This reminds me of something I bring up with new people I meet, I call it the desert island question.
Suppose you are on a desert island for the rest of your life and all of your needs are met, except for social ones, no cell, no tv, cable ect..
What you do have is one kiss ass juke box stereophonic system that you can choose, the only caveat is that you can only have the entire playlists of 5 artists and that you can play them randomly and you have to listen to all of the titles.
The best example I can think of is that if one picks, say the Rolling Stones, they must listen to dancing in the streets and emotional rescue and not just their early catalog.
Most people pick large catalogs and have their one or two favorite bands of all time, usually a teen and adult time period frame but then it gets difficult mainly because we live in an excess society and it's hard to limit ourselves.
Heh, ya I have a buddy who really likes the Stones. I always say the problem is, the Stones just put out a bunch of junk after 1971 or so. But I still consider that a compliment...they had many great albums before that.
I think there are two automatics that would be in my jukebox.
1) Rush. Huge catalog and an ever-evolving sound. You like guitar rock? It's there. Synthesizers/80s sounds? Got those too. Stripped-down 90's era? Some solid work from that era. Modern day tunes that combine a lot of different elements? Check. I intentionally listen to every single album in their catalog, some more than others of course. The Gordie Howe of my jukebox.
2) The Doors. Small catalog compared to a lot of other famous bands, but there are very few songs that ever have me looking for the skip button. Not much not to like here, just too bad it ended with Jim Morrison's premature death. The Bobby Orr of the jukebox.
3) The Beatles. They're just...great. But I can't quite ascertain why exactly that is. Not overly complicated arrangements, nobody's instrument work is blowing you away on its own...but if I'm in a bar with a live band, be damned if I don't get excited when they drop a couple Beatles tracks on the crowd. The Gretzky of the jukebox.
Now it gets tougher....do I try to throw some more variety in there? Or just stick to the glorious 1960s?
-I think the Stones just have too much material I don't want to hear. They probably make it if they'd hung em up in the mid 70's. The Paul Coffey of the jukebox.
-The Byrds are close enough to the Beatles that I think only one of them makes the cut, and the Beatles are already in. A Joe Sakic/Steve Yzerman of the jukebox.
-Led Zeppelin is a little one-dimensional, and there are some questions about how much credit they actually deserve, considering their propensity for "borrowing" material. The Phil Esposito of the jukebox.
-Who's Next and Tommy are such great albums. And The Who have other good ones as well. But there's definitely some forgettable material sprinkled in there. The Dominik Hasek of the jukebox.
-Cream. A surprise entrant, but I'm seriously considering them. The extremely small catalog is their biggest drawback, but there aren't really any songs at all that I wouldn't want to listen to. Blend of blues roots, instrument virtuosity, and uniqueness. The Valeri Kharlamov of the jukebox.
-The Kinks. I like everything I've heard, but some of these tracks are hard to find. At least for somebody like myself who, believe it or not, still prefers to go to a brick-and-mortar store to purchase an album. They make it on the surface, but there is a lot of material I simply haven't heard. It would be a leap of faith to include them without more in-depth research. The Lennart Svedberg of the jukebox.
-Guns n Roses. Somebody modern for a change of pace. But another contender with a problematically small catalog. Very polarizing band. The Eric Lindros of the jukebox.