Top 200 Artists on WMPG

About Bill's ranking of his Top 200 artists

     Bill began his leisurely trip through his Top 200 Artists Countdown on Saturday, June 2, 2012. Above is a list of upcoming acts. After the name of each artist, you will find the primary musical genre and the primary decade of popularity for that particular artist.

     The ranked listing of Bill's Top 200 artists is based entirely on years of music chart data, all taken from Billboard Magazine - with a focus on the years from post WWII through the early '70s. Since the 1940's, Billboard Magazine has been the primary source for the recording industry's music charts, which all consist of ranked lists of songs from each of several musical genres. According to Billboard Magazine, the ranking of a song's national popularity is a combination of that song's 1) total record sales in the US (as reported by the major retail stores of the time) and 2) radio airplay (as reported by the major and medium-sized radio stations of the time).

     In addition to using Billboard Magazine's many music charts as a source for his Top 200 countdown, Bill's personal judgement has also been taken into account in order to combine (as best as possible) artists from the following musical genres: Rock, Pop, Country, R & B, Soul, Rockabilly, Blues, Jazz, Folk, Folk-Rock, Easy Listening and Adult Contemporary.

   With the above in mind, in this countdown you will find artists who most listeners would consider "major" placed below the popularity of artists who most listeners would consider "minor." For example, in Bill's countdown, The Moody Blues are ranked at #110, while Gary Lewis and The Playboys are ranked higher in popularity at #109. Most listeners and probably all rock critics would certainly place The Moody Blues much higher in almost any Top 200 Artists Countdown, while those same listeners and rock critics would certainly place Gary Lewis And The Playboys much lower than #109 (if placed at all). Bill's Top 200 Artists Countdown, however, places no value or emphasis on an artist's importance to or influence on the music world. Bill's countdown takes into account only their actual chart perfomance, as listed in Billboard Magazine's many record charts of the era (post WWII through early 70s). Using the same example, Gary Lewis And The Playboys had a string of high-charting pop hits during the mid 1960s that was quite impressive, even though, in retrospect, most listeners and probably all rock critics would consider the quality of their music to be quite trivial.

     Those Pop/Rock artists who enjoyed a significant part of their recording careers during the first 30 years of the Rock & Roll era (mid 40s through mid 70s) will be included in Bill's countdown of The Top 200 Artists. Those artists whose musical genres were not mainly Pop/Rock will be included in Bill's countdown only if they 1) scored a significant number of "cross-over-hits" onto the Pop charts, 2) were trendsetters in their musical genre and/or 3) were significant/major contributors to their musical genre.