Monday, August 01, 2005

TOTP - Top Ten British Bands In Terms Of Success Or Influence

Jon has taken a well deserved break, but Mark from the Tarten Podcast has very kindly agreed to give the pub a miss for the evening and guest-present the show. Today we bring you a list from Billy, who has done one of the first music lists we have had sent to topofthepods@gmail.com for a long time:-

  • 10 – Radiohead
  • 9 – The Specials
  • 8 – Duran Duran
  • 7 – The Happy Mondays
  • 6 – Joy Division
  • 5 – Led Zeppelin
  • 4 – Sex Pistols
  • 3 - The Rolling Stones
  • 2 – Queen
  • 1 – The Beatles

Quite frankly we haven't done many music top ten lists on http://www.topofthepods.com/, so please send us more. However, we've added the phrase 'Celine Dion' and 'Crazy Frog' to our spam filter - so beware.

Oh, its the first of the month, so please take a trip to Podcast Alley and vote for us and any other shows that you think deserve going in the Podcast Alley Top 10 - we'd really appreciate it.


21 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are some other bands I either forgot about, or just ignored :

Massive Attack,
The Prodigy,
The Smiths (whoops),
... and so many more...

Billy.

Anonymous said...

Zep should be higher

Anonymous said...

i agree with the bands in the top 5 just not the order. it should be
5. Sex pistols
4. queen
3. the stones
2. The beatles
1 led zep

I know a lot of people will be going "what! the beatles are the greatest thing to happen to this country yada yada ya" but the thing is, Zeppelin have a lot longer "lifetime" than the beatles. Compared to the beatles led zep are considered way 'cooler' with the teens and have yet to go out of fashion. Millions of teenagers still listen to them.


Also all the bands in the top 5 are there because they were not just sucsessful but also very influential. for instance the Sex pistols invented punk rock and zep were the first major hard rock band. the beatles didnt "invent" pop. they were just going along with the british invasion.

Anonymous said...

Very good bands, i love this list!
Donnie Darko is an AMAZING movie.
Watch it.

Anonymous said...

I should point out that I don't really like the Stones or Led Zep (sorry). But in influence/success terms they're much higher than radiohead.

The only reason that the list contained so much from the 60's-80's and not so much from the 90's was that it's harder to judge the historic success or influence of newer bands (Coldplay for instance).

Oh - and I'm from ever-sunny Glasgow btw. I should have put that on the list ;-)


Billy.

P.S The "Rrrrrrrrrrock!" on Lez Zep's listing was supposed to be ironic ;-)

Anonymous said...

Oh - and The Specials! You can read more about them at the wikipedia :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Specials

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Tone

They weren't as depressing as you make out. Oh - and it was a member of The Specials who recorded "Free Nelson Mandela"... it wasn't a joke :-)

digitaldion (Dion Forster) said...

Yup, not a joke at all! I got beat up in 1989 for wearing a t-shirt that said "Free Nelson Mandela" on the front and "stop apartheid" on the back....

Those were bad days in South Africa!

However, I believe it was members of the Specials called Special AKA who recorded "Free Nelson Mandela"?

Top Of The Pods said...

Ooops! When I said 'Free Nelson Mandela' was a joke I meant that it was slipped into the list as an 'influential' British record. In terms of an influential and successful records politically, then yes, it had the desired effect. Good on 'em.

I’m a bit cynical of these types of records; although they do a lot of good in the world I don’t really rate them musically which was how I thought the list was being rated. ‘Do they know its Christmas?’ was the exception, but if you expect me to like Gareth Gates rendition of ‘Spirit in the Sky’ just because it’s for a good cause then you’ll be disappointed.

I’m off to try and entice Mark out of the boozer for tonight’s show with a big bottle of vodka...

Rob

Anonymous said...

another great podcast! i like the music ones as much as the stupid ones. please do ph's list at the end of the next episode!

edzeppelin said...

that post before about the top 5 was a little biased because i'm big zeppellin fan

digitaldion (Dion Forster) said...

Life is far too important to be taken seriously! ;-)

Anonymous said...

vodka? You're forgetting who sponsors me mate...

[Disclaimer: the tartanpodcast is not sponsored by anyone. Fact.]

MrHopcroft said...

Mark, i am a huge fan of the tartan podcast but you are mental sir!!

The rolling stones are responsible for almost all the genres of music that you play on the tartanpodcast!

Mic jagger is a legend and on stage is remarkable, im 21 years old and saw them live 2years ago! amazin...

Anonymous said...

In terms of meeting the influence and success criteria I would have put Pink Floyd in there (but then I am knocking on a bit).

Charlie

podcastpaul said...

Happy Mondays....huh!!!! eh????? They were about as influential on British music as my Nan was to Mike Tyson's boxing!

The Specials were great but hardly influential - I agree.

Oasis were so heavily influenced by the Beatles they're superfluous.

I think this list changes with the age you are - I'm creeping towards 40 so sme of my stuff changes, nevertheless, you cannot argue with no. 1. The Beatles were a massive influence with the run downs, McCartney's influence of Jazz, Lennon's brilliance and Harrison's pokey guitar playing.. and dare I say it ('cos I think he was a terrible drummer) the driving back beat of Ringo. Lennon and McCartney were later influenced by ELO who broke the mould with expirementation.

The Sex pistols were unashamadely crap - each admitted they couldn't play or sing. They were the Spice girls of their day and a real fad. Malcolm McLaren put them together for nothing more than to make money - he clearly accepts that. Anarchy in the UK.. and Rolls Royces are a very odd mix. The whole thing was a pee take.

hehe.. I knew as i listened to my Ipod that you'd get a huge load of respnses to this 'un.

Well played Mark too...enjoyed the banter.

Anonymous said...

Ok, so Mark thinks I'm old. This list shows it's author's age (rather youth). I would have included Roxy Music, Stone Roses, The Clash, Be Bop Deluxe, Bowie (ok, not a band), Electrum ...

Anonymous said...

The Happy Mondays were a huge influence in the late 80's and through the 90's. The cross between guitar-based indie and dance was a huge influence on a lot of bands (and still is today).

The Specials were influential - the whole two-tone movement and record label were a big deal, and still are. Ska/punk are still going strong and bands today are still showing the influence of The Specials (go and see The Amphetameanies play live and you'll see! http://www.amphetameanies.co.uk/ [ Glasgow band btw Mark! ])


Billy.

Anonymous said...

Gabor - I'd have loved to include more bands... but picking the top 10 I had to leave out a lot of good groups :-)

Personally I don't think the Stone Roses cound either on success or influence. They had 15 minutes in the early 90's, but didn't really do much with it - and their influence is a bit hard to see compared to the Happy Mondays. I've never been very sure about how much influence The Clash had outside of the NME to be honest :-)

If I'd had a top 100 to do on the other hand..... ;-)


Billy.

Anonymous said...

Ok, I'm not sure how The Who could have been left out. Never mind that they did some of the first music outside the standard radio station time limits, but as individual musicians John Entwistle and Pete Townshend have influenced almost every modern rock/punk/whatever bassist and guitarist. Excuse me, guitar player. Power chords, anyone?

Just my opinion.

Anonymous said...

Podcast paul, i think your missing the whole point of the sex pistols (and punk) they were a response to heavy metal which had got totally out of control with like 5 minute guitar solos. The whole idea was that they couldnt sing or play but could still write good songs. Anarchy for the UK is one of the most important songs of the 70s.

Anonymous said...

I am utterly shocked Iron Maiden weren't in that list at all. SHOCKED!!!!