NME's 10 Most Influential Bands/Artists

Their criteria - a combination of NME cover appearances and readers poll placings! (Even this I suspect may be fixed).

Hmmm. Few of these bands actually did anything radically new, but I suppose they were all massively popular, therefore massively influential. What about James Brown, Elvis, the Velvets, Kraftwerk, Nirvana, Black Sabbath, Stones, Ramones? How did they come up with this list, anyway?

..and another 40 artists to be revealed in the new look NME on sale in London today, elsewhere tomorrow.

Predict the predictable other 40 before you see the magazine. I am sure the ILM massive could figure them out, no cheating Londoners !

(in deference to Mark S I'm going to replace the word influence with the word sausage in this post)

The assumption immediately is that sausage here applies to an effect on other bands. If so it's a question which is very hard to get to the bottom of, but it's not quantifiable so a list is silly. If on the other hand it's which bands have most sausaged the NME readers then the list is probably bang-on (though still silly), and it's a less-asked question anyway (probably too imaginative for the NME though).

See the NME criteria for this icons list.

Ah, it's most sausage "on NME" - tasty!

Actually it appears it's an account of which bands have had the most sausage on the NME.

the daft objective/ and subjective rulez to formulate this list: The list takes into account: Appearances on front covers. Volume and significance of features. Dominance of end of year writers polls. The response from our readers in the weekly letters page. The presence of their name and influence in the paper (e.g. the number of acts referred to as the new them, the endless questioning of other artists for their opinions of them, the terrible pun headlines on their name or song titles...). And the speed with which they took over.

curses

A veritable barbeque!

Ungaurded sausage, the sweetest taboo.

Did "Stone Roses" qualify as band or artist?

Are women allowed to be influential?

They don't have sausages, so no.

can chicks sausage?

Is it wrong to wonder the fuck Paul Weller and only two non British bands are doing on there.

No, Ronan, this is what I have been doing most every week for 22 years when gazing idly at NME cover in the newsagents/bibliotheque before buying something else.

No Ronan, you are bang right with Weller - what a guitar mod proper songs knobhead what has he influenced in the past decade - the insipid orrible Ocean Colour (Crapping) Scene and fawning praise from ginger tosser Chris Evans

Here is the full list folks - Did Steve Sutherland project manage the counting of this poll? If he did he should be SACKED ! as the counting slips for NEW ORDER went missing ! not even in the top 50 !

What are those knobheads The Charalatans doing at 46: a second division baggy band in 1990 and a naff Rolling Stones tribute band from the mids 90s onwards.

Full NME 50 Icons list

1 The Smiths 2 The Beatles 3 Stone Roses 4 David Bowie 5 Sex Pistols 6 Oasis 7 Radiohead 8 The Jam 9 U2 10 Public Enemy 11 Happy Mondays 12 The Clash 13 Nirvana 14 Elvis Presley 15 Joy Division 16 Blur 17 The Strokes 18 The Rolling Stones 19 The Verve 20 Bob Marley 21 The Fall 22 Prodigy 23 Velvet Underground 24 REM 25 Frankie Goes To Hollywood 26 Dexy's Midnight Runners 27 Beastie Boys 28 T. Rex 28= Jesus and Mary Chain 30 The Specials 31 Manic Street Preachers 32 Roxy Music 33 Pixies 34 Iggy Pop 35 The Pogues 36 Primal Scream 36= Frank Sinatra 38 Bob Dylan 39 Blondie 40 Eminem 41 Culture Club 42 Madonna 43 Marvin Gaye 44 Pulp 45 Michael Jackson 46 The Charlatans 47 Echo and the Bunnymen 48 The KLF 49 Neil Young 50 PJ Harvey

(NO counted with JD mebbe?)

I pity the poor office junior who actually had to research this list. What a complete waste of sausage!

No I have the NME in front of my now, Joy Division entry is just for Joy Division.

This clearly is mistake - i mean those runts The Strokes only started in 2001 in the NME. New Order have been going since 1980, and featured on many NME covers - after a difficult first album - they then achieved international success/ and cool cult credibility with 3 key albums - I think they were even on the front NME cover of the crimbo special in 1987 - the year of substance. Then came technique influenced by dance music in 1989, then Republic in 1993, returning last year with Get Ready.

I woz suprised New Order did not make the top 10 earlier in the day, but no top 50 is a complete fuck up.

Hang on hang on hang on, this isn't about bands influencing other bands (directly):

"THE SMITHS have been named the artists to have had most influence on NME in the course of our 50 years as a title.

It's very dance paranoid aint it?

Stone Roses 3??????? The Beastie Boys 20???????? This is actually the worst list in ages. It's got ONE DANCE ACT that I can see. The Prodigy. And they're so crossover. And the Strokes in the top 50 might have been something to debate but at 17????? Madness. All madness.

Hey lets have a contest!

Put in order how influential these bands are: Led Zeppelin, Kraftwerk, The Strokes.

Yeah DG - but Weller has still been a prat for the best part of 2 whole decades and a bit.

Also using the criteria NME set down - New Order should have been above The soddin Strokes. The Strokes have only had one fawning year influence on the NME - New Order's influence is much greater in magnitude.

Ronan, this may help to explain the situation: Old Simon Reynolds article states this:

But the Britpress readership is deeply conservative, and its idea of what's relevant is decidedly narrow. Look at the NME and MM annual readers polls in the last 15 years and you'll invariably find the Best Band position occupied by a white, all-male, British guitar band: the Jam, Echo & the Bunnymen, the Smiths, the Stone Roses, Suede, Blur, Oasis. The Top 10 Band, Album and Single categories usually feature no women, no blacks, no dance music, and rarely any Yanks (although REM and Nirvana did briefly challenge the Anglocentric bias). The Britpress has to give its readers what they want, i.e as many pieces as possible on the 10 or so Big Brits (pegged around the single, the album, the tour, any excuse whatsoever basically), plus features on Brit-pop 'contenders'--younger bands waiting in the wings for fame and fortune to take its toll on the established Brit biggies. That still leaves a fair number of pages which have to be be filled by token coverage of 'minority' interests like techno, hip hop, weird guitar experimentalism, American rock, and other stuff which market research shows the readers are simply not interested in.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood? christ, why not put Dead Or Alive in there too..

sweet of them to remember KLF, but apart from altern8, I can't remember a single act influenced by them.

It reminds me why I stopped reading the NME. Smiths, Stone Roses, Oasis, Radiohead, U2 yes, James Brown no. Okay, bye bye.

Where is Depeche Mode in all this?

funny that prodigy places ahead of velvet underground. that's right, prodigy was the one starting all those punk bands ten years before punk.

Or Kraftwerk?

Or Eno?

Or the Wonderstuff?

That last one's a joke irony fans (they did have 7 front covers though).

the NME are twunts that is why - if it woz a Melody Maker history special then Depeche Mode would be in, remember MM had a special booklet on Depeche Mode way back in 1989 and featured amongst the MM readers 80s poll as one of the key bands of the 80s.

Also Sounds supported Depeche Mode consistently, unfortunately the NME were to busy wanking over the likes of: Billy Bragg, Housemartins, Soup Dragons, The Charlatans, Wedding Present, The Proclaimers, Inspiral Carpets, The Farm, The Wonderstuff and countless other duffers - second division guitar fodder bands.

Let's face it NME woz for losers from my key formative era: 1986 (i.e 5th form) - 1991 (end of Uni) - Melody Maker and Sounds were miles ahead of the NME.

what can you say to that eh? fucking hilarious..

"MoST iNFLueNTiaL BaNDZ/ART!ZTZ"

.......ues 36 Primal Scream 36= Fra.......

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Oh for fucks sake. This is worse than the Spin thread.

I think this list works, but not as the most influential artists. If you had to chose ten acts that define a certain ethos at a particular time (and not necessarily for musical capability) then i think that is a pretty good list.

Oasis were NEVER the most original band around, but they had a guitar based rock-twat attitude that was missing in the mid 90's, or so we were told by the NME... They did a lot to boost Oasis career.

I think the Dead Kennedy's were a pretty important band, in terms of the whole present day US alt scene...

It's the NME! Ergo, the list presented is not the ten / fifty most sausage bands in the world ever, but is, rather, the ten / fifty most NME bands in the world ever! And as such is very accurate...

Can I suggest we napalm King's Reach Tower?

Look you lot, the NME has outsmarted you for once - read the article! It's bands that have most influence ON THE NME! That's why the Strokes are in the Top 20, quite justifiably so as the NME has been the official Strokes fanzine for the best part of a year.

Even today's issue of Metro thinks it was a list of most iconic bands ever. Can anybody read?

Iconic?

Why not have Tom fucking Jones instead of Weller then.

It seems the new direction the NME is taking with the relaunch is "like Q, only more so."

Michael Jackson is right behind Pulp. Coincidence?

Look you lot, the NME has outsmarted you for once - read the article! It's bands that have most influence ON THE NME!

Then the list is wrong. Led Zeppelin dominated the NME from the late 60s to mid 77 - much more so than Bowie or T Rex. The Sex Pistols lasted a year or so in terms of influence before it moved onto post punk. Howard Devoto appeared with 'the most important man alive' New Order won poll after poll in the early 80s Joy Division were the early 80s rock band not U2. Whole chunks of NME from 83-87 were devoted to Mutant Disco / Ze records, with the parade of 'anti- rockist' writers on the Ian Penman / Stuart Cosgrove continum.

I could go on, but this is just another shabby list compiled for shabby reasons by shabby people for an embarasingly outmoded publication that should have stopped a decade ago.... Hmm, perhaps Paul Weller really is their big influence. I'm not even sure why the NME is re-writing history anymore. I wish it would just get out the way.

Martian surely you mean 1988-91?

Heh. The Penman-Cosgrove continuum is a fuck of a long continuum. It's true neither of them much liked rock music.

No Mark - 1986 was the end of the fifth form and 1991 woz the end of uni.

Billy Bragg/ Housemartins were examples from 1986, Proclaimers 1987.

Mark S you were at the NME between 1983 and 1988? How many editors in your time ?

I remember that the NME in 1985 - the first time I bought a few copies was more Socialist Worker/Lefty politics, world music particularly African music and West Indies - Reggae, Hip Hop from the US and Miles Davis on the front cover. Gradually from 1987 things changed less politics and by 1990 it woz Baggy Times weekly.

Three: N.Spencer, I.Pye, A.Lewis

Some may find this interesting Rocklists - NME lists

Is the NME still going then? I think congratulations may be in order! People still read it... it clearly must enhance most of our correspondents' listening pleasures. (How dull must those listening pleasures be... or, perhaps, how young must everyone on ILM be?)

What are those knobheads The Charalatans doing at 46:
havent been to Shoegave capital of Toronto have you? Mucho early Charlatan influence there. Not sure of the influence or the quality of later stuff. Just remeber the local alt.rawk station throwing "Only One I Know" into its 80s Retro night despite the fact its a 90s song and then apologizing on air for it, almost weekly. But then again Toronto has a hardon for EndGames "First, Last, for Everything" so who knows.

(How dull must those listening pleasures be... or, perhaps, how young must everyone on ILM be?)

oooh. grr. get us. etc.

Seems to illusttate how narrow of a view NME has on music. So maybe it's good their admitting that? I don't for a moment believe that Elivs or Sinatra has that high of an influence. Nice dream though.

Quoasis even in the top 50, never mind top ten. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Francis Rossi must be tearing his sad mid-life crisis ponytail out. Long live New Order.