The Top 40 Bands in America Today
This year I was invited to participate in Information Leafblower's The Top 40 Bands in America Today poll, which is sort of like a Pazz & Jop for bloggers, only with bands rather than albums and singles. The idea of it is to figure out which bands currently have the most buzz on the Internets.
Kyle from ILB describes the process:
I emailed over 40 "music/MP3 bloggers" (since we are our own genre now) and asked them to send me a list, ranked 1-10, of the 10 best American bands that they've seen or heard in the last year. The purpose of this list is to reward bands for generating buzz in the year 2005. This isn't a ranking of career longevity. I wanted to know who people are using their bandwidth to talk about.
Overall, I'd have to say that it's a pretty good list, with the caveat that it's very Pitchfork-ish in nature. Most of the top 10 didn't really surprise me at all, especially #1. I had Ryan Adams as #1 on my list not so much because I wanted him to rank very highly, but because I thought he had a genuinely better year than anyone else on the list. He ended up #19 (peep my comments).
It was cool to see The Hold Steady (my #2, if I'm not mistaken) at #6.
Also, my list had more "mainstream" rock and hip-hop stuff. I was surprised to see Fall Out Boy, which I had ranked fairly highly, not even make the list. Other than the uber ubiquitous Green Day, they were one of the only rock bands I heard on the radio all year.
Checkit: The Top 40 Bands in America Today
Also, on the outside chance that anyone gives a shit, I set the site up now to where it will automatically post links (like these) everyday at some point in the morning (that I'm still figuring out). They're just the same ones I used to post here, but I figured it would be that much more intuitive if they were actually on the front page.
Bol, the Hold Steady is for avant-guard indie faggots. Its possibly the most embarassing band to listen to. you are truly teh ghey.
Posted by: danthrax | November 16, 2005 at 04:29 PM
Hi friends.
Posted by: Spiddy called first. | November 16, 2005 at 04:30 PM
>Bol, the Hold Steady is for avant-guard indie faggots. Its possibly the most embarassing band to listen to. you are truly teh ghey.
Whether or not bands can be embarassing for a man to listen to was covered in my article. You might want to check that out.
Nullus.
Posted by: Bol | November 16, 2005 at 04:33 PM
4th....
and all these bands on the list suck.
except DOOM that is...
Posted by: musaee | November 16, 2005 at 05:05 PM
ill pass on re-skimming your article.
a man should feel embarassed/awkward at at the vocalist's weird shane macgowan impression. its unsettling. Stop reading pitchfork.
Posted by: danthrax | November 16, 2005 at 05:08 PM
The links on the front page is a gully idea. They are one of my favorite parts of this site. It’s a clear sign that you can read and that you’re intelligent, which is true of only .000003 and ½ percent of hip-hop fans. I know, I know, a few people might have thought I would make a Black joke but I wanted to go in the other direction since it’s mostly WT who listen to rap music.
Posted by: Tony | November 16, 2005 at 05:17 PM
No Bloc Party??? What a joke. Bloc Party owns all of the bands on this homo list. They've released Silent Alarm remixed, two EPs, and a new single in 2005, not withstanding selling out every show here in the states and across the atlantic. WTF!?
Posted by: pirate | November 16, 2005 at 05:17 PM
^I'll roll up in any hood bumping Marc Cohn and the Moody Blues like WHAT!
Posted by: Bol | November 16, 2005 at 05:19 PM
^Don't forget 'Rumors' or 'Tusk'...
Posted by: Jesse Jackson | November 16, 2005 at 05:23 PM
>No Bloc Party??? What a joke.
Um, you might want to reread the title of this post.
And yeah, it was damn hard coming up with 10 American bands that were really worth a shit.
Posted by: Bol | November 16, 2005 at 05:24 PM
Happy to see that Iron and Wine made it up there.
Posted by: Bradlee | November 16, 2005 at 05:26 PM
Bol, they made you the token black dude like they made Kanye the token rap act. They should've just made it a "rock bands" only list to avoid this kind of bullshit where only one rapper in America is better than the likes of The Juan Maclean or other such indie throw away acts.
Posted by: NoFrontin | November 16, 2005 at 05:50 PM
As uneducated as I am in matters of indie rock, it's pretty obvious that some of the bands on there had no business being anywhere near the list. Green Day? Yeah right.
Posted by: Big Walt | November 16, 2005 at 07:00 PM
The world needs more Shane Macgowan impressions.
Posted by: SmoothJimmyApollo | November 16, 2005 at 11:10 PM
::rips off his shirt and thrashes around to Warrents Cherry Pie::
Posted by: Ray Earl | November 17, 2005 at 03:19 AM
i vote for the jones girls' "you gonna make me love somebody esle" i was all over the nigga pussy back in them days. i guess none of you jews even heard of this song. or that hoe who sang that song:
"we don't have to take our cloths off oh no, to have a good time oh no, we can dance & party all night and drink the cherry wine, nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah"
i was getting the pussy from some tall, big nigga woman who was like 6 foot 2 when that song was being played.
Posted by: ray earl | November 17, 2005 at 05:44 AM
I dont know about that list fam..... where's Maroon 5?
Posted by: jrs-one | November 17, 2005 at 05:39 PM
That list is a lot of bullshit.
Posted by: Snow Tight | December 08, 2005 at 07:49 PM