Who are the coolest artists of all time?

When Alice Glass was informed she'd been named NME's coolest artist of 2008 she said, dismissively: "We need new idioms."

And perhaps she's right. What does it mean to be 'cool' anyway? Many of the artists on our shortlist did terrible, indefensible things at the height of their fame.

Keith Moon, a violent drunk, broke his wife's nose three times. Jimmy Page used to travel with a collection of whips, which he employed to subdue spirited groupies ("If you humiliate them a bit, they tend to come on all right after that", explained the guitarist).

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It's been a great week for megalomania. First Kanye West told the Associated Press about his exalted "position in history" as the "voice of a generation" (he may have a point: a bling-obsessed egotist who spends his spare time blogging about over-priced aspirational boys'-toys probably does speak for our tawdry, commerce-enslaved times).

Meanwhile, Monday (24 November) sees the release of Guns N'Roses' 'Chinese Democracy', the 17-year, $14 million odyssey of Axl Rose, a man so addled by fame and power he once, during his full 'Use Your Illusion' pomp, had a pair of topiary elephants delivered by helicopter to a Hollywood mansion that he never even bothered moving into.

Such delusions of grandeur, however, are nothing compared to the actions of these Olympic-standard egomaniacs…

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You know an album is being tightly safe-guarded against piracy when it comes with a skull-and-crossbones stuck to the front:

Still, the advantage of hearing Franz Ferdinand's third album so far ahead of release (it comes out January 26), is that it means we can scotch a few rumours.

On first listen 'Tonight: Franz Ferdinand' is clearly not the high-NRG synth-pop album some predicted upon hearing the band were working with Girls Aloud producer Brian Higgins (in fact Franz confessed recently that those sessions were a washout).

Neither is it the afrobeat jamboree suggested by their Kano-augmented run-through of 'Can't You Let Me Stay Tonight' at Africa Exprez back in March (the song has made it on to the album, but it's now called 'Send Him Away', and the 'world music' influence is minimal).

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NME's LA correspondent Laura Ferreiro writes:

The champagne was flowing on the final night of the Lykke Li and Friendly Fires tour, which ended with a bang tonight (November 3) at the NME Presents show at Los Angeles' El Rey Theatre.

As far as gigs go, this one had it all: Lykke Li covering Vampire Weekend's 'Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa', Friendly Fires joining the Swedish songstress on stage, some pre-show hot-tubbing - you name it.

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What the Cool List giveth, it also taketh away. Which means that, every year, some unfortunates find themselves marched off to the sin-bin known as 'Had It…Lost It!'.

The following people/trends are hereby stricken from the record. Disagree with our verdict? Then head to www.nme.com/coollist to have your say on this year's run-down. And remember, before you voice your outrage, it's just a bit of fun...

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We've already announced our own 2008 Cool List, and thanks to you lot the Readers' Cool List is starting to take shape too.

But what about non-musicians? Coolness is not the exclusive preserve of people in bands. For that reason, below we've listed the year's coolest people - some real, some fictional – from beyond the realm of rock n roll.

Who else belongs in the list?

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