The list of the 40 best American acts currently touring or releasing new music may be very alt-rockist for some tastes (Sufjan Stevens at No. 1?), but that’s what you get when you ask a panel of music bloggers to compile it. Obviously, there’s not much hip-hop or R&B, a blind spot that the list compilers acknowledge. Aside from that, though, who could you argue for who’s been left off? Madonna, maybe, but does she count as American anymore? What was Beck’s Guero, chopped liver? Are Rilo Kiley so hip they’re unhip?
Help me out, sharp-eared PopWatchers.
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Yeah, Guero was pretty close to chopped liver. Like many others I know, I listened to it once and never went back.
Madonna? That’s funny. She might be one of the top 40 egos in the country. Top 40 paparazzi favorites. Top 40 artists that are past their prime. Top 40 people EW wants on its cover. Don’t confuse celebrity with quality.
Beck is amazing and even if Guero was awful (which it sure ain’t) he would still merit inclusion. Otherwise I think the list is a resounding success.
PS: Rilo Kiley stopped being hip before list season LAST year.
Oh just realised R. Kelly he was snubbed. Please note I am not being ironic.
Mariah Carey. She will never be hip; she’s just the best.
Looked at the list…and I was less than impressed by some of the selections.
Still have to put Springsteen on the list, and I have to add Fountains of Wayne. After two years, I still find new things to love about “Welcome Interstate Managers”, and “Out-of-State Plates” is a great collection of rareties from these guys.
what about the White Stripes? Best show I’ve seen in the last five years.
In The Margins
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I have no problems with the list, it is what it is and for some its a great place to read about and listen to bands they maybe not otherwise be familiar with. Personally I would rather compile a list of artists that deserve wider recognition. The Sugarplastic’s releases these year have already topped my years best of list. Yet, I doubt more than 1000 people have ever heard of them.
Glad to see kelly clarkson’s on the list. I saw her live in New York and she blew me away.
I can’t see the list (my company just installed new spy ware that somehow lets me come here, but prohibits most other sites damn them). If they need R&B or hip hop artisits I’ll throw out nominations for Fantasia, Missy Elliott and Mary J. Blige.
Michael jackson should b there
Thankfully Hip Hop was left off. When is America going to wake up and realize that Hip Hop has been a in creative black hole for the past ten years (sans Missy and Outkast.) Once beats were more important than what was actually being said, it was over. Just because you can work a sampler or ProTools doesn’t make you a musician.
Sleater-Kinney? Please. Watch them open for Pearl Jam (as I have, several times) and you tell me who’s the better act.
Nine Inch Nails and Modest Mouse were the two best shows I saw this summer. It’s great to see a list that gets some of the smaller bands out, but it’s impressive to see a 40-year-old Trent Reznor still showing off his genius.
What about Sheryl Crow? She has just released her fifth studio album and is poised to win big time come awards season. She has a whopping 9 Grammys already and has sold millions of albums world-wide. It is truly amasing that at over 40, she is still as relevant to the music scene as she was when she started.
Way to go Sheryl!
Jason, Hip Hop isn’t in a creative black hole, it’s just that capitalism has a stronghold on it and so the images of the ridiculous are what is selling to white america. The process began a while back but lately has been maximized in artists like 50 cent and the Ying Yang twins.
But the real wordsmiths are there, as they always have been. MF Doom/Zev is one of them. Atmosphere is another. De La. etc.
Doom and Kanye make the list and there are a lot more hip hoppers that would get notice were it not for the selling of the gangsta image by corporations to the buying public.
The Decembrists definitely deserved to make the top 10 on that list; they’re one of those rare bands whose lyrics could almost stand alone as mini stories. After I bought their newest album I found myself listening to it with the lyrics in my hands, like I used to do with storybook records as a kid. LCD Soundsystem (#4) didn’t really do anything for me, though. Maybe I have to hear them in concert or watch the music videos? They sound a bit too close to The Fall on a lot of the songs (and early-`70s Brian Eno, on “Great Release”).
Out of the (many!) good American bands they left off this list, I wish they’d included …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead. If the Mars Volta are like a punk King Crimson, then the Trail of Dead are becoming a punk (Peter Gabriel-era) Genesis. Their most recent album has a similar epic feel but isn’t a carbon copy of their influences.
Thank you for saying that, Flip. I was just about to. Hip Hop is more than what you see on MTV.
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