Liam Gallagher ? That's, uh, an interesting choice.
I think it's hard to rank this because so many people automatically vote for the 60's greats : Jagger, Plant, Daltrey (has he been named yet in this thread?), Morrison and the 70's heir Mercury*. Then the next generation came with Bono/Stipe etc as for 90's and onwards...I guess Vedder is on top ?
*he's made solo albums too but they say Springsteen is up there with the best frontmen live.
I don't consider Springsteen to be a frontman. The E Street Band, for all of its charm, is just one of his backing bands. He writes, arranges, and produces the material and they play his stuff.
Basically, you cannot count anyone who use their name followed by "and the [insert band name here] as a front man.
Bruce is, and always has been, at least since the early '70's, a solo artist.
Why not ? Bowie had a backing band, as does Prince - both named in this thread. What about James Brown ?
To me Bruce is too intertwined with E Street band not to be considered their frontman. And while Born to Run is from seventies his real breakthrough was Born in the USA...in the 80's. He was able to go to stadiums only afterwards.
What's that got to do with this thread?
And the notion that Bruce Springsteen is the E Street Band's 'frontman' is laughable. They're his sometime backing band of hired musicians.
Yep. That's all they are. They're good backing musicians, but Bruce rules the roost. Always.
A frontman typically, traditionally at least, is one of a group or band, who steps out in "front" and leads them. This usually means the singer because he's in the front-center position(traditionally). We are perhaps being technical here but there is a good distinction. Frontmen typically sing and lead a group or band who work together creatively as a unit.
Now you can have groups with frontmen who write the vast majority of the material for them(Sting in The Police). But you can't have a front man who writes the vast majority of the material and leads a group of musicians who serves as his backing musicians(Prince and NPG or Revolution,etc).
They're solo artists who are like band directors that can use this band or that band depending on what they want to do.
Bono is a member of U2. Bruce is Bruce and leads the E Street band. He's not a member of it. It is not a group. It is his backing band(except when it's not
).
