Sometimes, it seems like rock stars live the most glorious life imaginable. Well, that’s true most of the time, if we’re being honest. They get to party for a living, are loved and adored by all the fans they come across, and make a ton of money doing it. Oh, and the groupies don’t hurt, either. Nor does the travel schedule—grueling though it may be at times, these rockers get to see the whole world. (And on the record company’s dime, no less!)

But behind the scenes, a great many rock stars struggle with their interpersonal relationships. And no, we don’t mean connections with loved ones or romantic partners, although there are plenty of those issues. We’re talking about seeing eye-to-eye with other members of their bands! Going on tour for months on end and/or being cooped up in a recording studio trying to perfect a much-anticipated album both create major stressors for musicians and their teams.

Inevitably, disagreements occur. And when they bubble up, they tend to fester. Over months (or years), those disagreements can get really, really vicious. So that’s what we’re here to take a look at today! In this list, we’ll take you through the stories of ten high-profile bands that suffered through absolutely brutal internal feuds. From the outside looking in, it might just seem to you like a few aging (and very rich) rockers getting into a catfight. But from the inside, these feuds represent years of pent-up rage, frustration, and anger. Yikes!

Related: Ten (Sometimes Tragic) Stories of Underappreciated Women of Rock

10 Metallica

The members of Metallica have fought with each other quite a bit throughout the years. In the group’s earliest days, they booted guitarist Dave Mustaine out of the band after they failed to get on the same page. He went on to found and front Megadeth—so maybe that was a bit of a miss on Metallica’s part. But their contention at the time was that he had major substance abuse problems, so they simply had to fire him. They had no other choice! That doesn’t mean Mustaine still isn’t pissed about it years later, though.

Even after more than two decades apart, Mustaine has still gone on the record at times to reveal how bitter he is that he was fired by Metallica. Take the 2004 music documentary Metallica: Some Kind of Monster as the perfect example of this. In it, Mustaine complained to Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich about how the band canned him. And not only that, but how Dave isn’t credited with any of his musical contributions. In turn, Lars publicly slammed Dave for whining. Ulrich noted that Mustaine “never played on a Metallica record” and needed to get over a fractured band relationship that had come to an end more than 25 years prior. Not bad advice…

Mustaine isn’t the only one who’s gotten mad at Metallica, though. The group’s former bassist, Jason Newsted, has also feuded with the group in the past. Back in 2000, Jason asked the band for a hiatus so that he could work on a solo project. But Metallica chief James Hetfield denied the request, noting that he wanted Newsted in the group. Hetfield didn’t care to have the talented bassist focus all his creative energies on something that wouldn’t help the band. So, in turn, Newsted decided to quit the group. And he never forgave Hetfield for not allowing him the free reign to strike out on his own!^[1]

9 Hall & Oates

For years, musicians Daryl Hall and John Oates seemed to be good friends. After all, they got rich and famous together as the legendary duo Hall & Oates. But in 2023, Daryl amazingly filed a temporary restraining order against John—and then all hell broke loose! As it turned out, despite outward appearances, the two men hadn’t been on good terms for years. Things then came to a head when John attempted to sell his half of the duo’s joint music partnership. Angry that John had tried to sell out from under him without his consent, Daryl popped off with the TRO. He basically wanted the courts to prevent the sale of music rights.

“John and I did not have a creative relationship for decades; the last song I wrote with John was in 2000, and that was with somebody else,” Daryl explained to Billboard Magazine after the restraining order request blew up in the public eye. “We toured, and we toured and toured, and it was very restrictive to me and to John. The real truth of it all is John just said one day, he didn’t want to do it anymore. I said, ‘OK,’ but the problem is [John] didn’t make the parting and breakup easy, and that’s where the difficulties lay and still lay, and that’s all it is.”

On the flip side, Oates told news outlets that he didn’t think that his decision to sell his portion of the music rights was that big of a deal. And in fact, he was shocked by Hall’s reaction—and the legal maneuver with the restraining order. Regardless, Oates admits that the pair haven’t been friends for years. It would seem that the legal battle over the duo’s music rights was simply the thing that catapulted their feud into the spotlight. A tough end for a formerly close pair of musicians!^[2]

8 Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath was just about to reunite after temporarily breaking up when drummer Bill Ward erupted into a feud with the other band members. At the time, Ward claimed he’d been offered an “unreasonable contract” to once again participate in the band that he said wasn’t “signable.” So he opted out of the reunion album. Then, he got into a massive public feud with Ozzy Osbourne. Fast forward a couple years after that, and Ward was still seething and angry when the group got ready to head out on their final tour!

“With a sad heart, I have to say I will not participate in any musical undertakings until a righting of the wrongs spoken against me has been achieved,” Ward said in a statement he released to the media about feuding with Osbourne and having no further part in Black Sabbath. “I have little to no expectations of this happening, but in the order of first things first, I’m looking for an honest accountability of all of Ozzy’s statements that I felt were untrue. I would want Ozzy to amend his opinions and exaggerations. I would want him to be forthcoming about his unrealistic viewpoints. And because I was chastised publicly, I would want him to amend publicly in his words, and not through an Ozzy representative, the nature of the wrongs.”

For what it’s worth, Ozzy never did “amend publicly his words” or decided to be “forthcoming about his unrealistic viewpoints,” as Ward had hoped for. Instead, the band played their final shows in 2017 in their long-ago hometown of Birmingham, England, without Ward in attendance. At those shows, Ozzy did acknowledge that it was “bittersweet” for Bill not to be there. But that’s as far as the Black Sabbath frontman would go. So the band rode off into the sunset with the feud still simmering and no end in sight.^[3]

7 Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd may be seen as one of the greatest bands of all time, but they’re also one of the most estranged. Very early in their musical run, the band butted heads with leader Roger Waters. He may have served as the group’s main lyricist and lead vocalist, but after a relatively short time, his creative views differed greatly from the rest of them. They butted heads regularly through the early 1980s. Finally, things came to a head in 1985 when he decided to leave the band. Then, he followed that up with a lawsuit seeking to legally dissolve Pink Floyd and stop the rest of the remaining band members from using that name and the musical ideas Waters had come up with before.

“I would be distressed if Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr made records and went on the road calling themselves The Beatles,” Waters argued years later about why he wanted Pink Floyd to dissolve after his departure. “If John Lennon’s not in it, it’s sacrilegious … To continue with [other band members] Gilmour and Mason, getting in a whole bunch of other people to write the material, seems to me an insult to the work that came before.”

After a prolonged and extremely bitter legal battle, Waters and the rest of the band eventually came to an agreement. Decades later, Roger even admitted to the BBC that he regretted taking things all the way to court. So, cooler heads prevailed—years later. But in the moment, rage consumed Waters, and the whole thing blew up in one of the most vicious rock band feuds of all time.^[4]

6 Guns N’ Roses

Axl Rose and Slash were two of the original members of the iconic ’80s rock band Guns N’ Roses. But almost right from the start, tensions rose between the pair over the creative direction of the band. For years, they feuded on and off about what kind of music the group should record. Then, in the early 1990s, things really came to a head when Slash agreed to hold a concert with Michael Jackson. This was just after Jackson had first been accused of pedophilia. Axl Rose hated the King of Pop for that—and, by extension, Slash for deciding to do the performance.

“Axl was molested by his father when he was two, and he believed the charges against Michael Jackson,” the band’s former manager Doug Goldstein later explained as to what started the feud. “When Axl found out Slash was going to play with Michael Jackson and that the payment was a big screen TV, he was devastated. He thought Slash would support him and be against all abuse. From Axl’s point of view, that was the only problem. He could ignore the drugs and the alcohol, but never the child abuse.”

Then, by 1996, things had gotten even worse. That year, the group was in the middle of contract renegotiations with each other and their recording company. Slash didn’t like the direction the group was taking, so he told Axl that he was quitting—and he walked away. Just like that. The two men then didn’t speak to each other for nearly two full decades. Finally, in 2015, they began to work on patching up their relationship. They even went on a limited run of concerts together, coming full circle again. But it was only after more than twenty years of vicious feuding in public and private.

“A lot of the tension has dissipated,” Slash told CBS after finally reconciling with Axl in recent years. “Over time, we all just got sick and tired of the black cloud. The biggest thing that happens when you have a breakup that is less than harmonious is you build up a bad energy because of the distance.”^[5]

5 Blink-182

Blink-182 has had multiple notable lows during their time in the spotlight. The first of those came in 2005 when differences and personal issues among the group’s members forced the rock band to break up. For a while, they had no hopes of reuniting. Then, three years later, in 2008, Travis Barker nearly died in a plane crash. After that, the trio had a massive change of heart and got back together to record music again.

“Up until that point, I had zero hope for Blink,” Barker explained to the Daily Beast years later about his plane crash. “It was something that I had really put behind me. My accident definitely made everyone think about things a little more clearly, especially me. It’s horrible that it took something like that for everyone to wake up, but we realized, ‘Man, life’s short!’ We were fighting about some bull s**t and not talking, and it wasn’t anything to be fighting over.”

For the next seven years, the group worked together. But in 2015, they once again parted ways. This time, it was Tom DeLong who left the band—well, maybe. After the second breakup, Barker and Mark Hoppus shared a statement with their fans that Tom wanted to “work on his other non-music endeavors.” Meanwhile, DeLonge denied that he quit but instead intimated that he was forced out of the band while Barker and Hoppus focused on recording yet another new album.

Regardless, Tom really did spend the next few years building a non-band-related company. And in his absence, Blink-182 kept on touring—with Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba in the place of DeLonge. Once again, though, a tragedy brought them back together. This time around, the scary moment was when Mark was diagnosed with cancer near the end of 2021. The group reunited once again in 2022, began touring as a threesome once more, and even started recording more new music. What a long, strange trip it’s been!^[6]

4 Van Halen

The guys who brought together Van Halen promptly began feuding nearly as soon as the band took off. That would be founder and lead guitarist Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth, of course. The pair butted heads on photo shoots, music videos, and side projects alike. Things came to a head in 1984 when David decided to launch a solo career. Right from when he broke away from the band, he started talking smack about Eddie and his way of managing the group—which immediately kicked off a massive, decades-long feud between them.

“Since my very first days with the band 11 years ago, I have always had the feeling that one day I would wake up in a cold hotel, all the rooms would be empty, and I would be stuck by a phone with a busy signal,” Roth complained to Billboard Magazine about feeling abandoned by Eddie Van Halen after splitting from the band. “From the first day. Nothing has changed.” And just like that, David was gone!

In response, Eddie made his case: that he wanted to cut back on touring and focus more on recording and releasing new music. David, he claimed, had instead wanted to focus on solo projects and even dip his toes into the world of acting in a Hollywood movie. Then, to tip the scales, Eddie confirmed that David had quit the group by explaining that he was “tired of putting up with [Roth’s] bull s**t.”

That didn’t sit well with David, and for the next couple of decades, the duo feuded publicly. Eddie quickly went out and got Sammy Hagar to replace David Lee Roth in the band and enjoyed some smashing success with the new lineup. To their credit, though, cooler heads eventually prevailed. In 2007, Roth and Van Halen finally reunited and even went back to being bandmates for a while until Eddie died years after that due to complications from throat cancer.^[7]

3 Oasis

We bet you’re surprised that you had to read this far down into the list to see Oasis’ name listed, aren’t you? We couldn’t very well write a list about bands feuding without including the brainchild of the Gallagher brothers. The first time Noel and Liam officially feuded on the record was way back in 1994 when the pair said they hated each other during an on-the-record interview with NME.

Sadly, things only got worse from there. Over the years, the brothers routinely fought with each other in public. They would hurl insults at each other during media interviews and shows. They would randomly skip out on concerts without any notice, leaving the other brother in the lurch. And in 2009, it came to a head when Liam destroyed a dressing room and Noel’s guitar for good measure. At that point, Noel had enough—and he quit the group.

“It’s with some sadness and great relief to tell you that I quit Oasis tonight,” Noel wrote on the band’s website. “I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer.” And with that, the two were done with each other forever… Well, OK, not really.

Since then, the pair have only ever continued to take shots at each other in public. The brothers are fond of insulting each other in interviews and on social media alike. Things got so intense at one point that Liam even filed a libel lawsuit against Noel. He eventually dropped it without further pursuit after Noel apologized for his prior statements. But still, really?! A libel lawsuit against your own brother? You know the rift is deep, and the emotions are very significantly at odds when two brothers start filing lawsuits against each other!^[8]

2 Journey

The guys in Journey have been fighting with each other since pretty much the inception of the band. Take lead singer and frontman Steve Perry as the best example of this. Perry joined the group in 1977, but things were bad from nearly the start. Perry said years later that upon joining Journey, he nearly immediately lost his passion for music. Things got so bad with the other band members that he eventually walked away from the group ten years later. He was unable to take it any longer—and he hated how much he’d come to hate music while performing with Journey.

But that wasn’t the end of the story for Perry by a long shot. He eventually rejoined Journey in 1996, eager to give it a second try. But right from the start of his second tour of duty, things were once again messed up. This time around, Perry was suffering from a hip injury and needed to undergo significant hip surgery. He tried to postpone the procedure to help the band, but he was unable to tour because he could barely move. So the other band members kicked him out of the group—for good this time.

After Perry departed for the second time, Journey carried on with a new lead singer. But it wouldn’t be long before the other members started feuding with each other, too. In 2022, guitarist Neal Schon delivered a cease-and-desist letter to keyboardist Jonathan Cain a few months after Cain decided to perform “Don’t Stop Believin’” for Donald Trump down at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Then, two years later, during Journey’s fiftieth-anniversary tour, Cain and Schon started fighting over how their touring company was managing concert finances.

In the end, the pair released a public statement indicating that they “fundamentally disagree” about the strategy of their anniversary tour and the operation of its management company. That has resulted in a few canceled tour dates here and there, much to the chagrin of fans who are hoping to see Journey for possibly the last time. But as far as the band members are concerned, they just can’t seem to stop fighting and leave it all behind them. Not a great look!^[9]

1 Jane’s Addiction

Everything seemed as good as could be for Jane’s Addiction right up until September 2024. That month, singer Perry Farrell was performing in the middle of a show when he suddenly tried to attack guitarist Dave Navarro on stage. Farrell had to be restrained and pulled off the stage—right in the middle of the concert! In time, Perry’s wife revealed that the band had been playing their instruments too loud, which was leaving Perry with frazzled ears and a sore throat while he tried to sing loud enough to hear himself. That, apparently, was what nearly led to an on-stage brawl. Yikes!

In turn, Farrell later released a statement of apology for going after Dave in such a public way on stage. “This weekend has been incredibly difficult, and after having the time and space to reflect, it is only right that I apologize to my bandmates, especially Dave Navarro, fans, family, and friends for my actions during Friday’s show,” Farrell’s statement read. “Unfortunately, my breaking point resulted in inexcusable behavior, and I take full accountability for how I chose to handle the situation.”

The issue was a longstanding one, as Perry has dealt for years with tinnitus. And since he couldn’t even hear his own voice in his earpiece, he was apparently straining his voice to the point of near breakdown at each and every concert. But still, trying to punch Dave Navarro isn’t the way to handle that situation! Things were made even worse when bassist Eric Avery got involved and delivered his own punch to Farrell’s stomach. Ouch! In the end, less than 24 hours after the on-stage fight, the band announced that they would be “taking some time away as a group” and promptly canceled all of their remaining 2024 tour dates. Honestly, that’s probably for the best.^[10]

Warning: you are not going to agree with this list. That’s because all lists like this are subjective and therefore flawed.

Some, however, are more flawed than others. Here’s one that ranks the Foo Fighters higher than Nirvana, a sign that the writer needs a good ear exam or a great therapist.

Hopefully this list is, if not less contentious, somewhat less ridiculous. Unranked except for the obvious first two entries, the only rules are that the group must be rock (so no The Cure) and must be a band (so no Bruce Springsteen). Without further ado, let the comment thread cyber-shouting begin.

Top 10 Most Overrated Bands

20 The Beatles

Let’s get the obvious ones out of the way: no list of top rock bands would be viable without the Beatles and the next band, the Rolling Stones. From 1963 until their breakup in 1970, the Fab Four enjoyed the most condensed run of brilliance in history, bar none. In the process they became bigger than Jesus^[1] and had their own mania named after them.

The numbers are just otherworldly. Over an eight-year run the Beatles had an astounding 27 #1 hits, and dozens others nearly adding to that total. They’ve sold 183 million records, the most ever. Perhaps most tellingly, no reliable figure exists for concert attendance… because fans were so rabid that the Beatles stopped touring in 1966.^[2]

Equally impressive is the band’s maturation. In less than a decade, they went from suited pop stars strumming simplistic ditties like “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” to serve as soundtrack to the fast-changing times. They went from “Hard Day’s Night” to “Revolution” to Abbey Road’s “Come Together” and, along the way, tripped out with “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”

Any band in which the infinitely talented George Harrison is only the third most influential member is going to rank among the greatest ever.

19 The Rolling Stones

I was in high school in 1994 as the rock world mourned the death of Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain. That summer, a band that had been going strong for three decades dropped its 22nd studio album. The album was “Voodoo Lounge,” and the band was the irrepressible Rolling Stones.

The breakout single, “Love is Strong,” was testament to the fact that, even in the heart of the grunge era, a good rock song is a good rock song, period. Several years later, Sopranos creator David Chase chose the lulling, haunting “Thru and Thru” to close the show’s second season,^[3] cementing the record’s legacy.

This anecdote is a microcosm: The Stones are a refreshingly stubborn counterpoint to the Beatles; while the latter quickly adapted to reflect the tumultuous 1960s, the Stones catalogue is defiantly unaffected by its surroundings.

1971’s “Brown Sugar,” a song about sleeping with a black girl, seems out of place amid the Civil Rights movement, while 1966’s “Under My Thumb” is antagonistically misogynistic, flying in the face of the simmering women’s lib movement. Meanwhile, songs like “Wild Horses” and “Angie” reflect neither their times nor the band’s remaining catalogue; their commonality is that they are, quite simply, damn good songs. When a band has two of the greatest songwriters of all time, timing and even consistency mean nothing.

18 The Ramones

From this point forward, the list is in no particular order, except for this writer’s opinion that the greatest American rock band ever is and always will be The Ramones.

For starters, the Ramones were genre pioneers – a distinction that should elevate a band on any list (SEE: REM, Nirvana). Along with the Sex Pistols, the Ramones are generally credited with birthing punk rock. Emerging from the depressing early 1970s, their music, appearance and attitude were an amplified middle finger to everything from the societal status quo to conventional rock music.

Their music was never meant for the airwaves. If you’re listening to “Blitzkrieg Bop” on the radio, slowed down to less than half measure, you’re doing it wrong. No, the Ramones are the type of band whose music is meant to be played at warp speed and ear-splitting volume. We can and should enjoy “Rockaway Beach,” “Sedated” and “Sheena is a Punk Rocker” in their natural habitat: live, loud and at machine-gun pace.

I leave you with this: The Ramones Greatest Hits Live is the greatest (and at 37 minutes, the fastest) “best of” album ever. Mic drop.

17 Nirvana

Nirvana was the best rock band in one of its best decades: the 1990s. It is hard to overestimate Nirvana’s influence on both the music scene and pop culture. They were a transformative force despite fewer than five years in the limelight—a phenomenon abruptly ended with front man Kurt Cobain’s suicide in April 1994.

For starters, Nirvana launched grunge music with its 1991 breakout album, “Nevermind,” and a music video, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” that juggernauted the band to superstardom and has since become only the decade’s second to reach one billion YouTube views. Almost overnight, flannel and ripped jeans were in style and 80s power ballads outdated.

Nirvana’s music lived up to its stardom, driven by a generational genius with unparalleled songwriting talent and the uncanny ability to scream on key; “Lithium,”^[4] a song whose refrain is simply the word “Yeah” yelled rhythmically, is a prime example of Cobain’s rare vocal gift.

“Nevermind” and the band’s final full album, “In Utero,” might be the two best consecutive albums in rock history, and its incredible November 1993 MTV Unplugged performance leaves a haunting chill given Cobain’s tragic end just a few months later.

16 Pearl Jam

But what about the other Seattle-based grunge band with a heroin-addicted lead singer?

With lead singer Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam was less grungy than Nirvana but more diverse in its range of songs. Sampling the band’s first three albums – “Ten,” “Versus” and “Vitalogy” – fans were presented with tracks that, despite certainly fitting into the burgeoning alternative music genre, were essentially a spaghetti-at-the-wall smattering of random, terrific songs. And as evidenced by their breakout song “Jeremy” and subsequent hit “Daughter,” rhyming lyrics were optional.

The majority of those seemingly arbitrary songs were, simply, great. “Animal,” “Corduroy,” “Black,” “Alive,” “Evenflow.” Pearl Jam’s bench of hits was so deep that, in the early to mid-1990s, it seemed like a month couldn’t pass without a new one breaking onto the airwaves and ascending the Billboard charts.

Pearl Jam is an uncomplicated recipe: Eddie Vedder is on a short list of the greatest singer/songwriters of all time, and the band’s legend lives on his broad shoulders.

15 The Clash

The Clash is the most aptly named band on this list, because they’re what happens when punk rockers write what is essentially pop music. They were bad-asses with good rhythm.

Most of The Clash’s catalogue was written by some combination of front man Joe Strummer and guitarist Mick Jones. Wherever the source, one can see the hand of impromptu providence in such catchy hits as “Rock the Casbah” and “I Fought the Law,” as if a gritty, gutty punk rocker sat down to write a gritty, gutty punk song… but what popped into his head were epiphanies that, regardless of subgenre, are simply good rock songs.

The Clash, then, are punk rockers in their hearts but more traditional rock stars in practice; they couldn’t write non-catchy music if they tried. Ironically, on 1979’s “London Calling,” Strummer croons that “phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust.” It wasn’t true. The torch had simply passed to another set of geniuses whose image and attitude belied the immovable fact that a rock hit is a rock hit however it is packaged and presented.

14 Hole

No, Hole didn’t make the cut to add some gender diversity to an inevitably male-dominated list. They’re included because they absolutely wailed, both because of and despite lead singer Courtney Love’s electric volatility.^[5]

Calling them a chick band counterpoint to contemporaries like Nirvana – an obvious comparison given Love’s marriage to Kurt Cobain – sells them far short. They embodied a feminine heroin chic that resonated with disenchanted young Gen X women, a “Meh Generation” gender symbol giving the middle finger not just to men but everything else, including themselves. Hole captured female angst, fear and depressed self-loathing better than any rock band ever.

Their music reflected this mix of external rage and internal inferiority-complex wounds. On the 1994 album “Live Through This,” the refrain of “Violet” screams “Go on, take everything,” leaving listeners to wonder whether Love is confronting a male tormentor or declaring herself deserving of his torment. The lulling yet haunting “Doll Parts” has a similarly ambiguously placed hurt.

It was 1998’s “Celebrity Skin,” however, that cemented Hole’s legacy. A handful of hits, including the title track’s graphic depiction of a girl headed to Hollywood, headlined an entire track list worthy of a “best of” compilation. To this day hits like “Awful” and the addiction-addled “Malibu” are both catchy and gripping—meaningful melodies that stick inside our heads.

13 Metallica

Metallica holds the mantel of most influential metal band. The band grabbed an underground head-banging movement and took it mainstream… then were criticized for being too mainstream. Ah, the perils of success.

And successful they were. Even as the grunge/alternative music revolution simmered, 1991’s self-titled album, also called the “Black Album,” showed heavier stuff still had a place with hits like “Sad But True,” “Don’t Tread on Me,” and “Enter Sandman,” whose intimidating riffs and lyrics became both soundtrack and nickname for the greatest relief pitcher in baseball history.^[6] Meanwhile, power ballads like “Unforgiven” and “Nothing Else Matters” displayed their lingering 80s roots and timeless songwriting bona fides.

Metal traditionalists will point to a softening of Metallica’s sound over the years, particularly on the underrated 1996 album “Load.” But earlier efforts like 1986’s “Master of Puppets” and the follow-up “And Justice for All” were sufficiently hard to place them atop the all-time metal music mountain.

12 R.E.M.

Like any groundbreaking band, the mainstream music world’s first reaction to R.E.M. was probably “What the hell is this?”

That was 1987, and an obscure band with a cryptic name (it stands for “Rapid Eye Movement”) had just answered hair metal and cheesy pop music with “Document,” whose two smash hits, “The One I Love” and “It’s the End of the World,” were unlike anything before them.

In the process, R.E.M. made alternative music far less, well, alternative. Like Pearl Jam, the band has an “anything goes” approach whose signature sound is noticeable only by the distinct voice of its lead singer, Michael Stipe.

Starting in the late 80s and continuing through the 90s, R.E.M. put together a string of hits rivaling any band over any stretch, with the exception of the Beatles. “Losing My Religion,” “Everybody Hurts,” “Stand,” What’s the Frequency Kenneth,” “Orange Crush,” “Shiny Happy People.”

Their songs became so ingrained in pop culture that the 1999 biopic “Man on the Moon,”^[7] about the life of legendary alt-comedian Andy Kaufman, is named after the band’s hit single of the same name – an acknowledgement that everyone not only knew the song but that it chronicled Kaufman. That level of societal saturation is rare indeed.

11 The Heartbreakers

The Heartbreakers hold the title of “best band no one knows by name.” Hint: It’s Tom Petty’s group.

The Heartbreakers make the cut despite several obstacles. First, they’re a traditional rock band whose peak success came when traditional rock really wasn’t too big; starting with their 1976 self-titled breakout album, which featured “American Girl,” through 1991’s “Into the Great Wide Open” (the last to gain significant mainstream airplay), the band persevered through disco, punk, 80s pop, metal, alternative and grunge despite having exactly nothing to do with any of them.

The second hurdle was Tom Petty. Not Tom Petty the extraordinarily talented songwriter; Tom Petty the below-average lead vocalist.

I’ll go ahead and say it: Tom Petty’s voice is annoying. It’s nasally and weird. But like Bob Dylan before him, the songs are so good it doesn’t matter. From “Free Fallin’” to “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” to “Learning to Fly,” the Heartbreakers flew through headwinds into music immortality.

The only downside of Petty’s genius? Politicians using “I Won’t Back Down” as their campaign theme song.^[8]

10 Led Zeppelin

All “best of” lists are subjective – in the eyes (or in this case, the ears) of the beholder. But sometimes certain items make a list simply because the writer would look silly otherwise.

I do not like Led Zeppelin; they simply aren’t my cup of tea. But unlike other huge bands that didn’t make this list – Kiss, the Eagles, Radiohead – I feel compelled to include Led Zeppelin. They are beloved and critically praised enough that I must recognize their genius regardless of my personal taste. For God’s sake, Rolling Stone literally has an article called “The 40 Greatest Led Zeppelin Songs of All Time”.^[9] In the face or such rarified air, who am I to omit them?

Their playlist is undeniable – albeit, in my opinion, a bit played out. “Stairway to Heaven,” “Whole Lotta Love,” “Ramble On,” and “Gallows Pole” are all objectively terrific songs even if I subjectively never need to hear any of them again, ever. Oh, and naming your albums Roman Numerals is unoriginal and arrogant – there, I said it.

9 Guns N’ Roses

In justifying GNR’s appearance on this list, we need look no further than the band’s Greatest Hits album, which stacks up against any in rock history. In order: Welcome to the Jungle, Sweet Child O’ Mine, Patience, Paradise City, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, Civil War, You Could Be Mine, Don’t You Cry, November Rain, Live and Let Die, Yesterdays, Ain’t It Fun, Since I Don’t Have You, Sympathy for the Devil.

Those songs alone let Guns N’ Roses snake dance^[10] onto the list, but let’s dig deeper. Despite its distinctly metal vibe, GNR’s legacy is driven by a lead singer with nearly unlimited range and a collective songwriting with completely unlimited range. Seamlessly, GNR pivoted from speed metal to power ballad to songs so soft that Cheryl Crow can cover them.^[11]

The band also holds an interesting distinction: At nearly nine minutes long, 1991’s “November Rain” is the longest song ever to break into the Billboard Top 10. The lilting, rolling piano ballad, interspersed with classic solos from lead guitarist Slash, became an airwaves mainstay for months.

8 The Go-Gos

The Go-Gos are the best all-female rock group of all time. They check a bunch of firsts and stand with some of the best.

When they burst onto the punk/new wave scene in the early 1980s, the Go-Gos were, unfortunately, somewhat of a novelty. The idea that an all-female rock band was both writing its own songs and playing its own instruments was new to mainstream music.

Novelty or no, the band’s debut album, “Beauty and the Beat,” became the first from an all-female group to top the Billboard charts on the strength of two smash hits, “We Got the Beat,” which peaked at #2 on US singles charts, and “Our Lips Are Sealed.”

Though the music stood for itself, the nascent music video business – pioneered by the then-fledgling MTV – played a significant role in catapulting the Go-Gos from hitmakers to superstars. As well as having the beat, the fivesome obviously had a look that young women emulated and young men salivated over. With “Vacation,” the title track and lead single of their second album, the Go-Gos proved they were no fluke, and their success continued with 1984’s “Talk Show,” featuring a trifecta of hits: Head over Heels,” “Turn to You” and “Yes or No.”

7 Marilyn Manson

When considering Marilyn Manson’s place in rock legend, close your eyes. Don’t look at the intentionally provocative, arguably Satanic imagery. Set aside the antagonistically gender-bending of its lead singer. Just listen.

Marilyn Manson is the N.W.A. of rock: people were too busy disparaging their look and their lyrics to fully appreciate their immense talent. A contemporary of theirs, Eminem, fell into the same overshadowing trap – and acknowledged that by featuring Manson in his video for The Way I Am.^[12] (“And they blame it on Marliyn/and the heroin/where were the parents at?)”

The group, of course, also brought vitriol upon themselves. In the aptly named “Irresponsible Hate Anthem,” Manson admits he “wasn’t born with enough middle fingers” on an album whose title, “Antichrist Superstar,” was a “f*ck you” unto itself.

But the music was fierce, unique and altogether outstanding. Despite going mainstream with, of all things, a cover of the Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams,” the band had hit-worthy tracks on albums throughout the 1990s, starting with 1991’s “Portrait of an American Family” (“Get Your Gunn,” “Cake and Sodomy”) through 1998’s Mechanical Animal (“Dope Show”).

Adding to the talent-muted-by-noise factor, 1996’s Antichrist Superstar was both Manson’s most controversial album and its best – the rare album where every track is “best hits” caliber.

6 The White Stripes

The White Stripes are the only band on this list from the 2000s. Along with contemporary acts like the Strokes, Arctic Monkeys and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the band inhabits a rock subgenre called “garage rock revival” – basically a yearning for a back-to-basics approach in a post-alternative environment dominated by boy bands and hip hop.

It didn’t work. Rock died.^[13] But not before Jack and Meg White had something to say about it.

After two solid albums that failed to break through, “White Blood Cells” skyrocketed the band to stardom with “Fell in Love With a Girl.” Fans buying the album quickly realized that the remaining tracks, including oddball anthems like the twangy “Hotel Yorba” and mellow “We’re Going to Be Friends,” bore little resemblance to the breakout hit. It wasn’t what we expected, but it was… well, incredible.

That’s what the White Stripes are: a weird, nerdgasmic band who could also write mainstream megahits. “Seven Nation Army” and “Icky Thump” blended with “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” and “My Doorbell” for a run of unpredictably perfect albums.

5 Queen

If an absolutely awful biopic^[14] could disqualify a band from this list, Queen would not be on it. Luckily it can’t. because Queen’s combination of cultural influence, societal impact and songwriting ability rival any band in rock history.

That “bum bum-BUM!”^[15] sound you hear at every sporting event from the World Cup Finals to Little League baseball? That’s a Queen riff. And when one team is ultimately crowned the best, they play… a Queen song, “We Are the Champions.”

Queen is one of those bands good enough to outshine themselves, meaning their greatest hits were so great that the rest of their catalogue gets overlooked. When you bring the world “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Another One Bites the Dust” “Somebody to Love” and “I Want it All,” the songs that were just a little less remarkable – yet fantastic nonetheless – tend to stall in the background. Googling “Queen hit songs,” one inevitably comes across several terrific tracks that you either forgot Queen performed or forgot, period.

4 Aerosmith

Aerosmith is another band that checks too many boxes to be omitted from this list. A trippy, funky rock edge, versatile songwriting chops and a lead singer in Stephen Tyler with a distinct voice are all factors in them making the cut.

It is their staying power, however, that puts them over the edge. Aerosmith had big hits in three decades, and while having a few lull periods never really went away. Oddly considering the eventual smash hit “Dream On,” their eponymous debut album was recorded in 1973 but not widely received until 1975; in the interim, they released a second album, “Get Your Wings,” that received an equally lukewarm reception.

That all changed with 1975’s “Toys in the Attic.” The album’s breakout hits, “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion,” led to its earlier work being discovered and propelled Aerosmith to superstardom. Hits like “Rag Doll,” “Love in an Elevator,” “Janie’s Got a Gun,” and “Cryin’” kept Aerosmith relevant for decades, and the band even helped Run DMC go mainstream with a hip-hop remake of “Walk This Way.”^[16]

3 The Kinks

In 1964, while the Beatles were asking young ladies to hold their hands, the Kinks had higher aspirations. On the heels of their breakthrough hit “You Really Got Me,” from their self-titled debut album, “All Day and All of the Night” pushed the envelope of radio-permissible sexuality. And like Elvis before them, the reason the Kinks could push the envelope was because they were, quite simply, immensely talented.

Ahead of their time in both music and message, to this day the Kinks are one of the few bands that can get me to dance (poorly); they have a foot-tapping irresistibility that makes their double-album best hits compilation, “Come Dancing with the Kinks,” aptly named.

At the same time, many of their tracks exhibit a seething mockery of idyllic post-World War II Western life, with tracks like “Sunny Afternoon,” and my personal favorite, “A Well Respected Man,” dripping with sarcastic cultural critique. Other tracks, like “Tired of Waiting for You,” fall into a more traditional, “that’s just an incredible song” category indicative of rock legends.

2 Smashing Pumpkins

When considering the final 90s band on this list, it was between Smashing Pumpkins and Radiohead. Billy Corgan’s group got the nod because, for all Radiohead’s hits, too much of their catalogue is filler that sounds similar to everything else they’ve done. The Pumpkins were decidedly more diverse and less risk-averse.

Cases in point: After breaking through with their second album – 1993’s “Siamese Dream,” featuring hits like “Cherub Rock,” Today” and the lulling “Disarm,” – most bands would be content to cement their stardom and avoid any accusation of flash-in-the-pan sophomoritis. The Pumpkins responded with a wildly ambitious 28-song double feature, “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness,” widely considered among the best rock albums in a decade loaded with them.

Mellon Collie displayed the bands unsurpassed range – a dichotomy spanning hard rock hits like “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” to the mesmerizing, violin-laden “Tonight, Tonight” (LINK 25) and the loopy, new wave-ish “1979.”

And then? Something entirely different. “Adore,” coldly received^[17] as an abrupt departure from the Pumpkin’s successful recipe, was a dark, slow library of absolutely brilliant songs, proving that the group would and could do pretty much anything they wanted.

1 U2

As we’re running long on word count, it’s tempting to just write “they made ‘Joshua Tree’” and cease typing immediately. But U2 was and is so much more than that, even if I don’t want their worst album free with my apple device,^[18] thank you very much.

All digital disasters aside, it’s hard to find something inventive to say about U2. They’re simply a great traditional rock band that recorded some of the best rock music ever. Even before “Joshua Tree,” 1984’s “The Unforgettable Fire” featured “Pride (In the Name of Love)”; after it, “Achtung Baby” brought “One” and “Mysterious Ways,” and 1993’s “Zooropa” successfully changed up the pace with “Lemon” and the rappy “Numb.”

And all that was before 2000’s “Beautiful Day,” a blockbuster hit even as the band entered its third decade and N’ Sync poisoned the airwaves. U2 wrote classic rock songs that would have been hits in any decade – a calling card of rock immortality.

Beatlemania and go-go boots were the ‘in-thing’ in the 60s. Not to mention miniskirts and lava lamps. The 70s were all about bell bottoms, David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs, Space Invaders, and tubes socks. When the 80s rolled around, everyone was rocking to The Clash on their Walkmans while carrying around trapper keepers and sporting slogan t-shirts. By the time Walkmans were ‘so eighties’ with an eyeroll, teens were bragging with their Sony Discman into which they stuffed CDs featuring Alanis Morrissette or Pearl Jam. Younger (and older) teens tried to skip classes to feed their Tamagotchis while weekends were all about finding the perfect Doc Martens, Play Station and trying to convince parents that an iMac G3 was an absolute necessity of living in the 90s.

Hardcore music fans think of these four decades as the ‘golden age’ of music. It marked the rise of influential bands and artists such as The Beatles, Queen, Michael Jackson, Van Halen, Prince, Whitney Houston, John Denver, Percy Sledge, Blondie, Lionel Ritchie, Nirvana, and so many more.

A study has even shown that music from the 60s through to the 90s are far more memorable than modern songs, even among millennials. Scientists tested a group of millennials on their ability to name hit songs from different decades and the 643 participants consistently remembered songs that came out between 1960 and 1999. Songs that became popular between 2000-2015 faded from their minds much quicker. Those who participated in this study in 2019 were between 18 and 25 years old.

On this list are some interesting facts about just a few of the popular bands that made an indelible mark on the music industry during what is commonly referred to as the ‘golden age’.

10 Beatles Innovations that Changed Music

10 Cetera has no time for Chicago

The Chicago Transit Authority, established in 1967, changed their name to Chicago in 1969. The band has sold more than 40 million albums in the U.S. alone and have had five consecutive No 1 albums among a myriad other successes. In 1974 Chicago’s entire catalog of seven albums (at that time) was circulating on the Billboard 200.

Peter Cetera was co-founder and frontman of the band until 1984, after the release of their highly successful Chicago 17 album. Cetera went on to enjoy a famed solo career. He was thrust into the spotlight in 2016 after refusing to perform with Chicago at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. He said during an interview that one of the reasons he refused to perform with the band was because they wouldn’t lower the key of the song “25 or 6 to 4” and that “nothing about the event sounded like fun.”^[1]

Co-founder Robert Lamm responded to the controversy by saying that Cetera could have at least stood with them, even if he didn’t want to perform.

9 The amp, the amp, the amp is on fire

You probably won’t be able to picture the band AC/DC without hearing Brian Johnson in your head, screaming out the lines of “Thunderstruck” or “Highway to Hell.”

The band was named after Malcolm and Angus Young’s sister saw the initials AC/DC on a sewing machine. Their sister was also instrumental in coming up with Angus’ school uniform after he tried a Superman, Spider-Man and even a gorilla costume.^[2]

In 1977, the guitar amplifier used by Angus caught fire during a studio recording of “Let There Be Rock”. Malcolm urged his brother to keep playing regardless, and Angus complied. It happened again during “Rock or Bust” and Angus once again just kept playing, thinking the glow was from a cigarette. This has long been considered a myth but was confirmed by Angus during an interview in 2014.

8 Led Zeppelin and Aleister Crowley

It’s impossible to imagine Thor: Ragnarok without the fight scenes set to the inimitable Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin. (There is a YouTube video in which the last battle scene plays out to Britney Spears’ Toxic, but that is a story for another list.) Immigrant Song is perfect for Ragnarok however, as it references Valhalla which ties in with Thor’s Norse background.

Led Zeppelin’s music has long been fodder for conspiracy theorists who claim that founder and guitarist, Jimmy Page, sold his soul to the devil for long lasting fame and fortune. This conspiracy gained traction after Page bought occultist Aleister Crowley’s former Scotland home in 1971. Page was a Crowley fan and had Crowley’s “Do what thou wilt” and “So mote it be” inscribed in the run-off groove of the Led Zeppelin III vinyl records.^[3] It is believed that Jimmy Page asked his bandmates to join him in a ‘magick’ ritual inspired by Crowley’s writings. All participated except for bassist and keyboardist, John Paul Jones.

In 1972, Page signed up to do the soundtrack for the movie, Lucifer Rising. Page and the filmmaker, Kenneth Anger, allegedly had a very ‘intense’ relationship but the two parted ways in 1975. Rumors abounded that Anger, who was a ‘magick practitioner’, put a curse on Led Zeppelin and Jimmy Page. This curse was blamed, in part, for the trouble that befell the band’s members soon after. This included a car accident involving Robert Plant, illness, rioting fans, and several fights.

7 Heart & Van Halen

Heart was formed in 1970. Sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson were the vocalists, alongside musicians Steve Fossen, Roger Fisher, David Belzer and Jeff Johnson. The group has had a rocky road to success and had to launch a comeback in 1985. Heart disbanded in 1998 but resumed performances in 2002. The band is still performing today, with concerts planned into 2021 depending on what happens with the current Covid-19 pandemic.

The Wilson sisters released a biography in 2012 titled Kicking & Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul, and Rock and Roll. In the book they relate encounters with other bands, including the time they played Stairway to Heaven in a small club and the members of Led Zeppelin walked in during the performance. The night ended with Jimmy Page passed out cold.

The sisters also recount meeting Eddie and Alex Van Halen and being propositioned by them in 1979. Ann and Nancy declined and the conversation between the foursome turned to music. Nancy learned that Eddie didn’t own an acoustic guitar and she gifted him her own. Overcome with emotion and gratitude, Eddie took the guitar and then called her room at 7am the next morning to serenade her over the phone with a song he had written in her honor.^[4]

6 Airplay thanks to student

Roxette was formed in 1986 and enjoyed massive successes including 19 UK Top 40 hits, a host of US Hot 100 hits and four number one songs. Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle were both established artists when they recorded “Neverending Love” under the name Roxette. The song was a hit in Sweden and the rest, as they say, is history. Roxette has sold over 75 million records worldwide and have become Sweden’s second best-selling music act, right behind ABBA.

The duo’s first global hit song, The Look, was only played on the air after an American exchange student by the name of Dean Cushman heard it and gave it to his local radio station. It soon became a massive hit and reached number one on the US charts.^[5]

One of Roxette’s most popular songs, “It Must Have Been Love”, was not written for the movie Pretty Woman, contrary to popular belief. When Touchstone Pictures approached Roxette about contributing a song to the movie’s soundtrack, they didn’t have enough time to write something new. Instead they chose a song they had written two years prior.

Top 10 True Rock Music Stories

5 The band who outsold The Beatles

The Monkees’ original band members consisted of Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork and Davy Jones. The group was a made-for-TV band and formed specifically for the sitcom, The Monkees, which saw airplay between 1966 and 1968. After the sitcom was cancelled, The Monkees recorded music until 1971 at which time they disbanded. Some of their most well-known hits include “I’m a Believer”, “Daydream Believer”, and “Last Train to Clarksville.”

What some fans may not know is that the band has been banned from the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame after co-founder Jann Wenner insisted that they cannot be included since the band members were first hired as actors and not musicians. This is despite the fact that they have had incredible success as a band and even outsold The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in 1967. Their album sales topped both of these popular British bands’ sales combined that year.^[6]

4 The Animals’ influence

The Animals were known for their distinctive sound as showcased in their only number one hit in 1964: “The House of the Rising Sun.” The Animals consisted of vocalist Eric Burdon, keyboardist Alan Price, bassist Chas Chandler, guitarist Hilton Valentine and drummer John Steel. The band’s sound even inspired Bob Dylan’s decision to work with musicians playing electric instruments.

Bruce Springsteen gave a shoutout to the band in 2012 when he performed at the South by Southwest Festival. He said that he had never related to another band as much as he had to The Animals and that a lot of their work was reflected in his music. After The Animals disbanded, Chas Chandler discovered Jimi Hendrix and helped him form The Jimi Hendrix Experience. He financed their first single and gave Hendrix the idea to set his guitar on fire.^[7]

3 A band of trouble

Oasis was formed from a previous group called the Rain and originally consisted of 5 members including brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher. The band has sold more than 75 million records and holds the distinction of being one of the best-sellling bands of all time.

The feud between the Gallagher brothers became almost more prominent than the band’s music when Noel quit in 1994 after Liam threw a tambourine at him. In 1995, Noel hit Liam over the head with a cricket bat. The bad blood continued in 1996 when Liam pulled out of an MTV Unplugged show and instead heckled the band from the crowd.

On top of all the sibling troubles that lasted several more years, Oasis were also sued for ripping off a member of a Beatles parody band as well as ripping off a Coca-Cola jingle. Soon the band engaged in a full on ‘war’ with English alternative rock band, Blur, and things got so heated that Noel told a reporter that he hoped Damon Albarn and Alex James would “catch AIDS and die.”^[8]

2 First choice for Friends’ opening song

R.E.M will arguably forever be known as the band whose song “Shiny Happy People” was almost the opening song for Friends. And, of course, for the song “Everybody Hurts”, which has been rated as one of the 1001 best songs ever, with its music video directed by Ridley Scott’s son, Jake. “Shiny Happy People” became one of their biggest hits but vocalist, Michael Stipe, eventually started hating the song because of the peppy lyrics. He stated that “It’s a fruity pop song written for children.” He also said that if ever there was one song sent into outer space to represent R.E.M. for eternity, he would definitely not want it to be “Shiny Happy People.”

R.E.M.’s song “Monty Got a Raw Deal” was inspired by actor Montgomery Clift, even though most fans assumed it was about Monty Hall who was the host of the game show Let’s Make a Deal. Stipe wrote the song about Clift after R.E.M. was visited in studio by a photographer who had worked on one of Clift’s last films, The Misfits, and looked at photos from the movie set.^[9]

1 Cobain and Vedder slow dancing

Eddie Vedder was the last member to join the band first known as Mookie Blaylock and now known as Pearl Jam. The band was formed in 1990 and had sold more than 85 million albums worldwide by 2018. They are considered one of the most influential bands of the 90s.

Pearl Jam have cited many bands as influences for their music, including Led Zeppelin, The Ramones and The Who. The band were labelled ‘sell-outs’ by Nirvana after their album ‘Ten’ became a hit and soon there were rumors of a feud between Nirvana and Pearl Jam, including some trash-talk in public.
Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobain confronted one another backstage at the 1992 VMA’s, but then the unexpected happened. As Eric Clapton played ‘Tears of Heaven’ on the stage above them, Vedder and Cobain shared a slow dance, setting aside their differences.^[10]

Top 10 Musicians Who Were Ahead Of Their Time

Boy bands pretty much ruled the 1990s and early 2000s. On stages everywhere, groups of young men crooned while doing synchronized dance steps, dressed in all-white suits or long, dramatic trench coats. There were some successful boy bands before the 90s explosion and after the 2010s with the massive popularity of One Direction and lately the even more popular band BTS. This list is a throwback to the golden age of boy bands and their peppy songs.
I dare you to defy the urge to hum that very well-known East 17 tune or dig out your forgotten Backstreet’s Back album and put the title track on full blast.

Top 10 Iconic Moments From The History Of Music

10 The Ink Spots

In 1934, The Ink Spots were formed in Indianapolis. The band consisted of Hoppy Jones, Deek Watson, Jerry Daniels and Charlie Fuqua, and would become one of the first so-called boy bands, even though the term was only established in the late 1980s. Their song “If I Didn’t Care” became the 8th bestselling single of all time and sold over 19 million copies. It never reached number 1 one on the US Pop Charts however, hovering at 2 for a number of weeks. The Ink Spots were also one of the first African American groups to demolish the racial barrier when it came to radio airplay and live performances, and broke attendance records wherever they performed.

9 New Kids on the Block

NKOTB have sold more than 70 million records worldwide, and the band is as well known for their music as they are for having had Mark Wahlberg as a member in its early days when it was called Nynuk. Wahlberg was 13 when he joined the group and left after only a few months. The name Nynuk was taken from the name of the dog in the movie, The Lost Boys. The band’s new name, The New Kids on the Block was inspired by Mark’s brother, Donnie Wahlberg, who was the first member to be recruited.

In 1989, then governor of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis, designated 24 April as ‘New Kids on the Block’ Day and by 1991 the band had beat out Michael Jackson to top Forbes’ list of highest paid entertainers. In 2010, NKOTB joined up with the Backstreet Boys to form a boy band supergroup called NKOTBSB.

8 Take That

‘Kick It’ might not be a name that anyone recognizes today, but it was the original name of popular group Take That. Robbie Williams became part of the band after his mother responded to an advert looking for members for a new boy band. He left the band in 1995 after a struggle with drugs and went on to enjoy a hugely celebrated solo career. Williams briefly rejoined Take That from mid-2010 to the end of 2011 before once again focusing on his own music career.

Take That enjoyed massive success in the 90s, with the vast majority of their fan mail going to one member, Mark Owen. Bizarrely, Mark and fellow band member Howard once got stuck in the hands of a giant mechanical robot on stage during a performance. Mark was freed, but Howard had to sing most of their next song while stuck.

7 East 17

The Christmas song, Stay Another Day, had many East 17 fans reaching for the tissues after its release in 1994. The single became the Christmas number 1 of 1994 and was the band’s only number one hit on the UK Singles Chart. While on the face of it the lyrics seemed to be about a sad breakup, the song was in fact inspired by lead songwriter Tony Mortimer’s personal loss when his brother committed suicide. Mortimer later said that hearing the song on the radio all the time was like a nightmare because he was reminded of the tragedy constantly.

What fans may not know is that East 17 still exists with Terry Coldwell as the only original member alongside new member Robbie Craig who joined in 2014, and Joe Livermore.

6 Boyz II Men

“Although we’ve come to end of the list… erm… road.”

Just kidding, we’re not even half-way yet.

Boyz II Men was formed in 1988 and remains the most successful boy band on the US Hot 100 and Australian Singles Chart. The band has earned itself four Grammy Awards and they became the third artists after The Beatles and Elvis Presley, to replace themselves at No. 1 of the Billboard Hot 100.

“I’ll Make Love to You” was released on 26 July 1994 and ended up holding the number one spot on the chart for fourteen weeks. It is one of their most well-known and popular songs, to this day. However, the song almost wasn’t recorded by the band, as they very nearly passed on it. Saying that it sounded too much like “End of the Road”, the band wanted to try something different, but were ‘somewhat forced’ into recording it.

Suffice it to say, they never regretted doing so.

Top 10 Musicians Who Just Missed The 27 Club

5 Backstreet Boys

Back in 1992, a bunch of then-not-so-famous-yet youngsters all lived in one apartment building. They included AJ Mclean, Britney Spears, Ryan Gosling, Christina Aguilera, and Justin Timberlake. Mclean and Gosling used to shoot hoops on the basketball court adjacent to the building and Mclean once asked Gosling if he would like to join his new band, the Backstreet Boys. Gosling simply nodded in amusement, but never took Mclean up on his offer, saying “it’s not gonna happen, bro.”

Backstreet Boys happened in a big way after their debut album hit the stores in 1996 and the boy band achieved superstardom by 2000. They’ve sold more than 100 million records worldwide and earned themselves the title of best-selling boy band of all time. They are also the only boy band to have their first 10 albums reach the top ten on the Billboard 200.

The band is still performing today with concerts planned into 2021.

4 Boyzone

While Backstreet Boys were formed in 1993, Irish boy band Boyzone were also being formed that same year. Boyzone was the brainchild of Louis Walsh. Their original and most well-known lineup included Keith Duffy, Ronan Keating, Shane Lynch, Stephen Gately, and Mikey Graham. The group made a comeback in 2007 after breaking up in 1999. Tragedy struck two years later when Gately died during a holiday on Majorca. After celebrating their 25th anniversary in 2018, the band announced that it would be splitting for good in 2019.

Boyzone had a lot of problems, as alluded to by its members years after the band was no longer performing. Ronan Keating was 16 when he joined the group and later admitted he took life too seriously as a boy band member and didn’t enjoy most of it because he was trying too hard to be perfect. By the time they split in 1999, Shane Lynch said he hated Keating and there had been many screaming matches, affairs, and more disharmony.

After re-forming in 2007, the band were out drinking alongside Westlife’s Brian McFadden when they got into a fight with members of Rihanna’s band. Afterwards Stephen Gately said that it was a difference of opinion caused by too much alcohol. Apparently, they wanted to chat up the girlfriend of one of Rihanna’s band members, after which the man threatened to beat them up. Security had to be called in to break up the ensuing fist fight.

3 NSYNC

There was a lot more to NSYNC than bubbly frontman, Justin Timberlake. Other than the fact that the band’s name was formed from the last letters of each of the original members’ names, the group also sold one million copies of their No Strings Attached album in one day and over 2.14 million copies in 1 week. Overall, NSYNC has sold more than 70 million records.

The boy band’s manager, Lou Pearlman, made himself the sixth member of the group (without their consent) which saw him taking a sixth of the profits they made. This was on top of the commission and fees he was already earning. Pearlman went on to steal millions from NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, LFO, O-Town and more. He died in prison in 2016 while serving a 25-year sentence for organizing a $300 million Ponzi scheme.

Over and above this, NSYNC made a real dent in the music industry after starting out as an opening act for Janet Jackson. They also appeared on an episode of Touched by an Angel, had a cameo in the movie Longshot (which was never released in theatres) and two band members, Joey and Lance, starred in the feature film, On the Line.

2 Westlife

Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, and Shane Filan attended school together in Sligo, Ireland and had just performed successfully in a school musical production of Grease when they decided to form a band. They were known as ‘6 as 1’ and then ‘I.O.YOU’. Under the latter name, the band of boys released a single called “Together Girl Forever” in Ireland in 1997 after which Filan’s mother contacted Louis Walsh and asked him to sign the group.

Louis was hesitant because of his limited time, but Ronan Keating agreed to co-manage the band under a newly established company, Rolo Management. Kian, Mark, and Shane originally had three other members in their group, but they were asked to leave and were eventually replaced with Nicky Byrne and Bryan (originally Brian) McFadden. Keating changed the band name to Westside, and they toured with Boyzone in 1998. After having to change their name yet again, to Westlife, in 1999 the boy band released ‘Swear it Again’ which became the biggest-selling debut single ever in Ireland.

Westlife went on to sell more than 55 million records and become the only band to have their first 7 singles enter the UK chart at number one. They sold out their Croke Park Stadium show in five minutes and overall have sold 5 million concert tickets.

1 One Direction

The seventh season of British singing competition, The X Factor, produced one of the biggest boy bands the world has ever seen. One Direction enjoyed unmitigated popularity between 2010 and 2016, sold more than 70 million records and have won almost 200 awards including seven American Music Awards.

After deciding that their band name would be One Direction, the boys didn’t realize at the time that there was another pop/rock band with the same name in California. The English Irish version’s fans were up in arms and sent the Californian band hate mail and death threats to the extent that they changed their names to Uncharted Shores.

Band member, Louis Tomlinson, decided to take 5 Seconds of Summer along on the 1D tour in 2012, which led to the Australian band becoming mainstream. A massive 1D fan started writing fan fiction about the band, which led to 800 million reads and an eventual book deal for writer, 25-year-old Anna Todd, that comprised of six figures.

The weirdest fact about 1D perhaps is that they clashed with Donald Trump after declining to meet and take a photograph with his daughter in 2012. He then kicked them out of his Trump Tower hotel, where they were residing at the time of their Up All Night tour. Trump even refused to allow the band to leave through the underground garage. Instead they had to leave via the front doors to where hordes of fans were waiting outside.

10 Ridiculous Conspiracy Theories About Popular Music Artists

[WARNING: contains foul language and offensive concepts.] In their early days, The Who’s live performances would sometimes culminate in the band destroying their instruments. Guitarist Pete Townsend would hold his six-string aloft and proceed to smash it against the stage. Earlier this year, Californian indie star Phoebe Bridgers attempted a similar feat on Saturday Night Live. At the climax of her song “I Know The End”, Bridgers started bashing her guitar against a monitor. A few sparks came out, but nothing actually broke. She later tweeted that she had asked the guitar company’s permission before trying to trash their kit and assured fans that the monitor was a prop. Outrageous behavior.

Off the back of performances like that, it is easy to see why some people think punk (and other forms of protest music) is dead. The majority of musicians today seem to be terrified of controversy (or are simply now part of the status quo or paid off to not inhibit “progress” which most of them agree with anyway). Most of those who have anything of any substance to say keep quiet or dilute their message to ensure the flow of money. But towards the fringes, there are plenty of musicians who are unafraid to speak their political (typically left-wing) minds. These feisty players call out conservatives; engage in protest; and rebel against those whom they consider to be crooked politicians. Here are ten bands and artists that prove the spirit of punk is still very much alive.

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10 Fat White Family

Fat White Family is one of the most outspoken bands around today. The south London rockers seem to thrive on controversy, especially in their early days. First emerging in 2011, they made a name for themselves touting a confrontational blend of transgressive art, nihilism, and brazen drug references.

Their debut album, Champagne Holocaust, featured frontman Lias Saudi singing about “fifteen-year-old tongue” and throwing out such lines as “Hell hath no fury like a failed artist. Or a successful communist.” Fat White Family has gone on to release songs such as ‘Bomb Disneyland’, ‘Vagina Dentata’, and ‘Goodbye Goebbels’, a tongue-in-cheek love letter to the infamous National Socialist politician.

The band first made headlines in 2013, following the death of former British PM Margaret Thatcher. The day the Iron Lady died, Fat White Family members scrawled the words ‘The Witch is Dead’ onto a banner and joined the hundreds of people out partying in Brixton to celebrate Thatcher’s demise.

The notorious shock merchants have since found themselves at the center of various controversies. There are rumors of band members stripping naked on stage and covering themselves in poop. US music site Pitchfork criticized Saudi, who has Algerian heritage, for using the term “sand nigger” in a satirical Twitter post. In 2020, the band was attacked online after Saudi wrote a damning treatise against Bristol punk band Idles.

Despite that madness, the band finds their antics to be fairly innocuous. “It’s not like we’re breaking any boundaries or anything, y’know?” they told reporters back in 2015. “People got naked and covered themselves in sh——t on stage like thirty years ago. It’s nothing new… I don’t think we’re doing anything unique or special.”

9 Sleaford Mods

Sleaford Mods are another British group raging against the establishment with their pro-vegan and socialist viewpoint (missing the irony of wearing a Cartier watch . . . oops). Originating in Nottingham, the duo soon earned a formidable reputation for their in-your-face live shows. During performances, frontman Jason Williamson howls obscene lyrics of Brexit-era Britain at the audience. His partner in crime Andrew Fearn stumbles about behind him, loading up angry, jagged instrumentals for Williamson to rant over.

“I’m sick of trying to hold it down,” he rages. “I just want to get f——cked up all the time. I wanna leave work, go pub, buy drugs, and f——cking spit at people.”

Sleaford Mods released their latest record, Spare Ribs, at the start of 2021. The album features tracks like ‘Shortcummings’, a piece about conservative political advisor Dominic Cummings, and ‘Out There’ which the NME described as “a perfectly tragicomic painting of our Plague Island.”

8 Goat Girl

When band members give themselves names like L.E.D, Clottie Cream, Holly Hole, and Rosy Bones, you know they mean business. London-based Goat Girl is a band with extremist political intent (as is pretty much every band or form of “entertainment” these days).

Their self-titled debut album was described by singer and guitarist Clottie Cream as being “about gentrification and the wealth gap that exists in London, which is insane.” On ‘Burn The Stake’, ¬she implores the listener to “Build a bonfire. Build a bonfire. Put the Tories on top. Put the D.U.P. in the middle and we’ll burn the f——cking lot.” It is a fierce track lambasting Britain’s ruling alliance between Boris Johnson’s Conservative party and the Northern Irish right-wing.

7 Amanda Palmer

Journalists have called Amanda Palmer a pioneer of crowdfunding, a DIY musician adored by fans the world over. In 2013, the former Dresden Dolls member found herself in the tabloids after a minor onstage wardrobe malfunction. Palmer claims that The Daily Mail wrote an entire article about her nip slip but failed to mention anything about the performance itself. Instead, the journalist focused solely on the fact that one of Palmer’s breasts had apparently “escaped her bra”. She says the Daily Mail published photos of the incident under the title “Making a boob of herself!”

Amanda Palmer is no stranger to nudity. As she pointed out, if the newspaper had put in the slightest bit of effort to look her up they would have found far more salacious images online. Palmer found the experience to be so odd that she performed a song about it at the Roundhouse in London. “It’s so sad what you tabloids are doing,” she sang as a waltz to an audience of devoted fans. “Your focus on debasing women’s appearances devolves our species of humans”.

Halfway through the tune, the acclaimed songwriter stripped off completely in protest at her treatment by the British press. In video footage, she can be seen tossing her kimono to the side and completed the song wearing nothing but a pair of black gloves. “It’s just a naked woman,” she told her whooping audience with a wry smile, before finishing the song with a rousing cry of “Dear Daily Mail, up yours.”

6 Stormzy

Michael Ebenezer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr, better known as Stomzy, is one of the most popular rappers in Britain today. But in 2018 he used his position as a well-known musician to attack the government. At that year’s Brit Awards, the grime MC criticized then-prime minister Theresa May in an impassioned performance.

“Yo, Theresa May where’s that money for Grenfell? What you thought we just forgot about Grenfell?” In June 2017, the residential Grenfell Tower block went up in flames. The blaze killed 71 people and left hundreds more without a home. “You criminals,” he continued, “and you got the cheek to call us savages. You should do some jail time. You should pay some damage. We should burn your house down and see if you can manage this.” Stormzy went on to win Best British Male and Best Album at the ceremony.

5 Noname

Noname is another hip-hop artist continuing the tradition of political rebellion. The Chicago rapper is known for her songs on race, sex, and identity, all of which inform her politically focussed lyrics. Although she started as a self-declared poet, she soon turned to rap music, collaborating with her Chicago peers like Chance The Rapper and Saba.

Like Chance, Noname refuses to sign to a record label. Instead, she is an independent artist who finances her own projects and is proud of what she calls her “fight the man mentality.” Noname used the money from her 2016 mixtape Telefone to pay for her debut album Room 25.

4 Slowthai

Over the last few years, Tyron Frampton has become something of a national sensation. Born in the English town of Northampton, the rapper is known for his no-nonsense attacks on the British government.

In September 2019, Slowthai performed at an awards show holding an effigy of Boris Johnson’s severed head. He walked on stage at the Hyundai Mercury Prize with a decapitated dummy of the British prime minister, shouting, “Fu——k Boris Johnson, f——ck everything, and there’s nothing great about Britain.”

Some social media users were quick to criticize Slowthai’s stunt, but the rapper was having none of it. “Last night I held a mirror up to this country,” he wrote on Twitter “and some people don’t like its reflection. Yet this is exactly where we’re being taken, cut off and at all costs. The people in power who are trying to isolate and divide us aren’t the ones who will feel its effects the hardest.”

3 Pussy Riot

For the last ten years, Pussy Riot has been fighting back against the alleged human rights abuses of the Russian government. The musical outfit is known for its outrageous, attention-grabbing stunts. Several members have been jailed for criticizing the Kremlin.

Formed in Moscow, the group staged its first performance in November 2011. The band clambered up scaffolding, ripped open pillows, and threw the feathers onto the subway below. Other early outings included a show next door to Moscow Detention Center. In another, called ‘Putin Z——ssa’ aka ‘Putin Has P——ssed Himself’, they let off a smoke bomb in the Red Square.

Global notoriety came in 2012 when they demonstrated against the re-election of Vladimir Putin. Putin won the vote amidst accusations of rigging the ballot (much like the US and Joe Biden recently). Five Pussy Riot members in colored balaclavas staged a protest in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. They leapt around the altar singing their anti-Putin anthem ‘A Punk Prayer’ under the slogan “Sr——n Gospodnya” (“sh——t to the Lord”).

Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were jailed for their role in the stunt. Both women were sent to gulags hundreds of miles from their families. After their release in 2014, the band started playing more conventional gigs. They described them as a “subversive mix of activist art and live set.”

But in 2018 Pussy Riot made headlines once again when they invaded the final of the Russian World Cup. Four members ran onto the pitch of Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium dressed in police uniform. The band demanded that the Russian government:

• Free all political prisoners
• Stop arrests at public rallies
• Allow political competition in the country
• Stop fabricating criminal cases and jailing people on remand for no reason

The stunt took place during the second half of the France v Croatia match, in which France won 4-2.

After the pitch invasion, Tolokonnikova’s ex-husband Pyotr Verzilov fell ill and was taken to hospital in serious condition. Doctors strongly believe that he was poisoned.

2 Grup Yorum

Grup Yorum is, without a doubt, one of the most rebellious bands that have ever existed. The Turkish folk group (who are really punk in spirit only) has battled against state repression since they formed in 1985. The founding members created the group as students at Marmara University. They were inspired by the left-wing Nueva Cancion cultural movement of Latin America.

Despite changes in the band’s line-up, Grup Yorum has kept its firm “progressive” stance. The band performs folk music shaped by centuries of traditional Turkish culture. But Grup Yorum is not stuck in the past. Their songs also explore themes like the killing of teenager Berkin Elvan by state police, the Kurdish liberation struggle, and women’s rights.

The Turkish government has responded by banning their live shows, arresting many of their members, and raided their cultural center in Istanbul on several occasions. They accuse the band of being part of the Marxist-Leninist group DHKP-C. But state repression could not kill the band’s popularity. In 2015, Grup Yorum held a free concert in the western city of Izmir. Over a million people are said to have turned up.

After the attempted coup in 2016, the Erdoğan regime stepped up its attacks on the group. Six members were announced as wanted terrorists as placed on the government’s “grey list”. Two fled to Europe, while another five were arrested and sent to prison. In May 2019, they made the decision to go on a hunger strike.

On April 3rd, 2020, after 288 days without food, singer Helin Bölek died. She was 28. Mustafa Koçak, a supporter of the band who joined them in their hunger strike, died three weeks later. Bassist İbrahim Gökçek also passed away, aged 39, on May 7th. All three died fighting for the right to perform and demanding their freedom of expression.

1 Kunt and the Gang

Kunt and the Gang is rebellious irreverence at its very best. Despite the name, the act is made up of one man, a foul-mouthed synth player from the British town of Basildon. Kunt started out in 2003, playing provocative comedy hits like ‘A Lonely Wank in a Travelodge’, ‘Jimmy Saville & The Sexy Kids’, and ‘Sh——tting On A Picture of the Queen’.

Then, in December 2020, Kunt and the Gang released his first big single. ‘Boris Johnson Is A F——cking C——nt’ is less than a minute long, but it is clear in its message. The novelty protest piece made it to number five in the Christmas charts and went on to become the twentieth best-selling song of that year. Clearly, it must have captured something in the psyche of the British progressive public.

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Now more than ever, an overwhelming amount of music is available to listen to and enjoy. From pop artists dropping albums at a moment’s notice to bedroom troubadours self-releasing their recordings on Soundcloud to the glut of mixtapes, soundtracks, and singles hitting Spotify every Friday, listeners aren’t short of material to make their way through.

Throughout the history of music, certain albums from musicians have gone missing, been shelved, or just plain irritated their creators so much that they were banished to a storage room or sock drawer somewhere, never to be heard by a living soul. Consigned to legendary status, they live on only as a rumor, hearsay, and fan speculation.

Often called “lost” albums, they offer a tantalizing view of what could have been. Some of these, such as Bruce Springsteen’s electric version of Nebraska or Dr. Dre’s Detox, had fans and critics debating their detail and quality for years, ultimately remaining unfulfilled by any concrete evidence of their existence. And therein lies the draw of these lost albums. Of course, we’ll never quite know how good or bad they are, but it’s certainly fun to theorize.

To that end, here are some of the most noteworthy albums that were never meant to be.

Related: Top 10 Bizarre Conspiracy Theories About Album Cover Art

10 Prince: Dream Factory

Dream Factory was created by Prince in 1986 and was notable for having studio input from his band, The Revolution, for the first time on a Prince recording. All signs pointed to this album perhaps being the masterpiece of his finest era until he became frustrated with The Revolution and went back out on his own again.

The LP then mutated into Crystal Ball, a three-disc, 19-track solo LP that his record label, Warner Bros., was not prepared to release at the time. The Crystal Ball tracks were then adjusted to form the basis of his classic Sign o’ the Times. Despite this evolution, it would have been truly monumental to see what a full Prince and The Revolution record would have sounded like—free of label interference, of course.^[1]

9 Green Day: Cigarettes and Valentines

Coming off the back of their record Warning in 2000, Green Day wrote and recorded an album, Cigarettes and Valentines, that was a return to the faster punkier material of Insomniac. The trouble was, as the record was in the final stages of completion, the master tapes were stolen from the studio.

In hindsight, the band viewed the theft as being rather fortuitous as they instead went ahead and recorded a little album by the name of American Idiot. This one went on to launch them into the second phase of their career and to arguably more commercial success than their ’90s heyday.

The band has played the title track from the album live sparingly, as it was released as part of a live album DVD. But other than that, these tracks will remain mysteries to Green Day fans.^[2]

8 Beastie Boys: Hot Sauce Committee Part 1

The legendary hip-hop group was recording what was to be Part 1 of the two-part album Hot Sauce Committee when the tragic news broke of MCA’s cancer diagnosis. After this bombshell, they scrapped plans to release two albums, the first being a more experimental and weirder release, with the second boasting a more standard Beasties hip-hop feel.

As detailed in their bestseller The Beastie Boys Book, the rappers originally planned for Part 1 to be an elaborate practical joke on record collectors where every song would be made of fake samples. Instead, they went to insane lengths to create believable “fake samples,” and the general belief was they scrapped the idea after the sobering news of their friend’s health.

Not strictly true. Ad-Rock described within their book how they left the hard drive for part one on a boxcar outside Missoula, Montana, and never managed to retrieve it.^[3]

7 Grimes: The Non-Album Between Visions & Art Angels

Grimes isn’t one for staying still artistically or mincing her words. Her opinion of the album she created after her breakthrough record, the glorious Visions, was that it “sucked.” Nevertheless, she put out two songs that likely suggested the direction of the discarded recording: “REALiTi,” a demo that she posted online despite her complaints that it wasn’t mixed or mastered, and “Go,” a poppy headrush of a song that divided her fanbase upon release.

Even though both songs sounded great and were melodically and structurally miles ahead of her previous work, she commented that the album was “depressing” and that she didn’t want to tour to support it. Instead, she shelved the larger body of work and went on to create Art Angels, which proved to be her best-reviewed record to date.^[4]

6 Soundgarden’s Final Album

For another record overshadowed by tragedy, the reformed Soundgarden was in the middle of recording an album when frontman Chris Cornell tragically took his own life.

The band had written, demoed, and tracked vocals for the album when Chris’s suicide occurred, and since then, things only got more difficult and painful for the group to try and complete and release it. Guitarist Kim Thayil said that it was in a state ready to be finished and prepared for release. But the audio files were not in the band’s possession, and Cornell’s widow was suing the band over seven unreleased recordings made before his untimely end. This resulted in legal proceedings from Soundgarden’s side, and the two sides have been at war ever since.

It’s unlikely we will hear this record now, and if we do, it will not be the swansong it could have been for their iconic frontman.^[5]

5 Lana Del Rey / Lizzie Grant / May Jailer: Sirens

Lana Del Rey has been making music since she was 18 years old and has many pseudonyms, but her first full-length album was recorded under the name May Jailer.

The demos of this album have leaked online, and it’s an interesting snapshot of her life at the time and where she would eventually go from a musical standpoint. The record is mainly acoustic guitar, and Del Rey gives a more gentle, somber performance than her later persona would. There’s also a distinct lack of Americana, a defining characteristic of her iconography in the future.

The big request fans had with this record was to hear the full version, as it’s quite clearly bare-bones demos that, with a fuller band backing, mixing, and mastering, would have been a compelling look at a future star.^[6]

4 Noel Gallagher / Amorphous Androgynous collaboration

Ever since Oasis called it quits, the nature of Noel Gallagher’s solo project was the hottest topic among fans of the band. It’s clear the songwriter wanted to deviate from what the public expected of him, and to that end, he linked up with production duo Amorphous Androgynous to create a solo album with them.

Reports in the press suggested this was a psychedelic krautrock record, influenced by some of the groups Gallagher would talk up in interviews like Captain Beefheart and Pink Floyd. In reality, the partnership was frayed from the outset, and in the end, the sessions were beset by a fundamental misunderstanding from both sides. AA wanted Noel to experiment and explore; Noel wanted to do less than five vocal takes and knock it out like the old days.

In the end, only a couple of tracks appeared on his solo debut with his band, The High Flying Birds, which proved to be the album’s critical darlings. In interviews, the producers claimed that the full shelved album is the best thing he has ever done, and they were saddened by Noel’s disregard of it. Hopefully, we will hear it in full one day.^[7]

3 Kanye West: Yandhi

I could fill a full top ten article with unreleased Kanye West albums, but for this selection, I thought I would choose his most fully formed. Yandhi was the mooted follow-up to 2018’s relatively disappointing ye. Based on the leaked demos, it would have been a poppier and more gospel-influenced record that would have marked a huge return to quality for the much-maligned icon.

As always with West, elements of the songs have been repurposed for subsequent albums, particularly the 2019 album Jesus Is King. Yet one of the most interesting facets of Kanye’s obsessive online fanbase is their commitment to ensuring the leaked records are captured for posterity; so keen listeners can track his creative process throughout the years.

What you can hear from this album is that it had what would have featured some of his biggest songs in years, particularly “Alien,” featuring Young Thug and Kid Cudi, “Last Name,” and “Law of Attraction.” They all featured thought-out and considered production and guest features, both of which aren’t always the case with recent Kanye records.^[8]

2 Misfits: 12 Hits from Hell

Even if you haven’t heard of the Misfits, chances are you’ll be familiar with their iconic logo, the white skull on a black background taken from the film The Crimson Ghost. And if you play any Spotify Halloween playlist, wait long enough, and they’ll make an appearance. The band is the classic spooky punk band, a veritable Evil Ramones.

After recording their debut record, the magnificent Static Age, only to see it passed on by every record label they could put it in front of, the band attempted another record, the appropriately named 12 Hits from Hell. They knocked out all twelve songs in a single take each, apart from “London Dungeon,” which was done in two. It contained almost entirely stone-cold punk rock classics, like “Astro Zombies,” “Halloween,” and “Skulls.”

Within the studio, bassist Jerry Only’s brother Doyle was secretly re-recording guitarist Steele’s parts for unknown reasons. Upon discovery of this treachery, naturally, tensions were high within the band. They decided to cancel the record, despite it being completed, releasing elements of it in future EPs and singles and re-recording other parts just to confuse fans to no end.^[9]

1 Jimi Hendrix: Black Gold

Perhaps the reigning champion of lost albums, Black Gold was a project that genuinely would have added to the legendary guitarist’s mystique. Lauded as an autobiographical fantasy album containing a suite of “movements” rather than individual songs, it was to have an accompanying animated film about the difficulties of life on the road for a black rock star in the ’60s.

Essentially this could have been Hendrix’s Sgt. Peppers moment, but his untimely death in 1970 led to the world never seeing the great man perform this work of art. Yet, the record itself was made and handed to his drummer, Mitch Mitchell, to complete the final studio touches for release. Mitchell went ahead and did what many of us might do, being a rock star in the ’70s. He tied the cassette case closed with a headband and stored it at home, forgetting about it for two decades.

A lot has been written about the nature of this recording, about how Hendrix was positioning himself as a black superhero at a time when he was influential enough to make a major statement. The music itself was more complex than anything he had attempted before. It represented a true auteurist side to Jimi, one that signaled the growth of a man into a more experienced artist and performer.^[10]

For that reason, it remains the greatest lost album in music history.

Tens of thousands of bands have taken up the moniker of “punk.” From Sting to Avril Lavigne, thousands of artists have taken up the legacy of “punk.” But not all of them fit the bill. While punk as an idea is rooted in fighting back against toxic societal norms, not every single artist is willing to do so. But others are, and this is reflected by the ten incredible, iconic, and influential bands on this list. Let’s take a look at some incredible punk rock.

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10 Black Flag

Black Flag was one of the first, biggest, and best hardcore punk bands in the United States. For decades since their formation in 1976, they’ve been a punk rock institution, creating countless songs that are perfect for moshing, partying, or blaring out your car speakers after a particularly awful day at work. They were the blueprint for DIY punk bands all across the States, building their own record label out of nothing and touring the country while sleeping, eating, and living in a single van.

It’s because of these brutal tours that we have many of the grunge bands from the ’90s, as Black Flag inspired thousands to make their own band when they went to places that most artists would never even dream of. They took on the world, demonstrated by their all-time classic album Damaged, which was nearly not printed because it was too “anti-parent.”. Black Flag was self-made, self-distributed, and self-evident; they left a footprint on rock ‘n’ roll that’s still visible to this day, and nothing’s more punk than leaving your mark.^[1]

9 The Stooges

The Stooges are one of the bands that created a movement through sheer force of will. After forming in 1967, their unique and powerful blend of speed, noise, and personality laid the ground for all the punk rock that was to come. Only lasting about seven years, The Stooges were plagued with substance issues, inter-band squabbles, and all the rest; however, they made their mark in a way most bands can only dream of.

Not only was their music fast-paced and raw in the way of punk albums coming after, but Iggy Pop’s relentless on-stage confrontation laid the groundwork for punk singers to do the same for years to come. While they may not be “punk” in the traditional sense (finishing their troubled initial run 3 years before the Sex Pistols), they were punk in attitude and in effect. They didn’t see much initial success in the seventies, but they did start a punk tradition of being the band that made everyone listening want to start one too.^[2]

8 Crass

Crass is one of the lesser-known entries on this list, but they are no less deserving. They got their start in England in 1977, and from the get-go, Crass was different from most other bands. For one, they were formed in an anarchist commune by a few residents living there. Their commitment to their anarchist values was strong, and throughout their career, they constantly organized political actions and protests and rallied citizens for causes such as environmentalism.

While they were a heavily politicized band, they delivered on the music front as well. Crass self-released classic songs such as “Banned from the Roxy,” which was recorded after the band got kicked out of the famous Roxy music club in London for being too rowdy. Crass stuck to their ideals relentlessly for years despite the UK government trying to take them down. Sounds pretty punk to me.^[3]

7 Butthole Surfers

The Butthole Surfers’ ethos can be assumed just by looking at their name. They were irreverent, weird, loud, and just a little bit immature. All these things are true, as well as the fact that the Butthole Surfers (whose name was decided upon after an announcement forgot what the band was called) made some of the weirdest, most challenging music ever. They self-recorded and released many classic punk tracks during the ’80s and are still alive today.

Their shows were notable for their relentless and gross onstage antics, the often horrifying imagery that was played on a projector behind them, and the music itself, a combination of punk insanity and the experimental weirdness of Musique Concrete. They were notable for never being able to keep a bassist for long because of the brutality of their off-stage lifestyle and also for their relentless commitment to doing whatever they wanted to do. At the end of the day, the Butthole Surfers were punk distilled to its purest form—raw chaos in the form of a singer, guitar, bass, and drums.^[4]

6 Minor Threat

Minor Threat was a hardcore punk band formed in D.C by a few 17-year-olds guys in 1980. However, just because they were young doesn’t mean they didn’t have a major impact on music as a whole. Their blend of lightning-fast guitar work and pissed-off-at-everything vocals set the stage for hardcore punk, and their influence doesn’t stop there.

They started the infamous and divisive “straight edge” movement, and they set the example for ’80s indie bands that you could self-distribute your own music. Because no major label would take them, lead singer Ian Mackaye phoned up a record plant and hand-packaged the first Minor Threat EP himself. Minor Threat taught millions that all you needed was a few instruments and a lot of anger to get your voice heard, and what’s more punk than that.^[5]

5 Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth is about as cool as bands get. They got their start in the dark and gritty New York “No Wave” scene and only ascended from there. Known for their oddly tuned guitars, poetic lyricism, and beautiful soundscapes, Sonic Youth seems the opposite of what most people would consider to be punk. The truth is quite the opposite of this, however.

Sonic Youth embodies punk to its core; artistic expression, not compromising yourself for other people, and finding new ways to do things that no one thought possible. Sonic Youth was artsy, yes, but they showed the wider rock scene and the world what was possible with the music they were making. Without them, the world would be much less interesting and diverse, which is punk to a T.^[6]

4 Bad Brains

Bad Brains was a supremely interesting punk band that formed in D.C. in 1976. They stood out for several reasons, one being that they were an all-black band in a majority-white late-1970s D.C. music scene. Another was their insistence on including reggae in their music, which persisted until their eventual demise. Another was their lightning-quick insane playing.

Bad Brains might have the claim to be America’s first hardcore band, as they had challenged themselves to get through their songs as fast as humanly possible. No matter what, Bad Brains was an iconic and incredible punk band, and their contribution to hardcore punk is innumerable. From the aforementioned Minor Threat to the Beastie Boys, tons of bands trace their lineage back to Bad Brains. They were true originals, creating their own style out of many little pieces and managing to make it great.^[7]

3 Minutemen

The Minutemen always did things on their own terms. Whether that was the way they organized their band, the way they executed their tours, or the way they played their songs, the San Pedro band took what “being a band” meant completely into their own hands. From their genesis in 1980 by two best friends who just wanted to be heard to their untimely demise (along with guitarist D Boon, the Minutemen did what they wanted to do.

Creating hundreds of short, smart, considered punk songs over the years, they amassed a truly impressive body of work during their all too short time as a band. They represented the idea that two normal guys with some ideas could pick up some instruments and inspire people. They never had any illusions of becoming rock stars; they just wanted to play, and play they did. The Minutemen’s musical abilities still touch and inspire as much as they did 40 years ago.^[8]

2 Dead Kennedys

The Dead Kennedys were another California punk band that changed America. Led by their eccentric and instantly recognizable vocalist Jello Biafra, the Dead Kennedys are perhaps the most popular hardcore punk band. Their distinctive logo graces many a T-shirt around the world, and it’s not hard to see why that would be the case. The Dead Kennedys took on the world and sounded great while doing it.

Whether they were getting sued for the content of their songs or outputting anti-government messaging, they made themselves known all around the country. Their sound was also iconic, blending almost Beach Boys-esque surf rock with the blistering hardcore punk of Black Flag. All this means that the Dead Kennedys were a singular band, iconic in every way. They perfected the punk rock art of standing out from the crowd and looking good while doing so.^[9]

1 Fugazi

Fugazi is widely revered by pretty much anyone who cares about punk. It’s not hard to see why. They were formed by underground punk legend Ian Mackaye (of Minor Threat fame), and they played some of the most groundbreaking and best punk rock of all time. Their biggest claim to fame, though, might be how they stuck to their ideals. Fugazi never let go of their ethics amid major label deals, overzealous fans, and near worship by everyone who was in the know.

But despite it all, they stayed down to earth and chose money over art. They stuck to their guns so hard that Fugazi is surrounded by myths, such as the one that claimed they lived together in a house without heat and ate nothing but rice. While this isn’t true, Fugazi is the type of band that collects these kinds of rumors like darts on a dartboard. Fugazi might as well be the definitive punk band, and it’s obvious why. Throughout the years, they still refuse to compromise.^[10]