The Best Musical Artists From Missouri

Ranker Music
Updated June 23, 2023 3.3K votes 394 voters
Over 300 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of The Best Musical Artists From Missouri
Voting Rules
Only artists born or raised in Missouri or bands formed in Missouri.
Latest additions: SZA
Most divisive: Buz Band

Here are the best artists and bands from Missouri. The Midwest state has played an important role in America's music development over the centuries with St. Louis playing a vital role in the formation of jazz and blues. The state is also the birthplace of plenty of notable musicians, including Lester Young and Charlie Parker. Chuck Berry was also born in St. Louis, and the city is where ragtime grew in influence. Without St. Louis, the musical scene in the United States would look very different, and that is why it is so important to recognize the best musical artists from Missouri. 

The versatility of Missouri can be seen in all of the amazing acts that have come out of the Show Me State. Rock bands from Story of the Year to Ludo. Many popular rappers, such as Akon and Nelly, also came from the area. You will even find artists who play folk, country, and so much more on this list. The most famous Missouri musical artists are quite expansive, and you may learn some fun trivia about your favorite acts. Other popular Missouri artists include Chingy, Sheryl Crow, Puddle of Mudd, and Ike & Tina Turner.

Peruse this list to get a better sense of how Missouri has contributed greatly to the country's musical scene. Vote for your favorite artists who grew up by the Ozarks. 

Ranked by
  • Chuck Berry
    1

    Chuck Berry

    Rock music, Rhythm and blues, Rock and roll
    132 votes
    • Albums: The Great Twenty-Eight, Maybellene, Two Great Guitars, Rock, Rock
    Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958), Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive. Writing lyrics that focused on teen life and consumerism, and developing a music style that included guitar solos and showmanship, Berry was a major influence on subsequent rock music.Born into a middle-class African-American family in St. Louis, Missouri, Berry had an interest in music from an early age and gave his first public performance at Sumner High School. While still a high school student he was convicted of armed robbery and was sent to a reformatory, where he was held from 1944 to 1947. After his release, Berry settled into married life and worked at an automobile assembly plant. By early 1953, influenced by the guitar riffs and showmanship techniques of the blues musician T-Bone Walker, Berry began performing with the Johnnie Johnson Trio. His break came when he traveled to Chicago in May 1955 and met Muddy Waters, who suggested he contact Leonard Chess, of Chess Records. With Chess, he recorded "Maybellene"—Berry's adaptation of the country song "Ida Red"—which sold over a million copies, reaching number one on Billboard magazine's rhythm and blues chart. By the end of the 1950s, Berry was an established star, with several hit records and film appearances and a lucrative touring career. He had also established his own St. Louis nightclub, Berry's Club Bandstand. However, he was sentenced to three years in prison in January 1962 for offenses under the Mann Act—he had transported a 14-year-old girl across state lines. After his release in 1963, Berry had several more hits, including "No Particular Place to Go", "You Never Can Tell", and "Nadine". But these did not achieve the same success, or lasting impact, of his 1950s songs, and by the 1970s he was more in demand as a nostalgic performer, playing his past hits with local backup bands of variable quality. However, in 1972 he reached a new level of achievement when a rendition of "My Ding-a-Ling" became his only record to top the charts. His insistence on being paid in cash led in 1979 to a four-month jail sentence and community service, for tax evasion. Berry was among the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on its opening in 1986; he was cited for having "laid the groundwork for not only a rock and roll sound but a rock and roll stance." Berry is included in several of Rolling Stone magazine's "greatest of all time" lists; he was ranked fifth on its 2004 and 2011 lists of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll includes three of Berry's: "Johnny B. Goode", "Maybellene", and "Rock and Roll Music". Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" is the only rock-and-roll song included on the Voyager Golden Record. He was nicknamed by NBC as the "Father of Rock and Roll".
  • Nelly
    2

    Nelly

    Hip hop music, Pop music, Contemporary R&B
    140 votes
    • Albums: Nellyville, Country Grammar, Sweat, Da Derrty Versions: The Reinvention, Sweat / Suit
    Cornell Iral Haynes Jr. (born November 2, 1974), known professionally as Nelly, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur, investor, and occasional actor from St. Louis, Missouri. Nelly embarked on his music career with Midwest hip hop group St. Lunatics, in 1993 and signed to Universal Records in 1999. Under Universal, Nelly began his solo career in the year 2000, with his debut album Country Grammar, of which the featured title-track and the single "Ride wit Me" were top ten hits. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and went on to peak at number one. Country Grammar is Nelly's best-selling album to date, selling over 8.4 million copies in the United States. His following album Nellyville, produced the number-one hits "Hot in Herre" and "Dilemma" (featuring Kelly Rowland). Other singles included "Work It" (featuring Justin Timberlake), "Air Force Ones" (featuring Murphy Lee and St. Lunatics), "Pimp Juice" and "#1". With the same-day dual release of Sweat, Suit (2004) and the compilation Sweatsuit (2006), Nelly continued to generate many chart-topping hits. Sweat debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 342,000 copies in its first week. On the same week of release, Suit debuted at number one, selling around 396,000 copies in its first week on the same chart. Nelly's fifth studio album, Brass Knuckles, was released on September 16, 2008, after several delays. It produced the singles "Party People" (featuring Fergie), "Stepped on My J'z" (featuring Jermaine Dupri and Ciara) and "Body on Me" (featuring Akon and Ashanti). In 2010, Nelly released the album 5.0. The lead single, "Just a Dream", was certified triple platinum in the United States. It also included the singles "Move That Body" (featuring T-Pain and Akon) and "Gone" (a sequel to the 2002 single "Dilemma" in collaboration with Kelly Rowland). Nelly won Grammy Awards in 2003 and 2004 and had a supporting role in the 2005 remake film The Longest Yard with Adam Sandler and Chris Rock. He has two clothing lines, Vokal and Apple Bottoms. He has been referred to by Peter Shapiro as "one of the biggest stars of the new millennium", and the RIAA ranks Nelly as the fourth best-selling rap artist in American music history, with 21 million albums sold in the United States. On December 11, 2009, Billboard ranked Nelly the number three Top Artist of the Decade.
  • Ike & Tina Turner
    3

    Ike & Tina Turner

    Blues-rock, Pop music, Rock music
    97 votes
    • Albums: River Deep - Mountain High, The Soul Anthology, Bold Soul Sister: The Best of the Blue Thumb Recordings, Proud Mary: The Best of Ike and Tina Turner, Nutbush City Limits
    Ike & Tina Turner were an American musical duo composed of the husband-and-wife team of Ike Turner and Tina Turner. The duo started as an offshoot splinter act from Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm before the name changed to the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. The duo was once considered "one of the hottest, most durable, and potentially most explosive of all R&B ensembles". Their early works including "A Fool in Love", "It's Gonna Work Out Fine", "I Idolize You" and "River Deep - Mountain High" became high points in the development of soul music while their later works were noted for wildly interpretive re-arrangements of rock songs such as "I Want to Take You Higher" and "Proud Mary", the latter song for which they won a Grammy Award. They're also known for their often-ribald live performances, which were only matched by that of James Brown and the Famous Flames in terms of musical spectacle. The duo was inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.
  • Sheryl Crow
    4

    Sheryl Crow

    Blues-rock, Pop music, Rock music
    89 votes
    • Albums: Sheryl Crow, The Globe Sessions, Tuesday Night Music Club, The Very Best Of (Bradypus Series), Feels Like Home
    Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actress. Her music incorporates elements of pop, rock, country, jazz, and blues. She has released ten studio albums, four compilations, two live albums, and has contributed to a number of film soundtracks. Her songs include "All I Wanna Do", "If It Makes You Happy", "My Favorite Mistake" and the theme song for the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. She has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide. Crow has garnered nine Grammy Awards (out of 32 nominations) from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. In addition to her own work, Crow has performed with the Dixie Chicks, Emmylou Harris, the Rolling Stones, Jerry Lee Lewis, Stevie Nicks, Michael Jackson, Steve Earle, Prince, Eric Clapton, Luciano Pavarotti, Willie Nelson, Smokey Robinson, John Mellencamp, B.B. King, George Strait, Tony Bennett, Kid Rock, Sting, Vince Gill, Albert Lee and Zucchero Fornaciari, Tina Turner, Don Henley, Belinda Carlisle, Bob Dylan, Joe Cocker, Neal Schon, Bonnie Raitt, Mavis Staples, Johnny Cash, Elle King, Heart, Joe Walsh, Jason Isbell, Kris Kristofferson, James Taylor, and Maren Morris. As an actress, Crow has appeared on various television shows including 30 Rock, Cop Rock, GCB, Cougar Town, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, as well as One Tree Hill.
  • Charlie Parker
    5

    Charlie Parker

    Jazz, Bebop
    67 votes
    • Albums: Portrait, Bird: The Complete Charlie Parker on Verve, The Complete Savoy and Dial Studio Recordings 1944-1948, Bluebird, Jazz at Massey Hall
    Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), also known as Yardbird and Bird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Parker was a highly influential jazz soloist and a leading figure in the development of bebop, a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos, virtuosic technique and advanced harmonies. Parker was a blazingly fast virtuoso, and he introduced revolutionary harmonic ideas including rapid passing chords, new variants of altered chords, and chord substitutions. His tone ranged from clean and penetrating to sweet and somber. Parker acquired the nickname "Yardbird" early in his career on the road with Jay McShann. This, and the shortened form "Bird", continued to be used for the rest of his life, inspiring the titles of a number of Parker compositions, such as "Yardbird Suite", "Ornithology", "Bird Gets the Worm", and "Bird of Paradise". Parker was an icon for the hipster subculture and later the Beat Generation, personifying the jazz musician as an uncompromising artist and intellectual rather than just an entertainer.
  • SZA
    6

    SZA

    Alternative R&B, Neo soul, R&B
    6 votes
    • Albums: Z, See.SZA.Run EP, S EP
    Solana Rowe (born November 8, 1990), better known by her stage name SZA, is an American singer-songwriter. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, later relocating to Maplewood, New Jersey. In October 2012, Rowe self-released an extended play titled See.SZA.Run, which she then followed up with her second EP, titled S, in October 2013. In July 2013, it was revealed that she had signed to Hip Hop record label Top Dawg Entertainment, through which she released Z, her third EP and first retail release, in April 2014. SZA is an PBR&B and neo soul singer whose music is described as Alternative R&B, with elements of soul, hip hop, minimalist R&B, cloud rap, ethereal R&B, witch house and chillwave. Rowe's lyrics are described as "unraveling", that revolve around themes of sexuality, nostalgia, and abandonment.