Based of course, only on output from the past 20 years.


01. Radiohead
02. Wilco
03. Nirvana
04. Pavement
05. Nick Cave
06. Kanye West
07. PJ Harvey
08. The Flaming Lips
09. Animal Collective
10. R.E.M. (Lose points for most of their great albums being released before the cut-off date.)
11. Arcade Fire
12. LCD Soundsystem
13. Elliott Smith
14. Portishead
15. OutKast
16. Beck
17. Bob Dylan (Based only on recent output, of course)
18. TV on the Radio
19. Smashing Pumpkins
20. Blur

1. Radiohead
2. Blur
3. LCD Soundsystem
4. Wilco
5. The White Stripes
6. Oasis
7. Nirvana
8. Kanye West
9. Outkast
10. Arcade Fire
11. Beck
12. The Strokes
13. Pavement
14. Smashing Pumpkins
15. Jay-Z
16. The Flaming Lips
17. Massive Attack
18. Portishead
19. M.I.A.
20. Coldplay

Although I love bands like R.E.M. and U2, I consider the peak of their music to be in the 1980's. One amazing 90's album ("Automatic for the People" and "Achtung Baby") and one amazing 90's single ("Losing My Religion" and "One") does not make them qualify for my list.

1. Björk
2. Massive Attack
3. Radiohead
4. Portishead
5. Sufjan Stevens
6. PJ Harvey
7. Low
8. The Smashing Pumpkins
9. Nirvana
10. Depeche Mode
11. Nick Cave
12. The KLF
13. Beck
14. The Knife
15. U2
16. The White Stripes
17. Blur
18. Anouar Brahem
19. OutKast
20. Erykah Badu

1. The National
2. Bob Dylan
3. R.E.M.
4. The Tallest Man On Earth
5. Johnny Cash
6. Coldplay
7. Cara Dillon
8. Bruce Springsteen
9. U2
10. Oasis
11. Moby
12. Goo Goo Dolls
13. Marc Cohn
14. New Radicals
15. Massive Attack
16. The Verve
17. Fatboy Slim
18. Daft Punk
19. Band Of Horses
20. Sufjan Stevens

Not sure if I actually agree with my own list, but this is what came out when I filtered my albums and songs list and applied the same artist formula as I normally do. Doesn't seem too far off, I suppose.

Using a variation of Henrik's formula to rank artists:

1. Björk
2. Prince
3. Kylie Minogue
4. Janet Jackson
5. Annie
6. Madonna
7. Annie Lennox
8. LCD Soundsystem
9. Sufjan Stevens
10. The Cure
11. The Strokes
12. Aaliyah
13. Chromeo
14. David Bowie
15. Janelle Monae
16. Gorillaz
17. Franz Ferdinand
18. !!!
19. Morrissey
20. Bat for Lashes

What variation are you using Moonbeam? I'm using pretty much the exact formula but with more of a penalty for not making the list (i.e. Henrik gives 3100 points, I give 9999).

I just use a different number of albums and songs, depending on the length of time-frame covered. I used the top 4 albums from 1991 onward and the top 6 songs by each artist. Moreover, as I don't have 3000 albums or songs in my list, my penalty is 100 more than the maximum threshold for either category. For instance, I consider the top 2/3 of albums I've entered into my database worth ranking, so that means everything above position (2/3)*701 = 467 makes the cut, so the penalty for other albums would be 567. It's not perfect, as I may wish to toy around with the threshold ratio of 2/3 as well as the penalty, but it gives me a pretty good indication.

Yeah, I've tried to mess around with it a little as well, but I've found that I really enjoy longevity in artists, because even though my album list is only 350 albums (I rank only those albums that rate 8.5 or higher) and the songs list 800 (most of the 8.5's, but not all) the ranking comes closest to the truth when I've got a really high penalty for not having 6 albums/songs. Perhaps though, that is because my list is too short and having one album near the top is very rewarding otherwise

My List:
(1) Pavement
(2) Elliott Smith
(3) Yo La Tengo
(4) Belle & Sebastian
(5) Of Montreal
(6) Brian Jonestown Massacre
(7) Radiohead
(8) The Lilys
(9) My Morning Jacket
(10) Sonic Youth
(11) Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
(12) The Silver Jews
(13) Carla Bozulich
(14) Built To Spill
(15) Guided By Voices
(16) Beck
(17) The Fall
(18) The Walkmen
(19) The Clientele
(20) Nirvana

Thanks!

Alright, 20 for 20. I always had this list in mind:

Based solely on their material from 1991-2011; anything from before then doesn't count.

1) Radiohead
2) Nirvana
3) Nine Inch Nails
4) Metallica
5) Red Hot Chili Peppers
6) Tool
9) Muse
10) Soundgarden
11) Arcade Fire
12) LCD Soundsystem
13) Kasabian
14) Flaming Lips
15) Blur
16) TV on the Radio
17) Jay-Z
18) Pavement
19) Outkast
20) Sevendust

1. Belle and Sebastian
2. Sleater-Kinney
3. Super Furry Animals
4. Teenage Fanclub
5. Guided by Voices
6. Manic Street Preachers
7. Camera Obscura
8. Primal Scream
9. the Boo Radleys
10. Trash Can Sinatras
11. Pulp
12. Lush
13. Bjork
14. Magnetic Fields
15. Spiritualized
16. Blonde Redhead
17. PJ Harvey
18. Supergrass
19. Mew
20. the Lilys

1. Radiohead
2. Wilco
3. OutKast
4. Nirvana
5. Blur
6. LCD Soundsystem
7. Björk
8. Arcade Fire
9. Yeah Yeah Yeahs
10. R.E.M.
11. Daft Punk
12. The National
13. Neutral Milk Hotel
14. Spoon
15. PJ Harvey
16. Wu-Tang Clan
17. My Bloody Valentine
18. Belle and Sebastian
19. Kanye West
20. The White Stripes

To get über-geeky for a second:

Twelve days ago, R.E.M. would have been at #8. But that was the 20th anniversary of the release of “Losing My Religion” as a single, so I’m not counting that song in this list.

Five days from now will be the 20th anniversary of the release of Out of Time (March 8, 1991). But that’s not a terribly distinguished group of songs – the only real masterpiece on that album other than “Losing My Religion” is “Country Feedback” – so they’ll only drop to #11.

By the way, later this year, September 24 is the 20th anniversary of Nevermind. At that point, drop Nirvana to #12.

On November 4, the 20th anniversary of Loveless, drop MBV off the list and replace them with Sigur Rós.

(And the 20th anniversary of Leisure in August will not alter Blur’s ranking at all.)

Anyhow, in all seriousness: this was a tougher exercise than I thought. I surprised myself with how much good stuff I had to leave out.

In alphabetical order, and based solely from my songs list...

Arcade Fire
Blur
Boards of Canada
Daft Punk
Deerhunter
Elliott Smith
LCD Soundsystem
Mercury Rev
My Bloody Valentine
Neutral Milk Hotel
Nirvana
Pavement
Portishead
Primal Scream
Radiohead
Slowdive
Spiritualized
The Avalanches
The Strokes
TV On the Radio

I included 1990, which was a mistake, so here's a revised list.

1. Björk
2. Massive Attack
3. Radiohead
4. Portishead
5. Sufjan Stevens
6. PJ Harvey
7. Low
8. The Smashing Pumpkins
9. Nirvana
10. Beck
11. The Knife
12. U2
13. The White Stripes
14. Blur
15. Anouar Brahem
16. OutKast
17. Erykah Badu
18. Studio
19. Junior Boys
20. The Flaming Lips

I put the artists I listen the most :
The seven first are really my favorites, the other can change :
1. The White Stripes
2. Gorillaz
3. Blur
4. Alain Bashung
5. Prince
6. Björk
7. Beck
8. Radiohead
9. MGMT
10. Sufjan Stevens
11. Depeche Mode
12. The Divine Comedy
13. The Strokes
14. Sigur Ros
15. Philip Glass
16. Arcade Fire
17. M
18. Belle & Sebastian
19. Nirvana
20. R.E.M

out of curiosity, I used Henrik's method to see what the best album artists of the past 20 years were. I was curious to see how Bob Dylan, U2, R.E.M., Sonic Youth and other artists who had high ranking album runs prior to 1991 scored:


Top album artists 1991-2009:

01. Radiohead- 9.28268466
02. Nirvana- 10.4910681
03. Beck- 10.8011024
04. PJ Harvey- 10.9073561
05. Bjork- 10.9161968
06. Wilco- 10.9741284
07. R.E.M.- 11.0438177
08. Massive Attack- 11.189543
09. Blur- 11.2583052
10. Pavement- 11.3182092
11. The White Stripes- 11.3463374
12. Portishead- 11.3507972
13. Bob Dylan- 11.379331
14. Oasis- 11.3897612
15. The Flaming Lips- 11.4393804
16. OutKast- 11.4450745
17. Arcade Fire- 11.4519113
18. Animal Collective- 11.4932499
19. Pearl Jam- 11.5371096
20. Nick Cave- 11.5534664

as you see, R.E.M. and Bob Dylan still come out very strong based on their last 20 years worth of output, despite it being veiwed as inferior to their previous runs. Nick Cave drops very little, but lost ground based on his 3rd and 4th highest albums.

U2, Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth and others come in the top 30-40.

I need to change mines too. I forgot Trashcan Sinatra's best album the absolute MASTERPIECE Cake came out in 1990 and although they made a terrific follow up and one of the best comeback albums of the last decade with Weightlifting it's just not the same if you don't include Cake.

1. Belle and Sebastian
2. Sleater-Kinney
3. Super Furry Animals
4. Teenage Fanclub
5. Guided by Voices
6. Manic Street Preachers
7. Camera Obscura
8. Primal Scream
9. the Boo Radleys
10. Supergrass
11. Pulp
12. Lush
13. Bjork
14. Magnetic Fields
15. Spiritualized
16. Blonde Redhead
17. PJ Harvey
18. the Divine Comedy
19. Mew
20. the Lilys

Cool thread. This is gonna be tough, but here we go:

1. Radiohead
2. The Cure (my favorite band. I really love Wish and Bloodflowers, and b-sides from this era are some of my favorite songs ever)
3. Autechre
4. Elliott Smith
5. Sigur Ros
6. Sonic Youth
7. Belle & Sebastian
8. Portishead
9. Teenage Fanclub
10. Fugazi
11. Reigning Sound
12. PJ Harvey
13. Deerhoof
14. Yo La Tengo
15. Animal Collective
16. Bjork
17. Thrice
18. Modest Mouse
19. Mogwai
20. The National

I'll be pretty impressed if everyone can hold in their anger at my #1:

1. Dave Matthews Band
2. Arcade Fire
3. Radiohead
4. Belle & Sebastian
5. Lupe Fiasco
6. Jay-Z
7. Kanye West
8. Spoon
9. Free Energy
10. Luna
11. The Shins
12. Wilco
13. Milkman
14. J. Cole
15. The Strokes
16. Super Mash Bros.
17. Fleet Foxes
18. Pavement
19. Beck
20. LCD Soundsystem

I wouldn't place DMB at number 1, but I do appreciate many of their songs.

I am not so familiar with the following performers from your list:
9. Free Energy
10. Luna
13. Milkman
14. J. Cole
16. Super Mash Bros.

Perhaps you recommend a song or two for each of these performers for the uninitiated to enjoy.

My favorite Free Energy song is probably Wild Winds, general consensus is probably Bang Pop. They put out their debut album last year, but it's in my top five or ten all-time so I had to put them high.
Luna is the band that Dean Wareham started after Galaxie 500 folded. Try out California (All the Way) or Buffalo Boots.
J. Cole is a rapper who's put out three really, really strong mixtapes over the past few years. Lights Please and Home for the Holidays are probably his best, and Who Dat is the lead single for his next album.
Milkman and Super Mash Bros. are mashup artists in the vein of Girl Talk. I'll go with Let's Go for Milkman and Meet Me at Fantasy Island for Super Mash Bros. You can get most of their music for free at their websites.

I had a huge DMB phase a couple years ago and I suspect I'm still in the process of growing out of it.

1. Radiohead
2. Nirvana
3. Pearl Jam
4. Blur
5. Beck
6. Smashing Pumpkins
7. The Arcade Fire
8. Pulp
9. REM
10. Animal Collective
11. Wilco
12. Sigur Ros
13. Pavement
14. PJ Harvey
15. Belle and Sebastian
16. Elliot Smith
17. Spiritualized
18. The Verve
19. U2
20. Flaming Lips

1- Grizzly Bear
2- The Velvet underground
3- Sufjan Stevens
4- Radiohead
5- Bill Callahan
6- Animal Collective
7- Tortoise
8- PJ Harvey
9- Deerhunter
10- Elliot Smith
11- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
12- New Order
13- Arcade Fire
14- Nirvana
15- TV On The Radio
16-Joanna Newsom
17- LCD Soundsystem
18- Flaming Lips
19- Women
20- Pavement
21- Beck
22- Sonic Youth
23- Wilco
24- Yo La Tengo
25- Beach House

1. Tindersticks
2. Radiohead
3. Soul Coughing
4. Four Tet
5. Sufjan Stevens
6. Swell
7. Portishead
8. Pavement
9. PJ Harvey
10. The Beta Band
11. Björk
12. Nick Cave
13. Tarwater
14. Miossec
15. The Fall
16. Alain Bashung
17. Nirvana
18. TV on the Radio
19. The Knife
20. Noir Désir

1. newsboys
2. Radiohead
3. Arcade Fire
4. U2
5. Coldplay
6. Paul McCartney
7. The White Stripes
8. Oasis
9. Kanye West
10. dc Talk
11. Moby
12. Beck
13. Jars of Clay
14. Sloan
15. R.E.M.
16. Red Hot Chili Peppers
17. Nirvana
18. Gorillaz
19. Green Day
20. Eminem

Honorable Mentions:
Lily Allen
Antony & The Johnsons
Audio Adrenaline
Barenaked Ladies
Belle & Sebastian
Blur
Björk
The Cranberries
Sheryl Crow
George Harrison (only one album, but I love it)
MGMT
Mika
Alanis Morissette
No Doubt
Sixpence None the Richer
The Smashing Pumpkins
The Strokes
Switchfoot
tobyMac