Yes, another thread about unnecessary organization. Sue me.
A lot of people have a favorite band, or a few favorite bands, and a lot of people will try to organize their favorites into a numerical list, like
1. The Beatles
2. The Beach Boys
3. Insane Clown Posse
4. Simon & Garfunkel
etc.
I don't usually think about things like bands or foods or whatever in such a numerical way, as the order will change with my mood, so for a long time I just had bands that I liked and bands that I didn't like. Then I thought about how much I listened to various artists, and how much I enjoyed their work, and I realized that my favorite musical artists sort of organized themselves into a tiered structure.
Tier 1 is my absolute favorite bands, who there may be a very small number of songs by them I don't like, but I love very nearly all their songs. For me, this is The Beatles and They Might Be Giants.
Tier 2 is the artists that I have heard a good amount of their material and liked most of it a lot and even loved a good portion, but who had some songs or albums that were just okay. For me, this is The Who, Rammstein, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, Nobuo Uematsu, Queen, and Radiohead.
Tier 3 is all the other artists who I like much of their material, and may even own a few albums, but I wouldn't go out of my way to get their entire catalogue.
Tier 4 is artists I don't like.
The only real outliers are Billy Joel and The Rolling Stones. I used to like them a whole lot and would have put them in tier 2, and thus I have a lot of their records, but now I more or less put them in tier 3. Billy Joel is closer to tier 2 than the Stones, though.
How, if at all, would you organize the artists you listen to? Maybe give some examples?