It's interesting no one has mentioned the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Say what you will about stage antics but lyrically and musically they have to rank as among the best American bands. Dani California, Under the Bridge, Californication, Breaking the Girl, etc and whne a bassist is considered among the best guitarist in rock history that has to tell you something about their musicianship. great fan of Mike Nesmith's solo oeuvre. I am not familiar with his solo musical overtures but I have to tip my hat to the man for his video inovations that helped usher in mainstream music videos.

Blondie? Sly & The Family Stone? (definitely Prince, but I wouldn't just limit him to The Revolution, there's New Power Generation as well & really I don't think of him as a "band", more as a solo artist with really good taste in who he gets to work with him).

I think the whole issue with a lack of big "bands" in the U.S. market isn't because of the musical tradition here, but rather that it's easier for the companies to promote an individual act. My volunteer gig with the music scene in Ann Arbor puts me in touch with many, many, many successful bands, but they aren't successful in the mainstream commercial level that say the Who or the Beatles or the Stones would have been. Just in the past couple of weeks, I've worked shows by Gandalph Murphy, Tally Hall, Down the Line, the Holmes Brothers (which is a band, not a brother act), Nickle Creek, the Subdudes. Throw into it a wealth of strong bands in the past: The Band, the Doobie Brothers ... in a different genre there are groups like The Commodores (tell me that hearing "Brick House" doesn't put a smile on your face). In terms of bands today that are artistically and commercially strong, I'll take Green Day any day.

I hope no one minds me joining in the discussion. My vote for best American band is the Buffalo Springfield. The band had three Canadians in the group, Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin but the band was based in LA. The rest of the members were Steven Stills, Richie Furay and Jim Messina. Not a shabby line up. Maybe not the best but certainly influential. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are pretty high up on my list. Now here's a question--is there anyone who's willing to admit to a song that's on their ipod that's strictly a guilty pleasure? I'll be brave and go first...don't laugh...mmmbop. :oops:

mmmbop I can't laugh - I've got Wait a Minute & Buttons (Pussy Cat Dolls). I've also got an embarrassing amount of 'NSync, NKOTB, Brittany (DJ remixes at least), early Madonna, BTM, - you name it, I've got it (the saving grace is at least I was given the Ketchup song, I didn't buy that one & new Timberlake is somewhat hip now). ETA - LOL, the forum language clean up kicked in there! -> pussycat dolls

Lord, what isn't a guilty pleasure? I have my fair share of NSYNC and JC Chasez, but I guess the guiltiest of all is Lou Bega. How can you not dance to Mambo No. 5? And Tricky, Tricky? I may also confess to considering the Band From TV version of Minnie the Moocher a guilty pleasure...but that's because my name's Heidi. That's right, he's singing TO ME. :)

This may also be a generational thing LOL - Duran Duran (Girls on Film!)

"Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio, "Kiss from a Rose" by Seal, and "Tubthumping" by Chumbawumba are guilty pleasures, but not much else.

Ok, now I don't feel too bad that I have a song fron the Xanadu soundtrack. No Duran Duran though but Heaven 17 made the cut as did Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

Me - child of the 80s. Somewhere I've got a copy of Rio (though not on my ipod for some reason); I've also got scads of UltraVox, Gary Newman, Spandau Ballet, Stranglers, The Specials! Heaven 17, New Order, early UB40, ABC's great album, Lexicon of Love, - and yes, all on dapod. Oh, my mis-spent youth.

Ranee, I think we may be soul mates. I was more of a Spandau Ballet Girl than Duran Duran Girl. I was a huge fan of the Style Council, and Yaz. I just added Upstairs at Eric's to my ipod. Good stuff!

Style Council The Jam! The Spands! -> Journey to Glory! (I even had a frilly shirt & the gloves). And Upstairs is a classic, even today. Definitely soul mates :wink:

I forgot Squeeze, too, but not with Paul Carrick. Now there is a band that's wholly underrated. Do you remember when The Young Ones was on MTV late on Saturday night? How funny! I'm going to go to bed with a smile on my face and happy to know that I'm not as ancient as I thought.

Squeeze - Goodbye Girl, Up The Junction, Black Coffee In Bed Gary Numan - Down In The Park The Jam - A Town Called Malice My latest guilty pleasure is Grace Kelly by Mika.

My own criteria for a "great band" is that they had at least two albums that I can listen to. Obviously, some have a dozen + albums I can listen to, but two was my requirement. I have to disagree with the Monkees as being a great band. Individually, they were talented people, but their inorganic, pre-fabricated origins meant that they were "performing" songs they didn't write and, often, didn't even play their own instruments on. Cute, poppy, fun, yes. Great band, or even good band? Not by a long shot. Re: the Beatles. Nobody better in my book. By that token, there are very, very few covers of their material that is actually any good. Most covers are cringe-worthy and awful. Stevie Wonder's We Can Work It Out is perhaps best, but you'd think by now people would just give it up. I don't watch American Idol at all but just scrolling through posts and reading how the contestants slaughterd the Beatles catalogue makes me want to slit my wrists. But I think you have to differentiate between something like Bruce Springsteen et al which are essentially solo artists with a kick ass band and a group like REM which, yes, has a front man, but is an essential unit with one singer who ends up being treated as the "face" of the band. Yes, this is true of pretty much any band, regardless of how essential the lead singer is to the actual composition of the material. There really aren't too many bands, American or British or whatever, that don't have the more famous front person. No bands are completely egalitarian.