Here are 15 legendary artists with 20 or more studio albums.
There are some incredibly (bordering on impossibly) dense music catalogs out there. Some artists will take years between releasing albums for various reasons and, generally, as a band or artist ages and progresses through their career, the output tends to slow down.
It’s completely natural to feel creatively limitless when you’re young, capable of churning out defining works and in fairly rapid succession. Then comes success, stardom and acclimation to a completely different lifestyle that often impacts creativity. World views change, musicians enter new phases of life (getting married, having kids, or generally just becoming more aware of how the world works), all of which is typically reflected in the new music.
And then there’s those select artists who just never seem to run out of juice, pumping out record after record after record. In the case of Motorhead, they’re mostly all along the same musical wavelength, and on the other side of the coin, there’s musical chameleons such as David Bowie, who was always in pursuit of something fresh and different than what he’d done before.
READ MORE: 29 Most Prolific Rock + Metal Artists of the 21st Century (10 or More Albums)
Reaching 20 albums, no matter how long your career is, is a pretty rare feat. We’re talking studio albums comprised of original material, with a few exceptions for some quirkier release formats. Covers albums, live albums and compilations aren’t counted here (though some of the catalogs with over 100 albums make this pretty messy, which we’ve annotated accordingly for our own sanity’s sake).
Legendary Artists With 20 or More Studio Albums
Some of the biggest discographies in the business!
IMPORTANT: We did our best to exclude covers albums and live albums from the total counts. The focus here is on original studio material. There are some exceptions because some of these catalogs are a little unorthodox.
22 Legendary Bands With 5 or Less Studio Albums
You don’t have to be the most prolific band to be legendary.
PLAYLIST: Ultimate Metal Epics
Over 150 seriously long songs! Check it out here.
