Welcome to The 100 Most Essential Artists of ATRL, a 10-part countdown event that will catalogue the musicians that have most contributed to the identity of this site and its many members. Over the last few weeks, participants have been sending in ballots ranking those singers and bands that they felt deserved to be considered "essential" to ATRL. Now the votes have been tallied and the results are all set to be revealed.
This smooth singer has long been a favorite among R&B fans, but her importance to ATRL begins and ends with the week of May 11, 2009, when the Charts section was aflutter over the news that her second album, Epiphany, had outsold the debut week of Ciara's Fantasy Ride to claim the #1 spot on the Billboard 200.
Essential track: "Epiphany (I'm Leaving)", her biggest U.S. hit
Ne-Yo first emerged in 2006 with #1 hit "So Sick" and threatened Usher for the throne of America's favorite R&B stud. Over the years, his sound would venture more into mainstream pop and his star would slowly fall (his latest album, Libra Scale, failed to make much of a splash), but ATRLers would go on digging his songs and speculating about his sexuality.
ATRLers can easily get obsessed with the latest big thing, but that doesn't mean that every member has a memory extending back only as far as their pending year-end countdown forces them to. Witness: surprisingly robust support for legendary rockers U2, as well as a number of other all-time greats coming up later in the countdown.
Essential track: They won back-to-back Record of the Year Grammys with "Beautiful Day" and "Walk On," and a remake of "One" featuring Mary J. Blige gave them possibly their greatest exposure on ATRL. But "With or Without You" remains their most enduring hit.
He's more likely to pop up in your mom's CD collection that your own. But does anyone not like this funny, genuine and easy-going Canadian? That's what I thought.
At one point, this star of Disney's hit movie franchise High School Musical seemed like a star in the making. But her career never really took off the way we all thought: subsequent films and her solo musical efforts flopped. These days, Vanessa Hudgens is more known for an embarassing nude photo scandal and being Zac Efron's (recently ex-)girlfriend. Nevertheless, many ATRL members still love them some Baby V.
Essential track: Radio Disney favorite "Come Back To Me"
Living legends...
