Smiths Top Beatles in NME Music Icons Poll

My copy of GetReady only has 10 songs. In all seriousness, that was a good CD, but its sales have been quite poor in the U.S. Hence, NewOrder probably won't tour the U.S. in 2002.

You should check out their latest single, "Here to Stay." Apparently, it won't be released in the U.S. although it's as good as anything on GetReady. The song is from the movie "24 Hour Party People", just released in the UK last week to very positive reviews. The movie is about the rise and fall of Factory records, featuring Joy Division and Happy Mondays. It's supposed to be released in NY and LA this July.

A confession...

I am a music sharing junkie. A guilt ridden music sharing junkie.

I would have never in a million years bought a "The Smiths" album. Ditto "The Cure" and "New Order".

South Florida is radio hell. You can get urban top 40, country, oldies, etc., but I had never heard any of these groups.

This discussion got me curious and I downloaded a couple of the more popular cuts from these groups using Morpheus.

I LIKE THEM! I will definitely buy some of these CD's, but without hearing them first, I wouldn't have considered it. Yeah, you can sometimes play them in a store, but who has the time? Maybe you could hear it streamed someplace, but streaming quality usually $ucks on ice.

You hear that Music Recording Industry bozos! You can thank Morpheus for a few sales!

This is a joke right?

No, it's not a joke. NME has declared The Smiths as the band having the most influence over their magazine for the last 50 years.

Here's what their website says:

THE SMITHS have been named the artists to have had most influence on NME in the course of our 50 years as a title.

The top 50 artists to have had an influence will be revealed tomorrow (April 16) in a special issue celebrating 50 years of NME but as a taster we can now reveal the Top 10 – which also includes The Beatles, Oasis, Public Enemy and David Bowie.

The list takes into account: Appearances on front covers. Volume and significance of features. Dominance of end of year writers polls. The response from our readers in the weekly letters page. The presence of their name and influence in the paper (e.g. the number of acts referred to as the new them, the endless questioning of other artists for their opinions of them, the terrible pun headlines on their name or song titles...). And the speed with which they took over.

It was felt that The Smiths and then a solo Morrissey's all-encompassing spread through the 80s and early 90s allowed them to reign.

The top 10 is as follows:

1: The Smiths
2: The Beatles
3: Stone Roses
4: David Bowie
5: Sex Pistols
6: Oasis
7: Radiohead
8: Paul Weller/The Jam
9: U2
10: Public Enemy

Notice it says "influence on NME", not influence on the music world.

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