Bands with instantly-recognizable signature sounds

[warwicktor]

How about Mastodon? I know their sound within about 5 seconds...

 

[PJMustangFreak]

The Moody Blues.

 

[funkinbottom]

Steely Dan

 

[Tommyc]

The Byrds

 

[jmlee]

Beach Boys. Meet your criteria perfectly.

 

[Ewo]

Tower of Power. Parliament/Funkadelic. The Meters.

 

[BigDrew]

F-ing SLAYER!!!!!

 

[SparkyLB]

The Who! All four of them had a unique and instantly recognizable sound and style.

I sit and tell him 'bout my weekend, but he never betrays what he thinks. . .

Now THAT'S a bassline.

 

[Nev375]

Off the top of my head, most of these are just so iconic or have a weird element that makes them recognizable in half a second to me.

The Beatles
U2
Primus
The Cars
Alt J
Future Islands
Rage Against the Machine
Steve Vai
Tom Waits
Dirty Loops
Evanescence
Linkin Park
Bob Marley
Beastie Boys
Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip
Eminem
Johnny Cash
Willie Nelson
Elvis
Michael Jackson

 

[Watchootognbout]

Allan Holdsworth.

 

[Ostie]

CCR/Fogerty
BB King
Police
Albert Collins
Bill Monroe
Chet Atkins
Jimi Hendrix

 

[Plectrum72]

The Cure
Guns n Roses
Arctic Monkeys
Cage the Elephant

 

[3bc]

The Cure - chorus guitars, minute plus long intros before the vocal kicks, lots of the same synth/drone sounds over and over, etc. more than any band I can think of, when you hear a cure song, you know it couldn’t possibly be anyone else.

 

[3bc]

The Cure
Guns n Roses
Arctic Monkeys
Cage the Elephant

Ahh, beat me to it by seconds...

 

[Aqualung60]

JETHRO TULL.

 

[bassfran]

Devo, Blondie, The Pretenders, The Stooges, Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Babe The Blue Ox, The Hives, Bad Co., The Byrds, CSNY, Joni Mitchell, Dick Dale, Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and likely a few hundred more we could think of.

 

[sawzalot]

All the 80's hair bands sort of meld into one for me. But otherwise a distinctive sound is what makes a band marketable, so the ones that hit the big time pretty much each have their own sound by definition.

 

[mizzou541]

Grateful Dead
Little Feat
The Band

 

[BassikBrad]

ZZ Top

 

[40Hz]

Morphine
The Cars
The Pretenders
The Police
Thomas Dolby
Mothers of Invention
Jethro Tull
Moody Blues
Madness
Wall of Voodoo
Dave Matthews Band
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
The Beatles
ELO

it just goes on and on.