By The Way...

Rolling Stone magazine has presented its list of 500 Greatest Albums, and so clearly there's lot of stuff to argue about here. First and most obviously is its rock n' roll-centric nature, which is to be expected given who is putting the list together. But second and more annoying (to me, anyway) is its 60-centricness. Eight of the top 10 albums are from the 60s, and only 2 of the top 20 are from the last 20 years (Nirvana's Nevermind at 17 and Michael Jackson's Thriller at 20).

And let's talk genres: I'm not a huge rap fan, but even I know that the first presence of a rap album should occur substantially higher than position 48 (Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back), and in all fairness to heavy metal, it deserves better than position 73 (Back in Black, AC/DC, unless you count Led Zep as metal, which isn't quite accurate). Country doesn't make an appearance until position 129 (Hank Williams), and really, that's just wrong. Blues and Punk and Soul -- ie, the genres cool people listen to -- all have appearances substantially higher up.

Basically, it's a list written by and for snobby boomers, the kind who think all substantial music innovation ended just before the arrival of MTV. Don't get me wrong, it's hard to argue the value of the Beatles, Stones and Bob Dylan, who dominate the upper reaches of the list. But the rest of the list is, shall we say, highly debatable. From my point of view, it's about 80% wrong. But the point of the lists isn't actually be definitive -- they're to be argued over. Mission accomplished.

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• #3 Comment from oosknuba 
  11/24/03 12:07 PM | Permalink

  The only problem the list is the lack of recognition for a very important band. C'mon people haven't you ever heard of the Beatles? I mean, really, only 4 albums in the top 10? The top five is pretty good but I'm sure we could have found SOME Beatles albums for numbers 2 & 4. What about Yellow Submarine? Tuck that puppy at #2. Hey Bulldog is better than any song Brian Wilson even wrote.
• #2 Comment from alphawoman1 
  11/23/03 1:14 PM | Permalink

  Rolling Stone "jumped the shark" some time ago
• #1 Comment from fdtate313 
  11/22/03 6:24 PM | Permalink

  Exactly -- the whole point of such lists is to be a starting point for arguments. There are some great albums here. There are some that are highly debateable. The order is up to individual tastes. Not much new stuff, but have you seen what passes for music in Rolling Stone lately?
  "Murmur" by R.E.M. is only #197? What's up with that?