White Stripes probably take the cake for me.

Honorable mention to Nirvana, Muse, and Queens of the Stone Age. I'm not as into rock as I used to be, though. I'm into more electronic stuff now and other stuff that doesn't follow too much of a pattern. (Damn, that sounded hipstery, haha.)

Midnight Oil

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejorQVy3m8E

My favorite? I don't really have a favorite, but some of the bands who are currently up there for me are: Protest the Hero, Tool, Godspeed You Black Emperor (is post rock still rock?), The Protomen, The Tragically Hip, This Town Needs Guns, etc.

All this machinery making modern music, can still be open hearted, not so coldly charted. Its really just a question of your honesty...

Nirvana is the last true rock band imo. Sure, there were great bands up until the mid 90's, but Nirvana was the last of the genre/pop culture changing voices of a generation type of bands. In some ways, Kurt took rock with him when he killed himself.

Having said that, rock is alive and well... just not on the radio. It's underground. But is that so bad? I kind of like the fact that my music isn't being adored by 12 year old girls.

What I mean is that most pop music litterally isn't real. Get somebody who's good looking and has a decent voice. Give them lyrics. Make beats in a studio. Auto-tune their voice to perfection. Lip-synch at concerts and live performances. Profit. Here are some quotes backing up my claims.

"You had to be a bad singer in order for that thing to actually sound the way it does. If you use it and you sing into it correctly, it doesn't do anything to your voice." - Trey Parker, voice actor

"Right now, if you listen to pop, everything is in perfect pitch, perfect time and perfect tune. That's how ubiquitous Auto-Tune is." - Rick Rubin, music producer

"It's a little bit overused these days. Mainly with singers who look better than they sing." - Erwin Musper, music producer

There was also a study done covering 1955-2010 proves that modern pop music sounds the same.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/26/us-science-music-idUSBRE86P0R820120726

Auto-tune's first stable release was in 1997.

Arcade Fire.

Rise Against is likely my favourite band currently. There lyrics are sincere and stand for something.

Pop music is awful, no arguments there.
It is generic, repetitive, lacks ambition and emotion. It is so manufactured that it ruins the factors that make music art.
When the music is borrowing (stealing) samples from elsewhere, it just repeats the same tune. The lyrics are also a mess.

Rock?

there are some of medival rock:

Feuerschwanz
Vroudenspil
Knasterbart
Mr. Hulrey und die Pulveraffen
.
.
.

Do the Bender! Do the Bender! Do the Bender!Hoooooooooooo!!!

My avatar and sig: Tool