no, not infallible but then if you're looking to get the information on the biggest bands of a genre reading the reviews would without prior knowledge of the band be foolish to take at face value. I think the only way to explore and investigate music is to sit down and listen to it. I think using wikipedia, amg and all music would be fine to get a list of artists but then sit down and listen to those artists. Even if you dislike the genre and the band afterwards your writing will show much more credibility for having taken the time to listen to these "most influential" albums and artists.