wrong. To be considered one of the greatest bands of all time, you need more than 3 good albums, with a 5 year window of good music making. That's more than most musicians get, to be certain, but I'd not rank them in the top 10 musical acts of the '90s, let alone of all time. But that seems to be where some would want to rank them. I heartily disagree. To each their own I guess, but to say a band that made four albums in seven-year span of the 90's that went platinum (including one that went 4x platinum, and a double-album that went 9x platinum) and had albums peak at #1, #2 and #3 on Billboard wasn't one of the greatest of their era is kind of crazy, IMO. Commercial success is an inaccurate measurement of "greatness." Titanic is the highest grossing movie of all time, after all. I just think there were many bands from the '90s who were as good, if not better, even if they didn't achieve the album sales of The Smashing Pumpkins. While I completely agree and knew you'd say that, there's not really another good way of measuring success in an era IMO. It'd all just be opinionated, like your post.