Below is a table identifying my favorite musical artists over the years. As can be seen, they vary from time to time, with some appearing more than once. Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Weezer, The Stills, and Wolf Alice have all accomplished this feat. Regardless of listing, each of these performers (and many more) have been important to my musical appreciation. Some artists that ought to be on the list, but aren’t, include Queen, Heart, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, The Eagles, and John Mellencamp.
| YEAR(S) | ARTIST |
| 1964-1965 | The Beatles (UK) |
| 1966-1968 | The Monkees (USA) |
| 1969-1970 | The Rolling Stones (UK) |
| 1971-1972 | Carole King (USA) |
| 1973-1976 | Aerosmith (USA) |
| 1977 | Fleetwood Mac (UK/USA) |
| 1978 | The Cars (USA) |
| 1979-1982 | Pat Benatar (USA) |
| 1983 | Def Leppard (UK) |
| 1984 | Scandal (USA) |
| 1985-1986 | U2 (Ireland) |
| 1987-1989 | Def Leppard (UK) |
| 1990-1991 | Aerosmith (USA) |
| 1992-1993 | Pearl Jam (USA) |
| 1994 | Weezer (USA) |
| 1995-2001 | Radiohead (UK) |
| 2001-2002 | Weezer (USA) |
| 2003-2004 | The Stills (Canada) |
| 2005-2007 | Death Cab for Cutie (USA) |
| 2008 | The Stills (Canada) |
| 2009-2015 | Metric (Canada) |
| 2015-2019 | Wolf Alice (UK) |
| 2020 | Phoebe Bridgers (USA) |
| 2021-present | Wolf Alice (UK) |
The longest running positions as my favorite tend to be the more recent artists. I’m not sure whether this is a result of me not listening to music as much as I once did or the lack of artists receiving adequate airplay from the genres I prefer. One thing is for sure, during the height of the MTV era (approx. 1980-2000 when they actually played music videos), my favorite artist seemed to change more often, as more performers were given the opportunity to be heard by larger audiences. Today, music is so fractured and balkanized into categories and subcategories, its hard to keep track of who fits where.
problogic
Panethos 
Nice list. Mine would include Cosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Led Zeppelin; Bob Dylan; Linda Ronstadt. No ideas on the years. Since radio seems to be local, it would be interesting to see lists like this based on geography. These days, I tend to listed to NPR, so I’m less familiar with current musicians, which is probably my loss. Plus I grew up in Mid-Michigan and am now in Baltimore – music here is much more likely to be jazz than rock.
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I agree that it would be interesting to study the radio geography questions. Having lived in a college town (East Lansing) for nearly 17 years was helpful for learning about new artists. The net helps too, but can also be overwhelming.
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