It's a question that has been a key talking point for music fans since time immemorial. Okay, it might just be me - but it is a question I have considered on numerous occasions over the years (I have even written in a prior blog about this).
What is cool - and more importantly who in the music world is cool?
The definition:
The Cambridge dictionary defines cool as, "Fashionable in a way that people admire." Collins dictionary seems to agree - "Fashionable and attractive."
But the Wikipedia entry for cool is more engaging for the benefit of this story - "Coolness is an aesthetic of attitude, behaviour, comportment, appearance and style which is generally admired."
So, this is a subject that is clearly subjective, but nonetheless I have decided to come up with a list of the Top10 Cool Musicians anyway. I obviously think I am about right with my choices - but having said that, I think that three or four names in this list will be agreed with by most people and another three or four might that might be more surprising.
So, who's in?
Well, actually lets start with who didn't make the cut.
My addition to the definition above is that coolness should be all of those things, but it should also be (or at least appear) entirely effortless and not forced in any way. That, for me, rules out the likes of Madonna and Lady Ga Ga - Lou Reed seemed to think that dressing in black and wearing shades would do it. James Brown was too overbearing, Marc Bolan a bit too glam and David Byrne - well Byrne is probably the unlucky runner up on this list.
The ten are in no particular order. Well, except for the last one who hands down is the coolest person in music and I don't believe that is up for discussion.
1. Debbie Harry
Let's start on solid ground. Debbie Harry was, is and will always be cool. Attitude, appearance, style - Harry has always had it all. Once she left her Playboy Bunny life behind and formed a new wave band, the rest was cool history.
2. Iggy Pop
Once James Jewel Osterburger became Iggy Pop, shed his shirt and started throwing himself around America's stages, he not only became the Godfather of Punk, but also a cool icon of the underground music scene. The style bit doesn't really fit, since he rarely wears more than a pair of jeans - but the attitude! Well, he has always had bags of that and behaviour to match (I think we can assume that a little bit of bad doesn't hurt).
3. Chrissie Hynde
From her earliest days, moving from Ohio to London as a struggling wannabe musician in the middle of the burgeoning punk scene, Hynde seems to have definitely had attitude and balls as big as heck (see her portrayal in the Pistols miniseries for confirmation of that). And as the Pretenders evolved, she developed the style and appearance elements too - and that husky voice didn't hurt.
4. Robert Plant
The most legendary front man of the 1970s (and that is saying something) - Plant was drop-dead good looking, well dressed and had a killer voice. Yet despite being a part of the biggest band in rock history, he came out the other side, seemingly oblivious to his place in the pantheon of music - more interested in championing world music sounds and getting down to watch his beloved Wolves on a Saturday afternoon. How cool is that?
5. Bryan Ferry
Maybe the first of the 'why are they in this list' people!? In many ways, his lounge lizard look perfected through the late 70s and into the 80s, absolutely shouldn't allow him onto the list. On many others, his clothes would have made him look like a C-list Bond, yet somehow Ferry has always pulled it off, making Bond look more like the cheap imitation. Again, the creamy voice probably never hurt.
6. Larry Mullen Jr.
Okay - I know even more will question Larry's inclusion on the list. But every time I have seen him (even going back to the Red Rocks video from 1983), Mullen always seems to just ooze cool. Even though (and perhaps, because) his clothing range seems limited to jeans and t-shirt, and his hair is generally fairly short and fairly regulation - he gets in because he is the quiet one. While Bono and The Edge tended to grab the limelight and Adam Clayton knocked around with supermodels, Mullen just sat quietly at the back, looking good and making drumming look effortless.
7. Justin Timberlake
One for the under 40s! I'm not particularly a JT fan, but he dresses well, has that snappy attitude and it never seems forced - and he just always seems to be enjoying the music - and that is very cool.
8. Charlie Watts
The sartorial elegance, a love of jazz music, a knack for deadpan putdowns (especially to his own band mates) - Charlie Watts was always destined for this list. The only surprising thing? That he stayed in the Rolling Stones his entire career. He seemed to be everything the rest of the band were not and that of course, made him indispensable - they needed his cool and calm to weather the storms the rest of them created.
9. Kylie Minogue
Okay - this might be another one that doesn't make sense at first. Especially if you remember back to the Kylie in her dungarees playing a mechanic in Neighbours look. And maybe it is still hard to fathom as you consider her early pop career, earning Stock, Aitken and Waterman shedloads of cash from singing a range of somewhat cheesy pop songs in the late 80s. But, once she shed all that, and developed a more authentic Kylie, her cool became much more apparent. She managed to retain that slightly cheeky 'girl next door' vibe, whilst looking sensational and breaking into the more mature, Madonna-esque pop realm. By the time Spinning Around and Can't Get You Out Of My Head came around, she was cemented as a cool goddess of the pop world.
10. David Bowie
As mentioned near the start - Bowie is the coolest of all time and there is little you can do to argue me out of that decision! Like Ferry, in many ways it just shouldn't be the case - that succession of gaudy suits and costumes worn through the 70s would just make us chuckle with cheese-laden nostalgia had they been worn by anyone else (see my comment about Bolan not making the list) - but on David, they were simply essential and part of the package.
You can love or loathe his music, but it is unarguable to me, that there has never been anyone that has made as many crucial contributions to music, over such a long period of time. The sounds he created, the looks he paraded, the collaborations he made still echo throughout music (and beyond) several years after his death, and I suspect that will continue to be the case for many more. He was perhaps a bit aloof through it all, but he always made it seem effortless, like he glided from one phase to the next. And that is how should be, if you are the coolest person in music.