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I notice you skipped two of the names, including Dolly Parton, which I included specifically for nitpickers.

And you’re treating Al as a has-been, but his latest album was number one in the US charts.

What exactly makes a “great artist” then? Surely that’s subjective, and popularity isn’t the only metric. We’re talking “great”, not simply “famous”.

But alright, take your pick:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahdobro/nicest-celebs-people-ha...

https://www.quora.com/What-famous-rock-musicians-are-genuine...

https://www.reddit.com/r/popheads/comments/s4rrug/artists_th...

Plenty of names there who are “generally considered the very top of their profession”, and bigger than the ones you picked.





I skipped Dolly because I honestly don't know enough about country music to know if she's a "great artist" or merely "famous over a long time". Same for the other guy: I'm just not familiar. But I called out your choice of Keanu because it's really well-known that he is not a great actor, and he probably agrees. But it's great that he made a good career for himself anyway; as I said, he does well in certain roles that fit him well. I don't consider myself the top 1% in my profession either.

Of course, I guess this could easily veer off into a discussion about what qualifies as "great artist". Does a top-selling musician/singer who has limited range or uses autotune count, or does someone with amazing technical ability but little commercial success not count? Does a "wooden" actor qualify as a "greater artist" if they've grossed higher than Daniel Day Lewis?




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