Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time" is a special issue published by the American magazine Rolling Stone in two parts in 2004 and 2005, and updated in 2011 in a Special Collectors Edition. The list presented was compiled based on votes from musicians, writers, and industry figures, and is focused on the rock & roll era. It predominantly features American and British musicians.
The publication also features comments written by musicians about their favorite colleagues (e.g. Elvis Costello on The Beatles, Janet Jackson on Tina Turner, Lou Reed on David Bowie, Elton John on Eminem and so further). Since their publications, the lists have been cited by hundreds of specialized and generalist publications.
Background
The list, published in two issues in 2004 and 2005 and updated in 2011, was based on the votes from a panel of 55 musicians, writers, and industry figures. As the editors explain, the artists were selected by "their peers", and the list aims to be "a broad survey of rock history", spanning from rock and roll, blues, indie rock, rap music and contemporary pop music.
List statistics
In both versions of the list, the first three positions are held by The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley.
In 2011, Rolling Stone published a revised edition of the list, with some changing only from the 27th position onwards. The updated list contained artists not present in the previous one (like Queen, Metallica, Pink Floyd, Talking Heads, R.E.M., Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Jay-Z...) while others were removed (Etta James, Miles Davis, Roxy Music, N.W.A., Martha & The Vandellas...).
The whole list predominantly includes American or British artists, with the exception of: Lee "Scratch" Perry (Jamaica; only in the 2005's list), Bob Marley (Jamaica), Joni Mitchell (Canada), Neil Young (Canada), U2 (Ireland), Van Morrison (Northern Ireland), AC/DC (Australia) and Carlos Santana (Mexico/USA). Tina Turner, who relinquished her American citizenship after obtaining Swiss citizenship in 2013, was still an American citizen while included in the list. The list predominantly features artists from the 1960s and the 1970s.
See also
- List of best-selling music artists
- The 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time, also from Rolling Stone magazine
- The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, also from Rolling Stone magazine
- The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, also from Rolling Stone magazine
