A buddy of mine and me have this conversation/debate once a year or so about what the best American band ever is? This is limited to a band, not an artist or duo and in our discussion, we are talking about the rock/pop era.

Here are the typical contenders: The Beach Boys, Ramones, R.E.M., Replacements, The Byrds, but certainly others could be considered.

"Best" can be defined however you want it to. In the discussion, the factors of quality of work (of course), longevity, influence, and how often we go back and listen to these artists are typically considered. I usually end up with The Beach Boys as my choice (they went from "Surfin'" to Pet Sounds to Surf's Up, all of which I think are great), and my buddy goes with R.E.M.

What do you think (and why)?

so, I guess that takes off TP and Heartbreakers type band also?

And I guess Fleetwood Mac is multinational?

Those kinds of issues are up for debate. We basically took Buddy Holly (Crickets), Springsteen (& the E Street Band), and Petty (& the Heartbreakers) out of the mix, but did consider Fleetwood Mac. Arbitrary? Entirely.

Go ahead and make your argument for whoever you want. I just want to have a discussion.

Sonic Youth

...or The Velvet Underground

I don't know. Ramones and CCR are good picks, too. Can't do Beach Boys or R.E.M. even though I love Pet Sounds and like about half of R.E.M.'s output. Just too many negative associations and generally tarnished careers/catalogs there that threaten to outweigh the good stuff when you consider the bands as a whole.

I was gonna say VU because of their influence on the underground scene and eventually the mainstream.

The Band would seem up there for me as well. It's hard to say that any one band carries the torch for every genre though.

The first one to go through my head was Los Lobos, but I don't think that their influence is wide-ranging enough to really qualify them, no matter how great they are. That leads me to the Grateful Dead, but... no.

So, as far as influence, longevity, and just plain awesomeness, I gotta go with:
Parliament/Funkadelic

Check it:
You get 2 fairly different-sounding bands for the price of one. Yet, in both guises, these guys spattered their influence all over every single band and artist that has followed them who has even a hint off R&B or soul in them, from Prince to Public Enemy to Boyz2Men, from Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone to Limp Bizkit (no matter what you think of them).

So, make my funk the P-Funk.

I think a broad level of public acceptance and popularity should be among the criteria (that is a band like Sonic Youth would not qualify; Talking Heads would).

So, Talking Heads.

Heavily influenced by P-Funk.
Even adopted Bernie Worell as their keys player for a while.

Rock 'n Roll is the story of white people making lots of money from being heavily influenced by black people.

Talking Heads are a solid pick (as is P-Funk, if you're going to count that as a single band), but I don't agree with the popularity qualifier.

The question is best, not "most important" or whatever, so I'll reserve the right to be as obscurist and elitist as I want to be.

But on roughly the same scale of popularity and influence as Talking Heads, I could also go with Sly and the Family Stone.

I endorse this 110%.

Pretty damn good pick. I'd have a hard time arguing against.
But I still stand by P-Funk.

Not really American though

I'd probably have to go with the Byrds.

They wouldn't be my pick but you could make a strong argument for Booker T. & The MGs or the Grateful Dead

If I threw out all criteria but I like, there'd be many days I'd pick the Replacements, Little Feat or Love.

insane clown posse.

The Beach Boys

Petty/Heartbreakers, Talking Heads, R.E.M.

I'd pick the Beach Boys. Similarly, The Byrds and the Replacements each had a good decade+ in them, and in addition to writing good songs and playing them well, they were also successful in evolving as band. Compared to the Ramones and REM, both of whom I like, but they just kinda stuck with their same sound from the get-go.

Along with VU, CCR, Mats, and Ramones:

Capt. Beefheart & the Magic Band
Mothers of Invention
Sonics
Stooges
MC5
Flamin' Groovies
New York Dolls
Alice Cooper
Cheap Trick

And of those my personal pick is (no surprise) the Dolls, although each cast a significant influence on pop culture.

Pretty obvious answer, I mean it's in the name of the song and everything:

Nirvana was lucky in terms of place and time, had a blessedly short career with no career ending turds of albums, were and are still influential... Plus you still like nevermind, it's ok to admit it. And they were a real powerhouse live.

While I love beach boy harmonies, most bands just don't have the capacity to pull it off. I do Ike the sly and parliament suggestions though.

What about groups that weren't really "bands", like the Supremes? You cannot deny their awesomeness.

Or can you?

No. You cannot.
But, singing groups like The Supremes or The Temptations or any other Motown or Stax singing group seems to be in a separate space of their own.
Ya know?

Minor Threat.

It does seem weird that so many of the big ones for American music were solo artists. But lots of good picks here, Ramones, Talking Heads, Velvet Underground, Stooges, CCR, and others mentioned are really good choices. Wish I had someone overlooked to mention, but most any I'd pick have already been mentioned. I could maybe toss out a personal favorite like the Minutemen. I think they were both good, actually started to sound accessible on their last couple releases and were influential in their own way. If I liked all their albums as much as I liked the first two, I'd nominate Gun Club. I think including Nirvana in the argument is totally legit.

But yeah, I'd have to give something to the Motown groups. I guess since they were singing groups and not playing interments makes a difference, but The Temptations, Supremes, Booker T & the MGs are all great choices. I'd also toss out The Impressions, even without Curtis Mayfield's solo work, their stuff as a group was fantastic and the group also spawned another star in Jerry Butler.



I think these arguments get easier to throw out older bands both because we already have generations of praise to hang a hat on, but also because the further you go back, music was less splintered and influences easier to measure.

archers of loaf
morphine
bad brains
ramones
slayer
faith no more