Official Favourite Band/Artist Thread

If you can't tell by my avatar, my favourite rock and roll band is Led Zeppelin

U2, Green Day, Creedence, Queen, Beatles

Thanks to someone here at ZU I can't stop listening to Austrian Death Machine "Get to the Choppa!"
This band rules.

I actually have three of these, and I've listened to each thousands of times. I can't bring myself to say one of the musical entities is better than the other, they're all equally good.

The Beatles are my favorite musical entity because of their fantastic songwriting ability. Paul McCartney and George Harrison write extraordinary works consistently, and even John Lennon has spit out a few masterpieces. One of my favorite things in an artist is variation and and overall lack of general repetitive form, and the Beatles almost started the whole movement in that direction. They've done so many different styles of music, they have so many different influences and their albums are very eclectic, I love that.

Furthermore, Paul McCartney's voice is that of a god. He can scream melodically, lightly lament the loss of a lover, put forth great energy with mere humming, and makes me swoon every other song. He's a one-of-a-kind singer and is a key piece in the dynamic of the group. He dreams up unusual melodies and masterful pieces that he incorporates beautifully into the music that gives it such a personal touch, I can't even explain it. I just love almost every single song.

Led Zeppelin are my favorite musical entity because of the incredible chemistry each member of the group has with the other. Jimmy Page's musical writing ability is also extremely good. Unfortunately, the group is known for their contributions to the "metal" movement and are oft associated with hard rock and powerful, distorted guitar licks. Mostly unheard of, though, is the massive acoustic section of their catalog. Jimmy Page himself said it was unfair to even call Zeppelin hard rock as a third of all of their songs are acoustic. They have so many, and these are my favorites out of their work. The mastery Jimmy Page shows with guitar playing, and the emotion he helps robert plant convey are unmatched. Their rhythm section is scarcely short of perfection as well, and the combination is truly something spectacular.

Jimmy Page has a specific certain style of playing. The way in which he plucks the strings of the guitar, his mannerisms as he plays, his overall character really shine through and make Zeppelin's music easily identified. Furthermore, the elements of the music are very frontal, open, distinct. You can hear everything in the song and none of it really melds together, and I enjoy that. Jimmy puts great artistry into his acoustic guitar writing and his relationship with the three good friends he has in the band really help in crafting masterpieces. Some of plant's poetry is rather intricate and induces thought, the light rhythm page lays down aside it tends to amplify the feeling of confusion, melancholy, happiness, sheer joy, wonder, or deep seated emotional connection. Many others before this group have done the same, but none really had such long careers that spanned nine albums, each featuring the same exact four people with maybe one or two guests on no more than six songs.

The last of my favorite musical entities is my single favorite musician, and my personal choice for the best individual musician ever- Billy Joel. Billy is a masterful instrumentalist, and absolute master of the piano on the whole. Cascading major sevenths aside, he really knows exactly what the piano can do, and how to go about doing it perfectly. And yet, the piano is barely present in the majority of his music. It's often characterized by screaming, heavy guitars, lots of synthesizers, and a more orchestral manufactured sound. The way he crafts the music as the forefront of his catalog and uses the lyrics as a distant, unimportant piece really come together nicely.

Billy plays such an eclectic mix of styles and timbres with varying instruments and bizarre structures really captures my fancy as well. His defining feature is his unique, flexible, and awe-commanding voice. When he bellows, it feels as if pure emotion is hitting your ears, rather than words or lyrics. The backing riff or melody assist in conveying deep emotion and power. I can hardly speak of his music, it's so mysterious and enigmatic to me, often I can't find intelligible meanings to his stuff, but I can feel the energy behind it. It's unusual and captures me like no other individual.

YIKES I'm bored.

Wait wait wait.

I think you confused John Lennon and George Harrison there in the beginning of your Beatles description.

No I most certainly did not. George Harrison is responsible for such delicate and phenomenal masterpieces as If I Needed Someone, Think For Yourself, I Need You, You Like Me Too Much, Tax Man, Love You To, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, and Here Comes the Sun.

John Lennon.... well he has Ticket to Ride if that counts. Meh.

Harrison definitely had chops (I think he's masterful at crafting vocal hooks), but I do think you are selling Lennon rather short.

Lennon's list of masterpieces to me is smaller than Harrison's. His voice, his work with the electric guitar, and his unique character really contribute to the group.

Lennon really just bugs me in general. I despise his voice and the hideous elitist nature of his fans. I by no means am implying the two people who have commented on it thus far, but in general the Lennon fan I meet out in the world is really a jaded individual. Nothing against the man himself because of his fanbase, but it seemingly has an attitude to it that I can't subscribe to.

The Lennon songs I rather like are as follows:

I Want You
I'm a Loser
Nowhere Man
Any Time at All
I'm Only Sleeping

That's about it. All of his other songs are Paul/Lennon collaborations. I can't deny their dynamic as a songwriting duo. I've always just preferred Harrison more.

Originally Posted by Andy

No I most certainly did not. George Harrison is responsible for such delicate and phenomenal masterpieces as If I Needed Someone, Think For Yourself, I Need You, You Like Me Too Much, Tax Man, Love You To, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, and Here Comes the Sun.

John Lennon.... well he has Ticket to Ride if that counts. Meh.

You forgot the fact that John and Paul were partners and composed most of The Beatles stuff together. That'd make me think that both of them are at least equal in capability, but as it stands, John Lennon's solo work is millions of light years ahead of all the nonsense that Paul McCartney has released post Beatles.

That boils down almost exclusively to opinion. I find John Lennon's solo work nigh impossible to listen to. Paul McCartney however is absolutely fantastic and far surpasses John Lennon to me.

To call it nonsense though? I almost find that offensive. I could say I find John Lennon's garbage to be nonsense, but I at least acknowledge that that is my opinion.

And as you said, most of that stuff was them together. They wrote amazing music together. Those songs cannot be attributed to either, but rather to both. A songwriting duo is different than the individuals who composed it.

My favorite artist of all time is Bob Dylan.

Bob Dylan is practically a historic figure at this point. His music varies from Folk to Rock to Country to Blues to Jazz, and it simply goes on. He's often criticized for his ability to sing, although I find him to be a good singer. His voice, despite not being technically good, suits his music, it has such raw emotion, he can hold a note for a long-ass time, and he can change his voice practically completely for the song alone. (See, Lay Lady Lay compared to House of the Risin' Sun)
He's selftaught and all of the instruments he plays, I believe, and he plays Piano, Harmonica, and Guitar. I love that he never goes overboard. He never does any unnecessary, flashy, overly-good playing on his instruments. I like it, it's simple. Although Bob Dylan's forte is easily his lyricism. He can write like crazy. He's won more awards, altogether, than almost any other musician and, frankly, he deserved every last one. I could say more, but why would I?

I won't go in depth once more, but my favorite rapper is Lupe Fiasco and my favorite band is Modest Mouse

I suppose I can do a second-favorite artist.

Green Day

Absolutely fantastic in every way. Sure, they've done quite a lot of filler. In fact, probably half of their songs are just filler, but their good tracks are masterpieces at the least. From 1039 to 21, I love all ten of their albums. Billie Joe's signature guitar playing, his excellent singing, the great rhythm section, the tight interplay, the silly nature of their songs, and the style is almost godly.

It just makes me feel great to know I've experienced this massive band grow and develop in style. From their early days where they were really simplistic, but catchy and unique, to their more refined, intricate style that classifies them today, it's such a huge development of their style and artistry and cohesion as a band. To progress from lyrics about masturbation and generic love songs that categorized their early career to the concept albums that speak of society in their later career is just awe-inspiring.

To me, there is no better rock and roll band of the modern age.

Originally Posted by Andy

That boils down almost exclusively to opinion. I find John Lennon's solo work nigh impossible to listen to. Paul McCartney however is absolutely fantastic and far surpasses John Lennon to me.

To call it nonsense though? I almost find that offensive. I could say I find John Lennon's garbage to be nonsense, but I at least acknowledge that that is my opinion.

And as you said, most of that stuff was them together. They wrote amazing music together. Those songs cannot be attributed to either, but rather to both. A songwriting duo is different than the individuals who composed it.

We're on an internet message board here. None of us are qualified to say anything that comes out of our mouths. All we are is a bunch of teens and twentysomethings just shooting the ****, I don't think it's necessary that we need to keep saying "THIS IS MY OPINION" every time we make a post.

Well, when you make a casual remark as to the quality of a musician, I tend to question your validity as a free-thinking human being, really, unless you watermark the comment as one of your opinion.

And one's qualifications as a reliable source of knowledge really depend on how you look at it. Would a college degree count? I don't really care. I do know that you can't make generic statements as facts when involving the quality of two extraordinarily close and similar musicians whose entire careers are based off of each other.

My favorite band as of right now would have to be a tie between "The Fall of Troy" and "Horse The Band". Only because I listen to both relatively equally. The Fall of Troy is hard to get into but after some time, they started to grow on me. Horse The Band is............ Interesting........ XD I guess that's the word......... They have a whole bunch of songs based on video game characters and I love it. =]
Birdo, Cutsman, Pols Voice, Boo (Super Mario), and the Power Glove are all things they base their songs off of. =] They're interesting and I recommend that anyone who loves video games at least listen to them once. Again, this band is kind of hard to get into and it took a while for me to actually start liking them.

Originally Posted by Andy

I suppose I can do a second-favorite artist.

Green Day

Absolutely fantastic in every way. Sure, they've done quite a lot of filler. In fact, probably half of their songs are just filler, but their good tracks are masterpieces at the least. From 1039 to 21, I love all ten of their albums. Billie Joe's signature guitar playing, his excellent singing, the great rhythm section, the tight interplay, the silly nature of their songs, and the style is almost godly.

It just makes me feel great to know I've experienced this massive band grow and develop in style. From their early days where they were really simplistic, but catchy and unique, to their more refined, intricate style that classifies them today, it's such a huge development of their style and artistry and cohesion as a band. To progress from lyrics about masturbation and generic love songs that categorized their early career to the concept albums that speak of society in their later career is just awe-inspiring.

To me, there is no better rock and roll band of the modern age.

Way to steal RENEEgade's post.

*erh-ehm*.... *cough cough*

Yeah.

Well, she must be such an amazing and intelligible young lady to have written such a thoughtful and drawn-out post so articulately and whatnot.

Yeah.

>.>

Originally Posted by Andy

I actually have three of these, and I've listened to each thousands of times. I can't bring myself to say one of the musical entities is better than the other, they're all equally good.

The Beatles are my favorite musical entity because of their fantastic songwriting ability. Paul McCartney and George Harrison write extraordinary works consistently, and even John Lennon has spit out a few masterpieces. One of my favorite things in an artist is variation and and overall lack of general repetitive form, and the Beatles almost started the whole movement in that direction. They've done so many different styles of music, they have so many different influences and their albums are very eclectic, I love that.

Furthermore, Paul McCartney's voice is that of a god. He can scream melodically, lightly lament the loss of a lover, put forth great energy with mere humming, and makes me swoon every other song. He's a one-of-a-kind singer and is a key piece in the dynamic of the group. He dreams up unusual melodies and masterful pieces that he incorporates beautifully into the music that gives it such a personal touch, I can't even explain it. I just love almost every single song.

Led Zeppelin are my favorite musical entity because of the incredible chemistry each member of the group has with the other. Jimmy Page's musical writing ability is also extremely good. Unfortunately, the group is known for their contributions to the "metal" movement and are oft associated with hard rock and powerful, distorted guitar licks. Mostly unheard of, though, is the massive acoustic section of their catalog. Jimmy Page himself said it was unfair to even call Zeppelin hard rock as a third of all of their songs are acoustic. They have so many, and these are my favorites out of their work. The mastery Jimmy Page shows with guitar playing, and the emotion he helps robert plant convey are unmatched. Their rhythm section is scarcely short of perfection as well, and the combination is truly something spectacular.

Jimmy Page has a specific certain style of playing. The way in which he plucks the strings of the guitar, his mannerisms as he plays, his overall character really shine through and make Zeppelin's music easily identified. Furthermore, the elements of the music are very frontal, open, distinct. You can hear everything in the song and none of it really melds together, and I enjoy that. Jimmy puts great artistry into his acoustic guitar writing and his relationship with the three good friends he has in the band really help in crafting masterpieces. Some of plant's poetry is rather intricate and induces thought, the light rhythm page lays down aside it tends to amplify the feeling of confusion, melancholy, happiness, sheer joy, wonder, or deep seated emotional connection. Many others before this group have done the same, but none really had such long careers that spanned nine albums, each featuring the same exact four people with maybe one or two guests on no more than six songs.

The last of my favorite musical entities is my single favorite musician, and my personal choice for the best individual musician ever- Billy Joel. Billy is a masterful instrumentalist, and absolute master of the piano on the whole. Cascading major sevenths aside, he really knows exactly what the piano can do, and how to go about doing it perfectly. And yet, the piano is barely present in the majority of his music. It's often characterized by screaming, heavy guitars, lots of synthesizers, and a more orchestral manufactured sound. The way he crafts the music as the forefront of his catalog and uses the lyrics as a distant, unimportant piece really come together nicely.

Billy plays such an eclectic mix of styles and timbres with varying instruments and bizarre structures really captures my fancy as well. His defining feature is his unique, flexible, and awe-commanding voice. When he bellows, it feels as if pure emotion is hitting your ears, rather than words or lyrics. The backing riff or melody assist in conveying deep emotion and power. I can hardly speak of his music, it's so mysterious and enigmatic to me, often I can't find intelligible meanings to his stuff, but I can feel the energy behind it. It's unusual and captures me like no other individual.

YIKES I'm bored.

tl;dr

i agree there about led zeppelin, as they are also one of my favorite bands. something about plant's vocals is just amazing. and though i still do enjoy the more 'mainstream' (i guess you could that what gets the most radio play) songs from them, eg black dog, rock'n'roll, stairway, etc, the stuff that doesn't get as much air time is actually what i like better.

billy joel and the beatles are fantastic, as well

I have heard "Rock and Roll" more times than I ever want to. I have since not been able to listen to the song. Probably the most overplayed song I have ever heard.

Stairway, I've surprisingly only heard it three or four times on the radio.

My favourites always change. But here's my top 5.

Senses Fail
Metro Station
Tokio Hotel
Jack's Mannequin
BeForU