A blog about Bloomsbury Academic's 33 1/3 series, our other books about music, and the world of sound in general.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

League Table, version deux

And this is what I think the chart would look like, had all the books been available for the same amount of time. (Definite guesswork involved here, clearly.)

***

1. Neutral Milk Hotel
2. The Rolling Stones
3. My Bloody Valentine
4. Bob Dylan
5. David Bowie
6. Celine Dion
7. Radiohead
8. The Kinks
9. The Smiths
10. Velvet Underground
11. Joy Division
12. Beastie Boys
13. Led Zeppelin
14. Pixies
15. The Beatles
16. Black Sabbath
17. Pink Floyd
18. The Beach Boys
19. Slayer
20. Steely Dan
21. DJ Shadow
22. Sonic Youth
23. Captain Beefheart
24. Magnetic Fields
25. Guided By Voices
26. The Replacements
27. Minutemen
28. Tom Waits
29. Belle & Sebastian
30. Jimi Hendrix
31. Jeff Buckley
32. The Band
33. R.E.M.
34. Afghan Whigs
35. The Byrds
36. Bruce Springsteen
37. The Ramones
38. Patti Smith
39. The Who
40. Flying Burrito Bros
41. Nirvana
42. Elvis Costello
43. Love
44. Stone Roses
45. Sly Stone
46. Joni Mitchell
47. Nick Drake
48. Stevie Wonder
49. Throbbing Gristle
50. Neil Young
51. The Pogues
52. U2
53. Richard and Linda Thompson
54. Dusty Springfield
55. Prince
56. James Brown
57. Jethro Tull
58. Abba
59. The MC5
60. A Tribe Called Quest
61. Guns N Roses
62. PJ Harvey

***

Meanwhile, Quietus has posted an engaging conversation about Wire, between Jon Savage and Wilson Neate, author of our very recent book on Pink Flag. You can read the whole discussion here.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aw, I really liked the GNR book too! I hate to see it so low. C'mon guys, get reading.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I'm surprised at that.

Anne-Marie said...

Sad to see the James Brown book 7 from the bottom. Definitely the best one I've read - by a MILE. Sigh.

Anonymous said...

Gah! NO accounting for taste! The Gunners, PJ and MC5 books are excellent. The U2 one should be last.

Anonymous said...

That's a very interesting list, and I think it shows that there is probably no way for Continuum to guage what books will sell, based on just the popularity of the record or artist.

I like lots of these books, but the Elvis Costello book is one of the most inventive I have read ...

Unknown said...

Just who exactly is buying enough copies of the Celine Dion one for it to be #6?

matthew said...

The Celine book is probably my favorite. I'm surprised it's not higher, actually.

Rid Of Me is a really good book, too, I think. And I say that as somebody who doesn't even like girls that way.

Nate said...

Pretty strong showings for the metal books, wouldn't you say? Definitely makes a case for "continuing" in that vein...

Anonymous said...

Go Celine Dion our hearts will go on for you.

Anonymous said...

I'm tired of people slagging off books based on their own bias. The U2 book is a really unique approach, well-written, and thoughtful. If don't agree with it, so be it. I couldn't catch on to the Celine book try as I might, but again, I appreciate the unique approach taken.