Every artist in Cryptune

346 acts, 255 of them puzzle answers in their own right.

This is every act that appears anywhere in Cryptune. Some are answers in their own right, where the puzzle asks you to name the artist. Others are here because they made a song or an album that is an answer, which means their name never appears on a tile but the puzzle would not exist without them.

Artist puzzles work differently from song and album puzzles, and the difference is worth understanding. A song title is a phrase, so it breaks into words naturally and each word can be clued on its meaning. A band name frequently is not a phrase at all. It might be a misspelling, an acronym, a surname or a word that somebody made up, and none of those can be clued by meaning.

That is why the harder clue types cluster around artists. When a name cannot be defined, the clue writer has to reach for sound, for letters or for a joke instead. Almost every anagram in the game is an artist name, for the simple reason that names are where the interesting letter arrangements are.

Artists are also the only category with no year attached, which is why they do not appear on the decade pages. Assigning a single decade to an act with a thirty year career would be arbitrary in a way that dating a specific record is not.

The full list

Alphabetical, ignoring a leading "The". Names marked as an answer have their own puzzle, where the act itself is what you are trying to name.

• *NSYNC answer
• 50 Cent
• a-ha
• ABBA
• AC/DC answer
• Adele answer
• Aerosmith answer
• Aerosmith & Run-DMC
• Al Green answer
• Alanis Morissette answer
• Alice in Chains answer
• Alicia Keys answer
• Amy Winehouse answer
• The Animals answer
• Anita Ward
• Arcade Fire answer
• Arctic Monkeys answer
• Aretha Franklin answer
• Ariana Grande answer
• Avicii answer
• Avril Lavigne
• Backstreet Boys answer
• Bananarama answer
• Barry White answer
• Bastille
• The Bay City Rollers answer
• The Beach Boys answer
• Beach House answer
• The Beastie Boys answer
• The Beatles answer
• Beck answer
• The Bee Gees answer
• Ben E. King
• Beyonce answer
• Beyoncé
• Big Brother & the Holding Company
• Billie Eilish answer
• Billy Joel answer
• Billy Ocean answer
• Billy Ray Cyrus answer
• The Black Eyed Peas answer
• The Black Keys answer
• Black Sabbath answer
• Blind Melon
• Blondie answer
• Blue Oyster Cult
• Blur answer
• Bob Dylan answer
• Bobby Darin answer
• Bon Iver answer
• Bon Jovi answer
• Boston
• Boyz Ii Men answer
• Britney Spears answer
• Bruce Springsteen answer
• Bruno Mars answer
• BTS
• Buddy Holly answer
• The Byrds answer
• Calvin Harris answer
• Captain Beefheart
• Cardi B answer
• Carly Rae Jepsen
• Carole King
• The Carpenters answer
• Cat Stevens answer
• Celine Dion answer
• Chance the Rapper answer
• Chic
• Chicago answer
• Childish Gambino answer
• Chubby Checker answer
• Chuck Berry answer
• The Clash answer
• Coldplay answer
• Coolio
• Cream
• Creedence Clearwater Revival answer
• Crowded House
• Culture Club answer
• The Cure answer
• Cyndi Lauper answer
• Daft Punk answer
• The Dave Clark Five answer
• David Bowie answer
• Death Cab for Cutie
• Deep Purple answer
• Def Leppard answer
• Del Shannon
• Depeche Mode answer
• Destinys Child answer
• Dexys Midnight Runners
• Diana Ross answer
• Dionne Warwick answer
• Dire Straits answer
• Dolly Parton answer
• Don McLean
• Donna Summer answer
• Donovan answer
• The Doors answer
• Dr. Dre answer
• Drake answer
• Dua Lipa
• Dua Lipa (20190
• Duran Duran answer
• Dusty Springfield answer
• Eagles answer
• Earth, Wind & Fire
• Ed Sheeran answer
• Editors answer
• Elton John answer
• Elvis Presley answer
• Emerson, Lake & Palmer
• Eminem answer
• Erasure answer
• Eric Clapton
• Eurythmics
• The Everly Brothers answer
• Fall Out Boy answer
• Fleet Foxes answer
• Fleetwood Mac answer
• Flo Rida
• Florence and the Machine answer
• Foo Fighters answer
• The Four Tops answer
• Frank Ocean answer
• Franz Ferdinand
• Fugees
• Garbage answer
• Garth Brooks answer
• Genesis answer
• George Michael answer
• Gerry Rafferty
• Glass Animals
• Gloria Gaynor answer
• Gnarls Barkley
• Gorillaz answer
• Grateful Dead answer
• Green Day answer
• Guns N' Roses answer
• Gwen Stefani answer
• Harry Styles
• Heart answer
• Hermans Hermits answer
• Hootie and the Blowfish answer
• Hozier
• Huey Lewis & The News
• Human League
• Imagine Dragons answer
• Interpol answer
• Iron Maiden answer
• Jack White answer
• Jackie Wilson answer
• The Jackson Five answer
• James Blunt
• James Brown answer
• James Taylor answer
• Janet Jackson answer
• Janis Joplin answer
• Jay-Z
• Jefferson Airplane answer
• Jefferson Starship answer
• Jethro Tull
• Jimi Hendrix answer
• Jimi Hendrix Experience
• John Lennon answer
• Johnny Cash answer
• Joni Mitchell answer
• Journey
• Juice WRLD
• Justin Bieber answer
• Justin Timberlake answer
• Kaiser Chiefs answer
• Kanye West answer
• Kate Bush answer
• Katy Perry answer
• Keane answer
• Kelly Clarkson answer
• Kendrick Lamar answer
• Kenny Rogers answer
• The Killers answer
• Kings of Leon answer
• The Kinks answer
• Kiss answer
• Kylie Minogue answer
• Lady Gaga answer
• Lana Del Rey answer
• Lauryn Hill answer
• Led Zeppelin answer
• Leona Lewis
• Lewis Capaldi
• Lil Nas X
• Lil Wayne answer
• Linkin Park answer
• Lionel Richie answer
• Little Richard answer
• Lizzo
• Ll Cool J answer
• Lorde answer
• The Lovin Spoonful answer
• Ludacris answer
• Lynyrd Skynyrd answer
• M83
• Madness answer
• Madonna answer
• The Mamas & The Papas
• The Mamas and the Papas answer
• Mariah Carey answer
• Marvin Gaye answer
• Massive Attack
• Matchbox Twenty answer
• Meat Loaf
• Metallica answer
• Michael Jackson answer
• Miley Cyrus
• Missy Elliott answer
• Modest Mouse answer
• The Monkees answer
• The Moody Blues
• Mumford & Sons
• Muse answer
• My Chemical Romance answer
• Nancy Sinatra answer
• Natalie Imbruglia
• Neil Diamond answer
• Neil Young answer
• Nelly answer
• New Order answer
• Nickelback answer
• Nicki Minaj answer
• Nine Inch Nails answer
• Nirvana answer
• No Doubt answer
• Norah Jones answer
• The Notorious B.I.G. answer
• Oasis answer
• Olivia Rodrigo
• One Direction answer
• Otis Redding answer
• OutKast answer
• Ozzy Osbourne answer
• Panic at the Disco answer
• Paramore answer
• Pat Benatar answer
• Paul Mccartney answer
• Pavement answer
• Pearl Jam answer
• Pet Shop Boys
• Peter Gabriel
• Petula Clark answer
• Pharrell Williams answer
• Phil Collins answer
• Pink answer
• Pink Floyd answer
• Pixies answer
• Placebo answer
• The Police answer
• Portugal. The Man
• Post Malone answer
• The Pretenders answer
• Prince answer
• The Prodigy answer
• Public Enemy answer
• Pulp
• Queen answer
• Queen & David Bowie
• R.E.M. answer
• Radiohead answer
• Ramones
• Ray Charles answer
• Red Hot Chili Peppers answer
• Rick Springfield answer
• The Righteous Brothers answer
• Rihanna answer
• Robbie Williams answer
• Robin Thicke
• Rod Stewart answer
• The Rolling Stones answer
• The Ronettes
• Roy Orbison answer
• Rush answer
• Sade
• Salt-N-Pepa
• Sam & Dave
• Sam Cooke answer
• Sam Smith answer
• Scorpions answer
• Seal
• The Sex Pistols answer
• Shania Twain answer
• Sheryl Crow answer
• The Shirelles
• Sia
• Simon & Garfunkel
• Simon and Garfunkel answer
• Simple Minds answer
• Sir Mix-a-Lot
• Sly & the Family Stone
• Smashing Pumpkins answer
• The Smiths answer
• Smokey Robinson answer
• Snoop Dogg answer
• Snow Patrol answer
• Soft Cell
• Sonny and Cher answer
• Soundgarden answer
• Soundtrack
• Spandau Ballet
• Spice Girls answer
• Stereophonics
• Stevie Wonder answer
• Sting answer
• The Strokes answer
• Supertramp answer
• The Supremes answer
• Talking Heads answer
• Tame Impala answer
• Taylor Swift answer
• Tears for Fears answer
• The Temptations answer
• Thin Lizzy answer
• Timbaland
• Tina Turner answer
• TLC answer
• Tom Jones answer
• Toto
• Travis Scott
• Tupac
• Tupac Shakur
• Twenty One Pilots
• U2
• Usher answer
• Vampire Weekend answer
• Van Halen answer
• Van Morrison answer
• The Velvet Underground answer
• The Verve answer
• The Weeknd answer
• Weezer
• Wham!
• Wheatus
• The White Stripes answer
• Whitesnake answer
• Whitney Houston answer
• The Who answer
• Wings answer

Every name here is in the game somewhere. Whether it turns up as the answer, or quietly behind one, depends on the puzzle.

Play today's puzzle