Ombre Vivante

It depends by what you are referring to as "intergenerational." From talking with people from Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America they got a lot of airplay in the 80s - more than the other bands you mentioned (of which only Joy Division got their one hit single played to death on their radio stations). Hit single for single, Echo can match The Doors on recognition by casual radio listeners. Echo are a famous New Wave band. New Wave was a whole different generation from where The Doors came from. I'd venture to say someone who tunes in to their Classic Rock station can name 5 or 6 Doors songs and name 3 or 4 by Echo from listening to an 80s flashback hour from a Modern Rock station (I'm guessing they'd be: "The Cutter," "Lips Like Sugar," "The Killing Moon," and "People Are Strange"). Similarity in sound plays a HUGE part in this thread; at least in my mind. If a band doesn't like the other, then it simply does not belong in this topic. What are you talkin' about? Oasis was enormous in the 90s and they are renown for sounding a lot like The Beatles. It's not as if I'm comparing Real Life to The Scorpions (a very obscure comparison). Virtually most people who have albums by both bands will undeniably admit they sound like each other. I could probably find you various articles making such claims. Except they sound nothing like each other nor do they share thematic tendencies in their albums. The description you used could be applied to many other artists. Beck, to me, is more like the Prince of the 90s rather than David Bowie.

Not a fan of the movie. Honestly, the first thing I thought after watching the movie was that Jodie Foster was a fast and easy lay... but, then, it was Matthew McConaughey hehe.

The shadow of doubt has already been cast. That's some really poor judgment pete's got. It would be like doing "research" on illegal drugs by going out to buy them. Any normal person would've been locked-up for a couple of years for the same thing pete got caught doing. It's the way lawmen and police always say when they catch people doing something illegal, "Ignorance is no excuse."

I'm ambivalent towards the concept of "selling out." I've had similar discussions with music fans for years and I've come to the conclusion that, in the end, we all sell out - we all work for a living and musicians are no different. However, I do reserve the right to loathe artists for their actions and affiliations. Knowing that pete townshend paid to subscribe to see pictures of children being sexually abused is a good enough reason for me to not pay for his work, or listen to it, or care for it. I also can't listen to aerosmith and a few other bands and artists for various reasons. Well, I can listen to their music, but I loathe them anyway, and will never think of giving them a dime for their music. http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/369994p-314735c.html Guess what? The guy who paid these sell-outs to show up for the bat mitzvah is a death-merchant. His company allegedly sold defective bullet-proof vests to our army in Iraq, thereby literally making a killing in profits, and now we see this low-life shaking hands with tom petty, stevie nicks, and steve tyler (hey, isn't steve tyler the guy who adopted a 13-year old so he could have sex with her? Man, talk about "living on the edge" there... or maybe I'm thinking of the wrong frontman).

Japan was big in Japan.

This top 25 list is nearing the dangerous waters of Yacht Rock. The next 25 would probably include: Ambrosia Asia Bread Chicago... with Peter Cetera Pablo Cruise Pilot David Soul (oops, that's not a band) Toto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yacht_rock

Here are a few that came to mind. They're also staple favourites: - The Velvet Underground - Steely Dan - New York Dolls - Sparks (New Wave) - Blondie - Metallica - Chris Isaak - Guns 'N Roses - Mazzy Star - Beck

I immediately got this graemlin in my mind: Inspirational movies, inspirational movies. Definitely agree on Breaking Away. Here are some of mine: The Breakfast Club Clerks. Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead Ferris Bueller's Day Off Gregory's Girl Pump Up The Volume Real Genius (movie inspired me to go to uni) Rock 'N Roll High School This Is Spinal Tap Wayne's World Weird Science

I suddenly have a hankering for making love AND smoking a cancer stick... and I'm celibate AND don't smoke! Wat up wi dat?

TCM also doubles as the best television network out there. If there was a nuclear meltdown, I'd be pretty happy to live in a bunker if all I could get is TCM. Robert Osborne would be revered as a God in this post-apocalyptic future!

Japan is one of the greatest bands that ever lived. It was a band which everyone as a musician, and an artist in general, should aspire to become. They are the embodiment of what Oscar Wilde once said of artists: The best ones never gradually become better (i.e. they have no incline and decline in the quality of their work) - their work is a full circle. Duran Duran is the best facsimile of Japan. This is not a bad thing per se. After all, the catch-phrase "New Romantic" came from Duran Duran's 1981 single, "Planet Earth." But Japan crafted and perfected the New Romantic sub-genre with 1979's Quiet Life and 1980's Gentlemen Take Polaroids before there was a coin phrase for it. They are choice albums if you want to hear what the early 80s were truly about. Can "new" and "improved" really co-exist?

Probably a lot of BBC comedy, South American gameshows and soap operas, Japanese cartoons and drama series, and Russian newscasts (ha!).

If you don't mind me asking, how did Mecano get their start? (Was it a simple case of nepotism?). I recall their album Cielo Y Asfalto (or something like that) was pretty big in the mid 80s and got a couple of their other singles played in the late 80s. I only liked one or two songs, but they get mentioned often whenever one talks about Spanish music. As usual, the local scene is ten times better than what gets put out there for foreign markets. I, for one, would never have guessed people here would like Shakira's gargling songs or the son of Julio Iglesias's "bathroom-struggle" singing... or that Miami Sound Machine/Gloria Stefan and Ricky Martin would skyrocket in popularity. They are, plain and simple, some of the worst examples of Latin, or music by Hispanics, out there. However, there are some very popular performers who have done it on ability: Luis Miguel, Jose Jose, Jose Maria Napoleon, Jose Luis Rodriguez "El Puma," Emmanuel, Juan Gabriel, Los Iracundos, Diego Verdaguer, Carlos Mata, etc. Oldies, but goodies. Then, there are also the Freestylers (Johnny O, Cover Girls, Safire) in the US, but they're as regional as any of the ones from other countries.

Queen and Bon Jovi are no bantam weights in album sales. I don't know the exact album sales figures, but they should rank somewhere in the top 25 Rock bands - and I like Def Lep more than Bon Jovi! Heck, at the rate of sales alone they should've included KISS (hehe). I think the closest band to having a "futuristic" sound in this list is Pink Floyd (first sound that came to mind was the cash registre sample in their song "Money").

One strange detail I noticed (talk about being nit-picking), but I'm wondering what's so "futuristic" about the Def Leppard's music? I like the band. I own that album, Pyromania, and the Vault compilation. I don't hear anything "futuristic" at all in their songs. Futuristic music is abrassive and full of real noise bordering on electronic tendencies with sample tapes and loops, et cetera. I've never known Def Lep to take any risks like that, esp. in Hysteria. http://www.futurism.org.uk/music.htm http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/musicians.html It looks as if the word was hastily applied for lack of a clear description of what Def Lep really sounds like.

Yes, but in a top list of anything, if you want to refer to consistency of output the last thing you want to do is place a compilation of their work to say they're consistent. For all we know, the best hits compilation compiles the hit singles and leaves off the filler material they don't want to talk about.

I also noticed four of those bands have as an "essential album" a "best hits" compilation. That says little about the "consistency" of their actual albums. I'd definitely take out at least half of the bands in this list and place: - Steely Dan (many times better than anything Santana could muster) - Roxy Music - The Velvet Underground - Queen - Bon Jovi - T. Rex - Metallica - Rush - Blondie - The Cars (or Cheap Trick) - The Ramones

Hi, my name is "Bitter Almonds" and I'm just recovering.

Probably Dream Theatre, but to ye I say, "Abandon all hope all who enter that realm of pretentiousness." I'd stick with the classics. You could always try Goblin, who did scores for Dario Argento films and other Italohorror and Eurotrash movies. They began as a band called Cherry 5, but changed their name to Goblin. They've been cranking out some decent Proggy stuff since the mid-70s. Their best score is for Joe D'Amato's gorefest titled Buio Omega.

There are plenty of exciting and popular bands that should have made the "top 25": Guns 'N Roses instead of Def Leppard, for instance. Rush instead of something like Boston. Nirvana, even! Easy, easy pickin' there. I wouldn't think of choosing The Pretenders, Blondie, Heart, Garbage, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, et al. as "controversial" in the least - just giving credit where credit is due. It would show some good taste for the popular stuff. By looking at this top 25, it makes me think white noise has more sonic flavour since this list is 25 same flavours for "boring." This list is on cruise control and the speed setting is [boring]. If this list got any more boring it would be used as a general anesthetic. The only way I'd read another "top 25" from about.com would be in terms of the top 25 things I don't want about.com to make a "top 25" list out of.

That's kool and the gang, man. Another tought crossed my mind, "There is no HEART in this list!" I mean that literally and metaphorically.

Hehe. Yes, because I've already said why.

Yeah, I changed my mind back there. It's not a boring list at all - it's a very boring list.

The source does matter. As you stated, "If it was this-or-that" music magazine, the list would be different. If it was pitchfork media, I'd expect to not have heard almost half the junk they list. If it was Rolling Stone magazine, I'd expect it to be about Rock. If it was Blender, they include some new bands and artists, etc. The fact this list omits artists just because they don't belong to a band makes the list even more boring: No Elvis, No Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Billy Joel (i.e. artists who would certainly make a general top list of top 40 Pop Rock). And where are the womyns? No Blondie, Garbage, and The Pretenders? This is why it's a boring list.