I'm not sure how I want to organize this list, but my feeling is that more weight is given to those listed first--I'm pretty sure after adding several names that more criteria is going to be needed before any ranking can be relevant. Too much music, and I'm not one that tends to rank things.

The List (with YouTube links to specific songs):

Poe (Poe at MySpace)

Bauhaus - [everything] ; All we ever wanted ; Rosegarden funeral of sores ; Stigmata Martyr ;

David Bowie

Love and Rockets (and Tones On Tails)

The Beatles

The Doors

My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult

The Beastie Boys

Garbage

The Clash - Rock The Casbah ; Know Your Rights [all three of them: not to be killed, food money, and free speech];

Adam and The Ants

Robots In Disguise - Turn it up

The The - Sweet Bird of Truth ;

StereoLab - French Disko ; Metronomic (live) ;

Add N to (X) - Plug Me In ; You Must Create ; Take Me To Your Leader ; Oh Yeah, Oh No

PJ Harvey - Down By The Water ; Man Size [amazing song and video]

The Human League

Duran Duran

Bob Dylan - Lay Lady Lay ; Just Like A Woman ;

Perhaps I'll post my iTunes number played count, but this has its own limitations.

Here is one of my audio poems (it's not a spoken word poem)-- Landing Spell (How Can You Tell)