Blender Magazine has recently conducted the survey "The 50 worst artists in music history". The survey is out. Being the young magazine, not surprise that rockers like Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Asia, and Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman were all named. However, Mick Jagger, the Doors, and Kansas are also part of the list, along with Iron Butterfly, who were called "Everything bad about the '60s, in one easy-to-avoid package." The "Worst Artist" title went to rappers Insane Clown Posse.

Here are some of their picks:

50) Iron Butterfly -- "Everything bad about the '60s, in one easy-to-avoid package." Legend has it that this Los Angeles acid-rock quintet had consumed such massive amounts of marijuana during the 1968 sessions for “In the Garden of Eden” that keyboardist-singer Doug Ingle could only mumble the title. Hence, “In-a-Gadda-da-Vida” was born, and its unexpurgated 17-minute version (including a two-and-a- half-minute drum solo) inaugurated the dubious era of free-form FM radio.

44) Manowar -- "None more metal. None more gay" An American answer to Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, Rochester, New York's Manowar embody every conceivable heavy-metal cliché: Bodybuilders all, the four wear leather and animal pelts onstage; singer Eric Adams shrieks only of death, warfare and the glory of metal; Joey DeMaio performs solo bass renditions of “The Flight of the Bumblebee.” They're quite possibly the most ludicrous people in rock & roll history.

42) Rick Wakeman -- "Can play two synthesizers at once -- but nothing that people want to hear"

41) Whitesnake -- "Dumb and dumberer" Led by ex–Deep Purple frontman David Coverdale, Whitesnake's '80s success with their karaoke Led Zeppelin routine can be explained only by the public's enduring love for the double entendre, as exemplified on such songs as “Slide It In,” “Slow Poke Music” and “Spit It Out.”

37) The Doors -- "While in college, many young men still choose to immerse themselves in such ill-advised subjects as Nietzsche, black magic, and Native American folklore. Most get over it; Jim Morrison, unfortunately, inflicted his terminally adolescent views on the wider world." The consequences included overblown screeds of nonsense such as “The End” and “The Crystal Ship,” plus, effectively, the invention of goth. Then he got fat and died.

33) Japan -- "An uncontestable argument against the 80's" Japan formed in 1974 and soon discovered that their mixture of washed-out glam-rock, vaguely literary pretensions and bucketloads of makeup prompted little more than cruel laughter. The dawn of the '80s, however, found things moving their way, and by 1981, plenty of easily distracted teens were wobbling enigmatically to “Voices Raised in Welcome, Hands Held in Prayer,” “The Art of Parties” and “Still Life in Mobile Homes” (the titles say it all).

24) Bad English - "With ex-members of Journey!" Suck-cheeked soft-rocker John Waite had scored big in 1984 with the ballad “Missing You.” But with his solo career stalling, and half of Journey toilet-bound without a singer, they forged an unholy late-'80s alliance. Bad English retailed puffed-up power ballads, while Waite cast himself as a doomed romantic hero.

23) Creed -- "Whoever said the devid has all the best tunes was probably listening to Creed at the time"

21) Alan Parsons Project -- "The sound inside the head of Pink Floyd's engineer. Zzzzz..." Having conquered the Dark Side of the Moon, EMI Records' beardy staff engineer Alan Parsons decided that what the universe really needed was a prog-rock concept album based on the work of nineteenth-century horror novelist Edgar Allan Poe, narrated by Orson Welles. It didn't, of course, but an undeterred Parsons soldiered on, swapping prog-rock for vapid AOR in the '80s. Finally bundled off to play guitar in Ringo Starr's backing band, he was never seen again.

14) Yngwie Malmsteen -- "Big on solos, short on songs" With his passion for the music of Deep Purple's Ritchie Blackmore, Swedish guitar show-off Yngwie Malmsteen co-opted his hero's deadpan demeanor, neoclassical solos and frilly cuffs, garnering kudos from '80s bedroom guitar onanists for his playing speed. Yet Malmsteen never employed a proper songwriter, and his noodling hard rock — sometimes augmented by a full orchestra — has scored increasingly minuscule returns.

13) Mick Jagger -- "Given the roll call of A-list rockers who have appeared on the Stones frontman's four solo ventures, even a tone-deaf six-year-old could have produced something you'd want to hear twice, or at least once. Alas, it seems, there's never a tone-deaf six-year-old around when you need one."

The 10 Worst Artists In Music History, according to Blender magazine:

10) Air Supply -- "The sound of eunuchs sobbing" Disproving the theory that lightning never strikes twice in the same place, Air Supply contained not one but two mewling, lovesick softies whose name was Russell. In the early '80s, the Australian duo's gutless ballads — music so remorselessly fey it made Journey sound like Danzig — sent a generation of jilted lovers toppling into depression that was as clinical as the Russells' music. Mercifully, though, by the end of the decade, the pair had cried themselves to sleep.

9) Lee Greenwood -- "Gives patriotism a bad name"

8) Vanilla Ice -- "The white boy to end all white boys"

7) Asia -- "Ridiculous album sleeves, virtuoso playing, soulless rock. It can be only one band" Asia's music turned out to be exactly the sum of its parts: former technicians from King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Yes who got together with an erstwhile Buggle at the start of the '80s. It promised the most self-important prog-rock melded with the limp-wristed worst of AOR, and it delivered. The band's self-titled debut sold more than 4 million copies, which only encouraged them.

6) Kansas -- "Beware all bands named after states or continents!" Their folksy 1977 hit “Dust in the Wind,” a tractor-size fiddle player and a guitarist in bib overalls suggested pioneer-spirited rural rockers. The truth was far more sinister. Bereft of sex and emotion, Kansas's music was a noxious fusion of Jethro Tull and Yes, appealing only to male sci-fi bores and guaranteed to drive any self-respecting frontiersman headlong into the nearest bear trap.

5) Starship -- "They built this city on rock-and-roll. And crap!" In 1985, Starship rose like a phoenix from the ashes of once-mighty psychedelic overlords Jefferson Airplane/Starship — but only if, by phoenix, you mean “ultra-lame, MTV-pandering purveyors of MOR schlock.” Best remembered for “We Built This City,” they were also responsible for unleashing the Diane Warren–penned “Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now,” a song bad enough to appear on the soundtrack of the diabolical Andrew McCarthy “comedy” Mannequin. And its sequel!

4) Kenny G -- "This guy really blows!" Hated equally by jazz and rock fans, Kenny Gorelick's limpid instrumentals and obsequious cameos helped turn the soprano sax solo into pop music's most feared cliché. He started his career with fusion hack Jeff Lorber, and his 1986 album, Duotones, established a steady market for anodyne, minimal background music, an aesthetic that reached its zenith in 1997 when “The G” set a world record by holding a single note for 45 minutes.

3) Michael Bolton -- "Otis Redding died for this?" With his curly locks and toned abs, Michael Bolton looked like nothing so much as the hero of a cheap bodice-ripper, which was enough to earn him a fervent audience for his over-emoted late-'80s power ballads. Unfortunately, his greatest desire was to sing R&B oldies, which he went through like Sherman through Georgia.

2) Emerson, Lake & Palmer -- "Welcome back, my friends, to the second-worst band in history!" “Boasting” former members of the Nice, King Crimson and — yes! — Atomic Rooster, the less-than-super '70s supergroup ELP shunned blues-based rock in favor of bombastically reinterpreted classical works — with bewilderingly successful results. A nightmarish enough proposition on record, the Brit trio's live shows were peppered by interminable solo spots, including a 20-minute drum workout by Carl Palmer that ended with him ringing a cowbell held between his teeth.

1) Insane Clown Posse -- "They sound even stupider than they look"

Source Blend Magazine