Game: Most Acclaimed Pop Music Artists 1961-2019

[poorpete]

I took the list at Acclaimed Music and went through and rewarded out these points based on their yearly stats.
#1 song of the year: 5pts
#2 song: 4pts
#3 + #4: 3pts
5-8: 2pts
9-16: 1pt

and I would skip any song if the artist already has a song higher for that year. So 16 songs, 16 artists -- well sometimes more than 16 artists because if say the number one song is a duet, both artists get 5 points. Same for features. But no artist has more than one song count per year (and always the one with the higher seed).

Ok, so all that to say: guess which artists had the highest point total for the years 1961-2019. Think longevity + acclaim. For each artist correct, you get the # of points they've accumulated. Here are the artists with 10+ points

1. David Bowie (25pts - Tahlvin)
2. Madonna (22pts - Phoebe)
3. The Beatles (20 pts - Kyle)
4. The Rolling Stones (20 pts - Kyle)
5. Radiohead (19 points - Tahlvin)
6. Jay-Z (19pts - Phoebe)
7. Kanye (18pts - Phoebe)
8. Bob Dylan (17 points - Tahlvin)
9. Prince (16 pts - Tahlvin)
10. Marvin Gaye (15pts) (USA, 1968-1982, 1 person, male, IHITTGV - SH, Motown)
11. Daft Punk (14 points - Phoebe)
12. U2 (13 pts - Tahlvin)
13. The Smiths (13pts - Tahlvin)
14. Beyonce (13pts) (USA, 2003-2016, 1 person, female, CIL - F, R&B and Hip Hop)
15. Stevie Wonder (12pts) (USA, 1963-1976, 1 person, male, F - SD, Motown)
16. R.E.M. (12pts - Tahlvin)
17. LCD Soundsystem (12pts) (USA, 2002-2010, 1-3 people, male-led/mix, LME - DYC, Indie Dance)
18. Bruce Springstein (12 points - Tahlvin)
19. Drake (12pts) (Canada, 2013-2018, 1 person, male), HB-SM, Hip Hop)
20. Outkast (11pts) (USA, 2000-2007, 2 people, men, MJ - IPA, Hip Hop)
21. New Order (11pts) (UK, 1982-2001, 3 people, men, T - C, new wave)
22. Arcade Fire (11pts) (Canada, 2004-2017, 5 people, mix, N1 - EN, Indie Rock)
23. The Clash (10pts) (UK, 1977-1982, 4 people, men, CC - SISOSIG, Punk)
24. Lorde (10pts - Phoebe)
25. Led Zeppelin (10pts - Phoebe)
26. Eminem (10pts - Phoebe)

Tahlvin - 127
Phoebe - 103
Kyle - 40

[poorpete]

This is based on a list I made in my Just Rewarding project, I've covered so far 1941 to 1959, with plans adding the two surrounding years in the next two months. In these competitions I make reward a point for every win starting with the round of 32. So if you a song makes it to the sweet sixteen, you get 1 point. If It wins the tournament it gets 5 points. As above, if an artist has more than one big acclaimed song, I make them fight it out before reaching the points round. So far for 1941-1959 here are the artist point leaders

1. Louis Jordan - 26 points
2. Hank Williams - 23
3. Ella Fitzgerald - 20
4. Billie Holiday - 19
5. Little Richard - 13
6. Leadbelly - 13

Just to assure you, none of these artists are on the game list.

[Kyle]

Beatles

[poorpete]

Yup! Beatles is tied for third, with 20 points! Even though for the top 10 or so they had the shortest career.

1962 Love Me Do 1pt
1963 I Want to Hold Your Hand 3pts
1964 A Hard Day's Night 1pt
1965 Yesterday 2pts
1966 Tomorrow Never Knows 2pts
1967 A Day in the Life 5pts
1968 Hey Jude 3pts
1969 Something 1pt
1970 Let It Be 2pts


Kyle you can either guess again after two other people guess, or I guess if no one is up to guessing by monday

[Tahlvin]

U2

[Mike]

Elvis

[Kyle]

The Rolling Stones

[Tahlvin]

Prince

[poorpete]

U2 - 13 points
1980 I Will Follow 1
1983 Sunday Bloody Sunday 3
1984 Pride (In the Name of Love) 2
1987 With or Without You 3
1991 One 3
2000 Beautiful Day 1

The Rolling Stones - 20 points
1965 (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction 4
1966 Paint It, Black 2
1968 Sympathy for the Devil 3
1969 Gimme Shelter 5
1971 Brown Sugar 2
1972 Tumbling Dice 1
1973 Angie 1
1978 Miss You 1
1981 Start Me Up 1

Prince - 16 points
1982 Little Red Corvette 3
1984 When Doves Cry 5
1985 Raspberry Beret 1
1986 Kiss 3
1987 Sign 'O' the Times 4

Elvis is below the cut-off with 3pts
1961 Can't Help Falling in Love 1
1969 Suspicious Minds 2
If I didn't do the 1961 cut-off Elvis would have 17 points

[Kyle]

Queen

[Tahlvin]

Bob Dylan

[Kyle]

Bob Dylan

Shit. That's good. I blew it with Queen.

[poorpete]

Dylan - 17 points
1963 Blowin' in the Wind 3
1964 The Times They Are A-Changin' 1
1965 Like a Rolling Stone 5
1973 Knockin' on Heaven's Door 1
1975 Tangled Up in Blue 3
1991 Blind Willie McTell 1
1997 Not Dark Yet 1
2000 Things Have Changed 1
2001 Mississippi 1

Queen is below the cut-off with 8pts
1974 Killer Queen 1
1975 Bohemian Rhapsody 4
1981 Under Pressure 3

[Tahlvin]

The Beach Boys

[Phoebe]

Madonna

[Kyle]

Hall and Oats

[poorpete]

Beach Boys are just below the cutoff with 8pts
1963 Surfin' U.S.A. 2
1964 Don't Worry Baby 1
1966 Good Vibrations 5

Madonna is #2 with 22 points
1983 Borderline 1
1984 Like a Virgin 3
1985 Into the Groove 5
1986 Papa Don't Preach 1
1989 Like a Prayer 4
1990 Vogue 2
1998 Ray of Light 3
2000 Music 1
2005 Hung Up 2

Hall and Oats suprisingly no songs in a yearly top 16, acclaim-wise.

Update: Added country of origin for each artist.
A Clue: One wrong answer may have a clue to the #1 artist

[Kyle]

Garth Brooks

[Mike]

Michael Jackson

[poorpete]

Both surprising nos!

MJ doomed by having three huge years, though none cracking top 16 for 1987 is a surprise
1979 Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough 3
1982 Billie Jean 5
and a +1 for We are the World, still keep him outside the 10+ list
though if Jackson 5 were counted....

Update: added the span from their first top 16 song to their last.
Note: Acclaimed Music is based on press and critic rankings, and so it tends to lean rock and rollers and a good percentage of music press is UK-based, though post 2000s artists are more diverse.

[poorpete]

Update: added # of people (give or take in some cases) who make up the artist

[Tahlvin]

David Bowie

[Phoebe]

Elton John

[poorpete]

Elton and MJ are the biggest surprise snubs IMO

1970 Your Song 1
1973 Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 1

Meanwhile Bowie....

1969 Space Oddity 3
1971 Life on Mars? 2
1972 Ziggy Stardust 2
1974 Rebel Rebel 3
1975 Young Americans 1
1977 Heroes 5
1980 Ashes to Ashes 2
1981 Under Pressure 3
1983 Let's Dance 1
2013 Where Are We Now? 1
2015 Lazarus 2

Got the critical love and the lengthy career, gets #1!

[poorpete]

Update: to finish this up, you can guess 2 artists

[Tahlvin]

Bruce Springsteen
Radiohead

[Eliahad]

Queen
Greenday

[Tahlvin]

Kyle already guessed Queen. But I admire your gusto!

[Phoebe]

I do not understand these people at all. I'm going off to the "things critics like" zone because wth?
Beck
Daft Punk

[poorpete]

Beck just misses the cut with 9pts
1993 Loser 5
1996 Where It's At 4

Green Day is acclaimed but just got 4pts
1994 Basket Case 1
1997 Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) 2
2004 American Idiot 1

Queen see above and was my clue of "One wrong answer may have a clue to the #1 artist" given their "Under Pressure"

Bruce is on there for 12 points!
1975 Born to Run 5
1980 The River 2
1982 Atlantic City 1
1984 Born in the U.S.A. 3
1993 Streets of Philadelphia 1

Daft Punk is up there with 14 points! I debating instead of listing as French, to list them as Robots
1995 Da Funk 2
1997 Around the World 3
2000 One More Time 3
2001 Digital Love 2
2013 Get Lucky 4

And Radiohead is tied for 5th with 19 points!
1992 Creep 5
1995 Fake Plastic Trees 2
1997 Paranoid Android 4
2000 Idioteque 4
2001 Pyramid Song 2
2003 There There 1
2016 Burn the Witch 1

BTW I went all the way back to 1920, and here's the Top 10 (kinda wish I went with this list)
Duke Ellington 35
David Bowie 25
Madonna 22
Louis Armstrong 21
The Rolling Stones 20
The Beatles 20
Radiohead 19
xxxxxx 19
xxxxxx 18
Benny Goodman 18


Update: you can now guess 3 artists
Update: y'all seem to be missing a big big genre
Update: added gender
Update: added acronyms for their first and last song to get points (like for Daft Punk it'd be DF - GL)

[Mando]

Falco
Pet Shop Boys

[Phoebe]

Jay-Z
Lorde
Kanye

[poorpete]

Pet Shop boys got 4pts
1985 West End Girls 3
1990 Being Boring 1

Falco's "Der Kommisar" was ranked #109 for 82, "Rock Me Amadeus" was #98 for 1985

Jay-Z got 19 points, a few of these features
1998 Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem) 1
1999 Big Pimpin' 2
2001 IZZO (H.O.V.A.) 1
2003 Crazy in Love 4
2007 Umbrella 3
2009 Empire State of Mind 5
2011 Niggas in Paris 2
2013 Drunk In Love 1

Kanye gets 18 points, also partly thanks to features
2004 Jesus Walks 3
2005 Gold Digger 4
2007 Flashing Lights 1
2008 American Boy 1
2010 Runaway 4
2011 Niggas in Paris 2
2013 Black Skinhead 1
2016 Ultralight Beam 2

AND Lorde gets 10 points, who has two songs on the list, both #1.
2013 Royals 5
2017 Green Light 5

Other ones with two #1 songs:
Al Jolson, Bessie Smith, Bing Crosby, ********, ********, *******, and Duke Ellington (with 3!)

Update: You can now pick 4 artists
Update: Genre added

[Phoebe]

Rihanna, Eminem, Justin Bieber, Led Zeppelin

[poorpete]

Tahlvin, are you ready with your final four guesses?

If not, Phoebe wins by exactly 1 point

[Tahlvin]

The Smiths, The Police, Pink Floyd, R.E.M.

The music of my youth (partially).

[poorpete]

Tahlvin with the win!

The Smiths nab 13 points
1983 This Charming Man 4
1984 How Soon Is Now? 4
1986 There Is a Light That Never Goes Out 5

R.E.M. gets 12
1983 Radio Free Europe 2
1986 Fall on Me 1
1987 It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) 2
1991 Losing My Religion 4
1992 Everybody Hurts 3

Eminem got 10
1999 My Name Is 4
2000 Stan 3
2002 Lose Yourself 3

Led Zeppelin also with 10
1969 Whole Lotta Love 3
1970 Immigrant Song 1
1971 Stairway to Heaven 4
1975 Kashmir 2

And below the list...

Rihanna got 8
2007 Umbrella 3
2011 We Found Love 2
2016 Work 3

Pink Floyd got 7
1967 See Emily Play 1
1973 Money 1
1975 Wish You Were Here 2
1975 Shine On You Crazy Diamond 1
1979 Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2 2

The Police got 5
1978 Roxanne 1
1979 Message in a Bottle 1
1983 Every Breath You Take 3

and Bieber, blame the critics, got only 1
2015 Sorry 1

[poorpete]

Missed:

Marvin Gaye
1968 I Heard It Through the Grapevine 5
1971 What's Going On 5
1973 Let's Get It On 3
1982 Sexual Healing 2

Beyonce
2003 Crazy in Love 4
2008 Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) 2
2011 Countdown 1
2013 Drunk In Love 1
2016 Formation 5

Stevie Wonder
1963 Fingertips 1
1972 Superstition 5
1973 Living for the City 5
1976 Sir Duke 1

LCD Soundsystem
2002 Losing My Edge 5
2007 All My Friends 4
2010 Dance Yrself Clean 3

Drake
2013 Hold On, We're Going Home 2
2015 Hotline Bling 4
2016 Work 3
2017 Passionfruit 1
2018 Sicko Mode 2

Outkast
2000 Ms. Jackson 5
2003 Hey Ya! 5
2007 Int'l Player's Anthem (I Choose You) 1

New Order
1982 Temptation 1
1983 Blue Monday 5
1986 Bizarre Love Triangle 2
1987 True Faith 1
1993 Regret 1
2001 Crystal 1

Arcade Fire
2004 Rebellion (Lies) 4
2004 Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) 1
2010 Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) 2
2013 Reflektor 3
2017 Everything Now 1

The Clash
1977 Complete Control 1
1978 (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais 2
1979 London Calling 5
1982 Should I Stay or Should I Go 2

Thanks for playing!!!