love that Male artist do, and yes I do understand that the industry is male dominated.

The only part I disagree with is your 2nd to last point because on this list and RS list, there is only a few artist from this generation of artists and in fact, from RS, only one(C-Tina). Usually with lists like these, the older generations usually dominate whether they are relevant in this generation(like Madonna, for example) or not.

Gunsnhalen said:

blackbob said:

i agree zappa was a great musician but he didnt have a big impact on popular music did he?....a lot of people dont even know who he is....you need a degree of success i believe....lists will never be perfect but this one is voted by people in the music industry so its better than most you see...

[Edited 8/26/10 2:14am]

Well, i can also agree with that a bit sadly=[ Zappa never was in the commercial markets at all nor did he want to be=[, But as far as musicianship he's just second to none, My ex boyfriend his dad played Keyboards for Frank Zappa in the 80's Bobby Martin. And he told us Zappa's crazy techniques and practice schedules he was the real deal, not to mention anytime he need's a gig as a musician ANYWHERE he just has to say i played with Frank Zappa

But i can still find no excuse why Clapton, B.B King or Same Cooke are not on here

Clapton is with Cream(they are on the list). BB King, I have no idea and Sam Cooke, great artist but how much influence does he really have as compared to many of his contemporary artists in the industry?

NastradumasKid said:

mimi07 said:

"VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time" List:
TOP 5, IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
1. The Beatles
2. Bob Dylan
3. Michael Jackson
4. Led Zeppelin
5. Rolling Stones

NUMBER 6 – 11, RANKED
6. Jimi Hendrix
7. Prince (At least they got this right)
8. Elvis Presley ( Oh God.)
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 (SHould be ranked higher)
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. Beyonce
53. Little Richard
54. Public Enemy
55. Peter Gabriel
56. KISS
57. Iggy & The Stooges
58. Cheap Trick
59. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
60. Whitney Houston
61. Cream
62. Genesis
63. Notorious B.I.G.
64. Talking Heads
65. The Doors
66. Justin Timberlake (This ex-boy band puppet... really?)
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-D.M.C.
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 ( he should have a higher ranking than this)
85. The Band
86. N.W.A. (what fuck??!!!! )
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 (I like Outkast, before they went mainstream, but they really shouldn't be on here)
96. Journey
97. Pretenders
98. Depeche Mode
99. Hall & Oates
100. Alicia Keys

This list is so idiotic, it's making me laugh. Whoever came up with this list is either retarded or high. This list is so pathetic.

ehhh..... the list was made up by musicians and people who work in the music industry.....is not perfect (what is?)...but its one of the better lists i have seen mainly because its not a public vote....now that would be bad

SoulAlive said:

savoirfaire said:

I disagree. I'm not saying you have to play an instrument to be an artist, you don't. I'm saying performer/showman is different than being an artist. An artist, I think, creates something new, pushes the envelope at least a little, innovates. Singing by itself isn't an art, it's a talent. A talent is necessary to meet my own subjective "artist" criteria, but does not make one an artist.

Leonard Cohen can't sing worth a damn, and I really don't know if he plays any instruments, but his craft could be defined as art.

Everyone on my shortlist list is the byproduct of a lot of other people. Images carefully created and produced and marketed.

Incidentally, I wish to retract Sade from that list. I'm not sure how she got on there. Sorry.

Edit: Ultimately I guess, if you don't compose most of your music, you aren't an artist in my books. You could argue that the way you interpret someone else's composition is what makes you an artist, and sure, fair enough, there's a level of artistry in that, but not a Top 100 level of artistry. In the same way a painter who can make carbon copies of the Mona Lisa - well, it's a very impressive TALENT, but until you create your OWN great work, you're a talented painter, not an artist

Okay,I see what you're saying.We just have different definitions of what an "artist" is A few of the people on your list (Mariah Carey and Justin Timberlake) do more than just sing.They write songs as well.I would argue that singing and writing songs are all part of the creative process and yes,I consider it art.

Mariah and Justin have written a handful of songs, not because they're good songwriters, but because they're trying to legitimize themselves. They're still a product of someone else, and the songs they wrote aren't very special. Singing may make up a portion of what makes somebody an artist, but I consider it more of a tool to express art than a contributor to it.

Elvis is ahead of James Brown? What kinda rhythmless ass bullshit is that?

Then again, its the same redundant bullshit you see in every list from major media outlets.

Gunsnhalen said:

Timmy84 said:

Well guess what, ORG:

It's a...

[img:$uid]http://www.tvshowsondvd.net/graphics/news3/Different_World_Season_1.jpg[/img:$uid]

So no one's gonna agree with anything.

I swear, agree to disagree should be the new motto here.

Good statement

Thanks.

Timmy84 said:

Well guess what, ORG:

It's a...

[img:$uid]http://www.tvshowsondvd.net/graphics/news3/Different_World_Season_1.jpg[/img:$uid]

So no one's gonna agree with anything.

I swear, agree to disagree should be the new motto here.

babybugz said:

Timmy84 said:

Well guess what, ORG:

It's a...

[img:$uid]http://www.tvshowsondvd.net/graphics/news3/Different_World_Season_1.jpg[/img:$uid]

So no one's gonna agree with anything.

I swear, agree to disagree should be the new motto here.

A bunch of Old Farts on here

What does that make us though? Young Shits?

Curtwill1975 said:

Brendan said:

I agree. It has a pretty decent foundation and it's a much better list than if it had been held up to a popular vote. And, if you remove some of the obvious bias, perhaps something even better would result.

Magic Bias Removal Dust:

• Too much “white” dominates in an era that, I believe, first and foremost, is defined by black musicians. This is the problem with most lists. To me it's one of the more astonishing artistic feats in human history that 10% contributed perhaps a slight majority of the musical greatness in the western, English-speaking world.

• Not enough of the more serious, less popular choices, most prominently, Frank Zappa.

• Great singers often don't get treated as a great instrumentalist would, outside of those that are most popular/recent.

• People always get death twisted up with respect. To me Michael Jackson's music was/is incredible, but it's not quite that formidable when considering more than popularity, even with the Jackson 5 catalog. It would be nice if we all treated each other as well in our trip to the funeral parlor as we do in our walk through life. But we often go to the other extreme in death and over inflate someone's importance, just because it's now easier to be fair with what has always been. The truth is somewhere in the middle.

• Too much of today's popularity gets mixed into this Top 100 to help secure the all-important viewing demographic and to convince that this musical landscape continues per normal.

• There has just been so much more musical greatness than can even come close to fitting on a TV show for a channel that delves into little more than the superficiality of loathsome dating contests . A top 1000, or even 5000, would be more accurate. But then we would no doubt complain that a favorite is pegged at 267, when such and such is at 115. In a world that has seen billions of people, there's really not that much difference.

I agree with just about all of this. Especially the last point. I wish they would have separated this into genders because it seems that female artists don't get the love that Male artist do, and yes I do understand that the industry is male dominated.

The only part I disagree with is your 2nd to last point because on this list and RS list, there is only a few artist from this generation of artists and in fact, from RS, only one(C-Tina). Usually with lists like these, the older generations usually dominate whether they are relevant in this generation(like Madonna, for example) or not.

Females definitely get the short shrift, as usual.

I think somewhere around the 60s, females in larger numbers started to be born into a culture where they could and would dream this big, even in traditionally male-dominated areas. And as a result, we started to see a bigger push in the 80s and an all-out explosion in the 90s, following on the coattails of greats such as Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Joni Mitchell, Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, etc.

That in turn spawned incredible people like Meshell Ndegeocello, Bjork, and Ani Difranco to name but a tiny few. Hopefully in the future that will mean lists with far more diversity (real change is generational and slower than a tortoise.)

==================

In retrospect, I was probably a bit too cynical with that penultimate point.

I'll try to explain where I coming from better. In 10-15 years when this daffy channel puts together another list, will any of these people from the last dozens years find themselves repeated? Or will they have a completely new crop of popular artists of that time that are also succeeding in a far smaller musical landscape.

I have no malice towards any of them. If they truly end up being this phenomenal, that's great! At this point I think they deserve to be on a list, just much lower on a much larger canvas.

All in all, the list is far too white and far too based in popularity. But I'm trying to be positive about the future and with a list created by one of the worst TV stations ever created. Otherwise, I'd probably have to crawl into a hole and end it all right now.

Brendan said:

Curtwill1975 said:

I agree with just about all of this. Especially the last point. I wish they would have separated this into genders because it seems that female artists don't get the love that Male artist do, and yes I do understand that the industry is male dominated.

The only part I disagree with is your 2nd to last point because on this list and RS list, there is only a few artist from this generation of artists and in fact, from RS, only one(C-Tina). Usually with lists like these, the older generations usually dominate whether they are relevant in this generation(like Madonna, for example) or not.

Females definitely get the short shrift, as usual.

I think somewhere around the 60s, females in larger numbers started to be born into a culture where they could and would dream this big, even in traditionally male-dominated areas. And as a result, we started to see a bigger push in the 80s and an all-out explosion in the 90s, following on the coattails of greats such as Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Joni Mitchell, Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, etc.

That in turn spawned incredible people like Meshell Ndegeocello, Bjork, and Ani Difranco to name but a tiny few. Hopefully in the future that will mean lists with far more diversity (real change is generational and slower than a tortoise.)

==================

In retrospect, I was probably a bit too cynical with that penultimate point.

I'll try to explain where I coming from better. In 10-15 years when this daffy channel puts together another list, will any of these people from the last dozens years find themselves repeated? Or will they have a completely new crop of popular artists of that time that are also succeeding in a far smaller musical landscape.

I have no malice towards any of them. If they truly end up being this phenomenal, that's great! At this point I think they deserve to be on a list, just much lower on a much larger canvas.

All in all, the list is far too white and far too based in popularity. But I'm trying to be positive about the future and with a list created by one of the worst TV stations ever created. Otherwise, I'd probably have to crawl into a hole and end it all right now.

Soulja Boy and Justin Bieber Katy Perry will be the addition on the next list.

iloveannie said:

mancabdriver said:

It's obviously a matter of opinion.

But if they put Beyonce, Sade, Madonna, Whitney and Mariah Carey - surely Janet deserves to be there too.

Not in my world mancab, not in mine...

Maybe i'm in the minority when I give greater credit to those artists who help produce and write much of their material rather than a power house singer who just turns up to sing and gives no creative input. ahemmm Whitney...Beyonce...

aha uhhmmm... intersting...

just taking notes now...

check - so Justin Timerlake is a greater artist than Earth Wind & Fire with a back catlaouge of approximately 150 masterpiece albums

and so is Nirvana, who made approximately 1 1/2 albums and 7 songs....

savoirfaire said:

SoulAlive said:

Okay,I see what you're saying.We just have different definitions of what an "artist" is A few of the people on your list (Mariah Carey and Justin Timberlake) do more than just sing.They write songs as well.I would argue that singing and writing songs are all part of the creative process and yes,I consider it art.

Mariah and Justin have written a handful of songs, not because they're good songwriters, but because they're trying to legitimize themselves. They're still a product of someone else, and the songs they wrote aren't very special. Singing may make up a portion of what makes somebody an artist, but I consider it more of a tool to express art than a contributor to it.

While I agree that Justin should not be on this list due to the fact that he has only 2 albums under his belt, the man is a GIFTED songwriter. The songs he works on for other people's albums tend to be my favorite tracks from those albums, and FutureSex/LoveSounds was, for me, a brilliant album as well. I think to discount his talents as a writer is wrong.

Mariah? I don't know enough about her to comment...you could be right on that one...

=0P

savoirfaire said:

SoulAlive said:

Okay,I see what you're saying.We just have different definitions of what an "artist" is A few of the people on your list (Mariah Carey and Justin Timberlake) do more than just sing.They write songs as well.I would argue that singing and writing songs are all part of the creative process and yes,I consider it art.

Mariah and Justin have written a handful of songs, not because they're good songwriters, but because they're trying to legitimize themselves. They're still a product of someone else, and the songs they wrote aren't very special. Singing may make up a portion of what makes somebody an artist, but I consider it more of a tool to express art than a contributor to it.

I'm not a huge fan of either artist but come on,you're being harsh They write songs because they're trying to "legitimize themselves"? If they were to sit back and allow a bunch of other people to write their songs (like Britney Spears does),folks would call them untalented puppets.I give them credit for at least taking some control over what they sing.Songwriting is an art and not just anybody can do it.

can somebody explain how prince can be ranked higher than james brown, marvin gaye,stevie wonder,sly, and pfunk,?