DTF's Top 50 Bands/Artists Countdown Thread! (the final list)

[HOF]

Deep In The Motherload is another good call. For a long time that was my favorite from ATTWT, but I've come to really like Snowbound over the years.

[twosuitsluke]

You know, I don't think I've ever really listened to much by Genesis. I know my Dad lent me a copy of Foxtrot, years ago, but I don't remember much about it. I know I've listened to Selling England by the Pound as well, but I think that's it (possibly Nursery Cryme).

I'm might check out a few more albums, what's the general consensus on the best ones, or maybe a few that show off different sides to their sound?

[SomeoneLikeHim]

Try Trick of the Tail and Duke for two of the best Collins albums that are also very different. Trick is the first album after Gabriels departure and still features Steve Hackett while Duke is the perfect "hybrid" album between pop and prog Genesis.

[twosuitsluke]

I'll give them a try. I don't mind pop as such, but generally I really don't like that 80s pop sound. I have a feeling the 80s albums are not gonna be my thing at all, but I'll always give new music a shot.

[SomeoneLikeHim]

If you are in for a dense and occassionally absurd double concept album you can give The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway a listen as well. It took me a while to get into but it is now one of my favorites.

[jingle.boy]

Never mind!!!

I hadn’t seen Opeth had already been done and I missed it.

The world makes more sense now.

I was wondering if you had missed the Opeth entry.   

[KevShmev]

My favorite songs:
Albums:
- Trespass:  The Knife
- Nursery Cryme:  The Musical Box
- Foxtrot: Supper’s Ready
- Selling England: Cinema Show
- The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway: Probably the title track, but "The Colony Of Slippermen" is a hidden gem
- Trick Of The Tail:  Ripples
- Wind And Wuthering:  One For The Vine (or Unquiet Slumbers for Sleepers in That Silent Earth, but it's all good)
- And Then There Were Three: Deep In The Motherlode
- Duke:  Duchess (or Cul-de-sac; another impossible one to choose from)
- Abacab: Me And Sarah Jane
- Genesis: Home By The Sea (both parts, but especially part 2)
- Invisible Touch:  Domino
- We Can't Dance: Fading Lights
- Calling All Stations:  The Dividing Line (or Not About Us)

B-Sides (just picking a few but there are lots more good ones):
- Evidence of Autumn (one of my favorite songs by the band)
- You Might Recall
- It's Yourself
- Paperlate

I'll play this game!

My favorite songs:
Albums:
- Trespass: The Knife
- Nursery Cryme: The Fountain of Salmacis (I still don't quite get the "hype" for The Musical Box)
- Foxtrot: Supper’s Ready
- Selling England: Firth of Fifth (but ask me tomorrow and it will be The Cinema Show)
- The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway: In the Cage from Disc 1, The Lamia from Disc 2
- Trick Of The Tail: Mad Man Moon (by a hair over Entangled)
- Wind And Wuthering:  One For The Vine (although Blood on the Rooftops may overtake it here soon)
- And Then There Were Three: Burning Rope
- Duke: Heathaze
- Abacab: Abacab
- Genesis: Mama
- Invisible Touch:  Land of Confusion (loved it like crazy when I first heard it in '86 and still do)
- We Can't Dance: Fading Lights
- Calling All Stations: N/A

[King Postwhore]

Driving In the last Spike would be mine from We Can't Dance.

[KevShmev]

Driving In the last Spike would be mine from We Can't Dance.

That would be a close second for me.  I don't have much use for most of the rest of that record (No Son of Mine is pretty good), and I Can't Dance remains one of the biggest piece of shit hits by any great band ever, but Fading Lights and Driving the Last Spike is a great 1-2 punch.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Never mind!!!

I hadn’t seen Opeth had already been done and I missed it.

The world makes more sense now.

I was wondering if you had missed the Opeth entry.   

There is also another O band that I had thought would surely make the top 25, so the almost certainly inevitable outcome of not even making the top 50 is quite surprising given the demographic here. 

[ReaperKK]

One of my personal favorites makes number 6

06. Pink Floyd
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Spotify Profile
Monthly Spotify Streams: 18,524,036
Highest Finish: 1 (Dave_Manchester)
Number of top 10 finishes: 9
Number of Lists appeared on: 22 (coz, DTwwbwMP, jingle.boy, Metropolaris, ReaperKK, Stadler, SwedishGoose, Vmadera00, Dave_Manchester, Zydar, jammindude, King Puppies and the Acid Guppies, The Letter M, PMSummer, Sacul, CharlesPL, SomeoneLikeHim, elefantStone, Evermind, bosk1, Zoom E, MustActFastToCoverUp)

For the longest time Pink Floyd was my number 1 band. Funny enough I'm down in Florida visiting my family and my mom gave me a bunch of 50 disc spindles of burned cd's I had from when I was a middle/high schooler, over half were Pink Floyd mix cd's. Currently they sit at number 5 for me, which is largely do to overplaying on my part. PF is one of the rare bands with a big discography and one I enjoy completely. Glad to see them here.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Love DSotM, enjoy some of their other material, but just haven't spent nearly enough time with it for them to truly be a favorite.  You can probably trace the origin of a lot of the atmospheric qualities I like in studio music back to their work.  They're just vocally a bit bland for my tastes, which would probably limit their ceiling. 

[PMSummer]

#3 for me, tbh expected them to be top three here as well!

[Evermind]

If anything, I'm surprised they're this low. I would've said Top 3 for sure with R and D.

25. Judas Priest
24.
23.
22. Fates Warning
21.
20. Opeth
19.
18. Evergrey
17. Katatonia
16. Riverside
15. Helloween
14.
13.
12.
11. Pain of Salvation
10.
9. Steven Wilson
8.
7. Nightwish
6. Haken
5.
4.
3.
2. Pink Floyd
1. Ayreon

I lumped them with David Gilmour solo material which made this a no-brainer. Without it, I would've likely had them in Top 5, but not quite this high. Unfortunately did not see any of them live, Pink Floyd or solo. The closest I've got is 1) purchasing tickets for Ayreon's The Theater Equation a year in advance and finding out Gilmour planned his Rattle That Lock tour at the same dates but in another European country, and we couldn't attend unfortunately, and 2) seeing Brit Floyd in 2017, which was cool, but obviously not the real thing. I had a chance to see Roger Waters performing The Wall and in retrospect I probably should've done that just to see it performed, but at the time I was (and probably still is) in the "I don't want to give Roger Waters more money" camp.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

DT is fundamentally a metal band more than anything else, especially in the past couple decades, so it's fascinating how many rock bands are placing as high as they are. 

[ReaperKK]

I was too young to see PF live in any incarnation (except the Live 8 thing which wasn't really gonna happen) but last month I saw Brit Floyd and I have to say it's a killer show. Not only do they sound exactly like PF, they light show is near identical to the PULSE tour in spots, albeit a bit toned down. I had my reservations about seeing them but now I'm completely sold.

I have a bunch of PF boots, and Brit Floyd did better playing PF than PF.

[KevShmev]

Pink Floyd would have finished 6th on my list, so I would have nailed its spot (unless my ranking would have moved it up).  They were top 3 for me for a long time, but have been surpassed by a few "newer" bands since, and it doesn't help that I find a decent amount of their material to be forgettable.  That said, The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon are possibly my two favorite albums ever, and I have mad love for The Division Bell, Animals and Wish You Were Here as well.

[jingle.boy]

Not the P I was expecting this morning.  I had them a little low, if only for the fact that everything pre-Meddle is unlistenable for me.  Meddle is salvaged by One of These Days, and then everything after that is Gold - The Final Cut notwithstanding; it's ok, but definitely the worst of the bunch.  Took me a long time to really appreciate Animals; The Wall is Top 10 all-time for me - I listened the fuck out of that in my teens.  Welcome to the Machine is a Top 10 song of all time for me.  Now that I think about it, I probably rated them a little too low at 14.

25. Queen (23)
24. Van Halen (13)
23. Nada
22. Nope
21. Uh-uh
20. Queensryche (8) <99% certain>
19. Nah
18. No
17. Guaranteed
16. I could be the only one that voted for them
15. I'm definitely the only one that voted for them
14. Pink Floyd (6) <Fo Sho>
13. Evergrey (43)
12. I'm not sure why I even voted for them!
11. Nightwish (40)
10. Me and King only
9. Nope
8. Symphony-X (50)
7. Highly unlikely, and I'm stunned they didn't make the Top 50.
6. Spock's Beard (28)
5. Criminally, no
4. Ayreon (29)
3. Without a doubt
2. Bet my annual salary
1. Led Zeppelin (10) <99% certain>

[TheHoveringSojourn808]

Pink Floyd is timeless; they didn't make my list but i still remember the first time I heard Dark Side of the Moon.

Meddle is my favorite Floyd record, followed closely by Animals. my PF Hot Take is i really don't care for The Wall at all. The film is 100x better IMO

[Zydar]

I had Pink Floyd at #15. That stretch of albums from Meddle to The Wall is fantastic. DSOTM may be overplayed or whatever, but it's still a Top 10 album for me (and Animals is not far behind).

[nick_z]

Pink Floyd was NR for me.

They are perhaps the "biggest" classic band I have trouble connecting to. They are clearly beloved - not just here on DTF but around the world. Over the years, I bought most of their studio albums and did deep dives, more than once. There's obviously plenty of great stuff but, overall, something about them rubs me the wrong way, I don't know. Often I feel I enjoy the influence PF's music has had on many of the bands I like more than PF itself. As an overall album experience, I'd probably say Animals is my favorite. High Hopes is likely my favorite song of theirs.

[SwedishGoose]

Up to 10

Pink Floyd
I have them at number 5.
Such a fantastic output. Both with and without Roger Waters.
I managed to see them live twice on the Momentary Lapse of Reason tour. In 1988 in Oslo and in 1989 in Stockholm. Amazing concerts both of them.
Love Piper at the Gates of Dawn through to Division Bell.
Favorites are Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. But I love all their output.


Not rated
Symphony X , Miles Davis, Avenged Sevenfold, Allagoch,
Scorpions, The Dear Hunter, Frank Zappa, Evergrey, UFO, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Nightwish, Katatonia, Halloween, Between the Buried and Me, Anathema, Radiohead, Big Big Train, Megadeath, Riverside, Spock's Beard, Neal Morse, Devin Townsend, Mastodon, Black Sabbath, Marillion, Judas Priest, Van Halen, Fates Warning, Haken, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Queensrÿche, Genesis

25
24
23
22
21 Transatlatic  (favorite album: The Absolute Universe - Forevermore, favorite song: Duel With the Devil)
20
19 Steven Wilson (favorite album: The Raven That Refused To Sing,  favorite song:  The Raven That Refused To Sing)
18 Queen  (favorite album: Innuendo favorite song: The Show Must  Go On)
17
16
15 Yes   (Favorite album: Close to the Edge, favorite song:Roundabout)
14 Opeth (Favorite album: In Cauda Veneum (swedish), favorite song: Deliverance)
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6 Pain of Salvation  (favorite album: BE, favorite song: Undertow)
5 Pink Floyd (favorite album: Dark Side of the Moon, favorite song: Wish You Were Here)
4 Ayreon (favorite album: The Human Equation, favorite song: Valley of the Queens)
3 Peter Gabriel  (favorite album: US, favorite song: Here Comes The Flood)
2 King Crimson  (favorite album: Red, favorite song: Starless)
1

[SoundscapeMN]

6 for 6.

5 for 5.

4 for 4.

I made a prediction the other day with 11 bands/artists left and so far I'm 3 for 3.

D
-Genesis
-Haken
I
-Led Zeppelin
M
-Pink Floyd
P
-Queensryche
R
-The Beatles

that being said, if these are all correct, than there were some pretty big snubs considering some of the names that made the list already.

[lonestar]

6 for 6.

5 for 5.

4 for 4.

I made a prediction the other day with 11 bands/artists left and so far I'm 3 for 3.

D
-Genesis
-Haken
I
-Led Zeppelin
M
-Pink Floyd
P
-Queensryche
R
-The Beatles

that being said, if these are all correct, than there were some pretty big snubs considering some of the names that made the list already.

We had the same final 10 guessed.


I definitely would've had Floyd in my top 10,maybe 5.

[Sacul]

Great band indeed. I probably need to revisit some of their first records tho.

[jammindude]

Hot take… as much as I love Dark Side and beyond, it was Piper along with the Syd singles that elevated them to #4 on my list. Without that, they probably would’ve been just outside the top 10.

[The Letter M]

One of my personal favorites makes number 6

06. Pink Floyd
Rate Your Music Profile!
Spotify Profile
Monthly Spotify Streams: 18,524,036
Highest Finish: 1 (Dave_Manchester)
Number of top 10 finishes: 9
Number of Lists appeared on: 22 (coz, DTwwbwMP, jingle.boy, Metropolaris, ReaperKK, Stadler, SwedishGoose, Vmadera00, Dave_Manchester, Zydar, jammindude, King Puppies and the Acid Guppies, The Letter M, PMSummer, Sacul, CharlesPL, SomeoneLikeHim, elefantStone, Evermind, bosk1, Zoom E, MustActFastToCoverUp)

For the longest time Pink Floyd was my number 1 band. Funny enough I'm down in Florida visiting my family and my mom gave me a bunch of 50 disc spindles of burned cd's I had from when I was a middle/high schooler, over half were Pink Floyd mix cd's. Currently they sit at number 5 for me, which is largely do to overplaying on my part. PF is one of the rare bands with a big discography and one I enjoy completely. Glad to see them here.

NR: Miles Davis, Symphony X, Agalloch, The Deer Hunter, Frank Zappa, Evergrey, UFO, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Nightwish, Katatonia, Helloween, Between The Buried And Me, Anathema, Radiohead, Peter Gabriel, Megadeth, Pain Of Salvation, Devin Townsend, Coheed And Cambria, Mastodon, Tool, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Opeth, Van Halen, Fates Warning, Led Zeppelin, Queensryche

29  King Crimson
28  Marillion
27  The Beatles
26  Queen
25  (Leave this band behind)
24  (Interesting but not looking quite good)
23  (Most unlikely)
22  Pink Floyd
21  (Not likely)
20  Riverside
19  (Most likely not)
18  (Unlikely)
17  (Unfortunately not lucky enough)
16  (Pretty sure they won't make it)
15  (Only if hell freezes over)
14  Steven Wilson
13  Yes
12  Genesis
11  (This outfit won't make it)
10  Ayreon
09  Haken
08 
07  Neal Morse
06  Spock's Beard
05 
04 
03  Transatlantic
02  (Totally nother making it)
01  Big Big Train

Went to bed last night spinning WYWH, my favorite PF album, in the hopes that the band will pop up today and look! I think I've already Floyded myself out this season after the countdown we had, but I'll never get tired of WYWH (the album).

I've filled in some of my list's blanks where I think those bands aren't going to be in the top five. The three blanks seem very likely though, and you could all guess who they are.

-Marc.

[Mladen]

I would have had Pink Floyd at #8. Not the most consistent discography overall, but the stuff that is great is just spectacular.

[HOF]

Not in my top 25 or really considered for it.

I prefer the Gilmour era of PF, love The Division Bell, and enjoy certain Gilmour dominated tracks from earlier on like Comfortably numb. Dark Side of the Moon is also a very cool album. I don’t care for Roger Waters and get bored with a lot of their stuff.

There’s a good bit of irony here because Floyd are clearly one of the biggest influences on my favorite band, Marillion, as well as a bunch of other bands I like. Kind of like The Beatles I guess where I like the music born from their influence better than their own music.

[Indiscipline]

Top 5 for me. The second most progressive act ever and the prettiest sounding of all.

[Buddyhunter1]

I didn't rank Pink Floyd, but I'm glad they're here. Their run from DSOTM to Animals is wonderful, and there's some gems on their other albums like Echoes. I didn't rank them because there's too much of their discography I'm just not that familiar with.

[TAC]

Wow, this Top 10 had basically told me to fuck off.

I expect the Top 5 to be nicer.

[Stadler]

I'll give them a try. I don't mind pop as such, but generally I really don't like that 80s pop sound. I have a feeling the 80s albums are not gonna be my thing at all, but I'll always give new music a shot.

If you listen to Selling England..., Wind And Withering, Duke and Invisible Touch and don't like it, then you probably aren't going to be a fan.

[Stadler]

NR Frank Zappa
NR Steven Wilson
NR Devin Townsend
NR Tool
NR Symphony X
NR Spock's Beard
NR Riverside
NR Radiohead
NR Queensryche
NR Pain Of Salvation
NR Opeth
NR Nightwish
NR Megadeth
NR Mastodon
NR Katatonia
NR Judas Priest
NR Helloween
NR Haken
NR Godspeed You! Black Emperor
NR Fates Warning
NR Evergrey
NR The Deer Hunter
NR Miles Davis
NR Coheed And Cambria
NR Big Big Train
NR Between The Buried And Me
NR Ayreon
NR Avenged Sevenfold
NR Anathema
NR Allagoch
53 King Crimson (Red, Larks Tongue In Aspic, ITCOTCK)
47 Peter Gabriel (US, So, Car)
35 Scorpions (Taken By Force, Lovedrive, Animal Magnetism)
34 UFO (Mechanix, SITN, Force It)
30 Transatlantic (The Whirlwind, Bridge Across Forever, The Absolute Universe)
26 Van Halen (Fair Warning, A Different Kind Of Truth, 1984)



25  Sadly, not a shot
24  Sadly, not a shot
23  Pink Floyd
22  Queen (Queen II; Innuendo; A Kind Of Magic)
21  Given
20  Given. SHOULD BE a Given, but given this crowd - see what I did there - sadly, "Probably not"
19  Probably not; they are a classic, but don't seem to get much love here
18  Sadly, not a shot
17  Sadly, not a shot
16  Given. SHOULD BE a Given, but given this crowd - see what I did there - sadly, "Probably not"
15  Probably not; it's an offshoot of another band here and it won't likely make the grade
14  Sadly, not a shot
13  Sadly, not a shot
12  Neal Morse. (And yes, I lumped.). (Innocence and Danger; The Grand Experiment; TSOAD)
11  Black Sabbath (Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Sabotage, Heaven and Hell)
10  Sadly, not a shot
9  Given
8  Probably not; his more popular (here) incarnation already appeared
7  Given
6  Marillion (Clutching At Straws, Misplaced Childhood, Brave)
5  Yes (Going For The One, Fragile, Close To The Edge)
4  Led Zeppelin (Physical Graffiti, IV, How The West Was Won)
3. Kiss (Rock And Roll Over; Creatures Of The Night; Hotter Than Hell)
2  Genesis (Wind And Wuthering, Duke, The Lamb...]
1  The Beatles (Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper, Revolver)

4 for 5 on givens.

Love Floyd; they could have been higher, but there are bands I go to more frequently.   But there's no mistaking their legendary quality.

[nick_z]

There’s a good bit of irony here because Floyd are clearly one of the biggest influences on my favorite band, Marillion, as well as a bunch of other bands I like. Kind of like The Beatles I guess where I like the music born from their influence better than their own music.

Yep, as I wrote above, that's basically how I feel too...

Interesting observation about Pink Floyd and Marillion, though...I wouldn't necessarily think of PF as the biggest influence there, but maybe it's more so with the recent material...?

Wow, this Top 10 had basically told me to fuck off.

I expect the Top 5 to be nicer.

 

Not great for me either, so far. I have 1 in the aggregate top 10 and two in the top 15 so far.  I do expect to hit 4 out of the top 5, though (unless I'm wildly wrong about what's to come)