EWB's Top 104 Artists 2013 - Results

[SRN]

I cannot stress enough how great Janelle Monae is live. Her showmanship is ridiculous and she hits the balance between singing and performing so well. I wish I could go back in time and slap myself for not seeing her when she opened for Of Montreal a couple years ago just so I could have heard all the ArchAndroid tracks that I wasn't able to hear her do last month (she only did "Cold War," "Tightrope," and "Come Alive," plus "Sincerely Jane" off of Metropolis). Especially "Locked Inside" which is magic and is probably even moreso in person.

Yeah, I can only agree with this; I saw her at Roskilde Festival 2012 and she tore the house down. Almost everyone, if not everyone, was dancing and jiving and just in it because of her ability to work a crowd. She is awesome. The rest of the bunch though, I am not so sure of. I have not ever heard a Laura Marling song and looking her up did not do much either; I am way too busy with other genres and music to care about another folk singer.

Childish Gambino is terrible; almost more overrated than Tyler, the Creator. I still cannot figure out why people like him so much. Lacuna Coil are also terrible, but terrible in the more offensively boring and awkward way.

[METALMAN]

60. Green Day

Number of votes: 3

Highest position: 3rd

Does my dad like them? He doesn't

59. System of a Down

Number of votes: 2

Highest position: 4th

Does my dad like them? He thinks "Sugar" is funny

[METALMAN]

58. Nightwish

Number of votes: 3

Highest position: 9th

Does my dad like them? Never heard of them

57. Disclosure

Number of votes: 3

Highest position: 8th

Does my dad like them? Never heard of them

[apsham]

..is this 2013?

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Such a strange and random list of bands so far.

[GoGo Yubari]

Childish Gambino is terrible; almost more overrated than Tyler, the Creator. I still cannot figure out why people like him so much.

I always feel like a sizable chunk (not all) of his fans are college kids who "don't usually like rap." Another chunk are people who like him from Community and that goodwill extends to his rapping. It's unfortunate because I think that music's the thing he's worst at (as opposed to acting and writing) and it's what he's choosing to focus on.

[MalaCloudy Black]

I liked System of a Down when I was like, 17.

I have to admit that as much as I don't care for recent Green Day, I still go back and listen to some of their singles from the mid/late 90's. They're fun pop punk songs.

I still remember being a senior in high school when American Idiot was about to come out, and in one of my history classes we had a student teacher who was in his mid-20's and a huge Green Day fan. For about two months before it came out that's all he wanted to talk about at the top of the class. I wonder if he liked that album.

[SeanDMan]

I liked System of a Down when I was like, 17.

See, I think System Of A Down are the exception to the rule. In most cases when I look at a band on this list and say "I used to like them, what happened?", it's that I just grew out of their music. However, I think in the case of System Of A Down it's just that their earlier output was much better than their later works. I still really like "Toxicity" as a song, and some of the stuff of that era is good shredds, but the more they put out the more it seemed that they were a one note band who just wrote the same protest record over and over and over.

[gunnar hendershow]

Childish Gambino is terrible; almost more overrated than Tyler, the Creator. I still cannot figure out why people like him so much.

I always feel like a sizable chunk (not all) of his fans are college kids who "don't usually like rap." Another chunk are people who like him from Community and that goodwill extends to his rapping. It's unfortunate because I think that music's the thing he's worst at (as opposed to acting and writing) and it's what he's choosing to focus on.

That's basically the thing with Childish Gambino. It's rap for people who don't listen to rap. Like Lupe, Kanye, and Outkast were back in the day. He's not as good at it as they are/were, but winds up catering to the same exact market.

Also that most recent 4 is just bizarre. Did you read the wrong ballots metalman?

[GoGo Yubari]

Yeah. With Childish Gambino it feels like he's alternating between the semicolon style of rapping and talking about girls sucking his dick, which is where for me the fact that I know it's Donald Glover actually works against him because it doesn't fit with his standup at all. He's trying too hard.

[METALMAN]

Tbf, intend to dislike everything I've seen Donald Glover do, and his music is no exception.

[SRN]

Never liked Green Day. Or Blink-182. Or pop punk in general, really.

System of a Down I liked briefly when I was younger.

Nightwish have always been really tacky and bad.

BUT FUCK YES DISCLOSURE I LOVE IT

[Jimmy]

Laura Marling's wonderful. Her first album's my favourite, and the second's really good too, can't say I've given the latest album too much of my time. She's got such a great voice and her music kind of effortlessly floats between uplifting and haunting.

I like Gambino's album but I thought his big mixtape was a bit shit. I love Donald Glover, so that probably helps.

I can't stand anything post American Idiot by Green Day. I really enjoyed seeing them at Reading (I didn't think I would) but man their latest stuff is really, really shit.

System of a Down are great fun.

D'ya know who are more fun? Disclosure. So much fun.

[VerbalPuke]

I liked System of a Down when I was like, 17.

See, I think System Of A Down are the exception to the rule. In most cases when I look at a band on this list and say "I used to like them, what happened?", it's that I just grew out of their music. However, I think in the case of System Of A Down it's just that their earlier output was much better than their later works. I still really like "Toxicity" as a song, and some of the stuff of that era is good shredds, but the more they put out the more it seemed that they were a one note band who just wrote the same protest record over and over and over.

Yeah, definitely man. First album they made was pretty good, it helped that it was something different from most of the other crappy metal at the time. They had an interesting sound with a vocalist taking a page out of Jello Biafra's book, except he had a quicker delivery. After that, yeah it was mostly the same if not worse.

[METALMAN]

Green Day are alright I guess. I'm happy to listen to the odd single here and there from their greatest hits. They are a bit of a joke give that they act as if they personify the spirit of punk (whatever that is) while sharing a bill with Usher and Justin Bieber. But yeah, a few good songs. I hated it at the time, but a lot of the stuff on American Idiot is okay. When I worked at HMV I had that on a lot when they released those Uno, Dos, Tres albums. They were shit, and American Idiot was a far better alternative. I can imagine them being a good fun live, though that's probably faint praise. I saw B*Witched live a couple of years ago and it was good fun.

I like a few songs from the first SOAD album. I know little aside from that, and I'm not really bothered about it. I remember being amused a few of Serj Tankian's solo songs because they were so ridiculous.

Everything I've heard by Nightwish is desperately boring.

I've only heard odd snippets of Disclosure songs, so I can't really comment. I think I'd like them though.

[Sousa]

Green Day is definitely a good band live--I saw them on the Warning tour a dog's age ago and they were really good (though trumped by the Get Up Kids coming out before them). The nicest thing I can say about Green Day is that I used to really like them but sort of grew out of them.

[The Sandman]

Green Day is a really fun live band. I've seen them twice in the past three years and i've had a great time on both times, i agree that the album trilogy they put out last year isn't good, except a few good songs on each of them, maybe they could've got a one good album of them combined. I like pretty much everything up to American Idiot. Albums after that, not so much.

Edited November 24, 2013 by The Sandman

[=BK=]

I like what I've heard of Nightwish on my Pandora stations. Not a favorite band or anything.

[The Sandman]

I think much of my interest to Nightwish came back, when Floor Jansen became their singer. She's much better than Anette, though i like the albums they did with her as well. Not my favourite band, but i mostly like their stuff. (Had them 9th on my list.)

Looking forward to getting this live + documentary pack next week.

Edited November 24, 2013 by The Sandman

[GoGo Yubari]

American Idiot is fairly okay, especially in contrast to the shit that came after it. I just got sick of it because I was still listening to alternative rock radio at the time and and those songs were relentlessly overplayed.