30 - The Foo Fighters - The Foo Fighters rose from the ashes of Nirvana to become one of the greatest bands of modern rock. They took the unusual step of changing their sound dramatically from Nirvana's and the move paid off, making the band one of the most important of their generation.
29 - Beck - Pinning down Beck's sound into a genre is damn near impossible. First of all, he's pretty much created his own and second of all, as soon as you figure one out he changes it. He has become one of the most consistently great artists of his era, no matter what he tries to do.
28 - Nine Inch Nails - It used to be a long time between new NIN albums, giving the band time to craft their greatness as the top industrial band of all-time. Now the band seems to have a new album out every ten months or so and they're still consistently brilliant at a level most bands can never achieve.
27 - Green Day - The best punk band of the 90's, Green Day seemed to be tapped out of ideas in the early 21st century after their Warning album, only to rise up better than ever with the punk rock concept album "American Idiot", which was easily their best to date, which is saying something considering how good they were in the 90's.
26 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience - The most innovative guitarist between Chuck Berry and Eddie Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix took rock n roll in weird new pyschedelic directions and crafted some of the most innovative hooks of the 60's to go with some of the most creative lyrics.
25 - The Smashing Pumpkins - The best non-grunge grunge band of the grunge era, The Smashing Pumpkins achieved a great deal of success despite the horrible vocals of lead singer Billy Corgan. Fortunately for the band, he's also one of the most gifted songwriters in rock history and his band (no matter who's there and who's absent) has always been outstanding.
24 - Radiohead - Radiohead will be going up the next time I update this list, but this is a perfectly good spot for where the band was at before the release of their classic In Rainbows disc. The band is always experimental and always brilliant, pushing the mainstream as far to the extreme as possible.
23 - R.E.M. - The biggest success of the alternative rock scene in the 80's, R.E.M. has spent the better part of three decades cranking out consistently brilliant music as they became kings of the college rock scene and then later the mainstream and all of rock n roll. Their most recent album is one of their best, proving that they're still in their prime.
22 - U2 - Another great indie rock band to cross over to the mainstream, U2 knew that they were destined for greatness early on and proved it in the 80's with songs like "Pride" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday". The Joshua Tree came later on and made them the biggest damn band in the world.
21 - The Talking Heads - The best band of the New Wave era, The Talking Heads only lasted for a brief period of time but managed to create some of the most innovative and memorable music of their era.
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