Fleetwood Mac:The Greatest Soft Rock Band of All Time

[johndoe]

This site seems to only exist to rate artists.

Best Soft Rock Artists:
http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/page...tists-adu.html

1. Fleetwood Mac
2. The Eagles
3. Billy Joel
4. Chicago (80's work)
5. Elton John
24. Stevie Nicks

Best Guitarist:
http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/page...newguitar.html

42. Peter Green - Fleetwood Mac, Solo
159. Lindsey Buckingham - Fleetwood Mac

Best Drummers
http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/page..._drummers.html

59. Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac)

Greatest Rock Pianists
http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/page..._keyboard.html

47. Christine McVie (Fleetwood Mac)

Greatest Vocal Peformance
http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/page...ocal-perf.html

69. Landslide - Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac)
150. Rhiannon - Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac)

100 Greatest Female Rock Artists
17. Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac/Solo)
74. Christine McVie (Fleetwood Mac)

Greatest Frontmen
http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/page..._frontmen.html

45. Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac)

Best Songwriters
http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/page...ngwriters.html

80. Stevie Nicks - (Fleetwood Mac)

[Lala]

Woot Woot!

It's nice to beat the Eagle somewhere. I guess Rumours bumped Hotel California off the charts too.

[wondergirl9847]

Originally Posted by johndoe

Greatest Frontmen

45. Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac)

She's a man, baby!

[estranged4life]

Best Soft Rock Artists:
http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/page...tists-adu.html

1. Fleetwood Mac
2. The Eagles
3. Billy Joel
4. Chicago (80's work)
5. Elton John

guess that also translates to Best Yuppie Rock Artist since FM has had this mantra of being a yuppie's wet musical dream band...Guess I'll have to burn my collection now.

Where's the kerosene???

Greatest Frontmen
http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/page..._frontmen.html

45. Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac)

Frontmen? What, Stevie is suddenly plural and male??? Damn, Must have just missed that one...Sheesh

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by estranged4life

Frontmen? What, Stevie is suddenly plural and male??? Damn, Must have just missed that one...Sheesh

I KNEW it...I KNEW it! I knew a woman could never come across that sheepish!

[Sahara]

Aww ... coolness!!

This is my favourite bit [obviously apart from the Mac being Number One]:

100 Greatest Female Rock Artists
17. Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac/Solo)
74. Christine McVie (Fleetwood Mac)

[johndoe]

Interesting thing that I forgot to add. Under greatest soft rock artists:

173. Bob Welch

[David]

Originally Posted by johndoe

This site seems to only exist to rate artists.

Best Soft Rock Artists:
http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/page...tists-adu.html

1. Fleetwood Mac
2. The Eagles
3. Billy Joel
4. Chicago (80's work)
5. Elton John
24. Stevie Nicks

It's great to place so high in this sort of thing & all, but that term "soft rock" is something that insults me. It's a label that has dogged Fleetwood Mac since 1975 (in many cases justifiably). It suggests something bloodless, something not quite pure or true, something bland, something tasteless, savorless, ultimately inconsequential.

And to be bracketed with sugary, bland Billy Joel & Eagles & Chicago (& not even GOOD Chicago but crappy '80s Chicago!) is also a (disguised) kick in the teeth.

No, I'd have been happier had they been voted Best Pop Group since the Beatles, or Most Innovative Mainstream Use of Studio Technology or something related.

[Jyqm]

Originally Posted by David

It's great to place so high in this sort of thing & all, but that term "soft rock" is something that insults me. It's a label that has dogged Fleetwood Mac since 1975 (in many cases justifiably). It suggests something bloodless, something not quite pure or true, something bland, something tasteless, savorless, ultimately inconsequential.

And to be bracketed with sugary, bland Billy Joel & Eagles & Chicago (& not even GOOD Chicago but crappy '80s Chicago!) is also a (disguised) kick in the teeth.

No, I'd have been happier had they been voted Best Pop Group since the Beatles, or Most Innovative Mainstream Use of Studio Technology or something related.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one scratching my head as to why people seemed to be cheering this distinction...

At least they were voted the best bloodless/sugarless/sexless/magicless band by this group of anonymous Intnernet posters about whom we know nothing?

[Sorcerer386]

Originally Posted by David

It's great to place so high in this sort of thing & all, but that term "soft rock" is something that insults me. It's a label that has dogged Fleetwood Mac since 1975 (in many cases justifiably). It suggests something bloodless, something not quite pure or true, something bland, something tasteless, savorless, ultimately inconsequential.

And to be bracketed with sugary, bland Billy Joel & Eagles & Chicago (& not even GOOD Chicago but crappy '80s Chicago!) is also a (disguised) kick in the teeth.

I don't know if I am insulted by it, but it certainly does annoy me, ESPECIALLY if there is a soft rock radio station on that plays Go Your Own Way or The Chain. Just because it's not loud, obnoxious screaming with muddled guitar nonsense doesn't mean it's SOFT rock. And I agree, soft rock does connote a sort of bland, bloodless tone, and I don't know, it might be just my opinion but FM is anything but that.

[Sahara]

Originally Posted by Sorcerer386

I don't know if I am insulted by it, but it certainly does annoy me, ESPECIALLY if there is a soft rock radio station on that plays Go Your Own Way or The Chain. Just because it's not loud, obnoxious screaming with muddled guitar nonsense doesn't mean it's SOFT rock. And I agree, soft rock does connote a sort of bland, bloodless tone, and I don't know, it might be just my opinion but FM is anything but that.

Amen to everything you said.

[SortaSavageLike]

Originally Posted by Sorcerer386

I don't know if I am insulted by it, but it certainly does annoy me, ESPECIALLY if there is a soft rock radio station on that plays Go Your Own Way or The Chain. Just because it's not loud, obnoxious screaming with muddled guitar nonsense doesn't mean it's SOFT rock. And I agree, soft rock does connote a sort of bland, bloodless tone, and I don't know, it might be just my opinion but FM is anything but that.

I wouldn't really call FM soft. Oh sure, they were never "RAWWWKK!!!" and never belted out any hair-metal songs about loose sexual encounters. But they were a heck of a lot more honest than most "pop" bands. It's funny that to do this day neither Pop nor Rock want to lay claim to Fleetwood Mac. I think "iron fist in a velvet glove" might be more appropriate.

[DavidMn]

Any time Fleetwood Mac beats the Eagles is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

[David]

Originally Posted by Sorcerer386

I don't know if I am insulted by it, but it certainly does annoy me, ESPECIALLY if there is a soft rock radio station on that plays Go Your Own Way or The Chain. Just because it's not loud, obnoxious screaming with muddled guitar nonsense doesn't mean it's SOFT rock. And I agree, soft rock does connote a sort of bland, bloodless tone, and I don't know, it might be just my opinion but FM is anything but that.

That's it. It's not so much the categorization of the band's overall sound--every band plays some loud stuff & some soft stuff & lots of stuff in between--as it is the connotation of 'soft rock,' which is something that marketing people created for elevators, dental offices & Supercuts salons.

It's a peg of vapidity.

I mean, nobody ever refers to Elvis Costello & the Attractions as "soft rock," & Fleetwood Mac hits the same decibals as the Attractions, particularly in concert. Most bands do. But that 'soft rock' label effectively says: "You are savorless & without personality. Your insipid music is fit only for relaxing patients waiting to see the oral surgeon. You are corporate ciphers."

It's a bad way to classify Mac overall, whether you're taking about the rage & wicked humor of the Peter Green years or the multifaceted, shimmering studio concoctions--what's been called "pop rococo" or "pop contrapuntal"--of the Buckingham years.

Even Robert Hilburn & other Mac-appreciative critics, however, said of "Rumours" & "Mirage" that there was a lightweight element in the music, in the presentation. I agree that there was filigree, but I almost always felt it had personality--recognizable, definable, plottable. Up until some of the work on the 1990 album & beyond, that is. That's when Fleetwood Mac tracks began to be indistinguishable from numerous other recording artists of that generation.

[vermicious knid]

100 Greatest Female Rock Artists
17. Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac/Solo)
74. Christine McVie (Fleetwood Mac)

The only thing I am going to drink Haterade about is that Mariah Carey is at number 8. That is ridiculous. I like VH1's list better. It has Stevie at 14, Christine at 63, and Mariah Carey is nowhere to be found.