Part of this, Ember, is how you define "artist". Most of us here focus on the writing side, with the rare exceptions who have great voices or are strong players. So when you get down to creativity vs performance, these lists can change quickly.

Personal perception of the artists enters into it too. As much as I admit to the performance level of Michael Jackson, I refuse to listen to anything he ever did due to his personal life choices. I once had a band ask me to play keyboards for them. They had 4 of Jackson's songs on their "will play" list. I told them that I refuse to do his songs, because that was paying homage to someone I have a deep revulsion toward. They refused to drop the songs. I declined the invitation to join.

That's just my example of how perceptions play into this as well as generation.