Who could ever pick one favorite band? What do you even answer when people ask you about your favorite music?
My new answer is going to be this list: my favorite musicians, one for every letter of the alphabet. And a crap-ton of honorable mentions.
(In the case of people with actual names, I will use whichever of first name, last name, or full name I damn well please. Classical composers will be last name only.)
Air
Honorable mentions: Afro Celt, Architeq
Beethoven
Symphony No 3 (Eroica), First Movement, Allegro Con Brio
Symphony No 9, Fourth Movement
Honorable mentions: The Beatles, Beck, The Bird and the Bee, Bat for Lashes
Cusco
Honorable mentions: Chvrches, Collective Soul, Cake, Creedence Clearwater Revival. C is a strong letter.
Depeche Mode
Honorable mentions: Daft Punk, Days of the New
Ed Alleyne-Johnson
Honorable mentions: Elvis Presley, Emilíana Torrini, Explosions in the Sky
Feist
Honorable mentions: Fan Death, Fever Ray
Glitch Mob
Honorable mentions: Gorillaz, God is an Astronaut
Jimi
Hendrix
Honorable mention: Handel, Heart, Howling Bells
The
Impossibles
Honorable mention: Incubus, Iron Maiden
Juno Reactor
Honorable mentions: Joe Satriani, Johnny Cash, Junip, Janelle Monae, Jack Johnson. J is a strong letter.
The
Knife
Heartbeats (and an 8 bit version!!!)
Honorable mention: KMFDM, The Kills
Led Zeppelin
Honorable mentions: La Roux, Lemon Jelly
Massive Attack
Be Thankful for What You’ve Got
Honorable mentions: Moxy Früvous, Miami Horror
Nine Inch Nails
All Time Low (Hey Keith: I thought about linking Everything)
Honorable mentions: N.A.S.A, New Order, Nest
Orbital
The Girl With The Sun In Her Head
The Box, Extended Version, Second Movement
Honorable mentions: Outkast, The Offspring
Presidents of the USA
Honorable mentions: Polaris, Pomplamoose, Pearl Jam
Queen
I’m not even aware of another good musical group whose name starts with the letter Q.
Rush
And, yes, fine, Tom Sawyer
Honorable mentions: Röyksopp, Rimsky-Korsakov
Soundgarden
Honorable mentions: Sleigh Bells, Soul Coughing
Tegan and Sara
Honorable mentions: Temple of the Dog, Tchaikovsky, Tom Waits, They Might Be Giants, Tinstar. T is a strong letter.
Ulrich Schnauss
Vivaldi
Winter from the Four Seasons, Allegro non molto
Honorable mention: Vangelis
George
Winston
Honorable mention: Weezer, White Ship
The
XX
Yeasayer
Zero 7
What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven. – Beethoven