Criteria: These Hard Rock Music artists were ranked according to their influence on hard rock and other styles, their initial and lasting acclaim as well as their initial and lasting popularity. If artists also recorded outside of hard rock, only their hard rock material was considered.
Definitions: See below list.
Edited By: pauldrach (with input from Tim and Zach)
List Begun: 2019-07-11
Hard Rock Music Artists
1. Led Zeppelin 2. The Jimi Hendrix Experience 3. The Who (1969-1978) 4. AC/DC 5. Deep Purple 6. Aerosmith 7. Van Halen 8. Cream 9. Guns N' Roses 10. Alice Cooper 11. Queen 12. KISS 13. Def Leppard 14. Rush (1974-1982, 1989-) 15. Mötley Crüe 16. ZZ Top 17. Bon Jovi 18. Heart 19. Thin Lizzy 20. Scorpions 21. Boston 22. Cheap Trick 23. The Jeff Beck Group 24. Blue Öyster Cult 25. Steppenwolf 26. Grand Funk Railroad 27. Rainbow 28. Bad Company 29. Foreigner 30. Free 31. Ted Nugent 32. Lynyrd Skynyrd 33. The Black Crowes 34. Neil Young & Crazy Horse 35. Journey 36. Kansas 37. Slade 38. UFO 39. Jethro Tull 40. Iron Butterfly 41. Uriah Heep 42. Vanilla Fudge 43. Pat Benatar (1979-1983) 44. Faces 45. Meat Loaf 46. Hawkwind 47. Bachman-Turner Overdrive 48. Blue Cheer 49. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts 50. Whitesnake
51. Styx (1972-1981; 1990; 1999-) 52. Foghat 53. Wishbone Ash 54. The Cult (1987-1991) 55. Quiet Riot 56. Humble Pie 57. Poison 58. Sweet (1973-1977) 59. Nazareth 60. The Runaways 61. Mountain 62. REO Speedwagon (1971-74, 77-80, 90-) 63. Billy Idol (1983-1986, 2005-) 64. Status Quo 65. Cinderella 66. Golden Earring 67. Hanoi Rocks 68. James Gang 69. Dokken 70. The Darkness 71. David Lee Roth 72. Ratt 73. Kid Rock (1998-2007) 74. Loverboy 75. Gary Moore 76. W.A.S.P. (1984-1986) 77. Great White 78. .38 Special (1979-) 79. The Guess Who (1970) 80. Skid Row 81. Suzi Quatro (1973-1974) 82. Tesla 83. Joe Satriani 84. Europe 85. Ten Years After (1969-1971, 1973-) 86. Triumph 87. Atomic Rooster 88. Night Ranger 89. Twisted Sister 90. King's X 91. Robin Trower (1973-1980) 92. Montrose 93. Extreme 94. Sammy Hagar 95. Survivor 96. Rose Tattoo 97. April Wine 98. Robert Plant (1982-1983, 1988-1993) 99. Billy Squier 100. Firehouse
Led Zeppelin
Jimi Hendrix
The Who
AC/DC
Deep Purple
Aerosmith
Van Halen
Cream
101. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band 102. Magnum 103. The Michael Schenker Group 104. Warrant 105. Brownsville Station 106. High Tide 107. The Edgar Winter Group (1972-1974) 108. Stryper 109. Groundhogs 110. Molly Hatchet 111. Wolfmother 112. David Johansen (1978) 113. Bad English 114. Bloodrock 115. White Lion 116. The Angels 117. Joe Walsh (1972-1976) 118. Damn Yankees 119. Gillan 120. Jet 121. Steve Vai 122. Rick Derringer 123. Mr. Big 124. Blackfoot 125. L.A. Guns 126. Slaughter 127. Aldo Nova 128. Argent (1972-1974) 129. Saigon Kick 130. Thunder 131. The Wildhearts 132. Frijid Pink 133. Winger 134. David Coverdale 135. Tenacious D 136. Ace Frehley 137. Kingdom Come 138. Lita Ford 139. Flower Travellin' Band 140. Quireboys 141. Gun 142. Badlands 143. The Firm 144. The Bob Seger System 145. Gov't Mule 146. Jimmy Page 147. Nelson 148. Lucifer's Friend 149. Kix 150. Ram Jam
151. Baker Gurvitz Army 152. Faster Pussycat 153. Captain Beyond 154. Brian May 155. Trapeze 156. Greta Van Fleet 157. Jackyl 158. Zebra 159. Edgar Broughton Band 160. Vixen 161. Steelheart 162. Airbourne 163. Autograph 164. Jo Jo Gunne 165. Chickenfoot 166. Dangerous Toys 167. Vince Neil 168. The Donnas (2001-) 169. Page & Plant 170. Trixter 171. BulletBoys 172. Pat Travers Band 173. Andrew W.K. 174. Angel 175. Giant 176. Honeymoon Suite 177. Britny Fox 178. Max Webster 179. Cactus 180. Sheriff 181. Gotthard 182. TNT 183. Y&T 184. Streetwalkers 185. Kim Mitchell 186. Roxus 187. Hot Tuna (1975-1976) 188. Skin 189. Steel Panther 190. The Answer 191. Fastway 192. Birth Control 193. John Waite (1982-1987) 194. Lynch Mob 195. Enuff Z'Nuff 196. Jimmy Barnes (1984-1990) 197. Chicken Shack (1970-1972) 198. Lee Aaron 199. Warhorse 200. Black Veil Brides
Honorable Mentions:
Arcade
Axe
Babylon A.D.
Bang Tango
Baton Rouge
Beautiful Creatures
Black 'n Blue
Blue Murder
Detective
FM
A Foot in Coldwater
Gamma
The Georgia Satellites
The Godz
Gorky Park
HSAS
Hurricane
Keel
Lillian Axe
Love/Hate
Mahogany Rush
Mott the Hoople
Moxy
The Joe Perry Project
Phenomena
Point Blank
Saraya
Shotgun Messiah
Silvertide
Andy Taylor
Tempest
Tigertailz
Waysted
White Witch
XYZ
Mott the Hoople
Definition 1 (what is hard rock):
Hard rock is a genre of rock music with special emphasis on distorted electric guitars. It is often described as "aggressive", "heavy" and "anthemic". Its harmonic structure is usually based on power chords played over a blues scale. Hard rock originated in late 1966 with the first recordings by The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream. Its stylistic origins lie primarily in the garage rock of the first half of the 1960s.
Definition 2 (what isn't hard rock):
For the purposes of the list, artists from the following genres were not considered for this list, even though they may suit the definition given above: garage rock (e.g. The Sonics, The Kinks, Monks), heavy metal/proto-metal (e.g. Black Sabbath, Budgie, Sir Lord Baltimore), punk/proto-punk (e.g. The Stooges, MC5, New York Dolls), alternative rock/grunge (e.g. Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Living Colour) and stoner rock (e.g. Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss, Monster Magnet). The reason for this is that punk, metal and alt-rock already have their own lists, and thus it would be redundant to list them again. Also, they represent different branches of the rock tree with different stylistic features (for example, they're often not as clearly rooted in blues). Garage rock on the other hand is a sort of proto-'hard rock' with a more amateurish approach. Stoner rock is an almagam of influences from different styles (mainly hard rock, metal and alt-rock) that has really developed into something singular.
Definition 3 (what is hard rock anyway):
Even though metal artists were not considered for this list, glam metal was treated as a subgenre of hard rock as it's not really metal anyway. Other than that, artists from the following genres were often allowed if they rocked hard enough: blues rock, AOR, arena rock, southern rock, boogie rock, progressive rock, glam rock, psychedelic rock. As a rule of thumb, artists should have rocked harder than The Rolling Stones but not as hard as, say, Metallica. If an artist only played hard rock for a certain period of their career or only included some hard rock songs on their albums, sandwiched between softer material, they were allowed if they recorded at least an album's worth of hard rock material.
