AVRev.

com's Top 10 Rock Bands of All Time

Written by Charles Andrews, Howard Schilling, Jack Sonni and Ken Lopez Monday, 28 July 2008 Top 100 Bands of All Time To celebrate the tenth anniversary of AVRev.com , AVRev.com has compiled its list of the top bands in rock history. The Judges The group of five judges included three Baby Boomers and two Generation Exers. The Boomers include former Dire Straits guitarist Jack Sonni, as well as University of Southern California Thornton School of Music professor Ken Lopez, Desktop speaker company XHi-Fi president Howard Schilling and AVRev.coms music editor Charles Andrews to round out the group. The Method and Categories From a diverse list of 100 bands, judges ranked each band for each category. A perfect score is 550 points. Using the analytical tools that have become popular in high-powered fantasy sports, the AVRev.com judges rated bands based on a battery of criteria. U.S. Sales: (100 points max) Sales numbers come from the RIAAs website and are ranked from 100 to 1 (with the top score going to The Beatles). These numbers are based in fact and therefore were not voted on or changed in any way by any of the judges. Songs and Songwriting: (100 points max) Songwriting is key to the legacy of any band. In addition to songwriting, judges were encouraged to judge a band on how they interpreted songs in performance. The Jimi Hendrix Experiences version of All Along the Watchtower or Van Halens You Really Got Me reflect the respective bands ability to remake a great song, written by someone else, as their own. Technical Ability: (100 points max) All too often, music critics overlook a bands ability to play their asses off (think reviews of Nirvana), but not at AVRev.com. Having chops is a fully ranked, 100-point category. Innovation: (100 points max) The ability to define a genre or a sound or a technique, or to strongly influence bands that came after you, make up the parameters for the fully-weighted innovation category. Live Performance: (50 points max) Some members of the panel of judges have actually played with or opened for a number of the bands on the list. Ken Lopezs story of jamming with Jimi Hendrix at the Guild booth before the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival is an all-time classic rock story. Our team of judges look at how good a band is playing live based loosely on their draw, seeing the band live or watching them on video. Consistency vs. Longevity: (50 points max) This is one of the most interesting categories, when you consider the role of the most critically acclaimed bands during the history of rock. Bands like The Eagles rank high in this category because they had a long run as a top rock band, yet knew when to hang up the spurs. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, despite their short run, also did well, considering their three studio records. Even when Jimi let Noel Redding (the bass player) sing the song was good. The Rolling Stones have many a landmark record in their history, but they also have many a stiff. Consider your own grade for bands like Genesis and Van Halen, who tried to go for a third front man with disastrous results to an otherwise spectacular career. Random Play: (50 points max) This category allows the judge to vote on a band based on how likely he is to listen to a bands songs if they were to come up on an iPod. Many respected bands suffer in this category, whereas bands that are quietly a guilty pleasure (think The Bee Gees or The Carpenters) can get high grades. Bands That Never Got Considered It was a tough job to assemble the list of bands for consideration. It was essential that bands from the early days of the 1950s through todays most popular acts were considered. We looked for diversity in genre and type. We included bands that were reggae, electronic, strong country/crossover and beyond. We did not consider individual artists such as Elvis or Michael Jackson, because this is an exercise in looking at the best bands. In the event an artist was associated with a stable band, judges were instructed to only consider his or her work with that band. An act like Prince and the Revolution was aided in that category, since the artist formerly known as a vegan symbol record company slave isnt being judged. In the process of ranking bands, we have thought of a few we would have liked to add and we are confident you will

have some good suggestions, too, which we will list. Click here to voice your opinion about this article. Here is a start to the list: ABBA, Chicago, Kiss and more to come.... Judge for Yourself. Check out our Best Rock Albums of all Time as well!

Band

1 to 100

1 to 50

1 to 550

U.S. Technical Live Random Songs Innovation Consistency Total Sales Ability Performance Play 1.
2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29.

Led Zeppelin

99

95
98 91 95 87 91 95 84 84 92 91 87 86 74 84 87 75 88 88 89 81 78 75 84 89 73 79 79 75

98
78 92 99 97 91 84 87 73 72 91 75 85 98 83 84 94 91 76 66 73 83 84 85 89 68 75 81 86

93
99 96 99 93 91 68 87 78 93 72 88 87 77 81 79 89 68 73 68 89 86 73 87 93 50 54 63 77

48
45 48 49 44 45 42 46 48 44 38 39 43 43 41 45 46 39 35 41 34 40 44 29 44 40 37 39 41

48
47 43 46 42 46 47 39 46 47 44 43 40 42 42 40 38 39 39 32 33 41 37 37 42 37 36 38 39

47
47 39 47 42 45 45 33 36 47 44 36 44 35 38 42 40 35 39 28 38 42 34 40 42 36 28 34 37

528
514 506 503 496 493 479 468 455 454 451 450 446 444 436 435 434 433 428 418 414 413 412 411 408 400 398 396 394

The Beatles 100 Pink Floyd 97 The Jimi Hendrix 68 Experience Van Halen 91 Queen 84 The Eagles 98 Metallica 92 U2 90 Bob Marley and the 59 Wailers The Police 71 The Doors 82 Stone Temple 61 Pilots Rush 75 Genesis 67 Prince and the 58 Revolution Yes 52 Earth Wind 73 and Fire The Bee 78 Gees The Rolling 94 Stones The Beach 66 Boys Soundgarden 43 The Who 65 Steely Dan 49 James Brown and 9 the JBs AC/DC 96 Fleetwood 89 Mac Crosby, Stills, Nash 62 and Young The Allman 39

Brothers 30. ZZ Top 76 31. Aerosmith 95 32. Cream 28 Bruce Springsteen 33. 93 & The E Street Band The Grateful 34. 60 Dead Guns 'N 35. 87 Roses 36. Pearl Jam 81 37. Boston 83 38. Dire Straits 57 King 39. 7 Crimson Parliament 40. 27 Funkadelic Red Hot Chili 41. 63 Peppers 42. Bon Jovi 85 43. Dixie Chicks 80 44. Foreigner 86 David Bowie and The 45. 30 Spiders From Mars The Talking 46. 37 Heads 47. Jethro Tull 50 48. The Band 21 The Beastie 49. 69 Boys 50. Nirvana 77 Rage Against 51. 45 The Machine Sly and the 52. 42 Family Stone 53. The Clash 31 54. Tool 44 55. Journey 88 56. No Doubt 53 Creedence 57. Clearwater 70 Revival 58. Deep Purple 38 Alice In 59. 48 Chains 60. Orbital 8 61. Little Feat 22 62. Duran Duran 51 63. Living Colour 24 Frank Zappa and the 64. 5 Mothers of Invention The 65. 74 Carpenters

71 78 77 68

75 72 87 62

48 47 84 50

42 37 47 48

41 35 32 37

39 27 35 28

392 391 390 386

62 73 54 67 73 60 72 68 74 53 70 71

69 76 55 74 78 96 78 68 73 59 66 73

85 51 89 57 53 84 82 59 31 85 45 75

46 34 42 37 36 44 37 41 39 26 33 38

33 29 31 30 35 35 35 29 29 33 29 33

30 31 26 29 31 36 30 28 24 17 23 31

385 381 378 377 363 362 361 356 355 353 352 351

71 61 71 53 53 60 74 58 49 59 82 66 65 53 53 66 74 44 61

69 71 77 40 45 82 67 61 85 76 60 57 77 66 64 77 57 85 85

66 75 64 88 88 67 85 89 60 33 43 40 53 74 88 56 61 75 81

38 36 39 36 37 26 20 35 36 29 30 31 36 25 36 40 23 38 29

34 26 38 30 25 34 23 30 33 26 37 32 31 26 41 31 29 22 31

33 28 34 27 17 26 27 33 28 23 27 32 25 31 32 29 25 31 26

348 347 344 343 342 340 338 337 335 334 332 328 325 323 322 321 320 319 318

61

52

54

19

28

29

317

66. Audioslave 29 The 67. 26 Pretenders 68. Primus 23 69. Blondie 34 Black 70. 54 Sabbath Lynyrd 71. 79 Skynyrd 72. Sex Pistols 16 Isaac Hayes 73. and the 15 Movement 74. R.E.M. 64 75. Traffic 20 Buffalo 76. 17 Springfield Derek and 77. 11 the Dominos The Jackson 78. 18 Five 79. The O'Jays 33 Harold Melvin and 80. 25 the Blue Notes 81. Underworld 2 Thievery 82. 1 Corporation 83. Motley Crue 72 Janis Joplin and Big 84. Brother and 56 the Holding Company 85. Blind Faith 19 86. The Animals 10 87. The Roots 12 The Velvet 88. 4 Underground 89. The Kinks 13 90. Radiohead 32 The 91. 47 Scorpions 92. Kansas 55 93. Iron Maiden 36 94. Motorhead 6 95. Judas Priest 40 96. The Orb 3 97. The Cure 41 98. Coldplay 46 99. Slayer 14 Black Eyed 100. 35 Peas

71 62 45 65 55 52 65 70 54 61 66 74 86 66 68 68 69 55

77 61 88 57 60 51 41 70 47 76 65 77 51 62 62 61 53 56

52 72 66 65 62 45 95 51 55 59 59 49 52 43 41 48 56 29

30 39 38 32 33 34 37 39 29 33 35 31 27 31 32 40 31 23

26 31 27 31 26 29 28 33 35 30 32 28 35 32 30 36 39 24

31 24 27 29 19 17 24 27 20 24 28 31 30 31 29 31 36 25

316 315 314 313 309 307 306 305 304 303 302 301 299 298 287 286 285 284

51

46

52

29

24

25

283

59 64 41 50 53 54 46 43 38 43 31 49 42 43 31 33

66 53 79 64 52 50 56 53 62 52 65 54 28 41 72 36

55 52 76 69 60 47 35 44 52 64 46 62 58 37 45 40

26 34 24 27 30 31 27 28 29 36 26 22 20 27 27 34

24 34 28 30 31 27 24 20 22 23 22 26 31 19 18 20

28 29 11 21 23 20 25 15 18 29 21 23 10 16 18 16

277 276 271 265 262 261 260 258 257 253 251 239 230 229 225 214