Hey DrDre, whatever rules for yourself are fine. If you look at my entry where I offer all of my votes, I decided to kick some artists out because I hadn't heard anything significant from them prior to this game.

All the Zappa in everyone's top 5 pushed me to the breaking point, because I'm sure if you're not a fan you have only heard what the critics say you should hear, and albums such as Freak Out, We're Only In it For the Money, and his biggest seller Apostrophe' only give you a tiny picture and in some cases could be unapproachable, as one earlier poster said.

Apostrophe' and Money were my first FZ purchases over a decade ago (ahh, memories) and they didn't really overwhelm me with their greatness, but there was just enough really unique elements to it that I was intrigued and sought out more albums.

I merely am offering some other obscure zappa suggestions in case you're interested. Your votes in Survivor are as good as anybody else's. If you get your hands on some of my suggestions, let me know what you think.

OK Jonah, I'm gonna see if can get a hold on one of your recommendations and I'll get back to you on that. Assuming Zappa survives this round, I even might be in time to change my vote.

I've made a stupid mistake with the voting in. I simply looked at my Excel list of favorite artists, which is purely based on albums . So, even though I did not vote for him, I sincerely hope Hank Williams is gonna make it!

FIVE OUT:
1. Pavement: so is it groundbreaking hitting purposely the wrong note on the guitar? Is it genial to make badly constructed and erratically mixed songs? And is it innovative singing out of tune (or out of mic) not-so-clever lyrics? Well, no, it isn’t.
2. Black Sabbath: so these guys are responsible for the association between heavy metal and satanic cult? Well, get out of the island please…
3. Beastie Boys: I’ve own two albums (“Check My Head” and “Hello Nasty” and are equally divided in enervating rap-metal bullets and derivative and boring instrumental jams. Maybe I’ve got the wrong ones? Should I try with “Paul’s Boutique”?
4. Missy Misdemeanor Elliott: Missy at #88 and Lauryn Hill at #240? Missy’s not bad, but Lauryn’s far better (although maybe Lauryn’s suffering some punishment due to her scattered production, with barely two albums in ten years).
5. Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band: I would quote Nicolas (if he doesn’t mind): “I think this guy really brought new things but listening to his album is like eating a plate of peppers. Peppers are good when added in small quantity to some food but you wouldn't eat the whole jar”. Well said, Nic.

FIVE IN:
1. King Crimson: one of my first musical loves. Back in 1979 (when I was fourteen) I came into a record store and asked the attendant to play a record with a funny cover I’ve never heard of. It was “In the Wake of Poseidon”. I was listening with the headphones at a considerable volume (ugh, talking about listening music from a vinyl with headphones in a record store seems talking about the Jurassic period) and I got shocked. Well, for the people who haven’t heard the album it begins with an almost inaudible distant chant called “Peace – A Beginning” followed by the hard-rock-meets-free-jazz attack of “Pictures of a City” whose beginning seems a buffalo stampede. The abrupt beginning made me jump in fright producing a hilarious response of the attendant. Obviously I bought the album and play it to a lot of friends to repeat the joke. Even it’s not the best Crimson album I became an addict and bought the entire discography (second-handed vinyl, didn’t have enough money at the time). While my friends were listening to the crap on the radio I was enjoying the bizarre Crimson world. Well, I was a kinda weird teenager, was I?
2. The Flaming Lips: only own three albums, from “Zaireeka” to “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” but that’s enough to fully appreciate the bizarre and imaginative universe of Wayne Coyne et al.
3. Depeche Mode: the absolute masters of techno-pop that survived to the abandon of Vince Clarke thanks to the vocal abilities of Dave Gahan and the song-writing skills of Martin Gore, with a impressive set of singles during the 80s and early 90s.
4. XTC: for his interesting evolution from new wave iconoclasts to pop masters despite its undeserved lack of success.
5. Wilco: the most interesting and innovative band of the alternative country, with a string of awesome albums with “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” as its pinnacle.


Sorry, schleuse, but maybe I won’t be able to participate every week in this (excellent) Survivor game. Like Neoptolemos said, the work in the forum is beginning to be overwhelming and I’m preparing two “projects” for AM forum (one about the Fab Four and the other about Spanish music) that demands time that I need to share with my (exhausting) daily work and my family. But I’ll try to participate as much as I can.

Fair enough, Honorio. I can't wait to see what you've been working on, and I look forward to seeing you here on the island from time to time.

This is definitely the easiest to keep up with though since you don't have to change anything from week to week unless one of your five gets the boot. I'm guessing a few of mine are going to last awhile but I might rotate the 4 and 5 spot because there are a couple others that deserve the boot as much as my 4 and 5 right now. I'll probably stick exclusively to my bottom 3 though.

OUT
It’s hard to eliminate bands, because, apart from a certain number of acts that I really don’t like, the ones I want out are the ones I know the less

1. Missy Elliott 5 pts: I only know one track (Get Ur Freak On) but it pissed me off so much I don’t hesitate.
2. Madonna 4 pts : I was a teenager during the eighties, so I can’t say I don’t know Madonna. Apart from Music, I can say there isn’t a song by her that I like.
3. The Ramones 3 pts : Sorry but I don’t get them. I know they are liked because the music is dumb, but I guess I find it too dumb.
4. Black Sabbath : I put them out because I have to acknoweledge I don’t know their work, except of course Paranoid, which is to me nothing else but another hard rock tune.
5. Elton John : I want him out today cause I know he’s got to go sooner or later. He puts too much sugar in his songs, except maybe in that great album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

IN

1. Muddy Waters, 5 : Muddy and blues in general are absolutely ignored by most people today as an influence which is a crime against history. Muddy’s not my favorite bluesman but hell he sang half the repertoire of Led Zep and just nearly simply invented the classic rock band : lead guitar, vocals, drums, piano, harmonica and (sometimes) bass (in the eraly Chicago blues of the 40’s 50’s electric bass was not populer so you had 2 guitars.
He just created the blues rock sound that the British bands used during the60’s;
2. Roy Orbison, 4 points : I would love him on the island, although I don’t think he will be (I bet I’ll be among the rare people who will put him in the “in” list). Roy has the most beautiful voice in rock history. He wrote absolute gems in the early 60’s like In Dreams, and brilliant come-back albums at the end of the 80’s. For me, young and romantic, it was a revelation when those records came out in 1989. Along with Jacques Brel, he’s the archetypal romantic singer you love when you’re 20 and not so gifted with girls.
3. Country is represented by Johnny Cash in the top 100 artists, but Hank Williams was a great man. Move it on Over from 1947 is nothing but Rock around the clock’s melody with a hinky tonk drive but it’s already rock’n roll
4. Curtis Mayfield : Just love his voice and his musicianship and arragements. Superfly is a masterpiece.
5. Sam Cooke : What a voice ! It’s a pity he’s not in the top 100. The question is : will any of these representants of the old American music be in the final round ? I doubt that, but I don’t feel angry about that. I don’t know why I fell in love with this music, at the risk of living musically in another time. Like your good friend say I Guess I wasn’t made for these times (well it’s not true I love 1990’s and nowadays music too but I have this secret garden I keep : the old music)

OUT:The Eagles
Missy Elliott
Fleetwood Mac
Eminem
The Police

IN: Flaming Lips
Can
The Specials
Love
Husker Du

Can't believe any of those top five-especially The Police!?Hard to pick from the 101-200 group-lots of fantastic acts(Big Star,MBV,Wire,YLT,Stone Roses etc.)but these five are truly great.Hard to believe my fave Flaming lips album(Transmissions...)barely grazes the AM top 3000.
Obviously this thing is intrinsically personal and hugely subjective, but it astonishes me to see Honorio choose Pavement as the band least deserving of a top 100 position.The criticisms raised read like an amalgam of every ill-informed assessment of the band I've ever heard.I was going to say give 'em another go and I'll do likewise for The Police, but objectivety is generally overrated.

Well, EdAmes, maybe I’ve exaggerated a lot my dislike for Pavement music. In fact I like some songs from that band (look at my 90s lists, I’ve included “Summer Babe”, “Here” and “Rage Life”). And I’ve listened enough the albums. The first album I bought was “Crooked Rain Crooked Rain” and I felt like not understanding a joke while everyone’s laughing. Thinking bout I’ve chosen the wrong album I bought “Slanted and Enchanted” only to find it even worse. I’ve listened to “Woowee Zowee” too and hadn’t changed my opinion. . If you think I need to give it another listen I’ll do it but… no, not again!! (only joking).
Of course there’s some things I’ve like of Pavement: some occasional country flavour (like pedal steel), some inspired melodic line or some fragment of lyrics (“I was dressed for success / but success it never comes”). But these are the things that make Pavement similar to other bands. The things that characterize its style, the fractured structure, the lazy singing (and, yes, out of tune), the lo-fi recording and the loose playing that is perceived by the critics as innovative and groundbreaking and blah blah is what fails to impress me. I’ve get impressed often by good lyrics, by passionate vocals, by imaginative arrangements, by crafted song-writing, by the feelings that music generates. However, the attitude, the look, the trend, the hype, … always fails to impress me.
And, since you mention The Police, even it’s not by far my favourite band, they were as innovative as Pavement at the time. The incorporation of reggae rhythms in Copeland unique drumming style, the use of delays and chorus effects on Summer guitar and the interesting song-writing (at least on the first two albums) of Sting were notable features.
Anyway, it’s only my opinion, and if you like Pavement a lot, that’s fine with me. Simply I don’t.
By the way, EdAmes, welcome aboard.

Out
Nirvana- One great album not around long enough like them also.
Velvet Undeground- atonal music
Frank Zappa- not listenable.
Captain Beefhart- Piero Scaruffi darling but another one who did not learn melody or how to apply weirdness.
Guns N Roses- Like them but were not around long enough

In

Everly Brothers- one of the rock and roll pioneers
Deep Purple- one of the heavy metal pioneers.
Red Hot Chilli Peppers- great band that combines funk, melody and hard rock. Great albums.
Jefferson Airplane- One of the most underrated bands of the 60's
King Crimson- the greatest progressive rock band ever?

Many thanks to Honorio for his warm welcome to the forum, especially after re-reading my previous comments which sound a bit more abrasive than intended.I'd just come in and was obviously a little bit pissed-I certainly didn't mean to sound like some rabid Manic Street Preachers fan(ie.completely unable to accept any criticism of my fave band).
My thing with Pavement was that I always found the music immediate,organic,soulful and effotlessly catchy-the complete opposite of a commonly held notion of them as being cold,ironic and atonal.
Slanted and Enchanted is to me at once so obviouly a masterpiece that its 122 AM ranking seems outrageously low, and so personal to me emotionally that I almost can't imagine anyone else liking it.

Anyway, cheers Honorio-appreciate the feedback.I'm sticking to my guns on The Police though, if only because of the laughable faux-Jamaican accent.

FIVE TO GO:
1. Primal Scream – Yes, I was one of the people who voted for “Come Together”. But that’s the only track that, for me, really lives up to this band’s high ranking. As you could probably guess from my comments in the “More fun with the list” thread, I own all of the top 1000 albums, and then some. They can be divided into three categories: the ones I listen to frequently, for pleasure, whether they’re longstanding favorites or albums I’ve purchased because of this site that have -become- favorites; the ones I don’t know that well yet that I return to as often as I can to get more familiar with them; and the ones I listen to once in a great, great while to try to figure out how, exactly, they made the list. SCREAMADELICA is probably the highest-ranked album that falls into that third category for me. I can’t say that VANISHING POINT or XTRMNTR (the one I like most) do much for me, either. This was an easy choice.
2. Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott – Henrik said it best, I think – her singles are great, her albums not so much. I respect Timbo’s production skills and her cleverness as a writer, but I almost never feel like actually listening to her.
3. The Jam – From this American’s perspective, a lot of the British artists in the top 100 are severely overrated. Maybe it’s just that I need to listen to them more (their top 1000 albums definitely fall into my second tier, as described above), but compared to a great deal of the “second 100” artists, they seem outclassed.
4. T. Rex – I love ELECTRIC WARRIOR as much as anyone, but top 100 artists of all time? Sorry. Bolan’s mix of mystic-sprite airiness and ear-candy guitar crunch is engaging, but he’s a minor artist.
5. Guns N’Roses – APPETITE fully deserves its high ranking; it is one of the defining hard-rock albums. And ILLUSION I and II certainly have their moments. But they’ve become such a sad joke (well, Axl has, anyway) that they just don’t belong in this company.

FIVE TO MOVE UP:
1. Charles Mingus – As I’ve stated in other threads, no jazz artist gives me more pleasure, because of the palpable joy he and his musicians convey. His music can be fiendishly complex, but that joy is so infectious that it’s never forbidding or inaccessible.
2. Big Star – Yeah, I know they only made three albums. But I play those three albums more than almost anyone else’s. To paraphrase Paul Westerberg, no one should ever travel far without a little Big Star.
3. Husker Du – The most exciting American band of the postpunk era. It’s thrilling to listen to them progress across their catalog from noisecore dotted with unexpectedly strong melodies to near-power pop glistening with hooks. The song was always paramount with these guys, and their body of work holds up exceptionally well.
4. Elliott Smith – Another artist who moved from noise to songcraft, but he made the transition early and went all the way with it. His melodies are effortless and instantly memorable, and he was the most efficient one-man band this side of Prince. His early exit will go down as one of rock’s greatest tragedies.
5. Wire – There are so many brilliant artists in the second 100 that picking only five was incredibly difficult. But personal favorites carry the day in this loophole round, and Wire get my last slot here on the strength of those first three extraordinary albums.

Five to kick out:

1. Missy Misdemeanor Elliott
2. The Eagles
3. Creedence Clearwater Revival
4. Pavement
5. Madonna

Missy is a straight-up disgrace to the list. I love rap music, but she's just a boring, pedestrian MC... freaking nails down the chalkboard bad.

I was craving easy-listening the other day, so in between Fleetwood Mac and the Electric Light Orchestra, I stuck Hotel California on for the first time in an age. Boy does that album go downhill pretty darn quickly. And I can't say their others fare any better.

I have about half a dozen CCR albums. I've given them all a few spins, but they just fail to resonate with me. In the same way dishwater fails to resonate with me.

Pavement similarly just haven't quite cracked me, and Madonna I'm actually quite fond of - Confessions On A Dance Floor I particularly thought was a triumph, and she's got a good dozen winners to her name. But I'm taking a stand. She's just not Top 100 material, for a freaking minute.

Five to ship in:

1. Manic Street Preachers
2. The Verve
3. The Stone Roses
4. Morrissey
5. Queen

Jay-Z, Kanye West and N.W.A. were all a pain to have to leave, but these five are ultimately closer to my heart.

The Manics - posited on an axis of Guns N' Roses, The Clash and U2 - were like a British Nirvana that went the distance. Their unstoppable run of classics from '92s Generation Terrorists to '98s This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours are as essential as anything of the era.

The Verve had a shorter career, but with Urban Hymns and the less-mentioned but even-finer A Northern Soul, they crafted poignantly beautiful yet fuck-off ballsy tunes that have never been bettered.

The Stone Roses deserve the place largely for that note-perfect debut - probably the finest album of the '80s, if not the last 25 years - though follow-up Second Coming and several non-album singles shine brightly, too.

Morrissey is Morrissey. No-one does Morrissey like Morrissey (though plenty have tried), and 20+ years into his career he's still knocking them out of the park (both Ringleader Of The Tormentors and You Are The Quarry rank among the decade's great albums, for me).

Queen tend to falter over the course of a full-length LP (Night At The Opera being a glorious exception), but there's no denying their string of classic singles - "We Are The Champions", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Fat Bottomed Girls" - let's be honest, if Queen's greatest hits were sucked out of our collective conciouses - we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves. And we wouldn't know how to do the fandango.

Out:
1.AC/DC - AC/DC made a career out of virtually making the same song over and over again. A pattern they continued when their singer died. They should not be well into the Top 100.
2.Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - As a person that actually likes Trout Mask Replica, I have to say that "no", he just shouldn't be here.
3.The Eagles - You know what's not a good song? "Hotel California". Without this song, The Eagles wouldn't be in the Top 100, so out they should go
4.Pet Shop Boys - Q: Who were The Pet Shop Boys? A: A synth-pop band. Q: Oh! Okay, well, er... did they do anything groudbreaking with it? A:Um.... No.
5.Missy Misdemeanor Elliott - She has two way overhyped singles that launch her to this level. Now don't get me wrong, I think her songs are alright, but how did "Get Ur Freak On" become the 59th most acclaimed song??

In:
1.Pearl Jam - My third favorite band, and the only in my top five that isn't in the AM Top 25 Artists, let alone Top 100. They have always made great music, although not always consistant (Binaural, Riot Act), but they should definitely be in the Top 100
2.Wilco - Wilco are currently at 101, and it's because of The Pet Shop Boys they are not in the Top 100 yet. Considering how YHF is one of the unquestionably best albums of this decade, and how all their other albums set new standards for themselves, these guys have to go in,
3.Smashing Pumpkins - Alright, I'm basically putting them in for Siamese Dream alone. Mellon Collie is also very good but if that were the only album I had heard by them, they wouldn't even be in the Top 10 or 15 I'd put in.
4.My Bloody Valentine - Most definitely these guys should go in. They made an album that created a genre ("Isn't Anything") and later made one that defined it ("Loveless"), leaving every other Shoegaze album to pale in comparison ever since.
5.A Tribe Called Quest - My favorite rap group. Defined Alternative Rap much better than De La Soul in my opinion.