Here's a dumb question from your childhood brought back to entertain or bother you

anything but rap and country

Hey that's not 10!!!!

The Beatles
The Bee Gees
The Beach Boys
The Beat
Beachwood Sparks
The Beastie Boys
The Beano
The Beat Farmers
The Bean Jumped
Mountain

Alright, this is a chronological list.
Some of these bands don't mean shit to me anymore, though.

Spice Girls
Garbage
Placebo
Blur
The Smiths
Mazzy Star
Joy Division
Radiohead
Interpol
The Rapture

Truthfully, there are only 17 acts by whom I have four or more albums. This probably says more about my taste 5 years ago than it does today, though:

Aluminum Group
Beach Boys
Death Cab for Cutie
Nick Drake
Philip Glass
David Grubbs
High Llamas
Tara Jane O'Neil
Jim O'Rourke
Pavement
Rachel's
Radiohead
Sea and Cake
Sonic Youth
Stereolab
Tortoise
Yo La Tengo

I can squeeze out 8, in no order...

Belle & Sebastian
Sonic Youth
The Smiths
Beat Happening
The Kinks
Neutral Milk Hotel
Syd Barrett
The Beatles

some more I'd like to say - but I don't know if I've been listening to them long enough to include them on an "of all times" list...The Magnetic Fields, Can, The Wedding Present...

10 Favourite Bands Of All Time.

1. New Order
2. Crispy Ambulance
3. Dif Juz
4. 9353
5. Nick Drake
6. Kate Bush
7. Negativland
8. Robyn Hitchcock
9. David Sylvian
10. The Beatles

Although I’m still not clear on where Chic might fit in or Roxy Music. Get back to me in a year? I forgot Life Without Buildings too, even Gang Of Four. That isn’t good. Well, a work in progress then...

And Can. DAMNIT I forgot Can.

In alphabetical order...

1. The Beatles
2. The Cars
3. Cheap Trick
4. The Clash
5. Fleetwood Mac
6. The Frampton Brothers
7. Mott The Hoople
8. The Rolling Stones
9. Steely Dan
10. Weezer

Chronological is good, it helps me reassess the listening life in phases.

1. Beatles
2. The Who
3. Talking Heads
4. Miles Davis
5. Frank Zappa
6. The Minutemen
7. Sonic Youth
8. John Zorn
9. Yo La Tengo
10. Evan Parker

The Beatles
Steely Dan
R.E.M.
The Smiths
They Might Be Giants
Nirvana
Sonic Youth
Guided by Voices
Belle and Sebastian
The Magnetic Fields

i like 100% mainstream pop and not ashamed 2 admit it.
australia:inxs
new zealand:split enz,crowded house
usa: beach boys,monkees,kiss
uk: beatles,culture club
sweden:abba,roxette.

I forgot PIL too. I'm such a dolt. I'll never live this down.

my ten but this whole practice is very wrong and should be frowned upon:

Beat Happening
Neutral Milk Hotel
Galaxie 500
The Pastels
The Televison Personalities
Sly & The Family Stone
Love
The Stooges
Stereolab
The Rutles

Mango Electrico
Xtremo
Natural Flavors
Refuel
Yellow #5
Thirst Quencher

... and that's just off the top of my Gatorade bottle!

I've been around a long time, so I was a bit perplexed as to how to address this list. Should i consider length of time on the favorites list 1st? or should those adored intensely for a shorter period also be included? is it fair to excluse more recent entries just because its impossible for them to have been on a favorites list as long as, say, Neil Young...? Anyway - this is what I came up with.

Beatles
Velvet Underground
Stooges
Patti Smith
Bruce Springsteen
Flaming Lips
Neil Young
Black Sabbath
the Who
Jimi Hendrix

As you can see, I tended to side more with those who had been around simmering on the list for quite a while, and even that leaves out some very important & much-adored folks. Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa, and Television spring to mind. There is just something about bands that blow your mind during adolescence that makes them tend to stay with you unless they completely blow it artistically later (Queen, Kiss), or you just grow up one day & go 'what the hell was I thinking?"(Kansas, Styx). All IMHO, of course. More recent bands that I really love had to be sacrificed for brevity, like Giant Sand, Acid Mothers Temple, and Melvins. So sad...

At 3: Red Hot Chili Peppers
At 5: U2
At 6: Peter Murphy
At 8: New Order
At 10: Public Image Limited
At 12: Stabbing Westward
At 13: Sneaker Pimps
At 14: Joy Division
At 16: Kitchens of Distinction
At 17: The Comsat Angels
At the moment: I'm not sure. But isn't that a weird trajectory?

Killing Joke
Cop Shoot Cop/Firewater
The Stranglers
Devo
Kiss
Gang of Four
Motorhead
Julian Cope
Circle Jerks
Iron Maiden

..and then of course there's....

the Ramones
Cocteau Twins
Siouxsie & the Banshees
Queen
Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians
Pussy Galore
the Clash
Echo & the Bunnymen
Venom
The Sisters of Mercy

Chronologically (in order of the act's existence):

James Brown
Jimi Hendrix
Parliament/Funkadelic
Bruce Springsteen
The Clash
Sonic Youth
Wu-Tang Clan (and its assorted solo spinoffs)
Chemical Brothers
Daft Punk
MF Doom

Honorable mention to Steely Dan, Van Halen (Roth era), the Beastie Boys (except that last one), Jay-Z (who previously held the distinction of one of my least favorites; then I actually listened to his lyrics), Missy, the Stooges, the Rolling Stones (strickly 63-81), El-P/Company Flow, Max Romeo and De La Soul.

Boredoms
Parliament-Funkadelic
Dead C
Neil Young
Can
Sonic Youth
Keith Rowe
Jim O'Rourke
Fela Kuti
Scott Walker

yep, that's probably way too 'wire' -- haven't listened to enough hip-hop yet to name someone, but quickly getting addicted to De La Soul, Biggie, Nas, and MF Doom.

oh, honorable mention to Hafler Trio, who, if their stuff wasn't so goddamn hard to find/buy, would've probably made my list.

geto boys
blur
massive attack
my bloody valentine
radiohead
low
wu tang clan
pavement
autechre
REM

Quixotic
Erica Pomerance
Black Dice
Bane (I know, I know)
The Smiths
LeTigre
Quintron
Pixies
The Black Keys
... and the one that I forgot but will kick myself for later

Beach Boys
Boo Radleys
Plaid
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
Boredoms
Pavement
Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers
Tom Waits
Autechre
Blur

i got only get as far as Pulp.

Still Yet More Crucial bands I forgot...

XTC
The Wedding Present
The Wonder Stuff (yeah, laugh it up, haters!)
the Stooges

Beach Boys
Sonic Youth
Robyn Hitchcock
Impressions
Flaming Lips
Gang Starr
Big Star
Devo
Zombies
Velvet Underground

No particular order..

The Embassy
The Field Mice
Go-Betweens
Magnetic Fields
My Favorite
New Order
Pet Shop Boys
Prefab Sprout
The Sundays
The Smiths

dEUS
Kiss My Jazz
Dead Man Ray
Portishead
Big star
Velvet Underground
Madonna
Joni M
Sonic Youth
Neil Young

if it can only be 10:

david bowie
frank zappa
brian eno
NWA
the smiths
the kinks
wu-tang clan
gary numan
echo and the bunnymen
kraftwerk

other important ones:

black sabbath
the cure
depeche mode
biggie
my bloody valentine
the cocteau twins
the geto boys
yes

This is my non-jazz list:

Motorhead
Black Sabbath
Slayer
ZZ Top (everything through Eliminator)
Yes
Funkadelic (everything through Let's Take It To The Stage)
Mainliner
The Screaming Blue Messiahs
Electric Wizard
Schoolly D

Oh, and Roth-era Van Halen and Bon Scott-era AC/DC, of course.

Chronologically until 1979.

Ike & Tina Turner
The Wombles
The Goodies
Abba
The Kinks
The Brotherhood of Man
Rod Stewart
Blondie
Art Garfunkel
Gary Numan

Beatles
Rolling Stones
Pink Floyd
Judas Priest
Black Sabbath
Voivod
Kyuss
Melvins
Phish
Grateful Dead

XTC was actually the next group in line that it occured to me I forgot.

Well, wait a minute, that's not true. The Fall and Cocteaus occured to me first, but I ended up thinking there must be some strange reason why I left them out, like it was just meant to be that way for some bizarre natural reason. What would be truly intolerable would be to have one of them in, but not both, because I've always kindof thought of them together.

Can
Black Sabbath
Pearls Before Swine
Rolling Stones
Landed
Codeine
Dead Machines
Lee Perry/Upsetters
Palace
The Tower Recordings

slayer
minutemen
man is the bastard
godheadsilo
spacemen 3
the fall
de la soul
echo and the bunnymen
don caballero
afx twn