Greatest musicians (all time)

Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet (2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orc...

Shania Twain (born Eilleen Regina Edwards; August 28, 1965) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. Twain has sold over 85 million records, making her one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. She is also the best selling...

Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (15 May 1567 (baptized) – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, gambist, singer and Roman Catholic priest. Monteverdi's work marked the change from the Renaissance style of music to that of...

Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (Russian: Никола́й Андре́евич Ри́мский-Ко́рсаков; 18 March 1844 – 21 June 1908) was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five. He was a master of orchestration...

Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (18 or 19 November 1786 – 5 June 1826) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school.

Aaron Copland (November 14, 1900 – December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. Instrumental in forging a distinctly American sty...

Gabriel Urbain Fauré (12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers...

Olivier Messiaen (December 10, 1908 – April 27, 1992) was a French composer, organist and ornithologist. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonically and melodically it often uses modes of limited transposition, which he abstra...

Philip Morris Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer.

Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate (now part of Germany) and raised in Bohemia, he gained...

Ralph Vaughan Williams (12 October 1872 – 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written...

Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006) was an English musician, composer, singer, songwriter, and painter. Best known as a founder member of the band Pink Floyd, Barrett was the lead singer, guitarist and princip...

George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943) is an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. In 1965, he co-founded the progressive rock band Pink Floyd with drummer Nick Mason, keyboardist Richard Wright and...

Timothy Zachery "Timbaland" Mosley (born March 10, 1972) is an American rapper, record producer, and songwriter. Timbaland's first full credit production work was in 1996 on Ginuwine...the Bachelor for R&B singer Ginuwine. After f...

Russell Brower is an American music composer and three-time Emmy Award-winning sound designer who has created sounds for Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs and Batman: The Animated Series, and video game music for games including Jo...

Tijs Michiel Verwest (born 17 January 1969), better known by his stage name Tiësto, is a Dutch DJ and record producer. In 1997 he founded the label Black Hole Recordings with Arny Bink, where he released the Magik and In Search of...

Paul Hindemith (16 November 1895 – 28 December 1963) was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher and conductor. Notable compositions include his song cycle Das Marienleben (1923) and opera Mathis der Maler (1938). Hindemith...

William Martin "Billy" Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American pianist, singer-songwriter, and composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth-best-selling recording artist and the thir...

Michael Stearns (born 1948) is a United States musician and composer of ambient music. He is also known as a film composer, sound designer and soundtrack producer for large format films, theatrical films, documentaries, commercial...

Scott Richard Weiland (né Kline; October 27, 1967 – December 3, 2015) was an American musician and singer-songwriter. During a career spanning three decades, Weiland was best known as the lead singer for the successful rock band S...

John Henry Bonham (31 May 1948 – 25 September 1980) was an English musician and songwriter. He is best known as the drummer of Led Zeppelin.

James Alan Hetfield (born August 3, 1963) is the co-founder, lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, main songwriter, and lyricist for the American heavy metal band Metallica. Hetfield is mainly known for rhythm playing, but has also per...

Jason Curtis Newsted (born March 4, 1963) is an American metal musician, known for playing bass guitar with the bands Metallica (in which he did occasional lead vocals), Voivod and Flotsam and Jetsam. Joining Metallica in 1986 aft...

Roberto Agustin Trujillo (born October 23, 1964) better known as Robert Trujillo, is an American musician known for his role as the current bassist of American heavy metal band Metallica. He also was a member of crossover thrash m...

François Couperin (10 November 1668 – 11 September 1733) was a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was known as Couperin le Grand ("Couperin the Great") to distinguish him from other members of the musically t...

Iggy Pop (born James Newell Osterberg, Jr.; April 21, 1947) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actor. He is the vocalist of influential proto-punk band The Stooges, who reunited in 2003, and has been known for his outr...

Richard Georg Strauss (11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier, Elektra, Die Frau ohne Schatten and Salome; his...

Michael Andrew "Duff" McKagan (born February 5, 1964) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and author. He is best known for his twelve-year tenure as the bassist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved wo...

Éric Alfred Leslie Satie (17 May 1866 – 1 July 1925) – he signed his name Erik Satie after 1884 – was a French composer and pianist. Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde. His work was a precu...

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British classical music, with a range of works including opera, o...

César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck (10 December 1822 – 8 November 1890) was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life. He was born at Liège, in what is now Belgium (though a...

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (Russian: Дми́трий Дми́триевич Шостако́вич; 25 September 1906 – 9 August 1975) was a Soviet composer and pianist, and a prominent figure of 20th-century music. Shostakovich achieved fame in the Sov...

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian Baroque composer, virtuoso violinist, teacher and cleric. Born in Venice, he is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his l...

John Clayton Mayer (born October 16, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter and producer. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and raised in nearby Fairfield. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, but d...

Elizabeth Woolridge Grant (born June 21, 1985), better known by her stage name Lana Del Rey, is an American singer, songwriter, and model. She began songwriting at the age of 18, and signed her first recording contract with 5-Poin...

John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter and television personality. He rose to prominence in the early 1970s as the lead vocalist of the band Black Sabbath. Osbourne was fired from Blac...

Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by his stage name Bono, is an Irish singer-songwriter, musician, venture capitalist, businessman, and philanthropist. He is best recognized as the frontman of the Dublin-based rock band...

Klaus Badelt (born 12 June 1967) is a German composer, best known for composing film scores. Badelt was born in Frankfurt, West Germany. He started his musical career composing for movies and commercials in his homeland. In 1998,...

Tyler Gregory Okonma, better known by his stage name Tyler, The Creator, is an American rapper and record producer from California. Born in Ladera Heights, he rose to prominence as the leader and co-founder of the alternative hip...

David Eric "Dave" Grohl is an American rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and producer who is best known as the former drummer for the grunge band Nirvana and the founder and frontman of the rock band Foo Fig...

Yngwie Johan Malmsteen (born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck; 30 June 1963) is a Swedish guitarist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and bandleader.

Norah Jones (born Geetali Norah Jones Shankar; March 30, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Throughout her career, Jones has won numerous awards and has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide. Billboard named...

Thomas Earl "Tom" Petty (born October 20, 1950) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He is best known as the lead singer of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, but is also known as a...

William Thomas "Bill" Berry (born July 31, 1958) is a retired American musician and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the drummer for the alternative rock band R.E.M. In addition to his drumming duties, Berry played many other...

Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known by the pseudonym Alicia Keys, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Keys released her debut album with J Records, having had previous record deals first...

Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam (born 18 July 1975), better known by her stage name M.I.A., is an English recording artist of Sri Lankan Tamil heritage. She is also a songwriter, painter and director...

Yasunori Mitsuda (光田 康典, born January 21, 1972) is a Japanese composer, musician, and sound producer noted for his score work for video games. He has composed music for or worked on over 40 games, and has contributed to many other...

David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961), better known by his stage name The Edge (or just Edge), is a British-born Irish musician and songwriter best known as the lead guitarist, keyboardist and backing vocalist of the rock band U...

Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (born 5 May 1988) is a British singer and songwriter.

Krist Anthony Novoselic is an American rock musician. He was the bassist and co-founder of the grunge band Nirvana. After Nirvana disbanded following the death of the lead singer Kurt Cobain, Novoselic formed Sweet 75 and Eyes Adr...