Top 1000 Bands #10-#1

10 - Pink Floyd - The masters of psychedelic rock, Pink Floyd created three of the greatest albums in all of classic rock, Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall. Their music was deep and weird and hard to pin down, but it was always compelling, no matter who their lead singer was at the time.

9 - Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers - The most consistent band in rock history and the greatest American band of the classic rock era, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have never released a bad album. Ever. They've bounced from genre to genre and yet stayed consistently brilliant throughout, whether they're writing exciting rock songs or somber ballads.

8 - The Clash - The greatest punk band of all time, The Clash lived up to their title as the "only band that matters" by keeping a close eye on global politics while crafting brilliant punk songs that drip with sarcasm at times and soar with sincerity at others.

7 - The White Stripes - The best band in the world at the moment, The White Stripes have only been around for a decade now but they've quickly become the best blues rock band since Led Zeppelin. Their style is simple and straight-forward but bounces from genre to genre without ever missing a beat.

6 - Nirvana - The band that kicked down the door and brought alternative music to the masses, Nirvana didn't last long but created some of the greatest punk and rock albums of all-time before they broke up following lead singer Kurt Cobain's suicide. More importantly, they represent the pinnacle of alternative rock as a genre.

5 - The Rolling Stones - They lost the battle against The Beatles for kings of the 60's, but The Rolling Stones still accumulated one of the most impressive track records of any rock band, with enough hits to fill an entire box set with singles alone. Their bluesy rock sound changed the direction that rock n roll was taking and opened doors for many great bands that would follow.

4 - Bob Dylan - The greatest songwriter in the history of rock n roll, Bob Dylan is the most influential figure as well. He's tried a million different styles and succeeded at damn near all of them. In my opinion, he also has the largest volume of great songs, larger even than the Beatles. Gee... it's too bad he can't sing, huh?

3 - The Beatles - Widely considered the greatest band in rock n roll, I actually prefer a few others, but respect must be paid to one of the most impressive track records of all. The Beatles may be the one band that people still talk about in 500 years and invented so much of what's great about rock n roll to this date that you can't really describe it in less than five pages.

2 - Pearl Jam - I'm biased because I grew up listening to this band and I can't deny the personal connection that I feel to this band's music. That being said, Pearl Jam is a band that belongs in discussions of the greatest bands of all-time (hear that VH1?, Rolling Stone?) with a string of brilliant albums that mixed pop appeal with artistic endeavour.

1 Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin weren't only the greatest band of all-time they featured some of the greatest artists of all-time at each of their four instruments as well. Their first four albums should be bronzed and perserved forever as the gold standard of classic rock. Their later ventures into heavier metal sounds provided one of their best songs with "Kashmir" and the band did the best thing that any band could have done at the time... break up before the 80's destroyed them. Granted it wasn't intentional, but at least they had the good sense to know that Bonzo was irreplaceable. Hopefully they'll realize that the same is true of Page and Plant, before they go out on a reunion tour.