| Well…I think it is time to discover more of my musical taste. Let’s do something basic and easy. I am going to rank down my top 5 favorite music artists of all-time! Those five artists altered my life and most of all, shape my character as a whole. Have fun reading this list and please respect my opinions at all costs. | |
| #5 – TEARS FOR FEARS | |
| Tears for Fears are to me without question the best artist to come out of the new wave era. To be honest, they have such an organic sound that no other new wave band at that time had. That is why I sometimes consider 1985’s “Songs from the Big Chair” to be the greatest album of all time. Another reason why I think “Songs” is the greatest album of all time is because each song on that album sounds completely different from one another. It is very hard to choose my favorite song from them because whenever I listen to a song from them whether it is “Head over Heels”, “Mothers Talk”, and “Listen”, there is always expertise musicianship in each of those songs that it kind of harkens an ‘80’s Steely Dan to be honest. Even if their other albums are spotty, I enjoy almost every one of their seven albums they released. I love their darker pop sheen they incorporate on some of their songs from the dark wave-driven 1983 debut, “The Hurting” with excellent staples such as “Change”, “Start of the Breakdown”, and “Pale Shelter”. They are great at creating a Beatle-esque sound with “Secret World” and “Sowing the Seeds of Love”. I think Roland Orzabal is to me the most underrated musician in the world where he has such powerful sensibilities as a songwriter, a vocalist, and a guitarist. His fiery guitar-playing on songs such as the ambient piece “Listen” and “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” is absolutely god-tier. I like the hints of ‘90’s grunge that Roland incorporates on the band’s ‘90’s albums “Elemental” and “Raoul and the Kings of Spain”. They may have a hard time juggling genres, but I think Roland and his co-founding member of Tears for Fears, Curt Smith throughout their tenure have understood the assignment for Tears for Fears for forty-five years. | |
| #4 – ELTON JOHN | |
| I can argue that this artist might have the single greatest discography in the history of mankind. There is a reason why many Elton fans were applauding for him at his last North American concert when he diverged from the stage. He covered almost every single genre such as gospel (“Border Song”), R&B (“Who Wears These Shoes?”), hard rock (“Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting”), disco (“Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”), country (“Roy Rogers”), and even reggae (“Jamaica Jerk-Off”). He of course perfects ballads the best with “Empty Garden”, “Someone Saved My Life Tonight”, and “Daniel”. He is one of the aficionados of pop music songwriting who is rightfully up there with Jeff Lynne and Paul McCartney. I do of course love his classic golden-era from the ‘70’s with the excellent musicianship of Nigel Olsson and Davey Johnstone. However, there is something with his early ‘80’s dark period that always makes me go back mostly because I love yacht rock and Steve Lukather might be my all-time favorite guitarist. I of course do not love every era of Elton John because most of his mid to late ‘80’s albums do not hold up very well. I like some of his recent material including his collaboration album “The Union” with the late Leon Russell and some of “The Diving Board” album. Of course, future piano rockers like Billy Joel and Ben Folds would copy and paste Elton’s pop formula, but even if I am a huge Billy Joel fan, I do not think they come too close to his pedestal. Elton John to me is the essential piano man. | |
| #3 – MADONNA | |
| Once I heard her music for the first time as an eight year-old, I knew I was in for something special. To me, Madonna never paled in comparison to other female pop artists at that time like Tiffany and Gloria Estefan because she adds such a sophisticated feel to her pop melodies. If it was not for the pop genius of Patrick Leonard, Madonna would not have her core melodic aspects she is known to the public today. I do love her early energetic dance-pop music with her self-titled debut and “Like a Virgin”, but when she released “True Blue” and “Like a Virgin”, that is where she hit her undeniable peak adding unforgettable and sophisticated classics such as “Like a Prayer”, “Pray for Spanish Eyes”, and what I sometimes consider the greatest pop single ever with “Live to Tell”. Patrick Leonard’s iconic keyboard riffs in the beginning and before the bridge of “Live to Tell” perfectly add the mature themes to the song. Madonna to me does not have that instant classic album like an “Abbey Road”. The only time she has come close to an artistic statement like this is “Like a Prayer”, but it does not come close to a B+. Just because Madonna does not have a high-grade album doesn’t mean that her hits have such a powerful momentum. I love some of her hits post ‘80’s like “This Used to Be My Playground”, “Take a Bow”, and “Hung Up”. However, I share my opinion that I do not like any of her recent albums and they completely lose that same magic Madonna had in the ‘80’s. On those albums, she just follows the current trends of music that are blaring on the radio to this very day. No offense to Billie Ellish, Taylor Swift, and Lady Gaga, but no other current pop artist can truly have an impact like Madonna did. | |
| #2 – THE BEATLES/PAUL MCCARTNEY (TIE) | |
| The Beatles will always be known as the artist that not just got me into rock n’ roll, but also gave me an entirely new perspective of my musical taste in general. I may respect more than love their early teen beat era, but when they got creative and innovative with “Rubber Soul”, that is where they truly won me over as an artist. I remember as an eleven-year old boy getting both the red and blue compilations at Wal-Mart and that is where everything changed for me. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr are some of the greatest musicians of all-time. I appreciate them because they demonstrated a kind of rock and roll formula where like Madonna, it cannot ever be repeated in music history. Not just that, they were the rivals of the psychedelic music movement of the late ’60’s. For me, I love both “The White Album” and “Abbey Road” because of how playful and creative musicianship there is. There could be times where I could consider “Abbey Road” the greatest album of all-time because of its iconic song selection. They created some of the greatest pop songs of all-time like “Hello, Goodbye”, “In My Life”, “Martha My Dear”, and “Revolution”. I don’t think I will ever get sick and tired of hearing this artist in my life because of how much they altered my life. | |
| I can honestly say right now that Paul McCartney’s entire solo catalog is much better than The Beatles in many ways. As you can tell from my enthusiasm, Paul McCartney is my all-time favorite Beatle. I love how much genres he has experimented throughout the fifty-two years of his career. He rings very familiar bells of Todd Rundgren. Paul at times can get very weird and is an expertise multi-instrumentalist like Todd. Another great characteristic of Paul’s solo career is that he can turn a simple-Simon song into a progressive pop masterwork. If a song like “My Love” was passed on to someone like Don McLean, he would not make that song justice. That is what makes Paul McCartney an outlier out of all of the Beatles solo careers. Like Elton John, I think he made some bangers in the 1980’s (especially “Press”), but most of his albums from that decade do not hold up very well. Nonetheless, he is the only artist I can think of that I can comfortably listen to every era of. I think his best era is his ‘70’s with his backing band, Wings. In that particular era, he wrote (to me) some of the most essential songs of the 1970’s with “Silly Love Songs” and “Listen to What the Man Said”. Also, “Band on the Run” is one of my favorite albums of the ‘70’s. In more recent songs like “See Your Sunshine” and “Young Boy”, I can tell that Paul McCartney has not lost his touch with pop songwriting. Without a doubt, Paul McCartney is my favorite solo career ever. | |
| #1 – ELO Gee, I think it seems like that 2012 is the game-changing year when it comes to my musical taste. When I and my parents were on a journey to search for chicken sandwiches at Dairy Queen, I heard the opening piano chords that sounded ominous, but ear-catching. It was a song called “Evil Woman”. They were this ambitious and theatrical band called Electric Light Orchestra. They are still my all-time favorite band. I could argue that Jeff Lynne is arguably the greatest pop songwriter in existence. He pushes so many boundaries with grandeur string arrangements and delectable hooks that are a perfect representation of 1970’s music. When hearing “Out of the Blue” for the first time as a twelve year-old, it felt like it was unlike any other album I have ever heard before. Their early progressive rock albums could be a hit or miss with their dark and grim pretentiousness (Yes, I’m talking to you “Eldorado”), but to me, their albums after that like “Face the Music” and the aforementioned “Out of the Blue” perfectly showcase their true colors as a joyful and theatrical pop band. I could argue too that they perfected disco music more than any other rock band during the ’70’s. “Last Train to London” and “Shine a Little Love” are absolute bangers from them. I even like some of their ‘80’s material from “Time” and “Secret Messages”. Everything after those albums do not have that same charm from their 1970’s era. This band is the reason why I love not just art rock artists of the ‘70’s, but also artists who have multi-layered vocals. Electric Light Orchestra is the band I hug the most in life. | |
| I hope that you enjoyed this list of my favorite music artists of all-time. Please as always like and comment on this post, and follow my Turbulent Cinema account on Twitter and on turbulentcinema.com! | |
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Top 5 Favorite Music Artists of All Time!
