Recognition and Influence
Pink Floyd were one of the most commercially successful and influential rock bands of all time. They have sold more than 250 million records worldwide, including 74.5 million certified units in the United States, and 37.2 million albums sold in the US since 1991. The Sunday Times Rich List, Music Millionaires 2012 (UK), ranked Waters at number 22 with an estimated fortune of £120 million, Gilmour at number 32 with £85 million and Mason at number 46 with £50 million.
In 2004, MSNBC ranked Pink Floyd number 8 on their list of "The 10 Best Rock Bands Ever". Rolling Stone ranked them number 51 on their list of "The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time". Q Magazine named Pink Floyd as the biggest band of all time. VH1 ranked them number 18 in the list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". Colin Larkin ranked Pink Floyd number 3 in his list of the 'Top 50 Artists Of All Time', a ranking based on the cumulative votes for each artist's albums included in his All Time Top 1000 Albums.
Pink Floyd have won several awards, including a "Best Engineered Non-Classical Album" Grammy in 1980 for The Wall, and a BAFTA award for "Best Original Song" in 1982 for "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" from The Wall film. In 1995, they won a Grammy for best "Rock Instrumental Performance" for "Marooned". In 2008, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden presented Pink Floyd with the Polar Music Prize for their contribution to modern music; Waters and Mason attended the ceremony and accepted the award. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005, and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2010.
The music of Pink Floyd influenced numerous artists: David Bowie called Barrett a significant inspiration, and the Edge from U2 bought his first delay pedal after hearing the opening guitar chords to "Dogs" from Animals. Other bands who cite Pink Floyd as an influence include: Queen, Tool, Radiohead, Kraftwerk, Queensrÿche, Nine Inch Nails, the Orb and the Smashing Pumpkins.
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