Well for quality and volume i'll throw in Andrew Bird. He's undeniably a talented musician. What other artists this decade have proven their mastery/proficiency at the violin, guitar, mandolin, whistling, and the glockenspiel?! Put out 5 great albums and a sprinkling of other tracks as well, and he's also guest-appeared on these albums:

* The Blacks – Just Like Home (2000, Bloodshot)
* The Handsome Family – In the Air (2000, Carrot Top Records)
* Devil in a Woodpile – Division Street (2000, Bloodshot)
* Kevin O'Donnell – Control Freak (2000 · Delmark Records)
* Neko Case – Canadian Amp (2001)
* The Verve Pipe – Underneath (2001, RCA Records)
* Jenny Toomey – Antidote (2001, Misra Records)
* Kelly Hogan – Because It Feel Good (2001, Bloodshot)
* Sinister Luck Ensemble – Anniversary (2002, Perishable Records)
* Abandon Jalopy – Mercy (2002)
* Kristin Hersh – The Grotto (2003)
* The Autumn Defense – Circles (2003, Arena Rock Recording Co.)
* Bonnie 'Prince' Billy – Sings Greatest Palace Music (2004, Drag City)
* Bobby Bare, Jr. – From the End of Your Leash (2004, Bloodshot)
* Nora O'Connor – Til the Dawn (2004, Bloodshot)
* Ani DiFranco – Knuckle Down (2005, Righteous Babe Records)
* My Morning Jacket – Z (2005, ATO Records)
* Bobby Bare – The Moon Was Blue (2005, Dualtone Music Group)
* Emily Loizeau – London Town (in French and English) (2006)
* Dosh – The Lost Take (2006, anticon.)
* Candi Staton – His Hands (2006, Astralwerks)
* Magnolia Electric Co. – The Black Ram (2007, Secretly Canadian)
* Song of America - "How You Gonna Keep 'Em Down On the Farm" (2007, Split Rock Records/Thirty One Tigers)
* Charlie Louvin - "Sings Murder Ballads and Disaster Songs" (2008, Tompkins Square)
* Todd Sickafoose - "Tiny Resistors" (2008, Cryptogramophone)
* Dosh – Wolves and Wishes (2008, anticon.)
* Final Fantasy – Plays to Please (2008, Blocks Recording Club)
* Dianogah – Qhnnnl (2008, Southern Records)
* Loney, Dear - Dear John[21] (2009)
* Dark Was the Night – "The Giant of Illinois" (Red Hot, 2009)
* Thao with the Get Down Stay Down - Know Better Learn Faster (2009, Kill Rock Stars)
* Dosh – Tommy (2010, anticon.)

Not much of a cultural impact (although apparently Noble Beast charted at #12 on Billboard), but he seems like the guy who would be picked if you let other musicians/peers have a vote.

If by "strive to be Radcliffe" you mean "people on this board that will call you out" then I guess I'm guilty, though to be fair, I call out Radcliffe, too.

You think Radiohead is the artist of the decade, I think they put out four albums of material, only maybe an album and a half of it is worth listening to. You think they are revolutionary, I think they sound bored and sometimes make some pretty boring music. I'm a fan of them when they interest me, you are a sycophant, lapping up whatever thin gruel they parse out to you (Thom Yorke solo album, anyone?)

So no, I don't think they are the Artist of the Decade but I can completely see where you could make the case (something you didn't even bother to do: you just said "Radiohead and I'm gonna make fun of whatever anybody else says", a sign, by the way, that you probably picked up your rhetorical skills from an educational institution that lets you keep your tools at the end of the semester.

Derris makes a good points here.

The only band to get 4 albums in my Top 100 of the last decade were Sonic Youth.

The White Stripes had 3 albums but if you add on Loretta Lyn and The Von Bondies, Jack would have been involved in 5.

I'll play devil's advocate here, but did Jack really have much of an impact? i don't think that most people (or in the case of the Von Bondies, anyone ever) have heard any of those ancillary projects, as good as they might be, and the copycats that he's created have more or less detracted from the canon of pop music rather than contributed to it. On the whole, I think he might be a net loss. What were the trends in this decade that will persist anyway? Did we get anything new?

Artist of the decade - I think it's an interesting question but I don't think I have a good answer for it. Steve Jobs?

for pop music maybe a record label: Ed Banger Records

for a rock band, Radiohead started in the 90s but their shift in the 2000s into an experimental art rock band with a new definition of that genre had a huge impact.

there were others who didn't have something like a commercial impact, but a subcultural, for instance John Zorn, Mike Patton, Secret Chiefs 3.

definitely no singer/songwriter like the mentioned above, folk/anti-folk is like 50 years old. basically nothing has changed since the 60s.

POINT:
Garage rock / rock'n'roll

In the mainstream, and perhaps even in the underground, the sound was dead. In 2000, boy bands and nu-metal were on the airwaves, and the biggest indie scene was emo. After White Blood Cells in '01 there was definitely a shift. The dude did not invent anything, but he revived something, and I think he deserves some props for that.

COUNTERPOINT (to just about every "impact" point)
Did he kill nu-metal and teeny bopper pop? Or had those fads run their course already, and he just filled in the vacuum. How much of any musician's worth (in terms of impact) is due to their ability and how much is due to being in the right place at the right time?

We'll do this in Dec or Jan (if obner lasts until then) and Radcliffe and his satan-spawn son Bloor will remind us we did this already, but there should be categories and standards. I distinguish between artists I like, their degree of talent, their advancing a kind of music I know and follow FROM artists who have had a broad cultural and musical impact, and who represent the zeitgeist in the deepest and most pervasive way. Or said more simply, really good, really influential, and really popular. Hence, Big Boi.

yeah I think a case can be made for Outkast as a group (I think Stankonia is the highwater mark of the junction of creativity and populism in this decade) but Big Boi himself doesn't have anything as crossovery as Hey-Ya in his column.

I think it's time we chip in and get you a sandwich board.

So I'll frame it just as Outkast... but his new solo will take the country by squall if not storm in the next couple months. And then there is an Outkast album to follow the solo.

Then how are you defining decade? 2000-2010? I think of it as 2000-2009.

If so, as much as I like Outkast (and think Hey Ya was the last song capture some sort of universal zeitgeist), I think their best albums were in the 90's (arguably). Also, if you don't count the Idlewild soundtrack, they haven't put out anything since 2003.

This surprised me - the only true Outkast album released this decade is their worst (albeit still good) Speakerboxxx/The Love Below had a great single, and some catchy Big Boi songs but aside from Hey Ya Andre's contributions were almost unlistenable (I eventually threw away the second disc of that album) and then they had that soundtrack no one listened to.

The new Big Boi is pretty good, but compared to even Stankonia it is lacking something (Andre obviously) and ifthey ever do release another actual Outkast album I will predict that it is as catchy and relevant as Dirty Work.


And I'm probably the biggest Outkast fan on the board, but their cultural impact over a decade is much better addressed from 1994-2004 than 2000-2010.

yes on all accounts. This decade in rap/pop music was OWNED by Kanye. I'd put forth that Lil Wayne was the most emblematic "rock star" in those last few years too, on the strength of 0 official releases.

wait, the strokes? three records, one great, one good and one mediocre and they are somehow the artist of the decade.

alright, you are searching for the most successful person in the business in the US. to be honest, that's something different than the "artist of the decade" for me.

classic obner thread:

-people dissecting the rules into infinity
-long, meaningless list from bort
-radiohead (will this EVER end?)
-radcliffe slag
-me posting meaningless bullshit and adding nothing to the conversation

did someone say a decade has passed?

Instead of popular, really polarizing could count too, though I don't know if many bands this last decade fit that bill either. Maybe something like Modest Mouse or New Pornographers.

Well, the way I view something like this is a combination of things. I think success/business side of things should play a part but also, like Dalen said, the artist's output should be of a certain quality. To assign something as general as "artist of the decade" they should've had some sort of cultural impact. Lastly, I think "artist" also connotes someone who follows their own creative path and is willing to take risks (good and bad).

For me, I just think White fits all of those.

DBT are probably my favorite band of the decade. I've spent more money going to shows, buying records on these guys than any other band in the last 10 years. But, I also realize that they don't quite meet all the criteria a broad group of people would have for this.

As for the Strokes, I think they certainly were one of the bands that kick started that so-called neo-garage movement at the beginning of the decade but they only put out 3 albums and nothing since 2006. I just think they started coasting.

I agree with Bloor on Radiohead. I can certainly see the argument for them. Love them or hate them, their impact at the beginning of the decade was undeniable and selling "In Rainbows" online for free will be a moment industry types will cite while deciding the future of the business. I just agree that their material just wasn't that great although I have come around on Amnesiac.

Seriously...though in 2001 I hoped they would be...

Post of the year. Other meta-communicative posters (TOBY/Aaron/whatever, Radcliffe, Yail Bloor) take note, the self-revealing element enhances the ascerbic reflection.

I feel like you are taking unwarranted shots at me in this thread, harry.

I guess in the end you may be right here, Seafoam. DBT made 3 of my favorite albums of the decade, and The Strokes made 2....but Room on Fire is still my favorite made in the 00s.

Hmm. Because I paired you with Radcliffe? You are both two of my favorite posters, tangy, snappy, acuminate ... Group hug. Actually I remember in 1974 while on psilocybin what started as a group hug wound up three days later in a cabin in south Tahoe with ....

which is exactly why i've chosen Radiohead.

outstanding productions, highly influential, cultural impact, superb live shows. across the board, they are of the highest quality for my money.