very good shout, but he's more 90s I'd have thought.

Kid A came out in 2000. Then you've got the Smile and all his solo stuff. I think he's head and shoulders above pretty much everyone on that list

Taylor Swift should be up there.

Red revolutionised the musical world as we know it today

I put him in Bales.

Heard 2 great records today for the first time

Don McLean - Vincent
Sade - Kiss of Life

Swift isn't going in the list

Don't know who Red is.

Red is her album

Taylor is more influential than 90% of the artists currently in the list

it's not about influence though it's about great musicians.
she's probably the world's best saleswoman, but she isn't a great musician!!

wasn't someone coming back on those blues numbers??

just produced the greatest list of songs ever written.
literally by anybody, ever.

When i was growing up, generally, girls listened to the spoon fed chart music and guys tended to look for something that was more raucous, that had edge, that had something to say. I'm not having a go at women but that's how it was, they would enjoy a simple ear worm they could dance to and guys tended to look for something cool and interesting with something to say.

Looking at this debate and seeing grown men debating over spoon fed pop garbage like The Weakened, Drake, Ed, Taylor etc...is heartbreaking.

You'll be telling me Bay City Rollers n Leo Sayer were the artists of the 70s next, Kylie and Whitney artists of the 80s and KLF and Oasis artists of the 90s.

Venture forth and discover real music people, it's out there, you don't know what you're missing.

yer

this thred is kinda hart-braking

comment by EDDIEVH (U8193)
posted 1 hour, 59 minutes ago
When i was growing up, generally, girls listened to the spoon fed chart music and guys tended to look for something that was more raucous, that had edge, that had something to say. I'm not having a go at women but that's how it was, they would enjoy a simple ear worm they could dance to and guys tended to look for something cool and interesting with something to say.

Looking at this debate and seeing grown men debating over spoon fed pop garbage like The Weakened, Drake, Ed, Taylor etc...is heartbreaking.

You'll be telling me Bay City Rollers n Leo Sayer were the artists of the 70s next, Kylie and Whitney artists of the 80s and KLF and Oasis artists of the 90s.

Venture forth and discover real music people, it's out there, you don't know what you're missing.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I know more of the greatest music of the 20th century than most, and regard whitney houston as arguably the greatest musical talent of the century.
to compare her to kylie minogue is total ignorance.

and that's nothing against kylie, who made her own mark in the music industry.

Yeah but the thread's called Greatest Musician.. Whitney was a great performer but she didn't write fack all or play instruments. Prolly objectively the best musician of the 21st century is whoever is writing songs for the like of Swift and wknd

This guy apparently
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Martin

it's not about music writers, it's about performers.
as i've said, if a performer also created the songs then they get credit.
i think that's right, but the greatest song writers is a different subject.

thanks for the kind words about Whitney.
She did have a role to play in arrangements in some situations incidentally, which she by all accounts genius at.

and I do agree that the list seems very very poor compared to periods in the 20th century.
I'd say probably at least a bit of that though, is just historical perspective. In 25 years a lot of the artists in this list will probably look a lot closer in terms of quality to names from the previous 25 years than they do now.
Just as the names then probably didn't look quite as great at that time as they do to us now.
Not saying that's the whole issue, I don't think it is, but I don't think it should be discounted.

But in any case, I don't agree with lamenting the days when women enjoyed dancing and fashion and men liked songs that sounded like they were articles out of volcano monthly magazine or the times politics section or the pipe smoker's almanac. The world has moved on and for the better.

When i was growing up guys tended to look for something that was more raucous, that had edge, that had something to say
------
We call them hipsters these days.

Maybe a better name for this particular list would be ‘Greatest Musical Artists’, rather than ‘Greatest Musicians’ ?

There’s a distinct lack of instrumental technical ability on the list at present.

I count about three artists remotely approaching virtuosity in instrumental musicianship. Arguably five or so if we’re including the vocal chords.

If Bales can have Thom Yorke then I can have Eminem

comment by Bãleș left boot (U22081)
posted 4 hours, 22 minutes ago
Yeah but the thread's called Greatest Musician.. Whitney was a great performer but she didn't write fack all or play instruments. Prolly objectively the best musician of the 21st century is whoever is writing songs for the like of Swift and wknd
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Writing songs for these kind of people isn’t remotely as difficult as the jobs the performers themselves do, holistically speaking.

The structures, chord progressions, melodies and arrangements are generally incredibly basic, as are the themes and lyrics in most cases. Your average Swift or wknd album will have a couple of tracks which might still be played on the radio in a decade’s time and eight or ten incredibly average filler tracks.

There’s an argument that the producers and techs who are refining/elaborating, laying down and mixing the tracks have a much trickier job than the songwriters.

The years of my 50 (well 51) greatest songs of all time:
1929
1951
1957
1958
1960
1961
1962
1964
1965
1966
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1971
1971
1971
1972
1972
1972
1974
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1982
1983
1984
1984
1985
1987
1989
1992
1992
1992
1994
1994
1995
1997
2007
2011
2011
2012
2013
2014
2016
2017

comment by rosso says the time has come to unlock the unlimited Pote-ntial of the Fernançalvemiro triumvirate (U17054)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by Bãleș left boot (U22081)
posted 4 hours, 22 minutes ago
Yeah but the thread's called Greatest Musician.. Whitney was a great performer but she didn't write fack all or play instruments. Prolly objectively the best musician of the 21st century is whoever is writing songs for the like of Swift and wknd
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Writing songs for these kind of people isn’t remotely as difficult as the jobs the performers themselves do, holistically speaking.

The structures, chord progressions, melodies and arrangements are generally incredibly basic, as are the themes and lyrics in most cases. Your average Swift or wknd album will have a couple of tracks which might still be played on the radio in a decade’s time and eight or ten incredibly average filler tracks.

There’s an argument that the producers and techs who are refining/elaborating, laying down and mixing the tracks have a much trickier job than the songwriters.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

If you look at the list as it stands, what we’re really talking about really is great aptitude/value in 1. showmanship and 2. marketability.

There are some great innovators on the list and some musically very talented people (in terms of songwriting, vocal ability and/or instrumentalism).

But equally there are some on there who don’t write music, who can’t sing any better than your average cabaret act, and who can’t play any instrument to any degree of virtuosity.

^ Not a criticism btw, just an observation.