My Heart Was Broke, My Head Was Sore, What a Feeling

As I was talking with one of my friends recently, the topic of World's Biggest (Current) Band came up, and we both ended up deciding on U2 without much disagreement. Perhaps you disagree with our conclusion, and that's fine, but the real question we had was who are the 5 greatest frontmen/frontwomen (if that's an actual term) in rock history?

I realize the question falls into the trap of constant arbitrary list-making that is the good old internet, but hey, it's the internet, what else are we going to do with it?

Some groundrules:

• The person may have served a solo artist at some point in their career, but they are known primarily for their work with a band/group.
• Even though a band/group may have done some landmark work, if you have to think for more than 5 seconds about who is actually the face of the band (i.e. Lennon or McCartney for the Beatles) then you've answered the question already.
• There's really not any other groundrules. I just felt the need for three bullet points.

Let's get started...in no particular order:

Mick Jagger

Even though the man may look like a dancing corpse these days, he's one of the figures on the Rock and Roll Rushmore for the last half-century. It's hard to imagine the current theatrics of most lead singers without Jagger's manic stage influence.

Bono

The man has elevated the idea of rock star/philanthropist/statesman/spokesman to a new level. Sure, Chris Martin is making a good early run at the archetype, but he has a long, long way to go before he reaches the stratosphere that Paul Hewson currently occupies. Also, even though his voice is not what it was in the early to mid 80's, the man still knows how to captivate mass audiences around the world.

Bruce Springsteen

Here's where I come the closest to violating Groundrule #1. I'm working on the premise that the vast majority of The Boss's (not George Steinbrenner) work has been done with the E Street Band, and thus, Bruce is not operating as a "solo" artist. It seems that the thread running through the first three figures is the ability to stay relevant, in some form or fashion, for a number of years.

I'm not sure if you gain some sort of legitimacy for simply being in the public eye for a certain number of years, but ever since the masterpiece that is Born to Run, Springsteen has captivated audiences far and wide. Also, he manages to play concerts in his home state of New Jersey without the audience constantly booing. They're actually saying, "Bruuuuuuuce."

Jimi Hendrix

Again, I'm working on the assumption that Hendrix did most of his best work with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Whether it was lighting his guitar on fire at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 or the unforgettable and maddening version of the National Anthem at Woodstock, Jimi Hendrix has worked his way into the popular musical consciousness of America like few artists before or after him. The landscape of guitar playing would look much different if Johnny Allen Hendrix had never left the 101st Airborne Division.

Thom Yorke

In what will probably be the most controversial (that is, if anyone actually cares) choice of the five, I'm going with Thom Yorke as the final member of the top 5. It seems that Yorke, along with his bandmates in Radiohead, have always been at the vanguard of musical adaptation and evolution in the past 15 years, and the results of last year's decision to sell In Rainbows on the internet sans any type of record deal are still being felt in the music industry and will probably be felt for years in the future. If anything, Yorke is the reluctant figure at the front of one of the world's most recognizable bands, but his influence will probably be truly understand only in the future as a new generation of musicians continues to further change the paradigm.

Honorable Mention:

• Kurt Cobain
• Roger Daltrey
• Robert Plant
  
• Jim Morrison
• Bob Marley
• Eddie Vedder
• Axl Rose
• Don Henley

So, there's my take. Feel free to tell me where you think I went wrong and how you would write the list differently.